I want to announce something today: If you read my articles, you will virtually make a lot of money, guaranteed! Let me explain how this works: you come to my site to read many of the different things I write. Then, you gain a lot of wisdom and you apply that wisdom to everything in your life. Because of that newly acquired wisdom-from-bes-zain-wisdom, you virtually start seeing positive results in everything and gain more money! Thus, in this very paragraph, I have helped you get virtually richer! :)

Now, if you are not drunk, or hyper because of eating way too much chocolate cake, you may think “Hmmm, let me check my bank account balance….hmmm, still the same amount of money as this morning! Where is the extra money this site claims to have brought in for me??!!” Do not panic: what you did learn, among many other things, is the effect of the word “virtually” on any claim that you may run across. The idea of promising or offering something by adding the word “virtually” around any statement of any kind is a common practise that is being employed by an increasing number of companies and individuals to add more verbal flavor to something that may otherwise, without the presence of the word “virtually”, be less attractive to potential customers. Today I would like to focus a bit on the thoughts I have about the concept of using the word “virtually”¹ in order to describe something to a person to try to convince them to buy a product or a service due to the powerful impressions and amazing benefits the word “virtually” creates.

In other words, let us focus on the idea of using the word “virtually” to create an impression that, without further explanation about the limits of that impression, may inaccurately in order to gain a customer or some required response.

The idea of using the word “Virtually” in marketing

Unless otherwise noted, observed, analyzed, and verified, the sole purpose of any company that sells any product or service of any kind is to make money. In order to make money through a sale, a company has to convince their potential customer that spending a certain amount of money on a product or a service is going to produce more results for the customer than would the money itself if it just sat there. In order to convince the customer to actually spend the money, a company has to take actions to show the benefits of a product or a service to try to create a response reaction in the potential customer. That last step is where the concept of using the word “virtually” has become an almost normal element to create a more incentive ad or presentation for the customer. I have been thinking if such an element if being used in a kind of an unfair manner.

Example of the use of the word “virtually” to sell a shoe

Let us see how the word “virtually” can be used to change the realistic image and fact about a product, without actually saying that the image and the fact has changed. Imagine you were selling a brand of shoes called “Shoes shoes” that withstood any amount of water exposure and avoided any absorption of water until 5 minutes, after which the shoes would simply absorb the water and start going psycho or start ripping apart. That means for 5 minutes, you could literally put the shoe in the bottom of a lake and take it out and wear it right away without getting your feet wet, since the shoes would be completely dry. You could sell such a product by saying something like:

Tagline for Shoes shoes by Bes Z

Shoes shoes. When the world gets wet in the bottom of the swimming pool, our shoe stays dry for up to 5 minutes. Shoes for a new world. Shoes for a wet dry world.

If I sold shoes, I would probably say something similar since I like it. Now, what if you found out that other companies are also starting to sell their version of the shoes that can stay dry inside water for up to 7 minutes? The main core selling feature of your shoes has been surpassed in actual quality by an 2 extra minutes, which could sway a lot of customers towards your competition. In response, you use the word “virtually” to set apart your product from the competition:

Tagline for Shoes shoes by Bes Z

Shoes shoes. When all the other shoes in the world get wet in water, your Shoe shoe virtually stays dry in the water for your comfort. Shoes for a new world. Shoes for a wet dry world.

In one changed sentence, you have simply shown the entire competition to be behind you, and have simply stated that your shoe stays dry in the water, “virtually“, without specifying a time limit. That is one of the way the word “virtually” is used today. It is not direct deception, yet it is also not a directly accurate and open representation of the product unless explained further. The consumer, the actual customer, can see and decipher the words “virtually stays dry” to mean that the shoes stay dry in the water, period. Because of replacing the actual time with the word “virtually“, you have given the impression, without saying it, that your shoes stay dry without a time limit. What happens if someone decides to sue you in the future? No problem. Add a clause in the terms and conditions stating the actual time limit for the stay-dry-in-water feature of the shoes. The word “virtually” stays in the main headlines, and the actual limitations explanation stays in the terms and conditions hidden in smaller text or separate pages for those who actually look for it.

What is the real purpose of the existence of the word “virtually” in many ads and promotional materials?

According to Answers.com, the word “virtually” itself means “Almost but not quite; nearly.” Thus, the very word itself means that it is not entirely accurate and has exceptions, like the word “almost“, yet when used in many forms that I see daily, it is used to create an impression that there is no exception to what is being described.

