Big Launch! Stay Away!
3:00 -- One company appears to have broached just about all of my bad marketing peeves in a single day.
Fremont, Calif.-based Intellambda Systems Inc. today issued a press release announcing the ILS640, the "industry's first packet-over-optical DWDM transport switch for metro/regional optical networking."
The press release drew our attention. Here's a company we've never heard of launching a product. So we poked around for more information. Here's what I found:
Peeve #1: The company has issued a press release that has no contact information listed. There's nobody to call. I've never understood why some companies do this. It's akin to saying, "We want publicity but please don't try to find us."
Peeve #2: The bare-bones Website has almost no valuable information on the company's background. There are no bios for founders, management, or investors. There isn't even a white paper on what the thing does. Who are these guys?
Peeve #3: You would think if the company wanted somebody to notice its launch, it would call editors of Light Reading -- perhaps the day before -- and tell them what was going on.
Peeve #4: In addition to having no contact info on the press release, there are no phone numbers listed on the Website. Under "Contact Us," the company has a Web form. What's with the Web forms? Has anybody ever successfully gotten a reply from anybody by filling out a Web form? Free advice from a Light Reading editor: This is just a plain-old awful way to launch a company. The message it sends is of an underfunded company trying to save money and one that doesn't want to engage with people.
What's Intellambda Systems afraid of? That somebody might actually discover they exist?
— R. Scott Raynovich, US Editor, Light Reading
Fremont, Calif.-based Intellambda Systems Inc. today issued a press release announcing the ILS640, the "industry's first packet-over-optical DWDM transport switch for metro/regional optical networking."
The press release drew our attention. Here's a company we've never heard of launching a product. So we poked around for more information. Here's what I found:
Peeve #1: The company has issued a press release that has no contact information listed. There's nobody to call. I've never understood why some companies do this. It's akin to saying, "We want publicity but please don't try to find us."
Peeve #2: The bare-bones Website has almost no valuable information on the company's background. There are no bios for founders, management, or investors. There isn't even a white paper on what the thing does. Who are these guys?
Peeve #3: You would think if the company wanted somebody to notice its launch, it would call editors of Light Reading -- perhaps the day before -- and tell them what was going on.
Peeve #4: In addition to having no contact info on the press release, there are no phone numbers listed on the Website. Under "Contact Us," the company has a Web form. What's with the Web forms? Has anybody ever successfully gotten a reply from anybody by filling out a Web form? Free advice from a Light Reading editor: This is just a plain-old awful way to launch a company. The message it sends is of an underfunded company trying to save money and one that doesn't want to engage with people.
What's Intellambda Systems afraid of? That somebody might actually discover they exist?
— R. Scott Raynovich, US Editor, Light Reading
