A lot of people ask me if I’ve ever written a bad review, or rather, wrote a review about a gadget in a deprecating manner. I’ve always said that while I’ve encountered many products that I felt were lemons (and not just as a matter of taste. They actually were really badly designed.), there are many ways to go around having to do so.
First of all, let me explain why a ‘bad review’ doesn’t make sense, nor does anyone any good. Editors and publishers alike will agree, there are so many products out there that deserve a good article written about them. In the tech world itself, there are literally hundreds of products worth looking at. Assuming a tech writer would want to stick to your area of preference, such as, say, digital cameras, you’d still have enough material to keep you busy for months on end. Why then, would you concentrate on writing a whole article to give a particular product a bad rep?
Another reason is that editors and advertisers, whilst an unholy partnership in the public’s eyes, is actually a very effective working relationship that works for both ends quite well. First of all, the press needs something to write about. It’s their job after all, and more often than not, it’s the hot products that the public wants to see and read. The press therefore needs to cooperate with manufacturers and PR people to get their grubby hands on them so they can write informative copy for their publications. Going out of your way to declare an item as worthless is uncalled for and out of place. Only a few people such as Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson has the wherewithal and gumption to go around screaming how terrible he thinks a product is, and even then you’d see it’s mostly for entertainment’s sake and is in the context of a larger scope.
Manufacturers and their PR companies hold event after million peso event promoting these things (which is actually just a pittance compared to their overall marketing budget and what they hope to earn from sales later on). This is all well and good, although many times in the midst of these things I’ve felt that the only important thing for writers such as myself is that I get a good look at it, learn as much as I can, then go home and write my review. That’s why I appreciate the PR events that are quick and painless. A quick lunch, a presentation or two, hi-res pics and all the info you need in a CD, then off you go.
At any rate, here are a few things I do to keep from having to write a bad review:
- I write about the whole lineup. If a particular product doesn’t really strike me as special – or worse, just plain sucks, I instead write about the whole model lineup. I’ve done this many many times, and it always works out well. In it, I get to mention a line or two about how that particular model failed me, but I also get to talk about the ones I like. Mission accomplished.
- I ask for a replacement. I’ve returned two or three items I felt just didn’t cut it for me, explaining my reservations. Sometimes I ask for another item altogether which I like better. No biggie, they usually just replace it asap.
- I ask for a particular product, usually the highest – end, or something which really stands out. I take a long time reading the Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Mac and others brochures as part of my job, and usually one of their models really stands out. If and when they come calling, I’d then know which one to borrow as I’d already know how to write about them.
Obviously, all of these require that you cooperate with the PR or manufacturer who lends you these things and informs you about them properly, and that’s where the alliance I talked about above works out. It’s silly to say that we shouldn’t work together when if it weren’t for that arrangement, plus a great deal of common sense, sobriety and propriety between both the PR and press, the result is good, informative copy for the public.
Of course, there are lots of people from both media and PR who don’t exercise that logic, but that’s they’re problem not mine.
I’ll talk about ReviewMe and blogging in my next post.