Corporate terrorism
I would like to start this story with a certain disclaimer (excuse), so that readers wouldn’t have a desire, without reading the rest of it, poking a finger at the author. Actually, the author has quite a distant relationship to the most interesting part of the story, outlined below. The author's “remoteness” is essential just enough to state this story to the readers, and at the same time to have the right to refuse to participate in the events that are set out in it. The reason for which the author took up the keyboard is far from the desire to push or get some rating, the reason is completely different; in the end, this will be discussed separately.
“... business is not chosen: whoever they found in some cabbage is the one with that cabbage and bash ...”
Everyone in this world makes a living as it can. In this country (Ukraine), and in this one too (Russia), there have always been many talented people who are greedy for gold. Out of modesty I will keep silence about the level of my talent, but the fact regarding money is undeniable. And if someone is lucky to catch me behind the internal dialogue with his conscience, he will look something like this:
- Are you ready for a lot of money?
')
- I repent, but yes, I am ready for much ...
With Garik, life drove me twice. For the first time in 2004 in the autumn, at the height of the presidential election. He was our curator in Donetsk. As a student, I was at the very bottom of the pyramid of the election headquarters of the “blue candidate” (as they say, who knows, he understood). They did everything that the supervisors told us: from sticking stickers on porches and blue ribbons to “working” on the ground with the heads of small enterprises, heads of workers, so to speak, with administrative assets. It was at this job that Garik noticed me. In a short time I went up to the assistant curator. And everyone knows how it all ended: our candidate lost (in extra time according to the results of the penalty shoot-out).
As they said, at that time only the lazy one did not earn at the elections. I raised some good money, but, apparently, Garik was the most lazy of them all, because if I went to the killed eight before the elections, then I moved to Prado.
In the fifth year, our roads diverged with Garik and for the second time life brought us together in the crisis year 2009.
In a crisis, my business was in the ass. Therefore, when Garik contacted me about how to make money, I did not think for a long time. I did not think at all.
We met him at the bar in the evening, drank 4 beers, talked very pleasantly about life and how to improve her (living) financial situation.
Garik worked in one large insurance company as deputy chief of marketing. A weak position, marketing budget, kickbacks, kickbacks from kickbacks, kickbacks from kickbacks kickbacks ... well, you understand. Even to a person far from the insurance business, it is clear that insurance at 50 percent, if not more, is pure marketing, advertising and brainwashing. And the trouble Garik was in two things: the first - that Garik was responsible for this very marketing, the second - the crisis. Apparently, at a time when most people tightly tightened their belts, the insurance business was not on horseback, and, moreover, the classical approach to advertising at that time was not particularly effective.
Despite the dark times, Garik continued to earn well, but there was one direction in his insurance business, for which he had a special demand - real estate insurance.
I don’t know what happened to them in the company, but as a result of some backstage movements, Garik was obliged. It was argued whether Garik would receive a prize for a new project concerning real estate insurance or not. And it depended solely on the volume of sales of insurance for apartments, houses and offices.
It turned out that the marketing budget for this area was “mastered” all, sales did not grow and the premium hung in the balance. As you know, the man did not deliver the pizza, and the size of the prize was quite high.
In short, Garik needed to increase sales using guerrilla marketing techniques, a 3K green budget, a month's period (I’ll explain to city guests: gorilla marketing, he is guerrilla marketing, unconventional low-budget marketing, not always clean on hand, otherwise google).
The whole joke was that I didn’t have to invent anything, everything was thought up for me, and Garik needed only a performer. And then he briefly told what to do.
- You see, it is important to attract attention, let it be a shock, let the scandals begin - we are only better off. I did not come up with the idea, I need to implement it carefully and quietly. - Garik ordered another beer.
- What do we have to do?
- Nothing that you wouldn’t manage: first, you need to get contacts of clients who insured real estate in 2008 with our competitors - company “A”, preferably, although it is not necessary that email forms are in the questionnaires, therefore legal entities will work fine .
- And you can not raise your profiles? - I was surprised.
“She, well, you can't touch your clients, we need other people.”
- How many profiles are needed?
