RE: [CR]Re: Marketing Terms

(Example: Framebuilders:Doug Fattic)

From: "Dennis Ryan" <angroch@insightbb.com>
To: <REClassicBikes@aol.com>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: RE: [CR]Re: Marketing Terms
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 17:27:41 -0400
In-Reply-To: <86.c97daa2.2de24a6f@aol.com>


-What is the difference between a marketing term and a "term".

A word like "Diadrant" or "Cantiflex" is made up to suit the user's needs, and can mean whatever he or she wants it to. A word like "bilaminate" has an existence outside of cycling. No value judgment implied in either case, but the "burden of proof" is obviously lower for a marketing term than a scientific one. I certainly didn't mean to imply that marketing terms are "inferior" in any way, and certainly not in the case of terms like "Diadrant" or "Cantiflex," which, if not "Xerox" or "Kleenex," are sure good enough for our uses. There's a difference, though, when you use a term you didn't make up. If you say your product is "annealed" or "galvanized," it's understood what you mean, but if you say it's "hydramatic," what is that? Whatever you want it to be.

I just wondered if anyone knew what the people who originally applied "bilaminate" to lugs had in mind at the time, that's all. I DID say I'd been at the fringes of this one, and I think I'd have been wiser to have stayed there. ;-)

Dennis Ryan Louisville, KY

-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of REClassicBikes@aol.com Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 2:42 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Re: Marketing Terms

Hi all

Dennis Ryan suggests that some terms used by manufacturers are "just" marketing terms. What is the difference between a marketing term and a "term".

Dennis quotes the Bates term "Cantiflex" as a marketing term, yet it was a word coined to describe a unique shape of tube used in a cycle frame. It must have been unique as it was awarded a "patent" to protect the originality of it design. So the tubes have to be called some thing. Do you use a description as per "a tube varrying in diameter along its axis" or do you use a simpler term? If you use a term, is that a "term" or a "marketing term"?

(nearly finished selling my sole, so I can return to bicycles soon).

Regards
Martin Coopland, Scotland, http://www.BatesBicycles.com