Displaysense reports retailers are paying the price for poor education

Released on: July 3, 2008, 3:40 am

Press Release Author: Displaysense

Industry: Retail

Press Release Summary: Displaysense highlight that poor standards of education are affecting online retail in more ways than one, with suppliers having to spend over 25 percent of their online advertising budget to make up for bad spelling

Press Release Body: Displaysense, the UK’s leading supplier of retail displays has been surprised by the growing trend of misspelling from customer searches for products online. The biggest culprit out of the companies’ product range is the term mannequin that has been hit hard by poor spelling and even pronunciation. Examples such as manakin and manikin have been used on a number of occasions during customer searches and are starting to become an industry norm as they are wrongly spelt on a daily basis.

Displaysense has had to spend over 25% of their search marketing advertising budget on the misspellings of the term mannequin due to the failings of users not being able to spell correctly. Not only are terms such as manakin being used during online searches, but other words that are common within the online retail industry are getting a bad rap. For example words such as Perspex and slatwall are commonly misspelled with different variations including Perspix, Perspecks, slattwall, slutwall and slats wall.

Displaysense see the funny side to all of this and have compiled their Top 5 list of badly spelt or miss-keyed terms used by customers when visiting and searching their site:

1) ”Leaflet bolder” - probably meant – “Leaflet holder”
2) ”Poster tits” - probably meant – “Poster kits”
3) “Tired stands” - probably meant - “Tiered stands”
4) “Blue Slutwall insert” - probably meant - “Blue Slatwall Insert”
5) “Budgey Clothes Rail” - probably meant –”Budget Clothes Rail”

Though humorous, it’s no laughing matter that companies such as Displaysense have to pay-up for the gap in the nation’s education. Given the extreme extent of some of these misspellings, the company are seriously considering changing the names of their products in order to combat these badly spelt terms.

Steve Whittle, Marketing Manager of Displaysense stated, “We are not alone in this matter. The whole online industry has had to adapt to include search terms such as manikin in our advertising campaigns and accept that we have to pay for customers who don’t know the correct spellings or who accidentally type in the wrong letters.”

The reason for the failings could be down to the over reliance society now has with technology, with word processing tools highlighting spelling errors or second guessing grammatical mistakes. Or it could be down to the unavoidable fact that over 50% of children do not attain basic levels in English before they leave school. Steve Whittle feels that this situation is often also not helped by the media, as highlighted by the high profile TV programme, The Apprentice, selecting Lee McQueen to be the winner, even though he made multiple spelling mistakes & typos in his application for the role. Not exactly a glowing endorsement for the next up & coming high flyers of Industry.

About Displaysense
Displaysense was established in September of 1978 as a manufacturer of quality point of sale displays. Displaysense has a wealth of experience in design and manufacturing and has been able to develop an ever growing standard range of over 1500 displays. The range is now hugely diverse including acrylic containers, display cabinets, mannequins, modular shelving units, exhibition displays and business card holders.

Displaysense works with a large range of clients including, retailers (multiple and independent), blue chip corporate clients, cafés, bars, restaurants and night clubs, shop and office fitters, marketing and promotions companies, designers and architects, product distributors, exhibition contractors and exhibitors, printers, councils and NHS trusts, charities, schools and universities.

Web Site: http://www.displaysense.co.uk/

Contact Details: Displaysense PR contact:
Steve Whittle
Marketing Manager
Displaysense
Rye Street
Bishop's Stortford
Hertfordshire
CM23 2HG
UK
0845 2008139
www.displaysense.co.uk