The Peacock and the crane | Testo Limited Blog

A PEACOCK spreading its gorgeous tail mocked a Crane that passed by, ridiculing the ashen hue of its plumage and saying, “I am robed, like a king, in gold and purple and all the colors of the rainbow; while you have not a bit of color on your wings.”

“True,” replied the Crane; “but I soar to the heights of heaven and lift up my voice to the stars, while you walk below, like a cock, among the birds of the dunghill.”

Fine feathers don’t make fine birds. 

When cutting paths through the world, there are ways and there are ways, and the ones that we choose are influenced by a number of things. We are heavily influenced by what we’re taught as children and the lessons that we’re exposed to in our early lives. This is the reason why children’s tales and fables have strong moral overtones, the hope being that these messages will sink in and take hold at a young age and help mold people for the better.

However the ongoing debate of nature versus nurture provides us with a difficulty, this being that we can’t really know whether people are born pre-dispositioned towards certain characteristics, or whether these traits have developed over time. Whichever side of the debate you come down on though, the fact is that the battle of good vs. evil rages in the world around us (sometimes in the most unusual of places).

In every area of life (including the technology and instrumentation business) this battle is waged and it’s sad to say that unlike in our favourite children’s tales, the pure of heart are not always victorious. Unfortunately, in the world we live in the reliable knight in shining armour can find himself under considerable pressure when faced with the inevitably over-sized, lumbering enemy.



In the high end technology business (such as thermal imaging cameras) this can be seen in full effect, with the biggest, baddest and loudest (not the best) effectively cheapening themselves to the cusp of credibility in order to maintain a near-monopoly of market saturation. With every evil, cartoon empire there is a point at which it becomes sufficiently self-perpetuating and bullet-proof that a brand can offer seemingly never-ending, cheap and lazy promotions.

With business and branding, there seems to be a point when certain companies assume they are untouchable and that they  become happy to act in a way which shows them as desperate for a quick sale. This situation normally occurs when a company has over-saturated the market with their products so the only real path left open to them is to undercut competition and plaster gimmicks & deals as far as the eye can see.

But as we all know from our formative years and fables like the one above – the brightest, loudest & cheapest is certainly not always the best. As difficult as these peacock companies make it, if the customer can see through the brightly coloured feathers being aggressively waved in their direction and instead turn their heads upwards, they will see the birds of true quality. At Testo, we strive to give our customers a quality of product and service that is hard to beat and we like to do so without compromise or coercion. Invest in quality, Invest in Testo.