by Zsolt Kerekes,
editor - StorageSearch.com
- April 24, 2013
See also:-
Branding Strategies
in the SSD Market, Marketing Views
It started like this... Incoming emails from STEC started to
manifest what looked like bad typos in the subject line and within the text.
Were they genuine or spam? After a while it became apparent that the company
had undertaken an unannounced rebranding exercise. This spoof article first
appeared on the SSD news page
of
StorageSearch.com |
| ....... |
| great lessons we can
learn from SSD leaders |
You can learn a lot
about SSD design by talking to people who have designed world leading
SSDs.
Even when they don't want to tell you the exact details of how
they've solved a particular kind of problem - the numbers they drop along the
way (we got 85% efficiency at this, or we got a write speed which is 2x
faster than what you'd usually expect from this type of memory) can
illustrate the probable paths their inventive minds went.
The
reverse analysis (or educated guesswork) is helped along by knowing that
there was a solution and because there are only so many ways you can shuffle
the architecture, software and silicon deck.
But is it the same with
SSD business development and marketing?
If company A chooses this route
to market - while company B - which has a very similar product - is reporting
much better success by their unconventional way of reaching customers - what can
that tell you about how to mange your own SSD business?
I thought it
would be interesting to see if we could reverse analyze the processes which one
of the world's leading SSD companies must have gone through recently to arrive
at a solution which surprised me - and which some of you have been asking about
in your emails.
The SSD company formerly known as STEC would prefer now
to be called sTec (sic).
What was the shtik?
I may have got some of the intermediate
details wrong - and I don't know for sure - how long the whole thing took from
the start to finish.
But I think it's possible to reproduce some of
the steps this company took by knowing what their starting point was - and
seeing where they got to in the end. I think the solution itself also reveals a
lot about this company's priorities.
Hush now while we drop in to
eavesdrop on the raw genius of the creative process... |
STEC nope. that's the one we've grown tired of
STECPersonally I like it a lot. But I don't think that's the
direction we're supposed to be going in.
STECI really like that too but I don't think it's allowed
either. Have you read the email?
the one which says why we're doing
this?
it was sent last week.
you found it? good.
No.
I haven't read it either.let's start again at the top
STECyeah - the good oldie. It's a classic.
STEcthat's much better already
STecare we going in the right direction?
Stecno - that's way too boring and predictable
stecno - that's too modern
steCthat's a definite improvement already
stECis that getting better or worse?
sTEClooks too similar to where we started
STECI told you to be careful. Let's just go back to one at a time.
STEcI meant in the other direction
sTECare we putting colors into this? No.
And we had that one before. Let's go back to that one we had before.
steCthat's it. Are we done? No - I meant - let's start left shifting
from here.
stCethat's not what I meant. Can you roll it back?
steCI still like this one the best. Now shift the upper case one to
the left
stEcthat looks horrible. Maybe we're going the wrong way about it.
Let's pause here and come back after lunch.
sTecthat looks weird. How about if we change all the cases?
StEC Saint ECC? I don't think so
arwxthat's not even the right letters. Yes we do have to use the same
letters.
TECSand in the original order. Let's start again.
STEChow many permutations can there be?
!!!!maybe we already solved it and didn't realize. Should we get a
focus group in?
*F*!why don't we print them all out, cut them into pieces, put them in
a jar and then pick one (without looking)
what do you mean you weren't
saving them after they rolled off the top of the screen?
how many
have we got left?
no don't press any more buttons
are you sure
that's the one?
can we print that?
are we ready then?
my
hand doesn't fit in the jar
is there anyone in the office with small
hands?
what do you mean you don't feel comfortable asking your
co-workers if their hands are smaller than yours? OK I get it. No - we don't
want to get HR involved. Can we find a bigger jar?
got it.
should
we be videoing this moment for posterity?
I declare the winner to
be...
arwxdon't press upload to youtube just yet
here's the next
one
sTecno one will believe us when we tell them how hard it was |
Editor:- I hope you find the dramatized account
above useful and self explanatory.
As I said to one reader this
morning - the transition from STEC to sTec (is that the right one) is a
symptom of what happens when a company (which previously behaved as though it
rated the importance of investing in marketing as close to zero) buys into
mistaken concepts of what marketing is really about.
...Later:-
2 months after publishing the above article - it was announced that the letters
"c" and "e" had been shifted to become "h" and "g",
and furthermore the order of the letters had been shuffled around and all of
them had been recapitalized.
So the end to end process went from STEC,
to sTec to HGST.
But if I'm really going to complete this picture then
I should remind you that long before all the above rebranding convolutions
occurred - back in the cold winter of
February 2007 -
the company which we later grew to know as "STEC" - sold off the
SimpleTech brand name, along with its memory business to focus more on SSDs.
This transition from SimpleTech to STEC was self evidently pragmatic and
didn't require any further explanation. | | |
| . |
 |
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