Open AccessCaptivating titles and award‐winning labels to promote premium products of microbiology
Author(s) -
Haas Dieter
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
fems microbiology reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.91
H-Index - 212
eISSN - 1574-6976
pISSN - 0168-6445
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2012.00326.x
Subject(s) - wine , medal , gold medal , mistake , bottle , advertising , product (mathematics) , art , art history , business , visual arts , engineering , law , political science , mathematics , mechanical engineering , geometry
A bottle of white wine attracted my attention at a supermarket a while ago. The bottle had an appealing label depicting a bucolic scene and was decorated with a conspicuous gold medal. I bought this wine. When I tasted it at home, I was quite pleased with the quality of the product – but did it really merit a gold medal? I was astonished. A closer look at the medal then revealed its true meaning: the prize had been awarded for the most original label at a recent wine fair. Obviously, the wine grower's marketing strategy worked, selling a microbiological product in a highly competitive market. As a customer, I was slightly irritated as I realized that I should have paid more attention to the contents of the bottle, rather than to the gold medal.Trained to observe and assess the true nature of things, scientists would not make this kind of mistake in their …