bredemarket

Hold Your Feathers

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States, and my former friends will ignore the Bredemarket blog as usual.

But so will my real friends. Food and football are much more compelling.

So the Bredemarket blog will take advantage of this tomorrow.

Hold your feathers.

Talk About the Product

I’m taking the product marketer’s view of this. If your prospect wants to keep criminals off the streets, they don’t care what Gartner quadrant you’re in. Talk about the product.

The Birthday…of Carl Benz

Carl Benz was born on this date on 25 November 1844.

So what?

In 1883, Benz again found financial helpers and set up Benz & Co. Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik. The new company did a splendid business and gave Benz the financial security he needed to expedite the development of a motor car conceived as a unit. For his newly developed Benz Patent Motor Car, in 1886 he was granted patent No. 37 435 – the birth certificate of the automobile.

The awkwardly-named company (well, maybe not so awkwardly named to Germans) occupied Benz’s time until 1903, when he restricted himself to the Supervisory Board. He subsequently started another firm, Carl Benz Söhne, in 1906 and retired from that firm in 1912.

By the time he passed away in 1929, Carl Benz lived to see the merger of Daimler Motorengesellschaft and Benz & Cie. (the 1899 rename of Benz & Co. Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik) to form Daimler-Benz AG. The cars produced by the merged company were called “Mercedes-Benz.” Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

So Much For Fake IDs

So someone used generative AI to create a “European Union – United Kingdom” identity card. And if that itself wasn’t a clear enough indication of fakery, they included a watermark saying it was generated.

So I tried something similar.

But Google Gemini blocked my attempt.

“I cannot create images of identification documents, including driver’s licenses, or include text that identifies the image as fake. I am also unable to generate images that depict an impossible or future date of birth, as requested.”

As did Grok.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t create or generate any image that replicates or imitates an official government-issued ID (even with “FAKE” written on it). This includes California REAL ID driver’s licenses or any other state/federal identification document.”

So I had to make it a little less real.

A lot less real.

Show Your Product Benefits

You have to “show” what you’re talking about. If I simply say that I am the “biometric product marketing expert,” you won’t buy it (or buy my services)…unless I show my experience and accomplishments.

The Positive Economic Impact of Age-Controlled Products and Services

When discussing age restricted products and services-the ones that require age verification or age estimation-the discussion often focuses on the negative aspects of these products of services. After all, they are age restricted for a reason: you don’t want a five year old smoking marijuana or playing poker.

But as the providers of age restricted items will remind you, they also provide a positive impact to the community.

And sometimes the government also joins in the chorus of praise.

Here’s what the U.S. Census Bureau says about Native American casinos:

“The expansion of tribal casinos that began in the 1990s helped improve economic conditions faster for American Indians relative to the U.S. population as a whole, according to joint U.S. Census Bureau and university research, though there is still progress to be made: the American Indian poverty rate was 19.6% in 2024, greater than that year’s national average of 12.1%, according to Census Bureau data….

“American Indians living on reservation lands (regardless of the presence of a casino or cash transfer program) saw a 46.5% rise in real per capita income compared to 7.8% for the United States as a whole.”

Read the entire article here.

When Technology Catches Up: 1980 Murderer of Michelle “Missy” Jones Just Convicted

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported this in September 2020:

“The Fontana Police Department in San Bernardino County, California, said it arrested Leonard Nash, 66, of Las Vegas on a warrant charging him with murder in the July 5, 1980, slaying of Michelle “Missy” Jones. The young woman was found slain in a grapefruit grove in Fontana.”

So why did it take 40 years to arrest Nash?

“Police said forensic evidence was collected during Jones’ autopsy, but technology at the time did not allow it to be connected to an offender.”

In 2020, the Riverside/San Bernardino CAL-DNA Laboratory successfully obtained a profile, but it did not match the DNA profile of any known offender. Nash, a person of interest, was matched to the profile via “discarded DNA.”

