Revealing Metaphors: Customers as Livestock
I've long been mildly annoyed when I hear businesses presenting themelves as "servicing" their customers rather than "serving" them. I never understood the change, with its implicit sexual metaphor, but presumed it was a matter of business leaders disliking seeing themselves as servile.
I've also noticed a repetitive strain of humour at my office, about "branding". The marketeers have been bringing this marketting concept to everyone else's attention quite obtrusively; engineers have been responding with jokes about cattle branding. (I've mostly just been annoyed that the marketroids think I need to learn significant aspects of their job, whereas they feel no need to gain clue one about engineering. Perhaps I should invite the whole company to my next technical workshop, just as they do with their "branding" workshops.)
This morning the penny dropped - to marketroids and executives, customers are cattle - something to be milked, or slaughtered, at least metaphorically. They aren't people - to negotiate with, or to attempt to create win-win solutions with. They are something to be acted upon, not someone to be convinced, served, or acted with.
I wonder if the marketroids and executives realize how revealing their metaphors are.
This entry was originally posted at http://arlie.dreamwidth.org/330404.html.
I've also noticed a repetitive strain of humour at my office, about "branding". The marketeers have been bringing this marketting concept to everyone else's attention quite obtrusively; engineers have been responding with jokes about cattle branding. (I've mostly just been annoyed that the marketroids think I need to learn significant aspects of their job, whereas they feel no need to gain clue one about engineering. Perhaps I should invite the whole company to my next technical workshop, just as they do with their "branding" workshops.)
This morning the penny dropped - to marketroids and executives, customers are cattle - something to be milked, or slaughtered, at least metaphorically. They aren't people - to negotiate with, or to attempt to create win-win solutions with. They are something to be acted upon, not someone to be convinced, served, or acted with.
I wonder if the marketroids and executives realize how revealing their metaphors are.
This entry was originally posted at http://arlie.dreamwidth.org/330404.html.