Talk:Welcome Wagon
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The Welcome Wagon entry in Wikipedia is clearly an advertisement. If that is within the scope of Wikipedi entries (and it may be) then there is nothing wrong. But I suspect it is not because Wikipedia would quickly be overwhelmed. I stumbled across this entry while searching for the company in Google. Can I just add my company name to Wikipedia and get a Google entry so easily? This does not seem right.
[edit] Response
I wrote the description for Welcome Wagon. I tried to give a thorough description of the company without making it sound like an ad, but it seems that at least one person believes it is an ad. When you're writing a definition for a company, you have to describe what the company does. I tried to do this accurately without including any solicitation.
Welcome Wagon is both a for-profit company and a non-profit civic organization. They make money by helping local businesses advertise to new homeowners but they also send out gift packages to new homeowners for free. In addition, there are Welcome Wagon clubs across the country that are non-profit and exist entirely to benefit the people who have just moved into a new area. Regardless of the venue, Welcome Wagon has a singular mission and that is to welcome new movers; and that is what I tried to reflect in my description of the company.
Of course, anyone can just change my description if they want to; however, if you'd like to suggest what I could do to improve this and make it seem less "advertorial", I'd be happy to do so.
[edit] Still advertising
I did not write the original comment, which "69.74.53.101" posted a response to (you should sign your comments), but this is clearly still an advertisement, and no, that is not acceptable. As for the claims made in the response ... Look, it's obvious that this person has a conflict of interest and works for the company, and is using the page to promote their company. Their claims here are way off base, just as their telephone telemarketing is when it claims they are "not selling" anything. Sure, they're selling ads that they give to new arrivals in the community, under the guise of a "gift". There is definitely more than a whiff of solicitation in the text. Even the Welcome Wagon homepage clearly explains that this is not a "civic organization":
"Welcome Wagon is a state-of-the-art new homeowner marketing company, located in Plainview, New York. Employing world-class digital print-on-demand equipment, we produce and mail millions of printed pieces in-house, within our brand new facility. We have a large publishing and research department and we compile our own new homeowner data to exacting standards. Welcome Wagon has a variety of products, designed to help our customers – our partners – build their businesses. Each year, we reach out to almost 2 million new homeowners with our flagship product, the Welcome Wagon Gift Book. We know who the homebuying family is, what they want and how to reach them. But that’s not surprising: we’ve been getting to know them for a long time."
That's from http://www.welcomewagon.com/AboutUs/article.aspx?wwpg=about
The "gifts" that are claimed to come from this supposed "civic organization" are described thus:
Welcome Wagon brings your company to the front doors of new homeowners, with direct marketing solutions, proven to build market share. Our Gift Book Program gives you category-exclusive placement in our attractive color, personalized Gift Book, delivered as a FREE gift to new residents in your neighborhood. And PinPoint, our newest and hottest direct marketing program, replenishes your customer base by repeatedly delivering your message in personalized, full-color, one-on-one mailings.
I made a minor edit, but considering this "response," it clearly needs more editing and to be watched for other advertising abuse. Meanwhile, editor, please read - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest 98.194.237.126 (talk) 23:13, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
