RE: Using Fictional Companies and Case Studies

["Darren Barefoot" <darren -at- capulet -dot- com>]

> Darren Barefoot wrote:
> 
> > 
> > We want to indicate that this is a fictional company, but 
> I'm unsure 
> > of the wording. This is what I currently have, which is pretty lame:
> > 
> > "Acme (a fictional company) sells large roadrunner-killing 
> anvils..."
> > 
> > Does anybody have a better suggestion? I should clarify 
> that I am not 
> > using the name Acme, as that's trademarked. Cheers. DB.
> > 
> 
> Darren,
> 
> The traditional way to handle this is to use _real_ data from 
> a _real_ 
> company and then disguise the name blatantly, as "the ABC Company 
> [fictional name]," where the bracketed phrase is included only on the 
> first use.
> 
> There doesn't seem to be much point to making up fictional data for a 
> fictional company. That doesn't really qualify as a case study.
> 
> Dick
> 

Thanks for that, but I disagree. I've spent plenty of time in marketing
departments, and often they're all about fiction. Vaporware, spin,
positioing--we have all of these terms in marketing because we
frequently trade in half-truths (at best).

The point of making up fictional data for a fictional company is the
same as when you've got real data related to real customers: to sell
products and services. The point of using a case study is to explain,
educate and sell by example. 

Yes, it's going to be more compelling with real data and a real company,
but, in my experience, that's not always possible. In my experience, 1
in 10 customers, if you're lucky, will agree to let you write about
them. So, even for sizable, successful organizations with lots of
customers, generating non-fictional case studies is difficult and
time-consuming. Cheers. DB.


Darren Barefoot
Words. Words. Words.
http://www.darrenbarefoot.com