- Let's say from 1000 pieces, I will check them later, I’ll cross out some clients who could work with us in due time, so that in the end there would be at least a thousand.
I thought it was some kind of dark matter:
- Garik, isn't it easier to take questionnaires from the available databases, even with the same choices, to strike out your clients ...
- You do not understand, my friend, we need exactly those who worked with company “A”, so what is difficult for you?
- I think there will be no problems.
- That's great. Second, hmm, - Garik smirked, - here is the most interesting. At the addresses of these profiles will need to go and fotikom click their windows.
- Take a picture of a thousand windows? - I asked.
- Yes, it is a simple matter, you don't need special skills, you can take pictures on any soap box, even on the phone. If you want - you will walk yourself, if you don’t want it - you will find someone, it makes no difference to me. As a result, you will have 1000 pictures of real estate of these clients.
- Well, then what?
- Next - the fun begins: you need to add fire!
- What to add?
- Dorisovat to these pics fire, spontaneous fire, got it?
I put it mildly, “ofigel”, it became clear why Garik was driving over.
- Listen, but this is a very rough game, do you want to send these photos to customers, hinting that it would not hurt to insure?
- Yeah. Exactly. - Garik smiled.
- Garik, do you know what kind of head can be torn off?
“Listen,” he said, abruptly becoming serious, “not for you to bathe, who will be torn off, I give you money, do simple work, any fool can handle it.”
Honestly, at that moment I was reluctant to take up this business, guerrilla marketing is one thing, but what Garik offers is pure black technology, a low blow. But I needed the money and he knew about it.
- Garik, in a month to get the questionnaires, take a thousand photos, process them and all this for 3 pieces of greenery, while I take a strong risk if they catch me - they will break my legs.
- Think. With the processing, you do not need to particularly steam, in Photoshop there is a special plugin. Hire any students, they will give you 20 cents per photo.
I did not think for a long time, did not argue any more and did not bargain, I just agreed, an advance of 50% resolved all doubts.
It was easy to get the questionnaires of the company “A” clients. I will not go into details: the way is old. A few days later I lost $ 500, but for that I received a flash drive, on board of which there were more than 3,000 forms of individuals and legal entities who insured their property before the crisis. Threw them Gariku. Two days later, I had on my hands the very thousand “approved clients” with whom I had to “work”.
I sorted the questionnaires by districts, numbered them and threw them on the communicator. In the communicator, the camera was quite weak, so I had to use a soap box. The main difficulty was to compare the pictures with the questionnaires, because there was no GPS in the fotik, and the tags were not affixed. The task was solved simply: one profile - one photo, but despite the seeming simplicity, it took 10 days to photograph.
Every day I left at dawn and returned home in the evening, I had no strength even to check my mail, not to mention processing photos. Therefore, as Garik advised, I downloaded the task to the students. He advised them not to ask too many questions, explaining that this is an order from the mayor’s office for social advertising.
Garik called early in the morning:
- What's up?
- Fine and you?
- Help is needed. The situation is this: my boss did not know about the planned action. This is our internal matter, do not bother about it. In short, he was informed that one of the competitors was walking around the city, taking pictures of the clients' real estate and making photo fires. Understand what it is about? No more, I told him. In short, he was very interested in who had thought of this, so I said that I have a friend in company “A”. You will be familiar. My boss, Alexey Bogdanovich, will contact you, arrange a meeting. Take a tape recorder with you, don't tell a lot, just listen to his questions, tell me how you find out what's what - call you up to him. And yes, you can keep a tip.
I sat on the bed and scratched my head:
- Garik, why do I need it?
- Well, how is it, you want to get the remaining 50%? - and he hung up.
Alexey Bogdanovich did not keep himself waiting. From the telephone conversation it was clear that he was intrigued by such a move by competitors (he would know that work was being done on the order of his company). We agreed to meet during his break and have lunch together.
Chef Garik turned out to be a rather pleasant and sociable man in his 50s:
“They whispered to me here that competitors might want to do a dirty PR campaign.”
- Something concrete?
