WHAT QUALITY MEANS

Even the dictionary finds it difficult to pin down the meaning of the word quality. It has to use other vague words like excellence. Why is quality so hard to define? Is it because it is such an abstract word and can mean so many different things? Or because its meaning depends so much on what it describes? How can you define high quality when applied to the things you buy, for example, a pop record, a pair of shoes, a meal in a restaurant? You'll probably have three different definitions of quality for the three different things.

Quality is also hard to define because it can be such a subjective word-it means quite different things to different people, even when they use the word to describe the same thing. A Pink Floyd album may in your view have quality, but your friend may consider that the same album is a waste of good money.

Yet another problem is that the meaning of quality changes over the years. Things which you think have quality may not be seen in the same way by older people. Just ask your grandmother what she thinks of the Stones? For example, consider the two ads. Both advertise clothes for men. Advertisers stress the points which they think sell quality to prospective buyers. The selling points that are stressed in 1897 ad are durability, craftsmanship, dependability, tradition.

What about the ideas of quality in the present-day ad? Present-day ads do not talk about tradition or craftsmanship, dependability or durability. They stress the virtues of newness, of being different, sometimes of being way out. Cheapness may be, emphasized too, the fact that almost everyone can afford the product. Does this mean that quality in manufactured goods is disappearing now that most things are mass-produced?