I2 – Was a great marketing company

This past week one of the great technology marketing companies, I2, was acquired. There is a very good background on the end of the supply chain era by Dan Gilmore of Supply Chain Digest.

I2 was clearly one of the best enterprise software companies at marketing. Looking at it relative to my post of position, branding, and messaging, I2 managed to define themselves as THE supply chain company.

First they took the position of being a supply chain software company. At the time not a widely used term. Creating a positing in the prospect’s mind that did not exist before. The positioning was brilliant because the product that created their success was Factory Planner, which was simply the next generation of MRP.  A solution that was still focused on manufacturing and optimizing within the 4 walls of the plant, not the extended supply chain.

The messaging and branding that suppported this were also well executed.  If you believed their message, then you would know when you bought coffee at Starbucks, Juan Valdez was instantly getting a purchase order for more coffee beans in Columbia.

Of course in the late 90′s great marketing accomplished lot (in terms of share holder value). Since then there has been a return to normalcy in technology companies having to focus on execution across all functions (marketing, product, sales, customer service.)

Let me know of other good and bad examples of branding, marketing, and positioning.