Annoying marketing

I am so fortunate to live in Boston, where the tech and marketing community is so vibrant. There are just so many wonderful networking and learning opportunities here. One organization that has created some great events is MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange. Unfortunately, some recent events have made me change my opinion of this organization.

I love going to conferences and learning new things. In spite of being cheap, frugal, I am willing to pay for good events. I joined MITX so I could have opportunities to attend such events.

In May, I received an email from MITX, announcing the Future M conference, to be held in October. The email went on to say that Early Bird pricing was available for the tickets. As an MITX member, the conference would cost, $450.00. If one procrastinated and waited until the last minute, the ticket price goes up to $650.00.

So I jumped on this offer, knowing the Future M conference is a good one. I have attended this conference for the past several years.

Fast forward to July and I get an email from MITX announcing a limited number of Future M conference tickets available for $100.00. What? Okay, I suppose I understand that a generous sponsor funded these tickets.

Here we are in August and I have been getting weekly emails from MITX announcing conference tickets available for $200.00, thanks to another generous sponsor. Just for fun, I clicked on the link and saw that you didn’t even have to be a MITX member to get this pricing!

I am not happy, to say the least. I feel that I was taken advantage of. Granted, the original email from MITX did not explicitly say that the Early Bird pricing would be the lowest ever, but it was implied.

One explanation could be that there haven’t been enough tickets sold and MITX needs to increase the attendance. Which leads me to think that maybe going to this conference wasn’t such a good idea after all.

MITX really blew it this time.

In order for companies to be successful they must:

1. Build trust.

I will probably not attend another conference or event put on by MITX. Or, I will wait until the last minute to see if there is a better deal. I will not believe anything MITX says in it’s marketing emails. This is so ironic since the Future M conference is all about the future of marketing.

2. Provide good value for the money.

Well, I thought the conference was worth $450, but after reading all the marketing emails, I wonder if it is even worth $100?

Also, you don’t even have to be a member of MITX to get the special pricing, so why bother paying the fairly substantial membership fee?

MITX used to offer monthly events for members, but it looks like they just focus on a few conferences a year instead.

What annoying marketing experiences have you had?

Annoyed person image is from WOR Radio.com.