I am a avid fan of Amazon. It’s a company, a service and a brand that has consistently over-delivered for me, and as a result, I’m inclined to use them for all my online purchases. I’m also inclined to recommend them to others.

First disclosure out of the way. Second, I’m a giant nerd. This might be a surprise to many of you, I’m sure, but I still play with digits in my free time. I own and manage a few websites. I’ve custom coded a web app or two. And I move lots of my data around through a network of cloud-based services that provide peace of mind.

Second disclosure out of the way.

I was sent an email this morning from Amazon’s cloud services platform. The email invited me to participate in a survey. Amazon wanted to know why I had not used CloudFront, a service that is part of their cloud computing suite. I use Amazon’s simple storage service to keep my photographs safe and sound, and I signed up for CloudFront because I thought it might be a good service for hosting some of my sites. But when I went to the page, this is the description that greeted me:

Amazon CloudFront delivers your static and streaming content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for your objects are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance.

I consider myself a fairly sophisticated guy, but I have no idea what the above paragraph means. Granted, I’m not an engineer, but why do service descriptions have to be so technical? If a true digit-head needed to know that CloudFront uses Edge locations, couldn’t that information have come later. Words like ‘streaming content’ and ‘global network’ have become so over-used that they actually make a description more ambiguous. What does CloudFront do?

It turns out that CloudFront is a brilliant service that makes it easy for a web developer to use several other Amazon cloud services (such as storage) to serve web pages and other digital content. Imagine you wish to develop an app for the iPhone. You could use CloudFront to store and retrieve information you keep in an Amazon database, bundle it into an XML stream, and send it to the user’s iPhone.

As I said at the start, I don’t mean to pick on Amazon, because I’m a fan. But it’s time for tech companies to use plain language, and to do so while avoiding bland, generic statements. Look at how 37Signals describes Ruby on Rails:

Ruby on Rails is an open-source web framework that’s optimized for programmer happiness and sustainable productivity. It lets you write beautiful code by favoring convention over configuration.

Ok, so maybe the “programmer happiness” comment is over the top, but at least I know what the product does. Maybe CloudFront should describe itself as:

Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery service that helps developers create powerful digital applications that take full advantage of other services on the Amazon platform. It’s fast, global, and very cost-effective.

My copy won’t win any awards. But at least you have a better sense of what CloudFront is.

Dear Apple,

I can hardly believe you’re coming to town again. Of course, I will be happy to greet you when you arrive at my door on June 24th. I have to say, I saw your photos, and you look absolutely fabulous. Have you lost weight?

Hey, there’s one thing I wanted to ask you about. You know your friend, AT&T? Yeah, I know he’s a swell guy and all, but … I don’t know. That guy stood me up so many times. I don’t want to talk about him behind his back, but everything I’m telling you I’ve already told him … several times. He’s kind of lame. I mean, why do you hang out with that guy? You work so hard to keep yourself up and do well professionally. It seems to me that that guy is holding you back. I realize he was one of the first to support you when you took your big plunge. It was very noble of him (I’m being sarcastic). I mean, really. You could have had your pick of any guy there. Sure, he was generous with his affections (and his wallet was plenty big), but did you ask anybody about his history? I’m just saying, he was never known for being particularly hard-working. I’m just saying.

Don’t take it personally. I love you. You know that. I just think AT&T is a little shallow. I mean, where is he right now? Here I am, talking to you, and there’s no sign of him at all. It would be one thing if we were in some remote area and he didn’t boast about being there for everyone. But this is Los Angeles and I’m in the middle of one of the most populated neighborhoods. Zero bars. Zero. Where is he? 97% of the country! Sure. And I’m dating Angelina Jolie.

Look, you know I love you. You are welcome at my place anytime. But, let’s talk about your friend. Just talk. I’ll be here for you no matter what. I just don’t want to see you hanging out with a loser.

Love,
-lv

Average Americans aren’t the only ones fretting over healthcare issues. Brand health is becoming one of the hottest topics in the CMO community. Two forces are driving the sudden interest in metrics and “brand dashboards.” Managers are growing more metrics-focused because of the rising use of online media in the total marketing mix. Online media allows managers to see a direct cause-and-effect relationship between a demand generation initiative and sales. It’s only natural that the same managers would start to ask, “How much is my brand driving sales?”

The other factor is money, or more precisely, the scarcity of money. Marketing budgets are usually the last to recover when an economy rises from the ashes of a recession. Every expense is scrutinized. Before investing money on a brand, it’s helpful to assess your brand’s overall health. Think about it: Would you be willing to let a doctor perform a procedure on your body without first doing an examination? Probably not. (more…)

I launched a new site today. It’s my own place to write less than 100 words and share a photo.