Navilyst: The newest new old thing

[Click on Post Title for Link to External Article]

Alternate Titles:

1. Clueless in Seattle (don't ask me why, I don't know :p )
2. Tutorials in branding, marketing and reading between lines
3. 10 things you cannot learn from THIS press release
4. Press Release for Dummies (the readers)

Alright, so August has me being a tad bit more cynical than usual (and you thought that it was impossible...). Now, I have nothing against the good people at Navilyst, but when Google Alerts started rolling in the press release through multiple websites, I clicked (or took the bait) hoping to see something new, some new competitor in some branch of medical devices and so on.

"A press release is a very useful tool..." - how many times did you read that in your "Tips for Small Business Success" or "Textbook for really expensive yet completely pointless MBA (expands to Much Bigger...) and so on.?

Yet, the press release is a useful tool, when generated appropriately. The key point to note, would be that the press release should also be of eventual use to the journalist, blogger and Google Alert fanatic, not just Navilyst and marketwatch.com .

Once I landed on the press release things got boring pretty fast:

Yes yes, it would have been terrible for the company to be called "Boston Scientific's old Fluid Management Unit sold to try and save company from a stock market debacle, Inc." (for one thing it would have been too long and too truthism-y), but one would hope for something beyond that:

"By 2011 the company should look very different than we do today--and that's exciting," - sorry Ron Sparks, being different from what you are in 2008 is below any bottomline expectation for 2011!

This is a sad case of people giving themselves stickers for just existing...or just a very weakly thought out statement for a press release.

After this, we come to our real world meanings of the several paragraphs in the press-release:

"We maintain the singular focus of a small, eager organization striving to improve patient care while collaborating with clinicians in the global marketplace"

equals "We are smaller than we used to be, in case you are completely incapable of surmising that yourself."

"Navilyst Medical combines the best attributes of an established medical device company--market-leading technology, superior clinical data, experienced leadership and proven worldwide sales and distribution capabilities"

equals, "We assume you dont know what it means to be an established medical device company because you might be out there presuming that you think one of these is not necessary"

Oh come on, yes we agree, you are projecting yourself as a full entity rather than a broken limb (no sales, marketing, etc). Well, no investor is going to be interested in broken limb companies anyway...

"We maintain the singular focus of a small, eager organization striving to improve patient care while collaborating with clinicians in the global marketplace"

equals space filler,padding, icing, pepper dumped on pizza to 'spice' it up or as the elderly sage said, "Hmmm..."

"Navilyst Medical manufactures and markets a portfolio of fluid management and vascular access products used during some of the most frequent hospital procedures including angiography and angioplasty. Navilyst Medical's Fluid Management business, including the proprietary NAMIC(R) line of products enjoys a leading global market share. Navilyst Medical's vascular access products include devices designed to provide access to the blood stream for patients requiring intravenous antibiotics, nutrition, chemotherapy, blood sampling and hemodialysis. The company's PASV(R) Technology, with strong clinical data, is uniquely designed to automatically close after infusion, disconnection or aspiration, and remain closed during normal pressure fluctuations, reducing the risk of complications including catheter-related bloodstream infections. "

does not equal Press Release. May equal "About Navilyst" in press release or website.

A very good example of what you could put in your $1,500 case study on "10 things to NOT publish in a press release with only 10 things" that you can sell to future company executives.

Barely existing or surviving is not an achievement. We cannot hand each other stickers for this.

Yes, I repeat myself here (about the stickers, of course). Hey, if press releases can do this, why can't a blog do it? And this blog doesn't digest and spit out full article tests (without miserably trying to 'entertain' you first!)


Once upon a time you thought a press release talked about something significant, so that you could spend your time reading 20 - 25 press releases and glean some information that you could use. Nowadays, what with all the "Optimize your SEO" guides out there, the "press release" has become a sad victim of the "Restating the blindingly obvious and/or mundane, Inc." movement...