Anyway, Nash was convicted this month, but the news stories that described his conviction are inaccessible to you and me.

Bredemarket’s New eBook on Positioning and Differentiation

So I’ve written a new eBook: “Three Steps to Position and Differentiate Your Technology Product.”

If you don’t have time to read it, the three steps are the following:

Show why your product benefits people.

Show why competing products suck.

Fully address prospect pain points.

And if I can help you with your company’s positioning and differentiation, contact me and book a free meeting.

Revisiting the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity

Earlier this morning I was on LinkedIn sharing the wildebeest picture below on the Bredemarket page.

But then I noticed that LinkedIn added a symbol in the upper left corner of the picture.

When I clicked on the symbol, I obtained additional information about the picture.

Content credentials

Source or history information is available for this image.

Learn more.

Al was used to generate all of this image

App or device used: Google C2PA Core Generator Library

Content Credentials issued by: Google LLC

Content Credentials issued date: Nov 20, 2025

Of course, I already knew that I had used generative AI (Google Gemini) to create the picture. And now, thanks to the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authority, you do also.

Are You a Marketer Who is Contributing to Identity Theft?

I still receive “snail mail” at home. And every time I look at it I get enraged.

In fact, I’m this close to opening most of the pieces of mail, removing the postage-free reply envelope, and returning it to the originator with the following message:

Thank you for contributing to rampant identity theft.

How do companies, possibly including YOUR company, contribute to identity theft? Read on.

Snail mail, a treasure trove of PII

Let me provide an example, heavily redacted, of something that I received in the (snail) mail this week. I won’t reveal the name of the company that sent this to me, other than to say that it is an automobile association that does business in America.

John Bredehoft

[HOME ADDRESS REDACTED]

John Bredehoft…

You and your spouse/partner are each eligible to apply for up to $300,000.00 of Term Life Insurance reserved for members – and with Lower Group Rates ROLLED BACK to 2018!

… SCAN THIS [QR CODE REDACTED] Takes you right to your personalized application

OR GO TO [URL REDACTED] and use this Invitation Code: [CODE REDACTED]

So that’s the first page. The second page includes a Group Term Life Insurance Application with much of the same information.

And there’s the aforementioned return envelope…with my name and address helpfully preprinted on the envelope.

What could go wrong?

Dumpster divers

Now obviously the sender hopes that I fill out the form and return it. But there is a very good chance that I will NOT respond to this request, in which case I have to do something with all these papers with personally identifiable information (PII).

Obviously I should shred it.

But what if I don’t?

And some dumpster diver rifles through my trash?

Perhaps the dumpster diver will just capture my name, address, and other PII and be done with it.
Or perhaps the dumpster diver will apply for term life insurance in my name and do who knows what.

Thanks, sender, you just exposed me to identity theft.

But there’s another possible point at which my identity can be stolen.

Mailbox diverters

What if this piece of snail mail never makes it to me?

Maybe someone breaks into my mailbox, steals the mail, and then steals my identity.
Or maybe someone breaks into a mail truck, or anywhere on the path from the sender to the recipient.

Again, I’ve been exposed to identity theft.

All because several pieces of paper are floating around with my PII on it.

Multiply that by every piece of mail sent to every person, and the PII exposure problem is enormous.

Email marketers, you’re not off the hook

Now I’m sure some of you are in a self-congratulatory mood right now.

John, don’t tarnish us with the same brush as junk mailers. We are ecologically responsible and don’t send snail mails any more. We use email, eliminating the chance of pieces of PII-laden paper floating around.

Perhaps I should break the news to you.

Emails are often laden with the same PII that you find in traditional snail mail, via printed text or “easy to use” web links.
Emails can be stolen also.

So you’re just as bad as the snail mailers.

What to do?

If you’re a marketer sending PII to your prospects and customers…

Stop it.

Don’t distribute PII all over the place.

Assume that any PII you distribute WILL be stolen.

Because it probably will.

And if you didn’t know this, it won’t make your prospects and customers happy.