- Well, imagine, you come to work, check the mail, and there is a letter from the insurance company, you open it and see a photo of a burning apartment, your apartment. How would you react to this?
- Not very good. And what could be the use of it?
- I do not know, there will be a scandal. I think many will make such an approach think, maybe they will think about insurance, and maybe they will write to the police. Please find out who is doing this, I will not be in debt.
I did not get the tips ... but I made a recording of the conversation on the recorder.
My work has been completed. Garik received a flash drive with photos, a tape recorder of his boss, I got the remaining 1500 bucks, and I parted.
The most interesting thing in this whole story happened later and without my participation. I learned about it by chance, a few months after the events described above.
Everything happened as thought Aleksey Bogdanovich. One morning, several directors of large companies received emails from an insurance company. In which there were photos of their apartments burning in the fire. The letter offered to insure their property. The joke was that the insurance company that sent these letters was not the one in which Garik worked. Letters came from company “A”, in which I bought a customer base.
The scandal was noisy, but local. Shocked clients (not the last people in the city) attacked company “A” with complaints, suggestions to break limbs and sincere wishes for a long life.
The next day, a certain voice recording came up, on which the man, presumably the marketing director of the company Garik (the same one), talks about the black PR method “ you come to work, check your mail, and there you get a letter from the insurance company, you open it and see a photo burning apartment, your apartment; I think this approach will make many people think, maybe they will think about insurance ”...
Frankly, I waited for someone to knock on my door. But, by chance, they forgot about me. After all, I do not know all the undercurrents that are associated with this story.
Alexey Bogdanovich, who, not without my help, was substituted by Garik, moved to another company as a regional director. Despite all this was a boost. Perhaps he didn’t have to prove his case, because the dictaphone recording pulled out of context cannot erase the authority of the person he has earned over the years.
Garik did not take the place of his boss: he was asked to leave when the holes in the marketing budget surfaced. I heard that he now has his own company, engaged in forex.
He didn’t manage to push two competing companies with his foreheads, sit on his boss, but he managed to demonstrate how fragile the information sphere in which we live can be.
Perhaps some comrades will recognize themselves or their acquaintances in these lines, and in order to extinguish the fire of anger, they will want to win back the author, they are in their own right, but I have nothing more to add to what was said above.
Actually, what I wrote all this: the other day they called me ...
The first
“... business is not chosen: whoever they found in some cabbage is the one with that cabbage and bash ...”
Everyone in this world makes a living as it can. In this country (Ukraine), and in this one too (Russia), there have always been many talented people who are greedy for gold. Out of modesty I will keep silence about the level of my talent, but the fact regarding money is undeniable. And if someone is lucky to catch me behind the internal dialogue with his conscience, he will look something like this:
- Are you ready for a lot of money?
')
- I repent, but yes, I am ready for much ...
With Garik, life drove me twice. For the first time in 2004 in the autumn, at the height of the presidential election. He was our curator in Donetsk. As a student, I was at the very bottom of the pyramid of the election headquarters of the “blue candidate” (as they say, who knows, he understood). They did everything that the supervisors told us: from sticking stickers on porches and blue ribbons to “working” on the ground with the heads of small enterprises, heads of workers, so to speak, with administrative assets. It was at this job that Garik noticed me. In a short time I went up to the assistant curator. And everyone knows how it all ended: our candidate lost (in extra time according to the results of the penalty shoot-out).
As they said, at that time only the lazy one did not earn at the elections. I raised some good money, but, apparently, Garik was the most lazy of them all, because if I went to the killed eight before the elections, then I moved to Prado.
In the fifth year, our roads diverged with Garik and for the second time life brought us together in the crisis year 2009.
In a crisis, my business was in the ass. Therefore, when Garik contacted me about how to make money, I did not think for a long time. I did not think at all.
We met him at the bar in the evening, drank 4 beers, talked very pleasantly about life and how to improve her (living) financial situation.
