
Look like the brand you want to be - danielh
http://gigaom.com/2011/10/04/project-blowfish-look-like-the-brand-you-want-to-be/
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varikin
From the customer care side of it, responsiveness matters a lot in the
enterprise world (and the non-enterprise world as well). Even if a very
complicated issue takes 3 months to fix, responding to an email or opened
ticket within an hour and keeping continuous communication with the customers.
I have seen customers happy when an issue takes 3-6 months to solve because
the person helping them talked to them every couple days asking for more info
or giving updates on the the progress. At the same time, I have seen customers
mad as hell because the initial response to an new ticket took 3 hours enough
though the it was solved 15 minutes later.

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DanielStraight
Counterpoint: [http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-
li...](http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-like-
one.html)

~~~
erable
While both articles address a company's outward image, I'd say that the two
touch upon very different things. I understood OP's post to be more about the
quality of marketing collateral and making sure that the client experience was
well fleshed-out, and I read your link to be a lesson in messaging. I didn't
find the two to be mutually exclusive.

~~~
donw
I think that both articles are saying the same thing, fundamentally:

Your brand should be something your customers expect, but only just.

Smart Bear was a small, upstart company, selling cutting-edge tools for
developers into a relatively new market.

Developers and their managers value directness, especially at small companies.
A vendor that shows all the signs of being a peacock while obviously being a
pigeon will come across as scummy, because your market is expecting one of
"small upstart dude in shed" or "massive enterprise company with a headcount
greater than many cities", and not something in the middle.

Iron Port's customers, on the other hand, are buying security products, and
frankly, the security industry is almost all theatre. An impressive-looking
website, bespoke-looking product, and glossy sales brochure is all in the ante
of playing at the security-vendor table, especially before Web 2.0.

Your company has to dress for the occasion.

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jjm
I would urge though that early stage startups be careful to not prematurely
scale (with graphics). This info seems more for those that are wee bit further
down the lifecycle. Just keep that in mind.

If you've already got a few customers and are trying to spur the engine of
growth then going this way will surely help you.

Carefully make the correct decisions based on who your customers are (and in
this facet if they really are Enterprise).

My experience with Enterprise is that it can seem like a networking game.
Either your intro'd somehow, reached out to (the easy way), or part of a
'approved vendors' list (take a guess on how you get in to that...
'*sometimes' requires insured...).

[http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2700-the-best-visual-
descript...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2700-the-best-visual-description-
of-a-company-ive-ever-seen)

Just keep in mind where you stand to make a better choice.

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zdw
TL;DR - Nobody in enterprise took us seriously, so we did a bunch of cosmetic
stuff like put fancy faceplates on our hardware. We also made our
documentation top notch. Then people took us seriously.

I wonder which was more of a win, doing the great documentation or making the
equipment not look cheap. I'm betting it would depend greatly on who makes the
purchase decisions in the customer companies.

~~~
adestefan
As someone who used to make these decisions, the answer is both.

On a device like this the life-cycle support is just as important as the
initial sale. By creating great documentation, a safe package for the
delivery, and caring enough to make it not look like a repackaged Dell system,
it's a good indication that you'll care enough when I call at 3AM with an
urgent issue.

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intellection
Organizational Mimicry? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimicry>

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alttag
This seems to be the corporate version of the adage "dress for the job you
want, not the job you have."

