Sunday, April 15, 2007

Indirect Marketing

So a friend sends me an email that contains a passing reference to his pet miniature schnauzer. Gmail scans the message for key words and presents me with some "relevant" advertising that might pique my interest. The "sponsored links" that Gmail shows me along side this email are for "Miniature Schnauzers" (good guess) and "Miniature Guitars" (what?). There is no mention of guitars - or any other musical instrument - in my friend’s email, but I suppose if you're attaching nouns to the word "miniature," "guitar" is the just most obvious step after "schnauzer." Anyway, in case you're in the market, apparently www.miniature-guitar-outlet.com has a "huge selection of miniature guitars."

My question: How large a selection of miniature guitars does anyone actually need? Frankly, I think people should be happy with a selection. If there are two miniature guitars to choose from, you should shut up and count your blessings.

Follow-up question: How small does a guitar have to be before it is actually a "miniature guitar" and not just a ukulele.

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