by Marc H. Rudov | March 1, 2015 | Article
Silicon Valley is a high-octane, product-centric jungle, where branding (yuck!) is viewed with skepticism and derision. After all, this strip of Northern California isn’t called Solution Valley, is it? Newsflash: people buy solutions (value), not products....
by Marc H. Rudov | September 7, 2014 | Article
The CEO of a fledgling tech startup approached me for branding help. “What is your biggest problem?” I asked. “We’re a hammer in search of a nail,” he replied. Translation: We’re a hazy solution in search of a yet-to-be-determined...
by Marc H. Rudov | June 14, 2013 | Article
Arcane Mousetrapese In no company would a CEO ask marketers to write software code or legal briefs, nor would he seek their opinions on such matters — they lack the expertise. Yet, in every company, the CEO allows and even encourages employees, from multiple...
by Marc H. Rudov | August 12, 2011 | Article
The other day, I was discussing one of my pet peeves with a senior officer of a top global corporation: jargon-laced branding. I mentioned a few examples from techdom: Web 2.0, 3G, 4G, cloud, and SaaS. At this point, he sheepishly asked me, “Exactly what is a...
by Marc H. Rudov | May 15, 1989 | Article
More Than Semantic In late 1988, John Cullinane, when explaining in a Boston Globe article the demise of his software firm, Cullinet, admitted that his troops had adopted an attitude of “knowing better than the customers what their needs are.” Why...
