CB2 and Land of Nod, both sister brands of my previous employer Crate and Barrel, are holding a contest for writing product reviews on their respective websites. Do you expect the reviews to skew positive in order to win the prize? Does this call into question the authenticity of the review? What do you think?
JD
on 19 Nov 08For the record I do think that a contest like this does skew the reviews. There is something about reviewing a product for the sole purpose of saying you absolutely love it or hate it without there being a carrot at the end of the stick. It makes it more authentic.
GeeIWonder
on 19 Nov 08Yeah. The interesting question to me I guess is does the contest, and skewed reviews, create value or take away value?
I guess it creates traffic though.
Daniel
on 19 Nov 08I agree that it’ll probably have some effect on the tone and content of the reviews, likely skewing them toward positive sentiments.
It’s a simple issue really. Professional reviewers get their pay from a 3rd party (a magazine or newspaper); if they got it from the product vendors/manufacturers you wouldn’t trust them. That isn’t any different just because the reviewers aren’t professionals. It’d be nice to see peoples’ reviews come with a disclosure, e.g. “I’m writing this to win a contest” but that’s not going to happen.
I’m hoping that the contest winners are either picked randomly, or by was-this-helpful-to-you votes or something. That’d help a bit.
David Andersen
on 19 Nov 08The reviews aren’t being judged. The winners are going to be drawn out of a hat from all submitted reviews. There is no carrot. Reviews are only going to be skewed to the extent that people feel some sort of obligation to be favorable in exchange for the random chance to win a prize. I suppose some people might. I wouldn’t. If the product is not good, I’d say so. If I get lucky and win a prize on top of it, yahoo.
krist0ph3r
on 19 Nov 08most people (myself included) would (perhaps irrationally) assume that writing a good review has something to do with the prize, even if it’s declared as a lucky draw. it’s just human nature, i guess.
ps: you might want to fix your feed for posts like this one. i don’t want to come to your site to read beyond the 10th word. and usability is in your blog’s title. shame.
CJ Curtis
on 19 Nov 08If it is truly a “contest,” legally it’s supposed to be competitive. So the winner should be either the most outrageous or the most insightful, regardless of positive or negative review.
So yes, it will absolutely affect responses. It’s not about what you think…it’s about what you think will win.
Rob G.
on 19 Nov 08“Honey, do you need any magazines? The Publisher’s Clearinghouse entry just arrived!”
“Not really, but let’s buy one anyway! It can’t hurt! You never know!”
Mike
on 19 Nov 08If you look at the website, you’ll see that it’s a sweepstakes. The prizes are awarded randomly (which is perfectly legal, as long as you aren’t requiring entrants to purchase anything). Rob G.’s point about the psychology of these kinds of things is well-taken.
Benjy
on 19 Nov 08They should have another contest for ways to improve existing products. While I see the concern for this contest to skew positive, C&B could be well served to get constructive feedback from customers who have bought/used their products in the real world. Sure, some of their products are from other manufacturers and may be more difficult to act upon, but so much of their stuff is their own branded product.
CJ Curtis
on 19 Nov 08Quoting Mike: “it’s a sweepstakes…which is perfectly legal, as long as you aren’t requiring entrants to purchase anything…”
That’s the thing, though…the first step listed on the CB2 site is “buy a product from cb2.com.” It’s also referred to as a contest on the site.
Sounds like a profit scam to me.
Vesa
on 19 Nov 08In the RSS feed please include the whole question. Currently the title is cut off and the body part is empty.
Thanks.
da
on 19 Nov 08I think its a simple trick to get people to buy stuff. Before you can write a review, you have to buy something. They probably expect enough people to participate so that giving away $1000 bucks is not a loss. They certainly keep that detail out until you read into the process.
Crystal
on 20 Nov 08@CJ Curtis: How is it a scam? It’s fair to expect that in order to review a product, you’d first have to own it.
Most other marketing competitions have a stipulation that you need to buy the product, too. It’s like the Coke competitions where you have to look under the lid to get the code, etc.
Reviews from non-consumers aren’t helpful to the customer, and giving prizes to non-consumers isn’t good business.
CJ Curtis
on 26 Nov 08Crystal:
In the legal jargon following 99% of all contests and sweepstakes, giveaways, etc., you might here the line “No purchase necessary.” This is true in McDonald’s Monopoly, which means you can write to obtain McDonald’s Monopoly pieces for FREE if you are so inclined to follow the rules to do so.
Companies have contests to encourage sales of their products…not force them. They do so because the Trade Commission has strict rules pertaining to these things.
While it makes sense that you should probably own a product before you can review it…that’s precisely why companies have product review forums that are not attached to a contest.
Link to CB2 Contest Rules:
http://www.cb2.com/productreviews/rules.aspx
You’ll see at the top in bold letters “NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.” Under “Ways to Enter,” you’ll also notice that not only do you not have to buy anything, you don’t even have to write a review. You simply have to give them your name and address, and they are legally obligated to enter you in the contest. This is the legalese BS that makes what they’re doing “legal.”
Would be contestants are made to think that they need to buy something and review it, when in fact neither is true, and neither has anything to do with winning.
It’s a scam.
This discussion is closed.