RE: iSeries (non-) Marketing - part 24,566

["Johnson, Duane" <djohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

        Hans wrote:
         ...   I think everyone knows what business IBM is in. The ads 
> provide a message: "Come to us and we'll help with your IT needs." 
> That's a simple and more powerful message than you'd get from 
> pushing particular pieces of hardware and software. If you had an ad 
> quoting various specs and numbers, you'd lose most of your potential 
> audience.
> 
> Thirdly, some of those ads (like the silly "server pixie dust" ad) 
> are targetted not to techies like us, but to executives who have the 
> actual decision making authority. That's why some of these ads 
> feature execs in a boardroom. They're the ones who'll call IBM to 
> discuss solutions. At that level, they're not concerned with the 
> details of the solution, but rather with making the solution happen.
> 
          Hans, I disagree with you.
          While it's true that the execs in the boardroom are the people who
will be making the decision on these purchases, they will be relying on the
advice of the IT manager, who more than likely has come up through the
networking side of the business.  Also more than likely, this manager
started out as a computer nerd (it's ok, I can say that, I am one) who NEVER
HEARD of the iSeries.  Or, if he/she has heard of it, it's "an old system,
at least 20 years old, that's on it's way out"  (actual quote, from an
actual IT manager that I was talking to).  These are the people that we need
to be reaching with advertising, telling them that the iSeries of today is
"not like your Fathers AS/400" or - something like that - and most of these
people do watch TV,  and read magazines.  It seems that the people in the
palace, as someone so nicely put it, think they're selling hardware to
people like themselves, therefore that's how they tailor their appeal. I
admit that part is necessary, because the executives aren't going to buy
something they haven't heard of, but they also aren't going to buy it if
it's never recommended to them. 

        Duane