The art of successfully
Marketing a product involves inflating its good points and avoiding the bad points
completely. So, for example,
let's market E2:
We have to start with some
facts. Contrary to popular belief, even marketing people have to start with
some element of truth:
1. E2 holds
information about
stuff
2. You can
search for stuff
3. stuff is linked to other stuff
4. You can
write stuff yourself
5. You can
chat to other people
6. You are given 'points' (of no
real world value) for writing an article, or when other people vote for your article.
But facts are
boring. You can't sell
anything with
facts alone! So, we inflate the truth a little:
1. E2 will soon contain
all information you
ever wanted to
know about
everything!
2. It's
easy to find the
information that you're looking for!
3.
Hypertext™ links make it
easy to
locate related articles!
4.
You can expand upon the wealth of information already in the database. Contribute your articles and they'll be read by
thousands of
people from around the
world.
5.
You can receive
online support and
advice from other
friendly noders!
6. Become a proficient writer and
progress through the
levels to gain
power and
influence!
With enough practice,
you too will be selling sand in the Sahara... :)
Purvis, I completely agree that
brands are marketed in the way that you describe, but I stand by my claims for particular
products and
services. I was inspired to write the WU above when I looked through a
mortgage leaflet at lunchtime, which even twisted the bad points so that they'd sound good to an uninformed observer.
Another good example is the website for my cable internet provider, which claimed that speeds were
...up to 20 times faster than a dial-up connection and then had a footnote to say "
at 28.8bps", which as far as I know,
nobody has been using for at least three years...
worldwide, again, I agree with you to an extent. Our Marketing Director would probably
shoot me if he read my writeup and there are, of course, two sides to every story.
However, I think what you've done there is,
you've given us the Marketing term for Marketing, thereby enhancing the validity of my own writeup. ;)
Let's convert your statement back from marketing-speak back to the facts, and add in the bits that were missed out: (This is not a personal attack!)
"Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumers' requirements profitably" should be "Marketing is the
thing responsible for identifying,
creating and satisfying consumers'
perceived desires profitably"