Please tell me whether I am being just too subtle here, but it has always bothered me when people have used the adjective "killer" in a positive way.

"Killer" copy, e.g.

What is it that it's killing? The competition? Response? Interest?

And what about everything we've been taught about "Thou shalt not kill"?

Now along comes a book title, "Killer Customer Service." It's totally beyond me to envision that as a positive thing. Right there in the title is the suggestion that someone is killing the customer - which is generally not very good for business.

What do you think?

Marcia Yudkin

lol

Marcia, its a killer post

Have you written this post with tongue-in-cheek or you are serious?

Arun,

I am serious - deadly serious.

Marcia Yudkin

I believe 'killer' is used in place of 'extremely effective'.

A killer thing doesn't just hurt, it kills. Same way but in a positive sense

Agree re it does have ambiguity, and can have a negative connotation.

I suppose it depends on the context... personally I don't like 'killer customer service', but sales related names may be ok, like my upcoming

www.killersales.com

site

depends on the way it's presented ..you can tell I emphasize the size of the word "sales" over 'killer' ...

it's likely an outdated phrase, eg a hypey marketing type one.. as in
"Instantly Explode Your Website Profits by 167% with our new Killer Marketing Course" type of unfortunate wording lol..


ken

Instead of "Killer", what do you think about "Significantly wound" or "Badly maim"?


Peter Stone

Killer ...Mmmmmm,

Marcia I understand but remember as copywriters we can grow "cold" to certain words, happens to me all the time.

I wonder how a prospect in the right scenario would see it. Killer tends to go with the hyped to death internet copy etc. Probably as writers we are sock to death of seeing it. I personally am but ... I do still use it in its place.

Its a bit like this...

Nip over to your local music shop. Go to one section in particular. Its called: Greatest Hits Collections

Now how many times over the past zillion years have we seen that phrase. I can just see the creative down in the basement with a long white beard typing the latest, bestest, newest,funkiest...Greatest Hits!

Remember, lifes a conveyor belt. It might not work for us but if it sells our clients products, well, killer letter it is

Funny. Tried a domain name suggestion tool for a domain name with "killer," like Ken's killersales.com. One aspect is that it offers suggestions with synonyms. Here were some of the suggestions:

SlayerSales.com
ButcherSales.com
MurdererSales.com
CutthroatSales.com
HomicideSales.com
MassacrerSales.com
SlaughtererSales.com
TriggermanSales.com
PunisherSales.com
TorturerSales.com
ExecutionerSales.com

I can see it now: "Hello, I'm Mike from MurdererMarketing.com" or "CutthroatCopy.com."

Great alternatives Michel .... creative. Agree Alan re if it's the control, it's the control ... use it til it stops pulling. "Greatest Killer Hits"

Seems like some are a rowdy lot, what with names like "Guerrilla Marketing" and "Sniper Trading" and "Knock Your Socks off Service" types of names ... it's murder out there...

btw Marcia I just got your "Poor Richard's Web Site Marketing Makeover" book and am thoroughly enjoying it so far, excellent writing style and content. Getting a kudos from Jakob Nielsen and all the others, very impressive.


Absolutely killer writing!

(2/11 update) Also just got your persuasive writing book, another winner. You're gifted.


-Ken

re graphic design, check out my new under-construction http://www.sadeweb.com site (I'm a fan). She slays me.