On Mon, 08 Aug 94 19:04:51 EDT, Rob Frankel wrote:
>While it is true that the Internet may not presently be an advertising
>medium, how long do you give until someone mutates a gopher that seeks out
>people fitting certain psycho/demographic profiles?
As I've said before, demographic and even psychographic and lifestyle
profiles are crude approximations, especially when far more precise
approaches are feasible. Software IS in the works that will scan L-Soft
LISTSERV (with more than a 1,000 lists from the popular TOP-TEN to the
highly specialized Fish Ecology and several hundred servers on at least
four continents L-Soft's is the most extensive list serving system)
archives for key words and phrases that may identify a need that can be
solved by the searcher's product--
On Mon, 8 Aug 1994 15:00:35 -0400 (EDT), [log in to unmask] wrote:
>I assume you know that my company developed and sells InfoMagnet,
>the tool for finding, joining, searching and using LISTSERV
>discussion groups.
>
>One of the obvious uses for this software is to search for people
>who express a need or desire for something which the user sells.
>To be more concrete, we plan to sell InfoMagnet by searching
>LISTSERV discussions for messages about "I can't figure out how
>to do database searches" or "does anyone know of a list about
>so and so" or even "is there anything out there which makes LISTSERV
>easier to use?". We'll contact these people directly, answering their
>question where appropriate, and letting them know about our service.
>For example, if someone asks how to do a database search, we'll
>mail him a tutorial on listserv searches, so that his immediate
>need is satisfied. We will also suggest that there is an easier
>way, by using our product.
>
>This seems like an innovative marketing method, one which I have
>not seen before. It is one of the very exciting new uses
>of the Internet which InfoMagnet opens up.
Clearly whatever software Logika uses to search for queries can be adapted
for LOTS of other product and services. The above text from Logika was in
a personal communication, I asked for and received permission to post it to
appropriate lists. I've cross-posted to the list owners list (some of them
already have closed their archives to searches by non-subscribers),
High-Tech Marketing Communications, Internet Marketing, and Free-Market
(all of which are interested in the Internet's potential for *responsible*
marketing of products and services). My reply to the mail I received from
Logika included:
On Mon, 8 Aug 1994, Murph Sewall wrote:
> While searching discussions for questions you have a (commercial) answer
> for seems a valuable service (and a technology that can be adapted and sold
> to others), I predict it will be highly controversial--there are bound to
> be those who view automated keyword or context searches of hundreds of list
> archives (or NetNews groups) as an invasion of privacy. There will be the
> view that such searches will inhibit the free flow of information and ideas
> because any question may result in a barrage of "sales pitches."
/s Murphy A. Sewall <[log in to unmask]> (203) 486-2489 voice
Professor of Marketing (203) 486-5246 fax
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