An effective weapon in the war on .. in the bringing of Clarion to the Masses ™, will (and is) that of Propaganda.
Now, there are two types of Propaganda. Good and Bad. Both have effective parts to play, although they carry with them consequences.
Bad Propaganda is all about bringing down the competition, so that no matter what height Clarion has, it’s the only thing to see for miles.
Good Propaganda is all about raising Clarion (in this case) so high above the competition that it reaches across the horizon and grabs your attention like the real Galactus from Fantastic Four (not the stupid cloud from the movie).
Good uses of Bad Propaganda are:
- At least our Product doesn’t Melt Your Servers
- The Only Blue Screens In Our Product Are Pictures Of Sky
- We Don’t Say Silly Things Like "Do No Evil"
- If You Use Anyone Else’s Product, Your Computer Will Laugh At You
Bad Uses of Good Propaganda are:
- Our Product Might Work For You
- We Don’t Solve Problems, We Hire More Programmers
- The Marketing Department Makes The Rules
Ideally, you want Good Propaganda.
Why?
Because it means that your product actually has some merit. Bad Propaganda means you’re really good at making people think the opposition suck, and deflecting attention on the flaws of your own system/product/whatever. Good Propaganda means (hopefully) that your offering is a class act, and the opposition cannot hope to compete, and that it’s flaws are minimal, very minimal.
How does that translate with Clarion? In reality, I think you’d need a mixture of both.
Good Propaganda to really fire up about the wonderful things Clarion can do for you.
Bad Propaganda to point out just how sucky (in relation to the cool stuff) the competition is.
Of course, there is a third form of Propaganda which isn’t really. But it must be included.
Because, as astute readers will have concluded already, the above two Propaganda’s are not enough.
The Third Propaganda, is Honest Propaganda.
It’s agreeing with an assessment of the flaws of your offering. While doing this, you can be swinging into gear some Good and Bad, ready to fire it away. But honesty of the flaws will always combat dishonesty. In my world at least. Which is relatively small granted. Ha.
So maybe I’ll have a different attitude when running a multi-zillion dollar company.
I hope this has given even one person a little zing for evangelising Clarion.