Garik worked in one large insurance company as deputy chief of marketing. A weak position, marketing budget, kickbacks, kickbacks from kickbacks, kickbacks from kickbacks kickbacks ... well, you understand. Even to a person far from the insurance business, it is clear that insurance at 50 percent, if not more, is pure marketing, advertising and brainwashing. And the trouble Garik was in two things: the first - that Garik was responsible for this very marketing, the second - the crisis. Apparently, at a time when most people tightly tightened their belts, the insurance business was not on horseback, and, moreover, the classical approach to advertising at that time was not particularly effective.
Despite the dark times, Garik continued to earn well, but there was one direction in his insurance business, for which he had a special demand - real estate insurance.
I don’t know what happened to them in the company, but as a result of some backstage movements, Garik was obliged. It was argued whether Garik would receive a prize for a new project concerning real estate insurance or not. And it depended solely on the volume of sales of insurance for apartments, houses and offices.
It turned out that the marketing budget for this area was “mastered” all, sales did not grow and the premium hung in the balance. As you know, the man did not deliver the pizza, and the size of the prize was quite high.
In short, Garik needed to increase sales using guerrilla marketing techniques, a 3K green budget, a month's period (I’ll explain to city guests: gorilla marketing, he is guerrilla marketing, unconventional low-budget marketing, not always clean on hand, otherwise google).
The whole joke was that I didn’t have to invent anything, everything was thought up for me, and Garik needed only a performer. And then he briefly told what to do.
The second
- You see, it is important to attract attention, let it be a shock, let the scandals begin - we are only better off. I did not come up with the idea, I need to implement it carefully and quietly. - Garik ordered another beer.
- What do we have to do?
- Nothing that you wouldn’t manage: first, you need to get contacts of clients who insured real estate in 2008 with our competitors - company “A”, preferably, although it is not necessary that email forms are in the questionnaires, therefore legal entities will work fine .
- And you can not raise your profiles? - I was surprised.
“She, well, you can't touch your clients, we need other people.”
- How many profiles are needed?
- Let's say from 1000 pieces, I will check them later, I’ll cross out some clients who could work with us in due time, so that in the end there would be at least a thousand.
I thought it was some kind of dark matter:
- Garik, isn't it easier to take questionnaires from the available databases, even with the same choices, to strike out your clients ...
- You do not understand, my friend, we need exactly those who worked with company “A”, so what is difficult for you?
- I think there will be no problems.
- That's great. Second, hmm, - Garik smirked, - here is the most interesting. At the addresses of these profiles will need to go and fotikom click their windows.
- Take a picture of a thousand windows? - I asked.
- Yes, it is a simple matter, you don't need special skills, you can take pictures on any soap box, even on the phone. If you want - you will walk yourself, if you don’t want it - you will find someone, it makes no difference to me. As a result, you will have 1000 pictures of real estate of these clients.
- Well, then what?
- Next - the fun begins: you need to add fire!
- What to add?
- Dorisovat to these pics fire, spontaneous fire, got it?
I put it mildly, “ofigel”, it became clear why Garik was driving over.
- Listen, but this is a very rough game, do you want to send these photos to customers, hinting that it would not hurt to insure?
- Yeah. Exactly. - Garik smiled.
- Garik, do you know what kind of head can be torn off?
“Listen,” he said, abruptly becoming serious, “not for you to bathe, who will be torn off, I give you money, do simple work, any fool can handle it.”
Honestly, at that moment I was reluctant to take up this business, guerrilla marketing is one thing, but what Garik offers is pure black technology, a low blow. But I needed the money and he knew about it.
- Garik, in a month to get the questionnaires, take a thousand photos, process them and all this for 3 pieces of greenery, while I take a strong risk if they catch me - they will break my legs.
- Think. With the processing, you do not need to particularly steam, in Photoshop there is a special plugin. Hire any students, they will give you 20 cents per photo.
I did not think for a long time, did not argue any more and did not bargain, I just agreed, an advance of 50% resolved all doubts.
Third
It was easy to get the questionnaires of the company “A” clients. I will not go into details: the way is old. A few days later I lost $ 500, but for that I received a flash drive, on board of which there were more than 3,000 forms of individuals and legal entities who insured their property before the crisis. Threw them Gariku. Two days later, I had on my hands the very thousand “approved clients” with whom I had to “work”.
