Storage vendors aren't alone in occasionally having klutzy marketing moves.
I saw this morning that Dell was outed trying to trademark the term "cloud computing".
Sure, I can see the interest in the press -- and with customers -- growing every day. And, like every buzzword that comes sailing through our collective psyche, there's always a strong temptation by corprorate marketing people to "own" the word and the concept.
But history has taught me that (a) you can't, and (b) you shouldn't try.
Here's why ...
Buzzword Marketing 101
Ours is an industry of new ideas and concepts that repackage and extend ideas that have come before. Cynics will observe that there's very little new in IT today, except for the words we use.
I disagree -- I see enough uniqueness in some of these concepts to justify thinking of certain things as "new", or at least significantly evolved.
But trying to "own" one of these ideas or concepts backfires from a purely marketing perspective.
You Want The Category To Be Inclusive
The trick in technology marketing is to establish a relatively new category where others can potentially play, and then work to have a majority market share. The more vendors (and customers) are interested in a concept, the more of a market there is for everyone.
Trying to trademark or defend a category defeats this purpose. You'd like everyone -- vendors, customers, analysts, press -- to use the same term to generically describe an idea. Think terms like "SAN", "NAS",
Pretty hard to talk in terms of "the SAN market" if one vendor could use the term, and no one else had rights to it ;-)
The automotive industry has this figured out cold -- think of the automobile categories: sedan, minivan, SUV, roadster, etc. No one vendor tries to trademark a new category, like "crossover" or somesuch.
You Really Can't Enforce It
So let's say someone uses the term "cloud computing" to describe their offer. Do you send them a nasty legal letter telling them to cease and desist? Are you willing to go to court to deny others the right to use the term freely? Is that a good use of corporate resources? And would that really help your brand image in the industry?
And Even If You're Successful, It'll Backfire
Humans (especially marketeers) are very creative animals. If we can't use the term "cloud computing", well, we'll come up with something else -- like "network computing" or "cloud outsourcing" or somesuch.
And the discussion will move on, without you and your trademarked term.
Not The Best PR In The World, Is It?
Being "outed" like this probably wasn't the best thing that could happen to Dell's brand and reputation. I"m guessing that -- to most people -- it came across as controlling and manipulative. Me? I thought it was just an ill-advised move, but I'm only one observer.
And, Besides, I'm Guessing That's The Wrong Term
As I've mentioned before, I don't think it's gonna be about computing, per se. Many of the people I talk to have already changed their focus to the broader "cloud services" as a category, of which computing is just a fraction.
I mean, look at what's in the cloud today, and what could be there soon. All sorts of standardized applications: email, productivity, ERP, CRM, etc. All sorts of monitoring and management services. All types of information management: backup, replication, archiving, compliance, etc. As well as the raw ingredients: storage, network, facility -- and, oh yes, compute.
Simply put, I've felt for a while that the term "cloud computing" was too limiting in scope.
Maybe we should let Dell have it after all ...
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