Does Marketing BS Bother You?

Late to the party
Face4Me said:
Does it bother you when you get BS'd?

Of course this isn't something that's limited to skiing, but since this is a ski forum ...

We all know that ski resorts "embellish" snowfall totals. This is nothing new. But it seems that the BS just keeps expanding into other areas as well. For example, when I arrived at Whiteface yesterday morning, I met up with a friend who had the daily conditions report in hand. The report showed snowmaking on Lookout Below and it also showed Upper Northway and Upper Mackenzie as open. I looked at him and said, "there's no way in hell that Upper Northway is open, maybe Upper Mac, but I doubt it".

The reality was that the snowmaking on Lookout Below was limited to one gun at the very bottom, blowing snow into the "hole". I don't know, but that hardly meets my expectations of what constitutes snowmaking on a trail. As for Upper Northway and Upper Mackenzie ... roped from end to end at the top. Maybe these are "honest mistakes", but based on the pattern, I don't think so. A couple of years ago, another friend pointed out that the title on the daily conditions report was actually "Daily Anticipated Conditions Report".

The following is a screen shot from this morning's conditions report:

View attachment 17828
Read that top paragraph. The double black glades off of Approach are Cloudsplitter and Slide View ... neither of those are open. While the text doesn't ACTUALLY say that those glades are open, it certainly gives the impression that they are. 10th Mountain Division glades are "technically" off of Approach, however, you can't get directly to them from Approach. 10th Mountain is listed on the conditions report as open, though when I skied past it several times yesterday, the entrance from the bottom of Upper Northway was roped.

On Saturday, we noticed that there were several lifties at the base of the Lookout Mountain chair all morning. They were milling around, shoveling snow here and there, and otherwise just hanging around. We knew there was no way that they were going to be opening the Wilmington Trail (you just had to look up the trail from Boreen to see that), so why were these lifties there? The cynic in me came to the conclusion that they were "putting on a show", trying to generate some "buzz" on social media that the Wilmington Trail might be opening soon. Maybe ... Maybe not.

This kind of stuff just annoys me, maybe it shouldn't, but it does. I was raised to believe that "honesty is the best policy". Tell the truth and be prepared to deal with the consequences. It's kind of like the "nickel and diming" that's been discussed in other threads. Just charge what you need to charge ... don't BS with things like ... oh ... if you want to actually bring your car to the mountain, that will cost you extra, or, if you want to put your boots on in the lodge, it will cost you extra to leave your street shoes.

I guess I just have nothing better to do with my time this morning than post this ... time to go to work.
Click to expand...

Late to the party on this... but I find it amazing that in current times, when social media and email allows for quick communications, that ski centers can churn out, uh, enhanced conditions reports and get away with it.

I won't go back to a place that burned me once.

One of the side effects of having been in wholesale sales, I have a reasonably well tuned BS detector. @Brownski may have the same.
 
Peter Minde said:
Late to the party


Late to the party on this... but I find it amazing that in current times, when social media and email allows for quick communications, that ski centers can churn out, uh, enhanced conditions reports and get away with it.

I won't go back to a place that burned me once.

One of the side effects of having been in wholesale sales, I have a reasonably well tuned BS detector. @Brownski may have the same.
Click to expand...
I got my BS detector early in life when as a college kid I worked for Fuller brush company and sold door to door in the summer.

and later on I sold Collier encyclopedias door to door for one day
 
A BS detector moment - or perhaps a sh*tty customer service moment - in my 20s. I was on the phone looking for car insurance, and the insurance guy goes, now that I've given you all this information, aren't you going to sign with me?

The dumbest, most inept close attempt of all time.
 
Yep, anyone who's spent time in sales can smell it a mile away. That said, it's important to follow it through because you can't judge a book by its cover. I've been surprised more than once.
 
Campgottagopee said:
Yep, anyone who's spent time in sales can smell it a mile away. That said, it's important to follow it through because you can't judge a book by its cover. I've been surprised more than once.
Click to expand...
I completely agree with this. There’s a tendency in some sales people to think they know their customers well enough to know when a call won’t be worth it and they just skip it. Terrible philosophy. You gotta go to know.
 
On Monday in the store: Going around with the buyer, he's pointing out new wines. One was an Haut Côtes de Beaune Blanc. The buyer goes, "Someone else turned down their allocation." Wish I'd thought of that line when I was in wholesale.

Wine is quite good actually.
 
I never worked in sales but I'm an engineer and see through 99% of marketing BS.

A large amount of marketing annoys me and turns me off to thier products altogether. Disney is the corporation that perennially gets under my skin with their BS. "Happiest Place on Earth"... my ass. Never seen more crying kids in my life. ABC is always whoring some Disney program or product. Ugh!

Golf clubs... Every new model allegedly hits the ball farther and more accurately. Lol it's the Indian not the arrow.

Apple... Oh keep drinking the kool-aid. Most of their "new features" fan boys get excited about were already on Android years ago.

I've been watching a series on Hulu lately. The drug pushers like ForHims and ForHers disgust me.

I have no reason to buy things that seem so essential to the masses.
 
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