On Marketing…
by Jesse on Sep.03, 2008, under Comparison Shopping, Marketing/Engineering, Observances, Opinion, Review, TechnologyNews
One of the things that happens when you run a storage/technology blog, is that you will regularly get emails from PR firms with press-releases hoping that you’ll write a post touting their product or at least link back to their site to improve their ratings in the serach engines.
My problem is, that while I’m an avid storage/technology blogger, I have an science/engineering background. What this translates to is this.
If you haven’t seen it happen, it’s a hypothesis. If you haven’t put the functionality to the test, don’t assume it’s real. And if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
My wife, having spent many years in marketing, was quick to explain to me how marketing really works. “Play up the good, discount the bad, and forget the mention the fatal flaws.”
So when a new storage hot-shot approached me to write an article about their new hardware, and gave me the specs as they saw them, i refused, flat out.
If you tell me your product does 100,000+ IOPS that’s fine. I’ve not seen it so I have only your numbers to go on, and for all I know your numbers were invented over Bacardi’s at the local pub. Send me a demo and I’ll be happy to try it out and report the numbers. Just beware it better do what you say it’s going to because I will report the real numbers, good or bad.
I have a few years in R&D under my belt, I know how testing is done. I also know how any test can and usually is skewed to show off the strengths of a product.
When I worked for another non-emc storage vendor and had to tell them that their new array wasn’t capable of pushing more than 13MB/sec, they asked me not to put that particular fact in my report. When I refused, i was suddenly “laid off.” (of course a short time later the rest of the company was, so that may not have been quite the cause/effect I like to intimate.)
That’s marketing…sadly it’s not science. And the one truth is marketing people have difficulty tolerating engineering people.
I’m surpised my wife puts up with me actually.
September 3rd, 2008 on 10:34 am
Did they refuse to give you demo hardware, or did you not bother asking? It’s not clear from the post.
Also – just FYI, the format change you made to the WordPress template means people can’t log in to leave comments. Log out of WordPress, and then go to http://www.50micron.com. There’s no login or signup link anywhere that I can find. I knew the login URL manually, but most people won’t.
September 3rd, 2008 on 2:16 pm
Never asked – figured that would be rude. Maybe I just don’t know how the game is played anymore, I’ve been in the Professional Services end of things for way too long.
Fixed it – sorry folks.
September 4th, 2008 on 1:52 pm
I’ve done that – I’ve said sure, I’ll blog about the product, but I need the product in order to try it. If it’s a product I’m personally interested in, and I’m interested enough to drop what I’m doing and focus directly on it, then I’ll do it just for access to the product. If it’s not something I’m personally interested in – especially if I smell BS – I’ll say that I want to get paid an hourly rate to evaluate it. If I find that the product does what they say it’ll do, and if I’m personally satisfied with it, then I’ll refund the money. If it’s not satisfactory, then it was a waste of my time, and I need to be paid for that. I’ll give them very specific, very detailed, and very honest feedback that will help them build a better product, but access to that kind of knowledge costs money. It needs to be a win-win for everybody involved.
I’ve never had a smoke-and-mirrors company take me up on that offer, but the legit companies do. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but honesty is the best policy up front.
September 4th, 2008 on 2:11 pm
it makes sense – and it’s something I’d do. The one time I did ask for a sample I never got an email back, so I’m assuming it wasn’t a serious request.
Do you blog about it if it doesn’t work up to spec or do you pass the information on quietly?
I don’t think I’m worried about an hourly rate, sometimes just to get my hands on new stuff to play with, good or bad. It’s all kinds of fun for me.
September 4th, 2008 on 10:58 pm
I’ve had software passed on to me that didn’t work as advertised, and I didn’t bother blogging about it because anybody else who got a demo of it would see right through it too. I give that feedback to them and go on about my merry way, because they might turn the product around and make it better. If I got something that looked good at first blush, but then had serious problems under the hood, then I’d want to blog about it because I wouldn’t want somebody else making a bad purchasing decision because they didn’t know how to get far enough under the hood. That hasn’t been a problem yet though – I don’t get that many review offers. I don’t solicit ‘em either.
September 6th, 2008 on 4:23 am
The real question is whether or not people find out about it before or after they’ve spent the $$$. If you can even prevent one person from wasting their time with a bad investment, you’ve done a good deed.