Legal Commentary

"Dedicated to providing thoughtful answers."

By Patrick J. Lamb

Marketing, to be effective, needs to (1) have a point and (2) not insult the listener or viewer.  These things seem to be Marketing 101.  So here I am this morning, driving along listening to NPR.  The announcer reads the piece that programming is brought to you by "[insert name of large national accounting firm] where we are dedicated to providing our clients with thoughtful answers." 

Now I am not a marketing expert, but doesn't it seem like a client should be able to assume that it's highly paid national accounting firm will provide thoughtful answers?  Or is there some large cadre of accounting firms that provides thoughtless answers? 

I was going to say that my conclusion is that marketing statements that are obvious insights into the obvious are a colossal waste of money, but that would make me guilty of that which I criticize (although at least this is free!).  So let me leave with this:   there needs to be a quality control element to everything a firm does to present itself to the public, if only to avoid certain ridicule for things like "thoughtful answers." 

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on June 24, 2009 (boomark / email).