Saab Gripen
The BILL 2 overfly top attack Anti-Tank Guided Weapon (ATGW).
Posted on 04/09/2012 11:14:06 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Saab to defence clients: 'See first - Kill first'
An aggressive marketing campaign from Swedish defence firm Saab is extolling the virtues of weapons that help users to ”see first – kill first” and can be adjusted to focus specifically on ”soft targets”.
At a weapons fair in Qatar in late March, the company informed potential buyers that its Gripen fighter planes guaranteed a high ”death ratio”, newspaper Expressen reports.
In its marketing materials, the firm also boasts that its Bill 2 anti-tank guided weapon contains a ”soft target mode” that can be used to hone in on civilian houses, cars, and groups of people.
Asked about the JAS 39 Gripen's ”See first – Kill first” slogan, Saab spokeswoman Marie Karlsson told Expressen:
”I actually don’t know what we were thinking when we used those words. I wasn’t involved in making that judgment or taking that decision,” she said.
Pressed further, she declined to criticize the company’s choice of wording.
”We are after all a defence and security company working with defence-related products. Like any other company, we make use of marketing messages.”
But Henrik Westander at PR agency Westander Publicitet & Påverkan lamented the fact that very little appeared to have changed in the defence industry in marketing terms over the last three decades.
”I remember how [Swedish defence firm] Bofors marketed an anti-aircraft gun in the United States in the 1980s using an image of a sharp-shooting cowboy drawing both his pistols at the same time.
"They wanted to give the impression that it was all a game, and it’s still like that now,” he told Expresssen.
Saab Gripen
The BILL 2 overfly top attack Anti-Tank Guided Weapon (ATGW).
“What can be seen, can be hit. What can be hit, can be killed”....from my old cavalry scout training. The language of political correctness is “killing” the colorfulness of the language. Nice slogan (may not be quite that original).
I find such truth in marketing refreshing, personally.
The disease of “PC Speech” has been around for along time. I liked it better when the Defense Department was called the War Department.
I think I saw this in an IKEA catalogue.
Do you remember what department? I need one or two things at the local store, and perhaps they have them on the shelf.
—I think I saw this in an IKEA catalogue.—
I was going to order one but their shipping costs are insane.
Not sure what department it was. I think it was somewhere between kitchen furniture and WMDs. If you have the catalog handy you’ll find it quickly.
They do that on purpose. They really prefer customer pickup, it's part of their business model.
That’s why I was going to pick mine up at the local store.
I figured. I read an article a while back on a couple fairly near a big city Ikea that takes orders for people and delivers for them. I don’t know if it paid off, though.
They don’t have to worry about returns of shipped goods. It simplifies everything.
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