Jaded/Disillusioned

NeilSt

Am I the only one thinking these wonderful competitions are mere marketing tools used to garner info about you, add more customers to their email database with their "fabulous deals" and "special offers" (yes I know you can sometimes "opt out") - it seems the good prizes are few and far between, and the rest feel like promo merchandise they have lying around their offices they want to get rid of? Hmmmmm....:(

fionasmith2013

It depends really. If you only enter competitions that you want to win, if it happens to be something just lying around their office, then it's a win you should be happy with?
I assume some companies do just want your info, but sometimes that can be a price you pay for entering a competition.
I guess you just need to weigh up the options and see if you think it's worth it for you.

Barnabysue

Of course they're marketing tools, companies don't give stuff away out of the goodness of their hearts. They have to make a profit and they can only do that by gaining more customers, to gain customers they have to let people know what they do and to do that they need to get you on their mailing list. Frankly I don't have any problem getting emails from Companies, I've bought stuff as a result that I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't signed up.

BlueBella

yes, I agree - some companies give away prizes that are either from their sales or have been discontinued. I once won a watch that was said to be worth £159 when I entered the comp but when I checked on their site, it had been reduced into their sale for £39.99! I also won a dress from a company - the dress was not on their site any more as when it arrived, the label stated old sale stock! - so they were obviously just wanting to get rid of unsold stock. The watch and dress were both really nice though and I am happy that I won them for free.

If you see a comp and don't like the prize then you don't have to enter. I get lots of spam but it is the price we pay for winning free prizes.

surfboard2

Of course that's what it is all about!

There are plenty of good prizes around imo, and i have no problem with giving these companies a bit of info about me to be in it to win it.

akittensmittens

Well yeah, they would give things away just to make people happy, it's all marketing. I don't enter many merch/promo/little comps, and I haven't won many little prizes, but I enter all the biggies and I've recently won quite a few big prizes.

It's easy to get down about it when you go through a dry spell, but the biggies are out there, and as they say, you've gotta be in it to win it.

Just bypass the movie merch, and put the time into the bigger more worthwhile ones, even if they require a bit more effort. In the last 6 months i've won a PS3, an iPad and a TV, plus a couple of £££ cheques, but they were mostly from FB or from the mag dailies. More effort, but better prizes.