I’ve just spotted the most terrible promise in a shop window and wonder if you can beat it…
In the Money Diet, I write through a large explanation of what different shop slogans actually mean, but the following really is absolutely meaningless…
“Always up to 60% less”
Lets just examine the words:
- 60% less than what? A discount of 60% is a good one, but here it doesn’t actually state what the discount is off. This isn’t a sale – it’s not a reduction in price. Regular shoppers will get the message that this is off the list price, but the lack of specification or small print means actually it’s pretty irrelevant.
- It’s an ‘up to’? Yet this isn’t even a discount of 60%, it’s got the killer “up to” in front of it, so the discount is anything from 0% to 60%; in other words it means nothing. While I’m not suggesting TK Maxx does this… if you had 3,999 goods at full price and 1 at 60% off, this slogan would still fit.
- What on earth does ‘always’ mean? The real doozy here is the use of the word ‘always’. It is a completely flaccid phrase that adds nothing and doesn’t change the meaning a jot. To say ‘always up to’ is an oxymoron, it simpy doesn’t make sense. Of course the marketers intent to impart the feeling of consistent discounting – but it doesn’t really mean it.
Don’t get me wrong, actually TK Maxx is a good shop for those who want cut cost branded goods, and I know many MoneySavers like it. Yet as a phrase, awful!
Spotted any worse?