I sorted the questionnaires by districts, numbered them and threw them on the communicator. In the communicator, the camera was quite weak, so I had to use a soap box. The main difficulty was to compare the pictures with the questionnaires, because there was no GPS in the fotik, and the tags were not affixed. The task was solved simply: one profile - one photo, but despite the seeming simplicity, it took 10 days to photograph.
Every day I left at dawn and returned home in the evening, I had no strength even to check my mail, not to mention processing photos. Therefore, as Garik advised, I downloaded the task to the students. He advised them not to ask too many questions, explaining that this is an order from the mayor’s office for social advertising.
Garik called early in the morning:
- What's up?
- Fine and you?
- Help is needed. The situation is this: my boss did not know about the planned action. This is our internal matter, do not bother about it. In short, he was informed that one of the competitors was walking around the city, taking pictures of the clients' real estate and making photo fires. Understand what it is about? No more, I told him. In short, he was very interested in who had thought of this, so I said that I have a friend in company “A”. You will be familiar. My boss, Alexey Bogdanovich, will contact you, arrange a meeting. Take a tape recorder with you, don't tell a lot, just listen to his questions, tell me how you find out what's what - call you up to him. And yes, you can keep a tip.
I sat on the bed and scratched my head:
- Garik, why do I need it?
- Well, how is it, you want to get the remaining 50%? - and he hung up.
Alexey Bogdanovich did not keep himself waiting. From the telephone conversation it was clear that he was intrigued by such a move by competitors (he would know that work was being done on the order of his company). We agreed to meet during his break and have lunch together.
Chef Garik turned out to be a rather pleasant and sociable man in his 50s:
“They whispered to me here that competitors might want to do a dirty PR campaign.”
- Something concrete?
- Well, imagine, you come to work, check the mail, and there is a letter from the insurance company, you open it and see a photo of a burning apartment, your apartment. How would you react to this?
- Not very good. And what could be the use of it?
- I do not know, there will be a scandal. I think many will make such an approach think, maybe they will think about insurance, and maybe they will write to the police. Please find out who is doing this, I will not be in debt.
I did not get the tips ... but I made a recording of the conversation on the recorder.
My work has been completed. Garik received a flash drive with photos, a tape recorder of his boss, I got the remaining 1500 bucks, and I parted.
Fourth
The most interesting thing in this whole story happened later and without my participation. I learned about it by chance, a few months after the events described above.
Everything happened as thought Aleksey Bogdanovich. One morning, several directors of large companies received emails from an insurance company. In which there were photos of their apartments burning in the fire. The letter offered to insure their property. The joke was that the insurance company that sent these letters was not the one in which Garik worked. Letters came from company “A”, in which I bought a customer base.
The scandal was noisy, but local. Shocked clients (not the last people in the city) attacked company “A” with complaints, suggestions to break limbs and sincere wishes for a long life.
The next day, a certain voice recording came up, on which the man, presumably the marketing director of the company Garik (the same one), talks about the black PR method “ you come to work, check your mail, and there you get a letter from the insurance company, you open it and see a photo burning apartment, your apartment; I think this approach will make many people think, maybe they will think about insurance ”...
Epilogue
Frankly, I waited for someone to knock on my door. But, by chance, they forgot about me. After all, I do not know all the undercurrents that are associated with this story.
Alexey Bogdanovich, who, not without my help, was substituted by Garik, moved to another company as a regional director. Despite all this was a boost. Perhaps he didn’t have to prove his case, because the dictaphone recording pulled out of context cannot erase the authority of the person he has earned over the years.
Garik did not take the place of his boss: he was asked to leave when the holes in the marketing budget surfaced. I heard that he now has his own company, engaged in forex.
He didn’t manage to push two competing companies with his foreheads, sit on his boss, but he managed to demonstrate how fragile the information sphere in which we live can be.
Perhaps some comrades will recognize themselves or their acquaintances in these lines, and in order to extinguish the fire of anger, they will want to win back the author, they are in their own right, but I have nothing more to add to what was said above.
Actually, what I wrote all this: the other day they called me ...
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/136384/
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