I was thinking about the entire Dell pricing thing I stirred up below but have got side-tracked. I cannot resist this chance to have a dig at my good friend Sharikou.
September 12 - Sharikou posts this extolling AMD's new site and how innovative their marketing is:
http://sharikou.blogspot.com/2006/09/amd-is-so-innovative.html
You can see the AMD site here:
http://virtualexperience.amd.com/
Now look at this report that AMD has hired shillers to go around the web trying to promote this site anonymously...and in the process have got caught big time:
http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=articles&go=read&arc_id=112
So Sharikou holds AMD and Hector up as the guys with the conscience, the fellows saving us from Intel. Hell, Hector does it too and is taking Intel to court for their unethical business practises, slamming them for screwing up the world. Now...I'm pretty sure Intel ain't as white as milk. But if you're going to hold yourself up as the voice of the people, then do that. Don't be two faced and violate their trust if you think you can get away with it. Whatever my personal opinions on how this battle is going to play out (you can see them in my previous posts - and there is no hands down winner), I have a tremendous respect for how AMD has turned itself around. That respect just took a deep dive.
Hector should fire Henri Richard who looks after marketing and apologise publicly.
I'm still waiting to see how Sharikou spins this into a an argument that AMD is made of fairy dust. Or he'll just stay quiet when it's outside the scope of his rhetoric.
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17 comments:
You seem to have forgot the caveat "if the report is true" while writing this article.
Also, promoting their Virtual Tradeshow isn't like writing false product reviews. Even then, if your reading forum posts to research products, you've already lost your way.
The other thing you have to remember is that AMD is still a business and a business will always play close to the line of acceptibility. Their not a non-profit organization. Hell, even the Red Cross ain't the model of morality your asking AMD to be.
Randy - hmmm...let me see. So you've lost your way too because you're reading my forum here?
BTW - do you only believe things you read in the newspaper. Perhaps you can conclusively tell me whether there were WMDs in Iraq or not. The poster is the editor in chief of NGOHQ - so does that make him a journalist and perhaps qualified to have an opinion.
Come on man - you're missing the point. Of course nobody is 100% moral. But if you are going to make "holier than thou" your calling card you better make sure you're clean or don't get caught. If they were doing nothing contrary to the spirit of the Internet, why hide their identities and do multiple posts under different IDs.
While I am obviously reading your blog, I hate to point out my just as obvious statement referencing research. You know I specifically meant taking forum and blog posts as nonfiction, in that case one has lost his way.
Back to your acticle, the easiest argument to make against AMD being two-faced is: 2 or 3 people do not a corporation make.
Randy - the link to NGOHQ is actually an article by their editor in chief. It's not a blog post.
However, I agree AMD should not be completely judged by the actions of 2-3 folks in marketing. By admitting this I have now removed most of the motivation to have Sharikou come to this post and defend AMD and Hector which was the reason I wrote the post in the first place.
On a more serious note, management must take accountability for the actions of it's employees. Just as Intel mgmt should be slammed for claiming to be a professionally managed company and then laying off half the people it hired in the last 18 months, AMD should be held accountable for creating an aura of moral and ethical behaviour internally if that is the position it takes externally.
cheers...
So how about this for marketing?
crowed as "most significant enhancement"
Then draws complaints.
This company should be ashamed of itself.
Anonymous - I agree. What is even more pathetic is to replace an existing software with something that's worse. And equally shocking is Apple seems to be slipping down the slope of quality control. They better get a grip on things or their followers will start to lose faith in the brand.
Sharikou might have to put up quite an argument if he were to post here. I don't see him visiting much unfortunately
check this out:
http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/10847
Please read it to the end.
"With this information in mind, we decided to send AMD an e-mail pointing to the NGOHQ story and asking if AMD paid companies or individuals to promote its products or services in online forums, or if it employed any other kind of viral marketing, either directly or indirectly. Seven hours later, we received the following e-mail from Design Reactor's Director of Client Services, Kelly Seelig:
Thank you for your inquiry about the AMD Virtual Experience. AMD forwarded your email and I wanted to get back to you about the viral marketing questions you posed.
