Posted on 2011-03-23 14:51:34
It's a great idea for business owners to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Some dentists like to position themselves based on their specialties, such as "oral health expert," or "dental surgeon."
This week there was a funny example of a billion dollar company taking this too far at
this link.A publicist for WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly known as WWF), requested that TV Week remove references to "wrestling" from a press release about a WWE event. Kellie, the WWE representative, said that WWE is now a "global entertainment" company and not associated with wrestling. TV Week's Chuck Ross called her to iron out this misunderstanding. This is part of the conversation:
Chuck Ross: Your release says that Carey is being recognized as being an entrant in the 2001 Royal Rumble. I believe that was a wrestling event.
Kellie: No, we don't do wrestling events. They're entertainments. And we don't call them wrestlers. They're superstars and divas.
Chuck Ross: Kellie, I really don't have time for this. WWE presents wrestling events. I'm not going to change the headline or anything in the item. If you'd like, I'll just remove it. What do you want me to do?
Kellie: Remove it.We all can see the absurdity from taking your positioning to the extreme. No matter what you want to call yourself, it never makes sense to adamantly fight off traditional references.