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Simple mistakes can ruin your business credibility

How simple mistakes can ruin your business credibility
How simple mistakes can ruin your business credibility

How simple mistakes can ruin your business credibility
The well-known American author Mark Twain wrote, “Anyone who can think of only one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.”
 
That may be so and, if you’re writing fiction, certain misspellings and poorly formed sentences may add authenticity to dialogue.
 
But for a business that claims to offer a ‘professional PowerPoint template’ glaring mistakes immediately suggest you’re not as professional as you claim. How simple mistakes can ruin your business credibility

Six words, two errors – simple mistakes

Look at the two inaccuracies in this picture and how they affect the advertiser’s credibility.
 
The most obvious error is the misspelling of ‘business’.

This advertisement is aimed at business people, the company itself is a business so you might think they would be familiar with the word.

Let’s assume they are. In that case, it’s not only a spelling mistake, but an example of poor quality control too. It’s an unforgivable blunder that speaks volumes about the advertiser’s lack of care.

The devil is in the details

This means that small errors can lead to the overall failure of a plan. Look closely at this advertisement by self-proclaimed experts in professional presentations. They have described their product as ‘powerpoint templates’.
 
As a registered brand owned by the Microsoft Corporation, the correct form is PowerPoint.

Again, if this company is an accredited supplier of templates for this purpose, it’s unthinkable that they wouldn’t know that this is an incredibly valuable trademark and that an important part of a trademark’s protection is consistency in the way it is styled and spelled.

No doubt an eagle-eyed Microsoft executive has already had a word in the appropriate ear and the mistake won’t be repeated.

What conclusions should we draw?

To be fair, it’s likely that the advertiser is not experienced in graphic design. Their advertisement appears to have been patched together from an online catalogue of standard design elements and crams far too much information into a confined space – a basic error that professional PowerPoint presentations should strenuously avoid.

  • Our first response is to ask if the company is genuine. If it is, how can they fail to spell ‘business’ correctly and why did they fail to respect PowerPoint’s brand status?
  • If the fault lies with whoever was tasked with checking the content of this advertisement, they are certainly not qualified to do so based on this evidence.
  • A brief Google search brings up several listings for this product but no website for the advertiser. This adds further to the concern that they may not be a genuine commercial outfit.
  • If they are a real business, perhaps whoever produced this work is someone posing as them.
  • The chances are they might not have First World experience in business communications and they’re attempting to make their way in a strange and competitive world.

Given these questions and doubts, how likely would you be to pay them for giving you access to their templates?


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