Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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If the Leader that came with last week's Cleanzine had you scratching your head in confusion, I'm not surprised! It's the one we ran in Cleanzine's sister publication, KBzine, the previous day! I hope it provided food for thought though... Here's the one you were meant to be reading:
Last week's Leader in which I discussed the benefits of our industry's awards programmes, prompted lots of phone calls and social media messaging! Many of you agree with my comments that often, the new products and technologies which most impress us haven't been entered into the awards programme at all - and this idea has led to a number of discussions about the way companies market themselves and their products, and the effects that 'doing it right' can have on success. One idea I rather liked, wasn't as a direct result of my Leader but instead came in the form of a LinkedIn challenge by Paul Castle, national sales director at NIC Services Group, who said:
"Right then... what do you want to see at the new cleaning show? (I've had my say on my disappointment of this year's offering). Let's start this off with a 'comparison lab' - a place like a 'robot wars' arena where suppliers can go head-to-head with their competitors in a judged setting (productivity, usability, standards etc) like a dance-off but for equipment! How many would actually stand by their kit against their rivals?"
I love Paul's idea but I'm wondering how easy it will be to get off the ground, with some companies afraid their boasts about their product being the best won't stand up to scrutiny, and others not having the resources to take part. As I said to him, so many press releases I receive claim to talk about the 'leading', 'groundbreaking', 'best-in-class', 'first-to-market' etc, so to have the opportunity to see similar products go head to head would be interesting, to say the least.
While training as a journalist, one of the things I learnt was never to repeat these claims verbatim, since it can get you into trouble if they are challenged by another manufacturer and your publication - because of advertising support and the like - is deemed to have a vested interest in supporting a false claim. I've seen journalists come unstuck where they've not adhered to this rule but still the press releases making these claims keep coming. I'd love to see similar products presented head-to-head, so we can judge for ourselves.
What do you think? Is this 'robot wars' arena-type exercise something in which you'd like to take part?
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Yours,
11th April 2019