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It seems to me that much of this discussion, as Dick has pointed out, is speaking at cross purposes.
One reason, I believe, is that there is so much *bad* marcom pieces around...just as there are so many bad examples of documentation, for that matter!
However, on this list we are, for the most part, "preaching to the choir" regarding tech doc standards. However, it appears that many are basing their understanding of marcom best practices and quality on very poor examples.
Comparative information, it is true, is generally not applicable to tech docs. Benefits of particular features or procedures, however, are *not* inapplicable at all.
Consider the "extreme" example someone gave of "Make more sales!" Sounds like it has no place in documentation, right? But what if the product is, for example, a sales tracking system? Would it not be perfectly germane in such a product to say "Users find that they close a higher percentage of sales through the increased ease they have in tracking the entire inquiry process. For example, when you enter the follow-up dates..."?
The subhead for such a section might be, in fact, something like "Close more sales through better inquiry tracking"
Again, "...it all depends"--on the product, the audience, and the purpose of the piece.
However, I urge everyone to base their comments regarding marcom on the best examples and not the worst. That way, the conversation can be both professional and constructive. In the alternative, we might pick up any of the tens of thousands of bad documentation examples all around us to compare with the similar profusion of bad marcom instances.
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