White Paper Pundit

“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants“– Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

We live in strange times when truth has become relative. If you want to find your own version of truth, there is a steady supply of sources on the Internet that will validate whatever version of truth you are seeking.

So in the face of a Google Trends statistic that shows that the number of searches for “software tool” outperforms “software solution“,  as identified by Inside TEC, then how on earth can one overcome a challenge from such a reputable information source?

My approach is to shed some light by conducting a little bit common sense research. Research that isn’t dependent on Google Trends, but by directly contacting a variety of reputable marketing people. My sample list included a total of 10 enterprise business marketing executives that regularly read and are quite familiar with white paper content. This list included:

An Enterprise Software CEO
An Enterprise Business Consultant
A Microsoft Software Developer
An Enterprise Software Consultant
A Fortune 1000 Bank Marketing Executive
An Enterprise Software Sales Manager
2 Mid-Level Marketing Managers
2 Technical Marketing Writers

I asked these individuals three basic questions about their interpretation of word “solution” versus “tool“ that might be found in a white paper:

1. How do you feel when you see the word “solution” in a white paper? Does it tend to discredit your view of the sponsoring company, author, product, or provider?

2. Would you find it more or less favorable if the word “tool” was used as a replacement for “solution”? What comes to mind when you hear the word “tool” in technology white paper?

3. If you could suggest a replacement for the word “solution” what would it be?

Here are the Results:

9 of the 10 survey participants saw the word “solution” in a positive light. What was most important was how the word “solution” supported a degree of “believeability“. The majority of the responses were akin to this response from this enterprise software CEO:

“To me a solution is a response to a set of requirements that might encompass software, services, and business processes. As an “executive” reader I’m looking for solutions. Is it trite and over-used? Maybe, but that is the challenge to the reader.”

The only somewhat negative reaction to the word “solution” came from this mid-level marketing manager:

“If the claim in the white paper around the word “solution” are grandiose, I feel bothered by the entire paper, not just the word “solution”. But if the paper talks about something being a potential solution for some problem I identify with, that doesn’t bother me. So my reaction is not as much to the word solution as to the overall sense of reality of the white paper.”

Regarding their interpretation of the word “tool“, all the responses were less favorable, seeing the word as an improper replacement and more of a type of “solution“. This software consultant’s response seemed to be the norm:

“Tool is less favorable. To me “tool” implies a requirement that I need to learn how to use it and employ it in order to build something. That doesn’t get me to market faster and probably me costs more. Solutions are built using tools.”

Or this response from a bank marketing manager:

“I don’t think “tools” is an appropriate replacement word. I interpret tools as something technology focused, not what I would see as an all encompassing replacement for “solutions”.

Finally when it came to finding a replacement for “solution“, all of the participants except one person was unable to find another suitable word to replace it. What was that person’s replacement word?  “Application“. 

Bottom Line:

The point with this exercise is this: Before you throw out a perfectly good word such as “solution” just because a marketing blogger tells you that it’s no longer “fashionable“, seek out your own reality. Talk to your client. Talk to a co-worker. Talk to someone you trust!

You just might find that a theory based on a Google search is nothing more than empty data, which says a lot about the source that promotes it in the first place.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 pm and is filed under White Paper Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.