The Green Kitchen Bribe...er... Referral Fee

Dear Kind Readers:

Last week I got the most inventive word of mouth marketing approach that has crossed my desk in some time. It’s for a new green enterprise and it includes a $40,000 ‘green’ kitchen giveaway and a $1,000 bribe…er... incentive.

Intrigued? So was I.

Here’s what it’s about.

Foodservicewarehouse.com is giving away a $40,000 green commercial kitchen in order to promote its new green certification process, its green kitchen consulting services, and the green kitchen products it sells. Enter the contest here.

Here’s the inducement. To the website or blog that refers the winner, they are offering $1,000. Sort of like the referral fee that goes to stores that sell a winning lottery ticket.

I’m going to play along and encourage you to enter if you qualify. You’ll notice that I’ve also added a little URL snippet to the column at the right that will be there until they notify the winner in December 2008.

If I win the $1,000 referral fee I’ll give it to an environmental cause, or give to you as Alden Keene merchandise or gift certificates. Or some combination thereof. At any rate, if I win I‘ll giveaway all the money. For the sake of transparency, I'll also publish a full accounting of how the money is distributed, if the $1,000 bribe comes to me.

Will Foodservicewarehouse.com’s word of mouth tactic work? I don’t know. One of the rules of thumb of word or mouth marketing is that actual money not change hands, even if other inducements do.

I’ll watch with interest as this develops.

Warm regards,

Paul Jones, President
Alden Keene and Associates

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