Mark,

Your points are well taken.   I believe that the wording of the
message is very important.

On the other hand the recent press statements and media reports were
down right misleading.   Some might characterize them as false or
deceptive, making the company appear more focused on HP-UX, NT, and
Linux than they really are.   No company wants to be associated with
that.

Second, HP has a long and acknowledged history of poor marketing
including a ignorance of the HP 3000 in many quarters.    It doesn't
look like Carly has managed to reinvent that HP legacy.

Finally, we (or at least I) are not asking for much.    The dollar
cost should be zero.

1.  A mention of the HP e3000 in the fine print at the bottom of large
printed ads.

2.  More care and context in their focused marketing.   When talking
with journalists I don't see any excuse not to mention MPE/iX at least
as background information.

3.  Nearly every press release from HP ends with a "About HP" section
which gives background information about the company.   All press
releases about any other operating system should name all the business
operating systems supported by HP.

Cortlandt Wilson
Cortlandt Software
Mountain View, CA
(650) 966-8555
http://www.cortsoft.com    (MANMAN Resources Guide)


"Mark Wonsil" <[log in to unmask]> wrote in message
news:39a3d720$1_2@skycache-news.fidnet.com...
> As the day wore on, I got to thinking about the Carly Fiorina piece
in the
> WSJ.  The whole article was about how she shakes things up but gets
results.
>
> Our potential viewer base for our ad has just read an article who
quoted
> many "whiners" saying, "But that's not the HP way", "We want more
control
> over our business units" and, "We don't like the new marketing
plan".  Of
> course, this piece comes out right after a good earnings report for
HP.  So
> who looks like the forward thinking executive and who looks like the
morons?
>
> So what will the readership think of an ad that says Carly isn't
doing it
> right?  I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy nut, but the timing
of this
> surely insulates Carly from any negative thing we could say about
her.  Of
> course, I could be wrong. ;-)
>
> Mark "Going to check for black helicopters" Wonsil
> 4M Enterprises, Inc.
>