Comments on: Of investors, bloggers and customers http://www.techguri.com/2009/07/20/of-investors-bloggers-and-customers/ Technical blog EDA, semiconductor industry Wed, 26 May 2010 09:37:12 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Kathryn Kranen http://www.techguri.com/2009/07/20/of-investors-bloggers-and-customers/comment-page-1/#comment-52 Kathryn Kranen Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:43:33 +0000 http://www.techguri.com/?p=456#comment-52 Thank you, Jacques! It was high time someone called attention to the troubling customer bans on endorsements. Some customers have told Jasper, "You guys are great, but if we do a press release for you, we'll have 100 other vendors knocking on our door." OK, then why not be selective? Explain to other vendors that the highly-coveted press release is only granted to those vendors who have delivered truly outstanding value and support? Wouldn't that benefit you, the customer, by motivating other vendors? I'm seeing another dangerous trend: mercenary endorsements. One company told me, "our finance department only allows press releases in return for discounts of $1M". (Needless to say, we walked away from that PR opportunity!) Fortunately, there are a few companies out there who are still willing to step up and endorse small companies that deliver superior solutions. Here are a few who have recognized Jasper with various forms of marketing support (and please note... we did not pay them for it).: ARM and AMD each authorized press releases this year about their successful adoption of JasperGold. NVIDIA, our oldest customer, has authorized press releases, papers, and testimonial quotes, as well as customer references. Qualcomm didn't allow a press release, but supports us with testimonial quotations we can use in electronic media and trade show signs, as well as by providing customer references. Sun Microsystems and HP both co-authored technical articles that were published this year. Sony Corporation allows us to list them as a customer, but only in fonts like Helvetica or Arial that do not resemble their logo. Our internal champions at Sony had to work extremely hard to get us authorization for that! I am truly grateful to all of these customers for supporting our growth with endorsements and acknowledgement that they are receiving value. I hope other companies will follow their example! Thank you, Jacques! It was high time someone called attention to the troubling customer bans on endorsements. Some customers have told Jasper, “You guys are great, but if we do a press release for you, we’ll have 100 other vendors knocking on our door.” OK, then why not be selective? Explain to other vendors that the highly-coveted press release is only granted to those vendors who have delivered truly outstanding value and support? Wouldn’t that benefit you, the customer, by motivating other vendors?

I’m seeing another dangerous trend: mercenary endorsements. One company told me, “our finance department only allows press releases in return for discounts of $1M”. (Needless to say, we walked away from that PR opportunity!)

Fortunately, there are a few companies out there who are still willing to step up and endorse small companies that deliver superior solutions. Here are a few who have recognized Jasper with various forms of marketing support (and please note… we did not pay them for it).: ARM and AMD each authorized press releases this year about their successful adoption of JasperGold. NVIDIA, our oldest customer, has authorized press releases, papers, and testimonial quotes, as well as customer references. Qualcomm didn’t allow a press release, but supports us with testimonial quotations we can use in electronic media and trade show signs, as well as by providing customer references. Sun Microsystems and HP both co-authored technical articles that were published this year. Sony Corporation allows us to list them as a customer, but only in fonts like Helvetica or Arial that do not resemble their logo. Our internal champions at Sony had to work extremely hard to get us authorization for that!

I am truly grateful to all of these customers for supporting our growth with endorsements and acknowledgement that they are receiving value. I hope other companies will follow their example!

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