Design Reactor is very proud of the AMD Virtual Experience, and we have many dedicated and talented employees that have worked countless hours to create this unique environment. I am sure that some of their excitement around this project has spilled over into their personal lives, with various postings to sites that they may visit on a regular basis. Although we as a company do not want to take any acknowledgement away from the great people we employ and the great work they’ve done, we also do not want to create any misperception around AMD’s involvement. AMD has not commissioned us in any way to do any kind of viral marketing or promotion of this site in any venues other than traditional paid media vehicles. Although we are not able to mandate what our employees do in their personal time, and we certainly do not want to curb any of their enthusiasm around this monumental accomplishment, we will assure that if they are posting anything about this project they will not be anonymous in their postings.
If Design Reactor is to be believed, then, the forum postings were simply made by over-enthusiastic Design Reactor employees eager to show off their work. One has to admit, a professional viral marketing effort commissioned by AMD certainly should be more elaborate than a bunch of forum posts by completely new members all put up on the same day. Professional guerilla marketers often spend weeks or even months integrating themselves into online communities before advertising a product, and they're far less likely to be uncovered. However, if these posts were really an independent effort by employees, why did their IP addresses resolve to Design Reactor's domain?"
Anonymous - I agree with where you seem to be going - nice summary. I'm not buying Design Reactor's story. Basically, they did a shoddy job of seeding the forums and got caught. AMD must have called them and told them to take the rap or lose the business. First of all - the posters were anonymous and if you look at the posts they went in one after another under different ID's to try and make it sound like the original poster had credibility.
Complete BS...hire a good marketing company so you don't get caught. But first - if you're going to pretend to be saving us from the bad side, don't be a hypocrite.
Another example of this is how Hector and team for 2 years kept talking about benchmarks as the way to judge their superior performance and the instant Core came along, they changed their tune. I think I will dig up some of that history for my next post to prove my point. I think AMD is a kick-ass company but they're not saving us from Intel because they have the customer's best interests in mind. Most of their "ranting" about choice is because they don't have one...that's how they have to position themselves.
Point is Intel ain't clean - & neither is AMD. So as long as they keep fighting a price war, we the consumers keep winning.
I agree with the fact that both Intel and AMD are just looking for our money. At the end they are not charitable orgaisations, but at this time I feel strongly that Intel is more evil. Most probably AMD did not even know that Design Reactor's guys were posting every where on the net and i do not think AMD bothers about checking those mentioned forums regularly anyway.
The problem with this story on this blog is that if you read it without the comments you wont get the whole story (at least you do not get AMD and Design Reactor's point of view).
Shorman
Shorman - true, the story unravels a little more in the comments which happend after I wrote the post. However, if you see my last comment I ain't buying. I have no issue with marketing - every company needs to make money. But what the Design Reactor guys did was against the spirit of the Internet and as they are paid by AMD...guess who's gotta take responsibility. Negligence and incompetence are not excuses or I would say there are several fella's from a company called Enron who would have been in a very different place right now.
It wouldn't be against the law for AMD to deny hiring viral marketers.
You would think that the viral marketers would require payment for their services rather than wasting their own time to do it:)
Okay. This story makes no sense whatsoever. AMD would have no trouble taking an extra $1 Million and launching an ad campaign to promote their new website. It amazes me that people can accept that AMD pulls $2 Billion in cash to buy ATI and then are willing to believe that AMD has to resort to viral marketing. This is insane. If you honestly believe this you either have no grasp of accounting or you probably also believe that Elvis is still alive.
Scientia - it seems like you don't understand marketing...so I'm not going to try and explain it. The argument you present basically can be used to absolve any company of any mistake they make.
Actually, I do understand marketing and I also know that getting the word out would be the responsibility of AMD's sales department. It is impossible that AMD's main method of getting this information out would be by forum posts. If you really understand this then you should know how ludicrous this sounds. Posting in forums would be a job you might give to a couple of interns to do for a couple of days. This is a completely different scale than actual marketing.
BTW, I turned off word verification on my blog and, so far, haven't had any spam comments.
Dude - good for you on not being spammed. Though I fail to see the connection w/ the topic above.
Read the post - nobody said this is the primary method of getting the word out for AMD. That dubious distinction belongs to Sharikou. All it says is this is a sneaky and under-hand method.
Was watching "Waterworld" on Bravo tonight. One part of marketing is mass media advertising. Intel put out a Core2 ad. Not as part of an HP or Gateway thing, just an ad for their processor.
Someone at Intel must think consumers buy PC's on more than just price/features, i.e. one processor brand is not equivalent to all others.
Interesting thing about manufactured hype, it can also backfire. Did the initial hype around Prescott save it from being doomed as "Press-hot?"
Love the blog.
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