Rather odd marketing...

[grommet]

Ha!

Well, yes, a chair is a thing you need, but you already have one so you don't need another, which exactly what this is advertising: another chair. I promise they will tell you everything you want to know about the chair, just not right now.

Why are you so upset about something that doesn't really exist and that you won't buy anyway? I mean, you might buy it, but not until your insurance comes back around in a few years. Until then, why does it matter if you don't know everything about it right now?

So what's the big deal? This is actually very good marketing. In what way is it disrespectful?

Brian you are wrong about a couple of things. I do need a new chair. Insurance doesn't pay for my Ti chairs, I am out of pocket.

What I find wrong about the ad campaign is, if there is something that could improve my life with a disability I think it's pretty awful for someone to tease about it. I haven't seen ads like this for a better needle for folks who need insulin, or the exciting improvements in cath products that might help with UTI and other complications. Hey let's have a fun teaser campain about stuff like that.

There's a great new vaccine coming that will help with your condition .. but we're not going to tell you yet, check out our exciting announcement in the Fall!

I can't live my life without a chair. It affects everything I do and when I moved up to Tilite and a chair that fit better than any before, my life changed, the improvement was huge. This stuff is too sensitive for me to want to be teased about what might be coming to make my life better. I can live without a cool leather jacket. Wheelchairs own my ass, no pun intended.

I think it's disrespectful because they seem to be getting excited and marketing something with a teaser campaign that I need to live. Tell me what it is, what it does and when it's available. I'll see if it's something that will work for me.

[elarson]

I don't think some of us are being too sensitive, but some of us may also be in decision making situations. For example, when I saw ""Put power to the ground" I thought, hummm, is TiLite coming out with their own power add-on? Probably it is just wishful thinking, but we still have not solved our problem for this and are waiting for the ZX1 power add-on, which we hope will come some day soon.

Although I feel for companies like Spinergy having their plans for the ZX1 power add-on broadcast on CareCure when they don't even have FAD approval, and people like me pestering them about when it will be available, some of us have time frames that we must purchase within or we lose our funding.

In the case of the ZX1, I also think Spinergy picked up some useful marketing and engineering information on their way to productizing it from these forums. In our situation, we have not yet found anything that might work for the situation, so having a bit of information about what the product is from TiLite might go a long way.

I don't think a teaser is bad full stop, but a bit of information about what and when more information will be available would be helpful for some of us battling budget deadlines.

[brian]

Woah, man. Okay. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.


Tilite is clearly not ready to release information about the product. So would you prefer that they not say anything at all until this new chair is actually on sale? I'd rather know something than nothing.

[nonoise]

I don't think some of us are being too sensitive, but some of us may also be in decision making situations. For example, when I saw ""Put power to the ground" I thought, hummm, is TiLite coming out with their own power add-on?....

I thought the same thing. Power to me in this industry means power add on. But then my arms look more like Olive Oils than Popeye's.

[t8burst]

Woah, man. Okay. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.


Tilite is clearly not ready to release information about the product. So would you prefer that they not say anything at all until this new chair is actually on sale? I'd rather know something than nothing.

From the reactions of some people hopefully it will be a nice hook to hang their purse.

[Axle]

I think it would be bad judgement if they were teasing people with a medical necessity. But I think it would be good buzz if they are advertising beyond that.

[WC_Sage]

There is a relevant comment on this topic in this Care Cure topic.

[My395]

I think it would be bad judgement if they were teasing people with a medical necessity. But I think it would be good buzz if they are advertising beyond that.

It is not a teaser for a cure to spinal cord injury. It is a teaser for a new wheelchair model.

Like it or not, there is competition between medical product makers. They advertise to make their product look better than the competition.

[SCI_OTR]

It is not a teaser for a cure to spinal cord injury. It is a teaser for a new wheelchair model.

Like it or not, there is competition between medical product makers. They advertise to make their product look better than the competition.

Should anyone have doubts about the intent, one need look no further than the url of the image:

http://i2.createsend1.com/ei/y/A3/CF8/68E/082539/images/tease.jpg

My395 is absolutely correct.

There is significant competition in the aluminum ultralight rigid frame market, and everyone will be introducing their latest products at the International Seating Symposium next month. They are marketing not only to end users, but also to seating clinicians and DME's--and it's a global market at that.

I hate to break the news to some of you, but if you have been visiting this forum regularly, you qualify as a custom manual wheelchair enthusiast. Don't be offended if a manufacturer is trying get your attention.

[Random]

Like I said in the other thread, or tried to: I'm offended about their wasting my time and playing games with something that could be very important to me, might really affect significant purchase plans and the quality of my life. If I should hold off on a planned purchase because something better is coming along, I want to know that, in definitive terms. I have much more important things to think about than what some coy marketer is saying with glib self-indulgence. Be slick with your beer commercials, but not such a necessity. Don't usurp my attention and then just frustrate it.

Of course, I'm still paying for my power chair, am very happy that it lets me stand, and have no personal stake in this. But I still think it's disrespectful and offensive.

[SCI_OTR]

Remember, this is the most recent Eye on Ti newsletter which is directed toward TiLite's end users, seating clinicians, ATP's, and dealers. It is targeted marketing that happened to be posted on CareCure. Since it won't be introduced until ISS at the beginning of March, the alternative would be to hear nothing until then.

[Brianm]

I am not offended in the least, I just found it a bit of odd marketing being as vague as it is, but as I said earlier, we are discussing it so as odd as it seems to me, the marketing is working. The style of marketing isn't unique, maybe just new to this market.

[SCIfor55+yrs.]

All you need to do is look at the free publicity you have gotten them here and you can understand why they use the technique.

[Brianm]

Yes, they knew I'd post it and it has all been so positive.

[stephen212]

Picture of the chair aside, the copy "Put Power to the Ground" strongly suggests a motorized device which they hope will compete with similar products that have recently entered the market (e.g., SmartDrive). TiLite's announcement (it's not even an ad) is intended for an audience made up of both potential customers as well as present and future competitors. Obviously the product is not ready yet, so one objective of the announcement is to reach TiLite customers who may be on the verge of making a purchase for such a device is to hold off for the time being.

Some of the regulars around here will remember the Top End box frame chair designed by Paul "Ocuupied Frame Length" Schulte, which they announced would be on the market late in 2011. For any number of reasons the project was scrubbed. Was Top End similarly in violation of some perceived ethical breach because they trumpeted the arrival of a product that never saw the light of day? They even enlisted their Facebook and Twitter followers to help come up with a name for the chair.

These are for-profit companies in competition with other for-profit companies who happen to make products that we need. They have marketing and advertising departments just like other for-profit companies. I'm not convinced that they must be held to some imagined haloed standard. I don't see any breach of ethics or good faith in a "coming soon" announcement.