[Closed] Howies being twats

OK, not ****s, sad-sacks then

A different Howies, no? According to the article it's Timberland who are the baddies. Yes it's Howies, but not Howies and Finisterre will probably go the same way when they're bought out.

I don't get it - what have Howies/Timberland done wrong??

Rachel

How do they know that howies are 'agressively bidding' on the term Finisterre?

I ran a few searches, and none came back with howies at all (results or adverts). Strange if howies would even bother trying to do that to be honest since the word is so specific to that particular site.

Hijacked Google. 👿

Adwords can b configured to have a daily max cost so, if lots of people have clicked on Howies links, they will stop appearing till the next day.

Rachel

"Howies have taken to aggressively bidding on ‘Finisterre’ as a term in Google."

Obviously with Timberlands piggy bank they can do this all day long. Not illegal, just a bit lame. Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make yours burn any brighter.

I just googled Finisterre and howies didn't come up?

I want to care.

They've probably hit the daily limit

try really hard deadly. focus. the care can be strong in this one.

I'm struggling. I've just been wobbling around the park at circuits - I did a lot of caring there and my care reserves are low. 😐

I don't understand either. What does 'bidding' on Google mean? What are they actually doing?

If a company wants to associate their website with particular keywords, they are perfectly free to do so. I see absolutely no issue with this and, in the same position, I would do it, too.

And yes, I do understand that the keywords may be those associated with a rival - so what?

Rachel

Right Ok what am I supposed to be getting angry about now?

I just googled Howies....

[img] [/img]

😀

What does 'bidding' on Google mean? What are they actually doing

l think it's where companies bid to have their ad in the right pane when a certain word is searched

To me it's just lame business - a bit like changing a road sign away from a smaller rival instead of trying to be better than them.

Shame on Howies, but the good news is I'd never heard of Finisterre until this, so they can now get my custom instead of Timberland 🙂

Err - have Finisterre directly accused Howies of this practice? Maybe they would want to reconsider that blog post - they can have no evidence to prove it is correct.

I could quite easily set up an adword campaign doing exactly the same thing - anyone can buy any keyword and point them anywhere - I could buy "Howies" and point it to the Finisterre website. Who's to blame for that? Certainly not Finisterre...

Rachel

Howies responds! It's like an STW slanging match.
http://brainfood.howies.co.uk/2011/10/the-f-word/

I'm now confused about which ethical, organic brand to use...

It's like an STW slanging match.

Yes, it's like a comptetition to see who can be the most sanctimonious - and I think the Finisterre bloke wins.

which company has the better handbags.

sounds more like finisterre being **** to me. it doesn't really matter that howies is now owned by timberland, this has no bearing on the argument, just smacks of jealousy really.

Sounds like maybe the title of the thread should be changed...

Seems so. Would be a shame, always had great service from Finisterre, very nice people it would have seemed, and great products - not what I'd expect from them.

...I've just realised that your displayed title got censored, but not the URL 🙂

ive never heard of finestere

are they another really really overpriced clothing brand like howies?

Most 'label' brands can be considered 'overpriced'; it all depends on how well the clothing is made and how it fits and how well it lasts. If people are [i]that[/i] bothered, then there are plenty of options, just don't buy the expensive stuff. FWIW, I've a fair bit of Howies stuff, and like it. I also have a fair bit of Uniqlo stuff and like that too. They don't do the more outdoor stuff, tho'. Rapha kit [i]is[/i] seriously overpriced, and I wouldn't buy anything of theirs without a lottery win to help.

Just having a look at finisterre's stuff, and it certainly ain't cheap. Their Pruga jacket's nice, but Uniqlo do this one:
http://shop.uniqlo.com/uk/goods/070363001
and it's half the price. I know which I'd buy.

I'd probably go for the one that doesn't look like it's been designed for women too.

Both howies and finistere come out of this looking like cockninnys.

Mmm. Looking at it objectively, and having previously run a search marketing company, my sympathies are currently lying with Howies.

Funny old thing the Internet.

Business in trying to pinch competitiors customers shocker!

Really, this isn't important.

I'm not sure either 'side' come out of this particularly well.

Howies using an agency to buy/control Adwords reinforces their new "corporate" image, but their response does something to diminish this. Finisterre's blog post looks a bit too "handbags".

The smartest move by Finisterre would have been to just do the Howies Adword result above and to leave it at that while contacting someone at Howies directly.

Think Howies would win on the handbags, they just have to ask Mommy VF for a few.

Love the way the swear filter blanks out the last word, but the URL address in the browser keeps it 🙂

I'm not sure what to think of Finesterre - on one hand they're a local Cornish business so feel I should support them, and I do have one of their merino t-shirts, but on the other hand they come across a bit 'holier-than-thou' and sort of 'we're amazing - look at us!' which is a bit much for me.

Something else that erked (sp?) me...they had a blog entry on their site a while back having a dig at NASA for having the slogan 'Failure is not an option' and how they think it is and there's nothing wrong with failure - in a 'it helps us improve' kinda way. Fair enough point, but for NASA, who strap men and women to highly explosive rockets and fire them into space at thousands of miles per hour, failure really isn't an option! Could've chosen a better example for their point IMHO.

I've read both sides of the story and think that it's just Finesterre looking to get some cheap PR. Howies response seems reasonable to me. Before today I hadn't heard of Finesterre, so I guess their tactic paid off.

The smartest move by Finisterre would have been to just do the Howies Adword result above and to leave it at that while contacting someone at Howies directly.

There seems to be a lot of storm and not a lot of teacup here. If you were to search for Maxxis and see a sponsored search result for Kenda would you care, I'd guess not all that much really.

I like the figures Howies included too, puts the aggresuve bidding aspect to bed really.

No big deal, move on!