Folks,

One of the things I've been meaning to write up is about print advertising. The battles within advertising are fascinating to me -- specifically, what is being said directly versus what is being said indirectly. My point of this thread has little to do with the products themselves, just how they're marketed in the print world. To me, it's fun to watch.

MSFT's .NET print advertising took a dramatic turn about a month ago toward a more softer tone. At some point I'll go into this in some detail but for now, just make a note of it. IBM has been unusually heavy in print advertising this year -- apparently to counteract the MSFT .NET blitz.

At a very high level, using one sentence, here's the message being sent (IMO) by the companies and their products:

Microsoft (re: .NET, original message) -- "We (MSFT, .NET) can do it."
IBM (various products) -- "You can do it."
Microsoft (through the years re: VFP) -- "You're all alone."

At some point I'll go over some detail regarding the various campaigns. Again, the point is not the products per se, but the advertising message. I hope that I do write-ups in a timely fashion and I hope you, the reader, find it interesting as well.

Meanwhile, study MSFT's and IBM's print advertising within the computer magazines. I hope to have the first write-up shortly, maybe by the end of this weekend.

Bill Anderson