For my rhetorical analysis, I’ve chosen to build a product website for Publishr, a hypothetical blogging service targeted at designers. For the past week or so, I’ve been in an accelerated version of the “product development” phase, where I’m actually planning and designing the Publishr service as if it were going to be an actual product. This phase involves a number of things, like defining Publishr’s target market, brainstorming names and branding and writing copy. Perhaps most importantly, I’ve thought a lot about how Publishr could distinguish itself from the wealth of similar services already offered like Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad and Tumblr. (As a side note, Tumblr itself actually served as the primary inspiration for my fake product, since it also positions itself as a better alternative to Blogger and the others, and as a blogging service for creative people.) Starting from this early point in the process is a great way to consider every opportunity I have to build the verbal and visual rhetoric that will (hopefully) drive visitors to sign up for the service.
I’ve started designing and building the site itself, and my next step will be to analyze my own rhetoric directly on the site itself. This will be facilitated by some sort of mechanism that allows users to switch between the normal product page and my analysis—perhaps taking the form of a “rhetoric switch” to illuminate the “writing on the wall”, so to speak, pointing out specific and general examples of the site’s rhetoric.
Why is all of this important? As consumers, I think it’s imperative that we educate ourselves about the various ways in which sellers persuade us to buy their products or sign up for their services. I hope this project will help shed some light on those methods. I also wish to make an implicit distinction between a site like this one and others that might use “dirtier” tricks and shady techniques to get your business. Of course, every seller wants to persuade you, but that doesn’t mean that all methods of persuasion are necessarily evil. Some marketing techniques are perfectly valid (in my opinion, at least), and an informed customer might be encouraged to give their money to a company that doesn’t engage in shady tactics. I hope that my site will help people to make that distinction.
Questions
In what ways do product websites attempt to entice visitors to sign up? What kinds of tactics do they employ?
What’s the difference between “shady” rhetoric and legitimate rhetoric? How easy is it for readers to distinguish between the two?
What kinds of metrics can a website like this use to gauge the success of their rhetoric?
How do companies market online services differently than others—tangible goods, for instance? (I might have to downplay this one, since it will be difficult to explore in the context I’ve chosen.)
