Ham-Handed Marketing Exhibit #128

It's not a gimmick. It's a feature. A good feature.

Every single time a resource from a standard collection is found in a base package, it is listed by the collection. Most of the time, more than one of the resources from a specific collection are in the base package. Listing things from collections helps facilitate easy volume identification, make it easier to compare base packages, and allow a reasonable standardization in the display of products. On the whole, it's quite helpful.

But if you expect marketing gimmicks, you will find them, whether or not they exist.

SineNomine said:

Every single time a resource from a standard collection is found in a base package, it is listed by the collection. Most of the time, more than one of the resources from a specific collection are in the base package. Listing things from collections helps facilitate easy volume identification, make it easier to compare base packages, and allow a reasonable standardization in the display of products. On the whole, it's quite helpful.

I agree with OP that the presentation in this case is poor. It is misleading, though I doubt this is intentional on Faithlifes part. I was also confused by this. I think it is due to higher level packages often containing more of the recourses. It generally makes a lot of sense on the comparison chart, but on the individual library page it is misleading. (For this individual resource it looks like starter through portofolio includes only one resource so it's not helpful at all.) In my opinion it would be better if they wrote "(1/18 vols)" or "1/18 resources of this collection are included." 17 out of 18 is not "some", it is "most" or, even better, "almost all".

James McAdams said:

I'll add my name to the list of people who like to know if the resource their buying is part of a collection. I really wouldn't want Faithlife to stop providing this information, and I think they present it clearly and honestly. I'm sorry but I just don't think you're right about this one.

I agree. There have been plenty of examples of ham-fisted marketing over the years, but this isn't one of them.

Robert M. Warren said:

What would be so onerous about just listing the one volume that is included, by itself?

A great question, and one I wondered the first time I saw this new way of listing things. Whatever Faithlife's intentions are, the "rhetorical" effect (if I may apply such thinking here) of scrolling through a long list and seeing "The Complete Works..." or "The Whole Works..." is to produce a reaction of excitement and eagerness to buy the package, since there is a "Complete" works listed. Of course, it is the same line that says, "Only some resources..." and there is an "Expand" to click, but this is extra work (if only a little) for the user, especially if one is primarily quickly scanning the left column to find out what's in it, and less concerned about the price of those individual resources (the column at right).

The same package you link to mentions "New Covenant Commentary (6 vols.)" and then turns out to only offer 1 volume. If they're going to do it this way, why not just say, "New Covenant Commentary" and avoid the potential for confusion? Or circumvent that split second (split seconds count in potential purchasing situations) where the user thinks the package might include a whole series/set?

But back to the OP: "What would be so onerous about just listing the one volume that is included, by itself?" Then the column at right could still list the larger set or series it's a part of, so the user could get the info that all the other posters on this thread want. That strikes me as more straightforward.

Johan Leirvik said:

While I do agree that OP used harder words than was warranted, I still think the presentation here is poor, and could be improved pretty easily. In general the left column presents the name of the resource and the right column presents "Value if sold separately". The partially included collections does not fit this picture since the left column presents something that is mainly not included and the right column has the disclaimer. 

When I first saw the page for Logos 7 Gold my thought was that the number in parenthesis was the number of resources from the collection that was actually included. When the expand button started working somewhat later I was very surprised to see that something that was presented as a collection only included one resource from the actual collection. I was still wondering if there could be anything wrong with the resources displayed since this was such a strange presentation of one resource. Many packages includes one resource from a collection and presents it as including "only some books" from a collection. This is not a wording any person would use and expect to get away with it. (If I owed you 149$ and told you I would give you back some of it and ended up giving you back 1$, I guess you'd rather I didn't. Standard gold includes "some of the" 149 Spurgeon collection which turns out to be one resource.) The expand button is right there, but you shouldn't have to press it to get an impression of what you are buying that isn't very misleading. As I wrote above this could be easily fixed by including the number in the disclaimer or in the name of the package. Now that this has been pointed out I can't see any reason not to change this apart from wanting to make packages seem better than they actually are.

It also seems that most of the packages presented in this manner are including less than half of the package, and in many cases only one resource.

Yep. Well said. Let us attend, Faithlife.

Anyone who feels compelled to say that "some" means one or more... is right, technically speaking. But in the current context, I doubt *one* available volume is what the user expects.