When it comes to technical specs, lying is impossible. That's why marketing tends to use vague phrases such as "enhancing your bottom line".
Marketing wants to know how you feel. How does space travel feel to you? What kind of emotion does it evoke? When we know that, then we create images that evoke that emotion. I still get choked up when I see a shuttle launch, even if it is the 50th one I've seen. So marketing folks take that image of the shuttle launch and put it on mugs, t-shirt, and posters. People buy those items because the image reminds them of the feelings they have for space. I know this is entering "touchy-feely" territory, but I thought you might find it interesting. Sanrio makes mucho dinero on images of "Hello Kitty." It's just a frigging picture of a cartoon kitty! But they make thousands of items with that picture on it, and it sells, sells, sells. Imagine a space image that could do so well? Hubble images do very well; as do the space shuttle. But here we are marketing the images of space travel. How can we market the future? Rich is doing an awesome job with getting XCOR on TV, at air shows and on Time Magazine. But how does he get investors? How does he get customers? That is the trick, which I am sure he working hard to achieve. Imagine ERPS getting into marketing educational products. You could sell CD-ROMS that teach rocket science to elementary school kids. You could partner with Estes to package a small mosquito-class rocket with the CD-ROM. Include lots of cool pictures of the ERPS rocket in action. Show cutaway photos of the engine, have MPEG movies of launches and test firings. Imagine getting these CD-ROMS on the shelves of the Discovery store, museums, science centers? Imagine an ERPS representative doing live rocket demonstrations at schools? I could go on and on. To do all this you would need a marketing team almost as big as the engineering team. What is the benefit of all this? Credibility. Public recognition. Cash inflows. Publicity. "If you build it, they will come" is one thing. But "If you build it and promote the heck out of it" is another thing entirely. Whew. Gotta go back to work. Sam :-) On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 11:30:03 -0800 Aleta Jackson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > I never said lie. That hurts any company. > Enron and Anderson learned it the > > hard way. > > You said "Exaggerating the truth as much as > possible." To me, that > means "lie." Truth is an absolute; something > either is or is not. Either > our engines develop 400 lbs of thrust or they > don't. > > However, I thought you were talking about space > hardware; you were > talking about software, so I misunderstood: my > mistake and I apologize. > Certainly other industries have different ways > of going about their > business, but in rocketry one does not > exaggerate. One might end up dead > as a result. > > Aleta > _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
