Trying to appear as someone that you are not will always fail in B2B marketing. You will irritate rather than communicate if your marketing messages don't reflect what you really are. To spend 300 million USD as Microsoft does it right now with ad campaigns won't change that at all, in contrary, it is a total waste. As Seth Godin sums it up:"Microsoft can change this if they want to, but until they do, running ads pretending to be something other than that is a waste of money."

I am sure you already had similar experiences as I had this week. You are so busy with work and life that you miss great things and are very surprised that you have not heard of it before. I had exactly this experience myself with a great singer: Sophie Zelmani from Sweden. I suppose most of you have heard of her before as she is quite high ranked in the charts. I must admit I've never heard of her before though. When I skimmed through my iPhone iTunes store this week, (thanks to Apple) I found her name and listened to one of her songs. I was immediately taken away by her voice and the mood she spreads. After listening to lots of her songs now and - that is what you need to do with Sophie's songs - dived into her mood, I asked myself why do I like her? The answer is: she comes across as being very authentic. You simply get the feeling she thinks what she sings. No makeup BS, plain singing from the heart. Now why am I writing about this here you might have started wondering? Authenticity is key for all of us product marketing folks. If your clients get the feeling you are at the heart of things and can offer them real value without too much sales and marketing blablabla then you are nearly where you want to be: win a new fan. I became a fan of Sophie. My favorite songs and videos are: I am going home, Always You, Memory Loves You. The fall and winter can come, thanks to Sophie!