A $500M campaign, and you need to steal our slogan?
March 20 2006 05:00:00 PM
Add/Read Comments [8]
Anyone who read my rant last year "The
IT Industry Needs A Slap"
knows that I try and avoid "mud slinging" and "getting into
politics", but this is really bothering me, and why have a blog if
I can't vent right?
Microsoft is a getting a lot of press right now about their new $500 M marketing campaign for "People Ready". Steve Ballmer is being quoted saying "We're talking about giving people in business the tools to be more productive every day".
Hello? Alan calling the "blatant rip-off department", will you accept the charges?
- Look at the "Related Links" section of almost any product page on the Lotus web site, and click on Lotus Software Advantage. Right at the very top of the screen it says "Making more people more productive in the context of the business they do every day".
- Google "ambuj goyal people productive context business" and you can see that IBM has been saying this for years!
- In his Lotusphere Keynote address on Jan 26th 2004 Ambuj said "We are helping companies integrate people into the business process".
- Or how about in 2003 when IBM was introducing Workplace as "an innovative platform for integrating people with business processes".
- And "People Ready" seems awfully similar to our long standing "People Productivity" theme, also seen here IBM Middleware for people and productivity.
Look, I don't "hate" Microsoft or anything silly like that. However it does annoy me that for all their talk of innovation, and all the money they have to blindly throw at marketing, they can't come up with their own ideas. Even more than that, it annoys me that there are people out there, IT decision makers no less, that hear MS's messages and think they are original. Before anyone comments that I am just jealous of the attention they are getting... you bet I am!
If you have not seen it yet, please read IBM responds to Microsoft’s campaign: An interview with Ken Bisconti.
(screen saver image on my computer from 2003!)
Microsoft is a getting a lot of press right now about their new $500 M marketing campaign for "People Ready". Steve Ballmer is being quoted saying "We're talking about giving people in business the tools to be more productive every day".
Hello? Alan calling the "blatant rip-off department", will you accept the charges?
- Look at the "Related Links" section of almost any product page on the Lotus web site, and click on Lotus Software Advantage. Right at the very top of the screen it says "Making more people more productive in the context of the business they do every day".
- Google "ambuj goyal people productive context business" and you can see that IBM has been saying this for years!
- In his Lotusphere Keynote address on Jan 26th 2004 Ambuj said "We are helping companies integrate people into the business process".
- Or how about in 2003 when IBM was introducing Workplace as "an innovative platform for integrating people with business processes".
- And "People Ready" seems awfully similar to our long standing "People Productivity" theme, also seen here IBM Middleware for people and productivity.
Look, I don't "hate" Microsoft or anything silly like that. However it does annoy me that for all their talk of innovation, and all the money they have to blindly throw at marketing, they can't come up with their own ideas. Even more than that, it annoys me that there are people out there, IT decision makers no less, that hear MS's messages and think they are original. Before anyone comments that I am just jealous of the attention they are getting... you bet I am!
If you have not seen it yet, please read IBM responds to Microsoft’s campaign: An interview with Ken Bisconti.
