I normally never fall for such a farce but due to my haste to find a day job I went to the first interview for Executive Promotional Group. The building is located on Benjamin Road near the airport and shares office space with 5 other companies. Inside the office there is no furniture. The equipment was cheap and yet my interviewer Justin Kirkpatrick was dressed in a business suit and sporting an Iphone. He had no examples of his companies work save a few framed pictures with no copy and he referenced them as though he had something to do with the ads. Come to find out, his interview and sales pitch were the exact same as that of another lackey Derek (whose last name escapes me) whose “office” in Clearwater off U.S. 19 near the Bob Evans. Both of them also gave me the same puzzled look when I threw out advertising and market terms at them in response to their interview questions. When I told Kirkpatrick I had delved into PR and Journalism he told me he had done the same yet knew nothing about the topics.
What EPG does is convince clients to stop their traditional marketing (TV, Radio, Newspaper, Billboard) and sell them on the idea of creating “packages” at no cost to the company. For example they will create a package deal for an oil change company such as 4 oil changes for $25 when typically 4 changes come to around $80. Executive Promotional Group will then attempt to sell their ‘coupons’ by accosting pedestrians on the street or entering office buildings that specifically say ‘no solicitations’. EPG will sell legitimate companies on the idea that these deals will help establish long-term relationships with customer-client.
Kirkpatrick told me within in five minutes that he thought I had management potential and wanted to train me to be promoted within 8 months. Furthermore he wanted to set a shadow day for me to canvas the city of Tampa with an “account executive”. Sweet Deal right? What EPG fails to mention to it’s potential hires is that every hire becomes an account executive. In the meantime Kirkpatrick spends his entire day interviewing potential hires. Everyday there is a new group of employees. Now why would a marketing firm need to hire everyday? In order to obtain a management position account executive must recruit prospective employees into a “team” mentality.
Once the executive has enough people he will start his own “branch” in a small dilapidated office building similar to the one Justin Kirkpatrick rents. For every dollar the account execs make they have to give a fairly high percentage back to the manager who then sends a kickback to his manager and so on and so forth. All these companies are related they are all branches of former coworkers taking money from eager job seekers. A pyramid scheme such as this can pay massive dividends for a few people twisted enough to take advantage of hard workers.
1 Comment
April 12, 2009 at 1:02 am
Marketing community is growing everyday, even there is recession or not. this industry is highly competitive also.