Some think marketing is a dark art, in some cases it’s neither dark or an art, more just some vague stringing together of overused cliches in an attempt to tempt us to part with money. Even worse, it often undermines the real skill of marketing, which is to convey truthful information so that the customer can make informed choices.
We’ve all seen terms like ‘next-level’ or ‘game-changer’, anyone who uses those kind of phrases needs to get in the sea.
However, one marketing promise which you should avoid like the plague is “limitless possibilties.” Here’s why.
It’s Meaningless
A box of Cornflakes has limitless possibilties. You are never going to pour the same bowl of cereal twice, by nature of the fact that every item in the box is unique in shape. It’s also highly unlikely that unless you count them into the bowl you’re going to pour the same amount out twice. Do you use milk? What kind of milk? Cow’s, goat’s, ferret, coconut, oats? Cold or hot, perhaps yogurt or even neat. Just imagine all the different possibilities for eating those cornflakes… mind boggling. I’m tempted to go and get a box now just so I can start exploring.
But short of a mic cable, stand, or DI box, most audio gear with knobs and switches has limitless possibilities. Just imagine all the places you can set those dials! Let’s count them now shall we? No, I think I’ll go and do something useful instead.
It’s The Last Thing We Need
I’ve got Terabytes of sound libraries, I think I’ve listened to about 10% of it all IN A DECADE!
I simply don’t have the time to go wading through checking out presets, patches or loops. I wish I did, but I have deadlines and time costs money.
In a recent blog post Seth Godin put it like this:
“What other colors do you have that are not currently in stock?”
There are always more options.
If exploring them is the goal, please explore. And sometimes, the unavailable can lead to a breakthrough.
But if the job is to simply get the work done, it might be worth pretending that the unexplored options don’t even exist.”
I don’t even need to pretend, with a looming deadline, I head towards the things I know are going to deliver every time. In fact it’s the same with talent, I want session players who I know are going to nail it fast. There may be better players out there, but as Seth says, those options don’t exist.
Of course I want some flexibilty, but in many cases I want something like a Neve pre-amp to sound great the minute I plug in the mic. Set the gain and forget it. Hardware is less likely to offer limitless possibilities, thankfully, unless you’ve been seduced down the musical rabbit hole that is modular synth hardware.
Software, that’s a different thing, it seems to be the aim of some developers to cram in as many features, presets, and bloatware they can. This is in the hope that the more you offer, the more customers you will attract. It’s an understandable strategy, but I’m not sure it is for those who have limited time to get the job done, most professionals I know are time poor.
Just One Thing!
A year or so ago the Expert team were in town for a meeting. A local restaurant which had an excellent reputation spanning decades was under new ownership. We decided, with optimism, to check it out. When we arrived we were handed iPads for menus, we soon realised why. The menu ran over pages and pages, had it been in printed form it would have given a phone directory a run for the money. It had food from almost every region around the world, burgers, curries, steaks, French classics, ad infinitum.
Choosing the right meal for each of us was almost impossible. The food arrived and it was pretty average, which was to be expected. Perhaps not scientific, I have a principle when it comes to eating out, the bigger the menu then the worse the food. It stands to reason, it’s easier to do a few things well than trying to cover all the bases. I’m yet to have that theory proved wrong. In fact the best meals I’ve eaten were tasting menus when I didn’t even get a choice.
There’s something very attractive about something that does one thing really well; a Neve pre-amp, a great microphone, an EQ plugin, my Taylor acoustic guitar which I’ve owned for over 20 years. This is where something like EUCON can shine, when developers get the mapping right, then it’s great to have things in the same place every time without having to re-map the settings of every plugin - professionals don’t have time to do this. Give me a product that does one thing well any day of the week.
Anything offering me limitless options is going straight on my don’t buy list.
Am I mad? Isn’t it great to have limitless options? I’d love to have the time to dabble, it’s just not an option. If I’m in the middle of a job and need a plugin to solve a problem that I don’t already own, then I download it and if the demo doesn’t seem to solve my problem in about 15 minutes I move on.
99% of the time I need to get work done, hit deadlines, and make clients happy, exploring is a luxury. Limitless options are a nightmare. If you see an advert for a product that offers limitless options, my advice is to run as fast as you can.
Discuss.