To all,
Everyone knows my key word is "focus." I don't think a company can be successful without. it. Everyone knows I think that Informix has
it. Let me comment on why I think that Oracle does not.
Has anyone seen the new Oracle commercials? If you don't remember, the commercial starts out talking about revolution. It looks like North Vietnam or Cambodia or something like that. You see kids running with guns and you see explosions and etc.
Can I ask a simple question? What in the hell does this have to do
with Network computing? I found the commercial to be "wierd". I felt my self asking "what are they trying to sell." Where is this company
going.?" Can you imagine what "nervous" IT buyers are thinking when they see these commercials? What benefits do you get by buying something from Oracle?....a revolution...gun fire...havoc...DEATH....Not exactly the "warm and fuzzy" message you want to give someone with a mission critical application.
This is a perfect example of lack of focus and bad brand presentation. The company is trying to sell NC computing using the Oracle brand name.They are destroying what Oracle's primary mission is while trying to sell a pipe dream with terribly distrubing imagery. I can imagine a lot of people asking the question...what the heck is happening at Oracle's marketing department? I can hear IT buyers thinking "Is Oracle out of its mind with these commercials?"" Could this be affecting my mission critical applications." And maybe, in the deep caverns of the mind, when "you" think of Oracle, you will think of gun fire, screaming, death and terror? What a marketing message.
Whoever is in charge of marketing at Oracle should be fired immediately. If these commercials continue to run, I can guarantee you that they will do damage. Marketing is all about positioning your product in the mind of your customer. If you are telling your customer that he is going to be involved with "a revolution" when he buys from you, then get ready to lose sales big time. I can't believe a company could be this stupid in its marketing approach. It is terribly unfocused.
I point these things out to show you how big competitiors can make huge mistakes that smaller less capitalized companies can take advantage of. If I were Informix's sales team, I would say to my customers, "why would you want a revolution, when you can have "peace of mind" with one of our solutions." Simple, but effective.
Jeff Bertrand |
