Marketing is a disaster and just keeps getting worse. Instead of making fundamental changes at the top, a “new plan” gets created every 6 months. VP’s are not really accountable to their last “plan” so they just make up a new one. Over and over again. Expect more changes that look big but, really, it’s just papering over the fundamental issue that most VP’s simply don’t understand the technologies and how they are adopted. They read an analyst report and think they understand it and make up a plan. Ask any marketing leader how many formal meetings they have had with a non-customer user in the last quarter. The content they give to the sales field is superficial and nearly worthless so we don’t use it.
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“ most VP’s simply don’t understand the technologies and how they are adopted”. I’m glad this getting attention.
They are stuck in early 2000’s marketing and account targeting strategies. NetApp actually has market leading tech but marketing VP’s are old school. Rather than building an audience of enthusiastic users like AWS and Microsoft do so well, they take short cuts to target opportunities that likely already have a preferred vendor. Sales teams are almost always three steps behind on these identified opportunities by the time we get in. They are trying to be opportunistic rather than strategic. They tell sales field they are data driven but the data tells us they are failing.
Not data-driven, pineapple-driven. This month.
OMG the general NetApp marketing is the worst org. I worked there for a little over a year before moving over to a local channel marketing gig. Essentially you get kicked in the teeth until you prove you have a solid idea, then you drag everyone kicking and screaming until you get your thing 90% done, then some long term netapper comes in, takes over, then kicks you off the team.
But, they are “data-driven”.
Absolutely right! Marketing at NetApp is a nightmare, however all the marketing people are living in their internal „world“. brown nosing, behavioral as teachers pet, not available for any kind of feedback and those who are really good marketing people are mobbed out already or will be soon. Sales needs support and no bullshitting, hence sales, all the good ones - either left to Pure or cloudproviders or will be mobbed out with ridiculous high never achievable targets. If you‘ve got the chance - leave this toxic place or wait for August. Maybe you are on the list anyway
Hey they rename orgs , twice every year. That should be lot of work too