Everyone who uses internet frequently to send and receive emails is known of term SPAM. We often delete our junk mail after just giving a glance or sometimes just straight away. Since last couple of days i have been observing my SPAM/Junk email folder and lot of posts which has happened on the blog were raised due to issues originating from it. For instance an advertisement on IT staffing company with catchy title suffering higher attrition rate made me think about the reasons and method to control it. Or Advertisement for new Plasma TV at discounted price forced me to look at offers for shoppers kind of model. Their are lot of business models hidden behind these spams as generally they tend to target products which can be used by general masses hence allows you to understand consumer behavior on internet and kind of products people buy online.
End of the day root of spam is based in advertising and marketing hence minds are working round the clock to generate revenues from these spam emails and its in your hand to understand their thinking based on advertisement or product they are promoting or pushing. It gives you sense of the digital economy . Next time just dont delete your email try to find answer to your marketing study questions in there.
I 100% agree with you. I never delete spam without reading but i do delete spicy subject header in email. Spam creator are the most creative mind.
One way to get new ideas is start working on a proven idea. Try duplicating it. The problems you face in executing a proven idea will bring you in touch with more brilliant ideas.
ANother way to look at is would be: If there is a certain product or service which is getting popular. Try building complementary services around it. Just like firstphera.com did for marriage portals. Flickr did for digital cameras.