Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Is there a solution to solutions?

The trend of companies using the word 'solutions' instead of telling people what they're actually selling does annoy me.

There's an example in Dubai Marina:



Middle East yacht solution?

Solution for what?

Having a solution means there was a problem. So what's the problem they've solved?

And what are they selling? Yachts? Finance for those of us who can't afford a yacht? Are they boat chandlers? Do they repair damaged boats? Do they sell insurance for yachts? Do they provide crew? Berthing? Painting?

Not good marketing is it, avoiding telling people what it is you want them to buy from you.

There was another classic in a press release I read in Gulf News the other day.

In just five sentences they managed to get 'solution' in four times:

etisalat...has developed an innovative solution...first of its kind solution in the world...The solution...a pioneer in launching customer centric solutions.

What was the problem for which they've found a solution?

Apparently mobile broadband subscribers had a problem watching multiple TV channels on their laptops while browsing the internet.

Eh?

The full five sentences are here.


And just as an aside - instead of offering me multiple TV channels plus websites to clutter up my screen, I'd like the customer centric Etisalat to come up with a solution to the basic speed. Or more accurately, lack of speed.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The awful thing is that there's a lot of people in the Emirates who think that Gulfnews is a newspaper!
It must be called The Dubai zine!

Anonymous said...

GulfNews and Etisalat are aeroplane toy companies: they dream to fly around the world but they'll never get out of the garden (the desert, sorry)!

Dave said...

Have a look at their web-site. It gets even more confusing as to what they actually do...

rosh said...

haha!

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