The layered messaging marketing model as applied to Netezza
I just put up a post claiming that enterprise IT marketing arguments commonly boil down to one of two layered messaging templates. Let’s test how that claim applies to one of the most innovative technology companies of this decade: Netezza.
Netezza data warehouse appliances (proof-today stack)
- All the benefits of business intelligence and data mining, more easily and affordably
- Numbers make some claims obvious. References validate too.
- Lower price than older vendors, better concurrency and more features than newer vendors, easy installation and administration
- Hey, look at the proven results!
- References, obvious sales momentum, proofs-of-concept
Much of Netezza’s market success comes from being seen as the only or most-proven supplier of a cheaper/better data warehousing alternative. Customer momentum is utterly central to that image. It will be interesting to see what happens when a couple of other rivals (e.g., Greenplum, Vertica) also start exhibiting robust customer bases.
Netezza data warehouse appliances (sustainable-lead stack)
- All the benefits of business intelligence and data mining, more easily and affordably
- Hey, isn’t it obvious?
- Lower price than older vendors, better concurrency and more features than newer vendors, easy installation and administration
- We use the cheapest parts in the smartest ways; nobody else does the same things. And our product is more mature than rivals’, so we’re ahead on concurrency.
- Unique hardware design, general MPP shared-nothing architecture, no-indexes design
Netezza’s technical messaging isn’t quite as smooth. They certainly have a nice story, but it has holes. Many people see proprietary hardware designs as a weakness, and aren’t convinced that the benefits are so large as to compensate. There are lower-priced rivals. Feature advantages vs. newer vendors aren’t that obvious upon close inspection. And so on.
In my opinion, the flaw is that Netezza needs to be somewhat more aggressive about trumpeting the benefits of its proprietary designs than it has been. Doing so would let Netezza make a strong, coherent technology pitch, to a greater extent than it now does. If Netezza takes that strategy to extremes, it could become yet easier for rivals to tar them with the “proprietary” pitch. But the dial should be set somewhat higher than it now is.
But while I can criticize some details of Netezza’s messaging – mainly, that there isn’t quite enough of it – I don’t see anything that contradicts the overall layered framework that I’ve begun to spell out.
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[…] 3.0 – The layered messaging marketing model as applied to Netezza Mon, Sep 8, 2008 6:51 AM I just put up a post claiming that enterprise IT marketing arguments commonly boil down to one of two layered messaging templates. Let’ s test how that claim applies to one of the most innovative technology companies of this decade: Netezza. Netezza data warehouse appliances (proof-today stack) All the benefits of business intelligence and data mining, […] […]