The "ilities" aren't enough

The "ilities" don't work as value propositions because everyone has them. You know what the ilities are - marketing buzzwords like scalability, reliability, usability, maintainability, interoperability, openness-ability and portability. These do not reflect any basic customer sensibility or requirement. Most customers are immune to these words since all vendors make the same claims. But what we find most worrisome is that despite these glaring problems, many vendors actually seem to believe their own nonsense for instance by believing that their "scalability" is better than anyone and customers will line up for a piece of it. It is one thing to fib politely in a customer presentation (where you are not exactly expected to speak the complete truth), and it is another thing entirely to build a business strategy on the same flimsy reasoning (to ‘‘inhale your own exhaust'' as it is colorfully described). To our horror, in all too many cases, after mixing their marketing Kool-Aid they actually drink it. We are not against marketers who spin stories to promote their new products. This is part of the game when dealing with creative and highly charged entrepreneurs. As insiders we enjoy seeing creativity at work. The ‘‘spun'' truth is as OK as a polite lie, but can be deadly if you actually believe it. What are we preaching? If you rely on the ilities, it's time to rework you value proposition to something much more substantial (read on...).