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SIX MONTHS LATER:
"Gentlemen, I don't understand it, but even though we are giving the readers of PINKY PIG *exactly* what they want, our sales have dropped off to 80,000!"
"It doesn't make sense! It baffles science!"
"Obviously we're doing something wrong. We need to make sure we are giving the majority of our readers what they want! What was the most popular story last week?"
"75% of the readers seemed to like the stories with words less than three syllables long. Only 25% preferred the more sophisticated texts."
"Okay, then -- that's our mistake! Make sure all the stories are written on a very simple level... no challenge for the readers. It can't miss!"
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SIX MONTHS LATER:
"Gentlemen, it's inexplicable, but our sales are now down to 60,000! We must refine our approach further!"
"You're gonna ask me about the reader poll, aren't you? Okay, last week most positive comments were on two stories.. the story about the dinosaurs was popular, and the story about Pinky playing soccer was popular... the other stories were favorites with fewer readers."
"Okay, there's your answer! We'll hit it this time for sure!"
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ONE YEAR LATER:
"Gentlemen, I have wonderful news!!! Our sales have levelled off! We gave the majority of the readers what they wanted, and it finally worked! We did the right thing! The American system of appealing to the 'lowest common denominator' is a proven marketing tool! Just look at the American comics industry!"
"What American comics industry? The last violent, mutated, vigilante, pantomime, American super-hero comic went out of publication years ago! Didn't you know?"
"What? Something in America that was unsuccessful? Who knew? Well, then how are all those other European comics doing?"
"Well, their sales are not what they used to be, but they're holding up. See, I have the latest copy of DANDY DOG right here."
"What? Don't tell me you read that stuff!"
"Oh, not the whole issue! Some of it is done for younger children. But there's plenty in each issue for everyone in the family! We pass it all around."
"Really? My teenagers used to read PINKY PIG, but they stopped. And that made their younger brothers and sisters eager to stop reading, also... kids are in such a rush to grow up, y'know. They pay a lot of attention to such things as what older kids think and do."
"Didn't your brother Tom have a baby recently? Why didn't he buy a subscription to PINKY PIG right away?"
"Well, I asked him why he didn't, like our parents did for us, and he said it just never occured to him. He'd stopped reading PINKY PIG years ago when we stopped using his favorite sorts of stories along with the others."
"Bah -- comic book freaks -- don't listen to them!!! We don't work for them! We work for the majority of the readers! So... what did the reader poll tell us was the readers' favorite story last week? As I recall, we had our usual five stories about Pinky Pig playing soccer in the Lost World while he turned into a lizard and walked sideways on the walls, and the stories were all told in pantomime in panels that looked like video-game screens."
"Yes. And 100% of the readers responded to the poll! But only one of them said that his favorite story was the one that was two pages long."
"That means that our other two readers preferred the stories that were only one page long. No more two page stories! There you have it! Stick to this system and PINKY PIG will start catching on again *any day*!"
(This apparently was the final editorial conference for PINKY PIG COMICS.)
Cosa aggiungere?
- Paolo