How to Trash Your Brand in Five Easy Steps

1. Market a line of dog products that ostensibly "feature the newest, toughest, and lightest materials to help keep your dogs (sic) beds and accessories lasting for years," and use the tag line, "Just try to chew through this."

2. Sell products that, in actuality, are remarkably easy for dogs to shred.

3. Send a marketing email to past customers, and leave everyone's email addresses visible in the To: field.

4. Sit back as said customers launch a reply-all flamefest comparing just how quickly their "virtually indestructible" purchases were destroyed by their dogs -- and complaining that this firm just published their email address to countless strangers.

5. Wait for reports of this boneheaded marketing move and vocally unhappy customers to climb toward the top of Google searches for "K-9 Ballistics," "chew-proof dog beds," etc., and watch online sales shrivel.

For the record, my dog chewed a hole in her K-9 Ballistics bed the very first day, and destroyed it entirely within two weeks. But this email annoyed me far more than our indestructibledisposable pet purchase. Any shop that treats its customer data (and satisfaction) with so little care deserves every brickbat it gets.