If you inquire in detail about many products or services that use the word “virtually” to describe flawlessness in some of their element, you are usually going to find out the very limits that the word “virtually” was originally used to almost cover up. I wonder if that is trustworthy thing to do, to make someone inquire more about the details in order to find out the actual limitations that come with the word “virtually” when it is attached to a product or a service. Without such an inquiry, the intended impression by the promoter of such a word and the associated product is to show that there is no limitation, which in my view is an inaccurate representation. I wonder if such a thing exists in many products and services promotion strategies solely to manipulate the customer into believing that something is being offered without any limits, when in reality there are clearly some limits.

Further examples of using the word “virtually” to imply something that probably cannot be implied if the word “virtually” is not used

Following are some more examples of the use of the word “virtually” that I have run into. The actual example companies I have listed below are examples of companies using the “virtually” concept. Some companies do a good job at explaining such a term, while other companies remain a bit vague in order to advertise the word “virtually” more than the limitation.

• Medical procedure and products ads promising “virtually pain free” – that means there is still pain.

  The Neurologic & Orthopedic Hospital Of Chicago uses the word “Virtually” to describe a pain free knee replacement program, and describes the limitation too. In their article they use “virtually pain free“, and also say “very little if any pain” in the first sentence, which is good and better in my opinion. Here, the word “Virtually pain free” actually goes in the direction of sounding, meaning and acting in the same manner as the word “almost” or other similarly-meaning words where it is emphasized that something and its exact opposite can and do exist at the same time.

  Another example of this point is the FreeStyle Papillon Mini. FreeStyle Papillon Mini is a blood glucose monitor that offers “Virtually pain free testing, requiring a tiny blood sample to start a test.” That simply means there is still pain, though it creates the impression that there is not. If I think about it, saying “Almost no pain” may actually scare some patients who may actually benefit from this device. However, doing the “virtually” route does not fully explain everything either. What could be a good alternative to this, in your view?

• Virtually pain free tattoo and waxing.

  Maybe I am mistaken, but as far as I am aware, the only real waxing that you can do without pain is the one you are doing on an inch of skin for testing or when you are completely drunk. Any real tattoo also results in some pain, regardless of severity. Should I get a tattoo to experiment with this and actually test it out instead of base my observations based on what I see in the painful moans of the people getting a tattoo? Hmmm. Let me know if you know more about this. Did it hurt even a bit, or did you sit in the chair, eyes closed, wondering when they will start and then were told “It’s already done!!“?

• Virtually no effort.

  I see a lot of “work from home” e-mail floating around that claim “You can make money with virtually no effort.” While the entire idea of making money from home is attractive for many people, the “virtually no effort” implies strongly that you do not have to put in any real effort into the work in order to make money. Have you run into anything similar, online or offline?

• Money making programs offering income in virtually no time.

  I see this almost everywhere, everyday, online and offline. This is one of the things online people can use to tell offline people “This trend came from the offline world, so you better not say the online world is more evil and fake.” That is kind of true: a lot of the annoying online things you see are manifestations, or evolution, of their offline counterparts, partners, or ideologies. A lot of “work from home” opportunity ideas and beliefs from the 80′s and the 90′s have now grown and morphed into different things online, including the phenomenon of “make money online” blogs which write posts every minute of the day to tell others how to make money, in order to make money.

  It is perfectly normal to tell others how to make money and make money in the process too. It is kind of abnormal to tell people it is easy to make money using some specific method, solely to make people pay you, when in reality it is not easy to make money as easily as you claim. Have you run into any “make money with virtually no effort” programs? What do you think of them?

• Preparing food/cookies/cakes in virtually no time.

  I love this one, and I think this one is done very nicely too, and kind of very accurately. On many food-in-the-microwave food boxes, the front of the box usually says something like “Cook a premium steak in virtually no time!“, many times without the word “virtually“, and then the side of the box actually lists the number of minutes you have to put the box in the microwave and the cooking instructions, giving you a very realistic detail of how long it will take before you can eat that specific food in that closed box. For some reason, maybe the reason that the actual time information is listed right near the “virtually no time” claim, I think this is something that is more than just acceptable: I kind of think it is normal and ethical too. Or maybe because it is food that I am being a bit biased? I am not completely sure. What do you think: is there any food labeling, similar to making a claim of cooking and eating in “virtually no time“, that you are aware of?

