Thursday 1 December 2011

Customer feedback

We had a message from a customer who didnt understand our rolling bulletin so I'll likely change it. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to explain it though, to myself.


Thank you for your message.

The purpose of our rolling bulletin is to inform our customers of up and coming events at the winery and new product launch. There are occasions when no new event has been arranged or no new wine is imminent or event scheduled. We required a message that could act as a ready filler to replace promptly an out of date announcement.

We've always played fairly fast and loose with the English language and if you look through the Cairn O Mohr website you will probably see other examples of that. It's not so unusual to flash a poetic licence in the production of marketing material generally.

Navigating the legislation surrounding alcoholic marketing is tricky and the rolling message saying 'Drink Cairn O Mohr' on its own, may have appeared as an attempt at hypnotism, also the speed at which the message passes was redolent of the controversial subliminal advertising of a few years ago. This you may recall, was the practice of flashing up promotional messages on TV screens so quickly that it was considered that they had appeared below the level of human consciousness. The advertiser clearly felt that the ads would do there job nevertheless, however, the watchdogs deemed this method of promotion underhand and it came to and end (we think!)

The fact that you could clearly read my message to the point that you spotted my deliberate spelling mistake proves that it was not subliminal, however I liked the word subliminal and the word sublime that it subliminally contained, (in my world). ' Subliminal,' I hoped, also carried a healthy message that we should also aspire to drink wine to a point not intruding on human consciousness so as not to upset the BMA.

I might change it, though since you didnt get it.

I am aware of the limits of my literacy, I had to leave school in a hurry.

I've left you some mixed marks - ......,,,,,,,,,;;;;;;!

Kind Regards. and I hope you enjoy our wine.

Ron Gillies.

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