Re: Redundancy...

[Shauna Jeanne Jones <shauna -at- ALOHA -dot- NET>]

From a marketing viewpoint, you want users to think the software enables
them to do things. That way, the user takes credit for the achievement for
which he or she might receive additional corporate favors such as raises and
promotions. "Our product is used to do" suggests that to us much more than
"Our product does".

FWIW, since when was the Marketing Dept concerned about anyone actually
*using* the product after it has been bought and paid for? <G>

At 10:47 PM 1/21/96 -0600, James M.Lockard wrote:
>Robert Plamondon writes:

>I don't think that I've ever seen first draft of a piece of marketing
>literature that didn't say "Our product is used to do something" instead
>of "Our product does something" in the first paragraph.

>I fear I may be stating the obvious, but there is another difference
>between those two phrases. "Our product does something," can be troublesome
>when the product is a tool. For example, I could say "Our product is used
>to produce spreadsheets," or "Our product produces spreadsheets." The first
>phrase suggests that the user produces spreadsheets using the product, but
>the latter suggests that the product itself produces them. I may be picking
>nits. I just have trouble saying that a software tool _does_ something when
>it's actually the software user who is doing.

>YMMV,
>James Lockard
>norton -at- mcs -dot- net

>"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant."
> -- Horton the Elephant