Silencers: A New Marketing Approach

I'm working on a Squidoo lens about silencers and one of the avenues of expression is YouTube. I put an old demo video I made on it and it has attracted a few comments. One of them, taken slightly out of context, goes, "you notice the subsonic rounds only when somebody shoots you and the bullet pass close to you, not when you are shooting". He was presenting a tactical analysis of the video.

Maybe we present obstacles to people getting into this thing by the "tactical" language we use. Because most silencer buyers are government agencies, it makes sense to emphasize how it gives someone "the edge" in a "situation". My audience, the average joe or jane, doesn't want a dissertation on how silencers could have turned around Little Bighorn.

Instead they want their shooting to be as free of problems as possible. A lot of effort has been put into making guns as reliable, light, balanced, powerful, and safe as possible. Why not put some resources into making each shot as quiet as possible also?

It shouldn't pose too many problems for the "tactical" marketer. After all, home defense is just a special tactical situation with two important distinctions -- you're not trying to hide from anyone and you're indoors.

The first distinction frees you from choices that must consider the possibility of detection, but it's a rather minor freedom, as your problem probably already knows whether you're home or not.

The second distinction means reducing your sound signature takes on even more importance because walls echo sound, in essence trapping it, making indoor shooting much more damaging to your ears than outdoor shooting.

It's the homeowner for whom silencer technology can bring the most benefit. It's time to figure out a way to say so that doesn't just attract the SWAT wannabes.