Mike Johnston wrote: > Worst current marketing slogan in the USA: > > "We Are Professional Grade." --GMC trucks. > > For those who don't know, the marketing copy is often written by > people who > are not quite in the know as regards photo equipment--PR firms or > advertising agencies. > > My favorite example of this is that my advertising manager at the magazine > once called Ilford's advertising agency to alert them that we were doing a > photo paper guide in an upcoming issue. The account manager said to him, > very dryly, "Now why would my client be interested in that?" He > came to me, > and I explained to him that Ilford makes a lot of photo paper, > and he called > the advertising account manager and, in turn, explained to her everything > I'd told him (wonder how much got lost in the translation <g>). She'd been > put on the account to sell Ilford film, and had no idea they also > made photo > paper. In fact, she didn't know what photo paper was. > > Consumers always put way too much stock in these marketing > descriptions, as > if they came from the uppermost reaches of the parent company and > each word > were weighed carefully. Actually the opposite is more often the case--it's > generic sales-speak cobbled together by some junior drudge at a publicity > firm somewhere. I'm not saying that's always the case, but > sometimes it can > be. > > Personally, I usually just ignore all the marketing-speak. It's just white > noise.
Thanks for that Mike. That the experts can create an excellent product, and the advertising and PR people can cheerful then reduce the markets appetite for the product, is real self destruction. Malcolm
