Those little things that make a world of difference!

Photo by rawpixel.com

By

Vickie Zisman

A truthful confession of a marketing mercenary

Must confess to being a gadgetphobe – I mean all those sleek cool thingies that people usually carry under the pretext of ‘musts’, like modern status symbols they pretend to really need in order to function in everyday life: to perform in work, leisure and everything. Well, I am not one of them and for the life of me I couldn’t intrinsically accept those ‘justifications’ that frankly, come across as rather lame. Even my smartphone is outdated, and I am quite satisfied with its performance.

However, by the totally Freudian principle (or Murphy’s law) I am surrounded in my professional and personal lives by geeks. The more I run away from technology – the more forcefully it comes back at me. I mean, well, I am a marketer who works with high tech companies, hence rest my case. As wiser people have said: man proposes, god disposes.

Despite being a professional mercenary, I always strive to work with products that are truly useful to humans. Personally, serving as an Idiot’s test, I think I can be the best gauge for its raison d’etre: if you convince ME to want it – you can convince anybody. Although I am a skill-to-hire, and thus will peddle almost anything for the right price, I am still looking for those technologies that can make true on a promise of usefulness and contribute to our well being. For me, technology is a tool, not a goal in its own right. Hence, it had better make my life easier and pleasurable.

Well, you can, or maybe really can’t, imagine my surprise when I started to work with this company – scanmarker.com. They do digital highlighters – minimised pen-sized scanners that make your printed info processing much easier and efficient, by working only on the relevant information.  This time saving capacity of sifting chaff from kernel is supported by additional functions of translation (from/into 40 languages) and reading aloud of the text. Just think of our time-strapped existence with data overload and constant need to address everything. You MUST Prioritise, and the Scanmarker helps you do just that.

Delving into their business, I became aware of its universal cross-generational application: from kids in elementary school over to teenagers, students, lawyers, executives – in short ALL professional categories who work with printed info and need it immediately, 24/7 accessible on their hardware devices: computers and smartphones. Because the Scanmarker transfers the ‘marked’ print within seconds into any hardware at hand. Actually, working with smartphones, it alleviates dependency on laptops – enhancing one’s sense of personal freedom.

So far so good. But then, researching a bit more, I came across this international health awareness of and measures to tackle RSI (repetitive strain injury), whereby businesses are obliged, for insurance purposes, to present evidence they are protecting their workers from habitual damages of typing and clicking . Scanmarker’s distributors got very positive feedback from clients on that aspect as well: minimising and preventing damage to hands’ ligaments and muscles from constant work with computers, thus driving companies’ insurance premiums down.

However, the most heart-warming acknowledgement of the product’s added value came from a totally different corner, and I will bring it below verbatim, from a feedback on Facebook:

Phyllis Shoemaker

Jul 7, 20:45 IDT

Thank you. I am enjoying my scanmarker so very much. I am 63 and have dyslexia ( I read at a 3rd grade level) for the first time in my life I am reading along with the scanmarker and enjoying a book. I am finding it hard to put my book down now. The book I am reading was given to me for Christmas. I tried reading it before and did not get past the first chapter. I was very disappointed that it was so hard to read. Not because I did not like it. But because it so hard to figure out the words and know what I am reading at the same time. I have always wanted someone to read books to me all my life. Now I have the scanmaker to do it with me thank you for all your help and time. God bless you.

It gave us all shivers. Yes, the true purpose and value of this technology is its Functional, Financial and Social Inclusiveness of people with learning disabilities, allowing them to achieve their full potential, by effectively overcoming their impairments with the help of this digital pen. I don’t think any more commentary is needed – it’s all very self-explanatory.

And as I wrote above – Gods probably do grant wishes from time to time, even to agnostics like me, to rub my nose on my mistaken presumptions, hence am so delighted to work for this project.

It’s not every day that one sees a little ‘cool’ gadget making such a huge difference to a person’s life! For real! Without marketing magic dust. It works its simple “magic” intuitively – on its own, just by clever human design. What more can we ask from technology? Mission accomplished.

Vickie Zisman

Historian by education. Corporate communications professional – by vocation. “Holy cows” in management & life slayer – by choice. Highly allergic to self-righteous hypocrites, universal moral preachers et al. Incurable, politically incorrect, cynic. Mad cat-lover. For further clarifications – you can always leave a comment on my blog, visit my Linkedin profile or connect with me on Twitter