I’m not usually one to point out spelling mistakes (glass houses and all) but this sign was pointed out to me by my lovely wife during a quick stop in Peoria the other day to see my son perform in the All-State Honors Band and I figured I would share.
Even in today’s wonderful world of spell check, misspelled or misused words are all around us. I usually gloss over it. Poorly executed marketing is a depressing thing to see.
But here we have the former offices of a Private Detective Agency. The sign had been there a very long time. Covered most of their window.
And the question that comes to mind is what the heck are they going to be able to find if they never noticed the missing ‘E’ and ‘L’ on their own sign.
Poor marketing execution often indicates other details are being missed as well.
Fred, Perhaps the firm engages in a particularly vile form of surveillance. Let’s consider all possibilities!
.-= Brad Shorr´s last blog ..Design Flaws =-.
I feel the same way about people (especially younger people) who use incorrect grammar as in Me and her are going to the store. While there is much more to a person than first impressions, the first impression can stop people looking more deeply.
.-= kay plantes´s last blog ..Market disruptions demand business model innovation =-.
Not sure I would have spotted THAT mistake, but I did spot it because you put the picture up (without reading what the mistake was, first). “That word” is not a word I myself can spell very good but I did notice at least one letter missing from the Detective version 🙂
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Friday Flick Find: The Beer-Launching Refrigerator =-.
Ha!
Very true and difficult for many to understand. I’m always interested in how cultural or age differences can create incorrect impressions. It’s often tough for a teen to understand that what works well with their peers can be devastating among a different age group.
I’m not sure I would have noticed it either. Thank goodness for the wonderful spellers among us. 🙂
I watned to brnig up the ponit that with more-and-more comminucation happineng over miblie diveces and the prolifaretion of on-the-go content craetion tools like twettir, poeple have boceme more forgiving of spilleng mistakes; Espcailly on the newer media.
That said- Even I would condescend on billbaord spelling mistakes.
(p.s. all the spelling mistakes above, were intended. Your reading though to the end proves the point that people are more forgiving in newer media!)
Absolutely. There’s a fun T-shirt out there that makes the point as well. We tend to read in chunks – the first and last letters filled in by the shape of the internal letters to give us meaning of the word.
Which is a lucky thing given the keyboards we are all being asked to type on. Thanks for stopping by Gagan.
I love these examples. One that stares me in the face every time I play squash is.” Broken racket wall. (Hang your broken racket here.) Who’s racket is next?”
.-= Paul C´s last blog ..Got to Love Heinz Ketchup =-.
Broken Racket, hmmm, Is that what you have after the cops raid your joint?
Right….fun without the exercise.
.-= Paul C´s last blog ..Got to Love Heinz Ketchup =-.
Great observation, certainly we are forgiving of spelling errors in some cases. However in the case of a sign like this or ‘selling’ oneself on social media – ‘it’s in the details’ as you say.
I release more spelling mistakes than I care to admit, they are usually of the ‘rushed/careless’ kind – always makes me want a do over 🙂
Nice post Fred, should read you more often 🙂
I guess it would be worse to have a phone number that’s off by a digit, but it’s still pretty bad.
I noticed you said “former” so I think we see why.
.-= J.D. Meier´s last blog ..Top 10 Lessons Learned in Spirituality =-.
I do as well. Luckily I’ve got folks watching out for me (or who like to catch me in an error) so things get cleaned up over time. Thanks for coming by and thank you for the complement. I really appreciate it.
I’ve heard the Yellow Pages made that mistake on more than one occasion. Very painful indeed.
Fred,
Sure there might be some truth to the saying about not judging a book by its cover.
But there is also a great deal of truth to the saying ‘fine feathers, fine birds,’ and generally speaking, firms which get the details right in their marketing communications can usually be counted on to get the details right in other, more important areas like delivering a high standard of service on a consistent basis. Vice versa for firms which fail in this area, and if I were a prospective client, I would be seriously concerned about what other details this firm was going to overlook.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..Cause relating marketing – Why Pepsi’s approach is so good =-.