Exclamatory Inflation

The phenomenon is long standing and pervasive. In retail, "Ours is the best in town!" may be the claim. In security? Look for service providers with names like Total Security or, as in other hackneyed hustling of hype, A1, First This, or Best That. If not in the name itself, the exaggeration may find its way into the slogan: When Only the Best is Good Enough. For slightly more subtle variants, look in brochures and proposals where the seller characterizes the offering as Best in Class or its employees as Top-Notch. Finally, to remove any doubt that over-promotion is in progress -- whatever the field or discipline -- count exclamation marks. A single exclamation point in an otherwise declarative statement of capabilities is the mark of the sales team starting to overtake operations. As exclamation points multiply, however, credibility diminishes. When every paragraph has a sentence ending with such punctuation, the literature has turned into more pitch than substance. When multiple exclamation points come in a row (!!!), there is no point in reading further to be informed. The only more certain sign of fluff and hype is the added annoyance of INSERTING CAPITAL LETTERS TO CALL ATTENTION WHERE THERE IS NO GRAMMATICAL REASON FOR DOING SO, as if screaming from the page.

In security, the principal value of all this exclamatory inflation comes from noticing its absence. Serious people doing serious business eschew the vulgar, the needlessly showy, and the kinds of exaggerations that create unreasonably high expectations which are impossible to satisfy absent some miracle. The genuinely capable providers of security products and services recognize their limitations and avoid generating misleading sales pitches or, worse still, misleading sales pitches in bold type with weasel-worded disclaimers in microscopic footnotes. In some parts of the security business, the net result has been a sober tuning down of rhetorical flourishes, which is why protective glazing is now called "bullet-resistant," but seldom any longer marketed as "bullet-proof."

The credible vendors and contractors of security wares make their marketing pitches more subtle. Thus an alarm contractor may emphasize 24-hour monitoring and armed dispatch, showing an advertisement which features a command center with sophisticated video displays and a large staff suitable for monitoring intercontinental missile launches. In reality, the operation may be run out of a leased basement with old telephones and last generation computer monitors, and the armed response consists not of a dispatched patrol of contract guards in an imposing vehicle with even more imposing firearms, as shown in the ad, but of a call to local police who show up when they can with whatever equipment they carry on duty. Similarly, otherwise reliable guard services showcase in their advertisements the kind of good looking, imposing officers who only look good in their uniforms because they are professional models, and whose apparent ability to respond to dangerous situations and to reassure worried clients never quite matches up to the illusion fostered by a glossy advertising campaign.

While the best firms will not overtly misrepresent their actual capabilities, they will airbrush blemishes and avoid circulating collateral marketing handouts that show real employees and equipment, warts and all -- no matter how competent they may be. Why? As Niccolo Machiavelli observed, people "judge more by the eye than the hand, for all men can see a thing, but few come close enough to touch it (1981, The Prince, translated by Daniel Donno, New York: Bantam Books, pp. 63-63).

What does all this mean for consumers of security goods and services? There are indeed times when less is more, and when it pays to remark what a provider is not saying, underscoring, or shouting via exclamatory inflation. The serious, credible offerors know what they can legitimately advertise and confine their sales hype to the milder illusions created by imagery -- not the exclamatory inflation of promises no one can ever keep. Watch for what they are not saying.

-- Nick Catrantzos