“Racing to the Bottom” is not a hard core sales video. Although the video was produced by a specific company that sells high quality safes, the Rogue Safe Company of Medford Oregon, the video does not present a specific product to the viewers. Rather, the video targets a concept, or we might say an objection to buying a high quality safe.

The objection, addressed by this video, is the apparently prevalent belief, amoung potential safe buyers, that it is cheaper to buy a safe from a mass merchant store such as Wallmart, because they have large safes, which are just as good as safes sold by private companies, for a lot less.

The Rogue Company responds to this belief by pointing out that the large safes sold at Wallmart and other chains are made of thinner and inferior metal, and make easy targets for professional and amateur thieves alike. The video makes this point through a 1 1/2 minute showing two amateur thieves breaking into a Wallmart safe.

The video has positive and negative features, including many elements of the work, which are appealing. The video begins with a shot of a metal safe handle. There is something powerfully appealing, about a stout metal safe handle. First off, it connotes money, jewels, financial certificates and other valuables that are contained within safes. Secondly, it connotes the ability to protect those valuables within and thus facilitates the accumulation of wealth.

The video heightens the attraction of the safes being displayed on screen through background music, similar to the type that might be heard in a movie, while a crime is being committed on screen. The sounds plays upon the fear of the viewer of what could happen should someone break into his safe at home.

The third appealing element of the video is the clip of the two thieves in the process of breaking into a safe. This is an action which occurs all too often in life, but is usually relegated to hidden secretive moments. Most people are unlikely to see anything like it in their lives. Therefore, a video segment depicting such an act has a fascination and appeal to the audience.

The video has some flaws which are worth learning from. The video addresses only one objection to the sale, and unlike aggressive sales videos makes almost no effort to motivate the viewer to buy. Watching the video, one gets the feeling that the safe company is so overwhelmed by the flight of customers to large chain stores where they can purchase safes that it is hesitant to try and push its own products. All they do is take one big swat at the trend. While the one swat they take is an effective maneuver, and makes a point, the company’s lack of confidence in itself also comes through.

An effective sales video must show what is right and appealing about the product being sold, and not only what is wrong about the opposition. What this video should have done, in my opinion, is put more emphasis on their own sleek strong safes. A video segment showing thieves unable to crack the Rogue Safe would have been one way of doing that. So while making potential buyers fearful of making a cheap purchase is half the job, inspiring people to shell out more to purchase a superior product is another important task of a sales video, which was, for the most part neglected in this case.

In summary, this video presenting appealing visual material, appropriate background music, an answer to a major sales objection but did not provide enough positive reasons why viewers should pay extra money to purchase the company product.