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Subject:Re: Marketing vs. Engineering From:Mona Albano <Mona -dot- Albano -at- PROMIS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 5 Mar 1997 14:21:15 -0600
Mike Wing <mjwing -at- INGR -dot- COM> said:
Most Marketing groups with whom I have associated like a lot of
graphics; lengthy, flowery introductory text; lists; and so forth. They
also like two manuals; a thin one that they could hand out at trade
shows and send as "freebies:, and a nice, thick, fluffy one they could
plop down on the customer's briefcase. They also like writers to
"sensationalize" what they write. How many more times do we have to use
trite phrases like "leading edge", "state-of-the-art", "top-down", "low
maintenance", and so forth. When left under too-much Marketing
influence, an exorbitant amount of time is spent on wording the
trademarks section, positioning graphics, and making sure the company
name appears 20 times per page (and bold face).
I was warned that manuals with even a little ["new, improved"] puffery
in the intro could be re-classified from technical to advertising, with
repercussions on tax write-offs and customs duties.
Any comments?
-- Mona Albano
mona -dot- albano -at- promis -dot- com
"Accordians don't play 'Lady of Spain.' People do."
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