Not A Turnkey Operation

I'm not an expert on the vagaries of retail sales, but it seems like a lot of retailers inadvertantly communicate the wrong message to the potential customer. For instance, there's a series of ads running on tv right now that describe a product as "a turnkey operation". I know what turnkey is supposed to mean but what I think when I hear that something is a "turnkey product or operation" I think -- "pyramid scheme with little or no chance of actually turning a profit" or "they force you to buy much more than you really need to operate a business" or, more bluntly, "Rip-Off!".

There are other examples too...

Recently a commercial came on television as I was watching tv with my daughter. It was for a knife that helps you to slice tomatoes, among other things. It looked okay but then the commercial started going into all the additional things you get when you purchase the knife. There was a host of additional things included and then there was the kicker. "All this would normally cost only $xxx but we're offering it to you at the low, low price of $19.95" My daughter immediately piped up, "They're giving you all that stuff because their knife is a piece of junk!".

Why do these places feel like they need to include so much additional stuff? Apparently they think the customer is too stupid to figure out that their product is really an overpriced piece of junk. (Disclaimer: If you're from the knife company please feel free not to sue me! I didn't mention the name of your product and for all I know your knife is worth every cent you charge. Oh, and the extra recipe book you throw in with it is probably worth every dime too.)

Then there's the classic example; the used car dealer. One local dealer was having a special sale as, "part of a special test marketing study to see how low their cars would sell". Yeah right. I think what they're really telling me is that they're dishonest and will use any trick in the book to convince me to buy their cars. No thanks.

On second thought, maybe it's good that retailers don't realize the hidden messages they're sending us.