Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

I'm a buyer by profession and the term makes perfect sense to me.  The
company is targeting a "best value" audience.  They concede that there are
better quality products available but that the increased cost of those
products exceeds the value of the increased quality.
A Rolls Royce Silver Phantom  may be better quality than a 1987 VW Beetle.
But if you are delivering pizzas the VW has a better combination of price
and quality than a Rolls Royce.

Caveat Emptor
Marc

I suppose it makes some sense.  The truth is, quality really means quality
*for some purpose*.  For one person a quality automobile may mean low
maintenance, for another durability, for a third that it's a babe magnet,
for a fourth comfortable ride, and for the next hundred customers a hundred
different things.  Or even combinations of things.

Satisfaction is usually a result of expectations.  If you buy a Kia (just
for example), you expect it to not be very good because it's so cheap.  If
it turns out to be a nice car, you are ecstatic.  Conversely, if you buy a
Mercedes, you expect it to be excellent just because it's so expensive.  If
the slightest thing goes wrong, you get upset.

So there's a post hoc explanation of why it might make sense.

More likely is that the writer couldn't really think of what he wanted to
say, was up against a deadline, and let something he wasn't really proud of
get by.  But he remembered that you need three (examples, supporting
sentences, good things, etc.).

It is also possible that it's just corporate gobbledygook.  You're not
supposed to actually believe those mission statement thingys, are you?

Jon Miller

This is almost a syllepsis.  That is, it's a list of things that
don't quite fit together.  But the sense is still reasonably clear.
A customer wants a good price and good quality, and in the long run
the customer wants to be satisfied with the result of the
transaction.  The real problem comes with
"combination," which implies a trade-off of these three
characteristics -- if we give you a low price, you won't get as much
quality, and you may not be as satisfied as if you'd paid more and
received a higher quality product.

If I were trying to fix this, I'd get rid of "combination" and
modify the list as follows: "We provide low prices, high quality,
and complete satisfaction."  It's all puffery anyway.