Intel Case Study

NONSENSENUMBERS

Wil Harris

Using authenticity, fairness and transparency to beat the benchmarks

Customers don't care about bench- So how do you engage with that kind of marks. Get used to it. tit for tat, lowest denominator advertising? And if savvy customers don't care OK, let's qualify that. Customers don't about your benchmarks, what do they care about your benchmarks. In today's care about? corporate world, where consumers are bombarded with hundreds of advertise- The answer is - disengage. Then, reenments a day, Brand X saying they're bet- gage on your own terms and serve your ter than Brand Y doesn't mean anything customer, not your competitor. any more. There's no trust. Customers are saying - we don't believe you. Identify who your competitor is marketing to when they're pitching At least, the savvy ones are. The down- benchmarks. Then market better. side of the scenario is that the stupid customers - and there are more stupid peo- What is synonymous with better? Authenple in the world than savvy people - often tically. Transparently. Fairly. The followbuy into advertising. This means that ing is a starting point for a benchmarking 'headline-grabbing' benchmark adver- and marketing campaign that engages on tisements - "Brand X is 90% faster than those terms. Brand Y in Test Z!" - will always still have an impact.

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Problem 1: Communicating the performance of server products to an audience of server buyers.

that they trust. Sure, you're not going to win every benchmark. But you'll win most of them, right? And you can at least keep score of the overall total. Move the goalposts on the benchmarks, too - be authentic. Performance, as we understand it today, isn't about raw performance. It's about heat, cost, space and power, so solicit the savvy server community input on designing benchmarks, then try them out. Sometimes they'll work, sometimes they won't. At worst, the people buying the technology will understand better the problems trying to...