During my daily browsing, I ran into this video of the Russian fighter jet Sukhoi-30MK.

Here, take a look first before I vent off…

… OK, did you feel a little bit strange as well? A beating, booming soundtrack that really gets you in the mood to want one of those for yourself.

I could not help wonder who made this video and which audience he had in mind. In marketing class, we learn that we should create – in our mind – an image of the person we want to sell to. OK, let’s see…

I imagine a room full of prospects, many of them in uniform, but all of them have their machine guns checked at the entrance. Now they are sitting together peacefully. Not that they would have ever any quarrels because they know they need one another. Here they got together at the friendly local arms dealer to buy some new toys to play with.

The arms dealer VP for military sales comes on stage. He is a civilian and is not in this for playing, just to make a living to bring home some bread for his wife and two children, a boy of 11 and a girl of 8. Only a short greeting and how glad he is that they could all come on such short notice, that he does not want to take too much time out of their busy schedule and, please, let’s watch this little video.

The lights dim, the huge LCD monitor is lowered from a slot in the ceiling and the presentation begins.

Excitement is noticeably rising in the room, especially when rockets are launched and things are blown up. When the lights come on and the display disappears in the ceiling the only task for the master of ceremonies is to direct the attendees to the back of the room where operators are standing by to take orders.

After the orders are placed, most of the attendees stay for a drink and plan some little wars where they can test their new toys. If there is one thing they all agree upon then it is their gratitude to all the taxpayers around the world – some voluntary, some forcefully convinced – allowing them to buy all their toys and letting them play.