BS Baffles Brains

Twenty years ago a favourite teacher of mine used to spice up boring history lessons by reminding me that whenever writing essays we should remember that Bullshit Baffles Brains.

When it comes to communications I’m a bit of an idealist and kind of wish that the truth would always come out – that marketing speak and brand spin would be crushed by the overwhelming impact of the plainly obvious.

Yeah I did say I was an idealist…

And just to prove my idealism has no founding in reality check out this internal Vid from some guys at Microsoft;

Yup – I mean the video would have been fine if it was pitched as something to explain Cloud Computing and infrastructure – but it’s not. It’s pitched as an explanation for Windows Azure.

In a similar vein, CloudAve received the following "special offer";

We don’t think bailouts are just for corporate giants, everyone needs a
helping hand in the downturn: Introducing the Intacct "Main Street"
Bailout. The Intacct Main Street Bailout is a one-time, zero-risk, and most importantly, "no cash required" offer. This is for CFO’s who know they need better financial applications to manage their business in the downturn, but also need to conserve cash.

More than 2,500 customers know that Intacct pays for itself
by improving finance department productivity, automating key financial
tasks and eliminating IT costs – and now with the Intacct Main Street
Bailout, you can enjoy these benefits with no risk and you can pay as you go.

The
Intacct Main Street Bailout lets you upgrade to Intacct’s
award-winning, on-demand financial management and accounting system
with the following unique zero-risk benefits:

• No subscription fees until you go live
• Monthly billing
• No capital costs
• No IT costs
• Free support and training

Act Now!

But
hurry, this offer ends December 19th, 2008. Call 1.877.437.7765 or
1.408.878.0900 today and mention the Intacct Main Street Bailout or click here to request information.

Don’t let the recession stop you from making the right business decisions. Bailouts aren’t just for Wall Street anymore.

Mike Braun
CEO
Intacct Corporation

All very inspiring and that – but there’s nothing new in there. Now if they were offering free consultancy services for migration, a discounted subscription – or anything really. The "special offer" moniker would be justified. As it stands however it’s pretty much the stock standard product – with extra spin!

Of course this all dovetails nicely with the recent discussions around whether of not Brands Are Dead. Over on Unreasonablemen they posted asking the question whether brand matters anymore. They asked;

…does the brand actually mean anything? Do you know what brand of road you use? What about the tap water? Does the provider’s brand mean the utility provided is any different from their competitors? What about if you bring your historical perceptions to the table in a SaaS world, does it make a difference? Really make a difference? Why would you pay differing amounts? Would you fall for the marketing?

So the answer is yes indeed – brand is still alive and well and pulling the wool over consumers eyes everywhere they look – Azure and all.

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