• Do virtually anything with your money.

  This is the promise of many financial institutions. If you become their customer or use some specific service, you are told that you can do a lot of things with your money, including the ability to pay anyone. “Pay virtually any company or individual in the United States — 24/7“, that is what Bank of the West e-billing letter is telling me. Of course, the “virtually” part means that many of the of the smaller and individual businesses are not part of that “any company” promise. Can you think of any small company, maybe your own, that may not be supported by the e-bill payment program that your bank offers?

• Web hosts and e-mail services offering virtually unlimited storage.

  You will notice this in more places now, and in different wording too. This is becoming so common, that it is almost like a standard now. Many web hosts offer the “virtually unlimited disk space“, which actually have limitations if you decide to test those limitations.

  Similarly, Microsoft Hotmail, now also know as Windows Live Hotmail or Windows Live Mail, offers the “storage to grow with you“, telling users that they will never run out of disk space. Hotmail does not use the word “virtually”; it does not need to because it accomplishes the same impression-creation in a better and nicer manner by using the word “storage to grow with you.” If that sounds like unlimited, check out this intro message by Microsoft describing the “ever-growing” email space:

  From Microsoft Live Mail Blog

  We’ve designed Hotmail storage to grow with you, but at a reasonable pace. That means you should have plenty of storage unless you suddenly want to store the planet Jupiter on Hotmail, in which case we’ll send you a nice e-mail asking you to please not try to store planets on Hotmail (although gradual storage of planets, moons, and asteroids is ok)

  Thus, while Hotmail is offering a very nice feature that I really like, it is not the e-mail account that is growing with me. It is the other way around in reality: I have to grow slowly, and “at a reasonable pace“, in order for Hotmail to offer me a lot of disk space. To all the people who always tell kids to mature quickly: be very ashamed and learn from Hotmail.

Those are some of the examples to show how the word “virtually” is used to create an impression of something that actually is not the complete accurate description, yet at the same time, the actual sentence using the word “virtually” is not an actual deception in its literal meaning-by-meaning form.

Are you getting the virtually unarguable point?

“Almost” can be a much better word in such cases, as it is more accurate, more valid, and more thorough. “Almost” tells you that the exact opposite of what is being claimed or offered also exists at the same time. “Almost no pain” means that there is a little bit pain. It is like saying “98% of the experience will have absolutely no comfort“, or something similar, so you realize that you have to brace yourself to embrace the 2% comfort, or vice versa.

One of the things about using the word “virtually” to describe something big or small is the relativity: a company might think that something is virtually very big or virtually very small, but the actual consumer may feel completely different about such a scale. It is this very point that results in the idea of using the word “virtually” to be kind of a misconception in my view, maybe a relative misconception, where “virtually” is used to describe something in a manner that may create an impression that is, in reality, not accurate for the very customer who is being targeted with the virtually convincing ad.

What do you think?

“Virtually Free” does sound better and easier to throw onto a customer in many situations. Saying “It’s almost free!” requires you to keep a happier-than-serious face and explain how the “almost” part is still very beneficial to the customer. In the new world of virtually virtual virtualities, all you have to say “It’s virtually free! :D” and smile the virtually biggest smile your virtual self can virtually imagine. That should work. The customer is bound to immediately give you their money, virtually through their “virtually pay anyone” bank using their “virtually no interest and no yearly fees” credit card in virtually no time and with virtually no effort, of course.

What is your opinion on this? Should there be more explanation of the word “virtually” and its related uses in the open that clearly explain every restriction or real benefit when such a word or a similar concept is used? Do you think there is some kind of an ethical situation in this topic? Do companies need to think about their strategy when using the word “virtually” to describe something?

Is “virtually” simply an English word that is used mainly, in this age, for marketing purposes and consumers should automatically learn that anytime it is used, they should realize its entire impression creating abilities? Or should consumers simply encounter such a word and realize that they will still get something, or most of, what the statement using such a word is claiming? Do you view the entire situation in a completely different light than how I am noticing it? What can businesses do to improve the use of such a word? Do businesses have to do anything, or is everything all right the way it is?

I now have to go heat up some bread that “heats up in virtually no time“, in a microwave oven that “virtually works by itself!”

Thanks for reading. :)

1. By virtually, I am in this article referring to the word “virtually” and not the virtual world that many of us refer to when we talk about the online or similar kinds of an offline presence or nature of something. [↩]

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