With "cloud," technology marketers are faced with the highest level of hype since the Internet pioneer days in the late 1990s. The rapid rise of cloud computing ideas has combined the technology industry virtualization trends with the buzz of the Internet so powerfully that many vendor CEOs are demanding a strategy and a path to thought leadership in this critical new industry trend. Marketers at vendors of software, hardware, professional services, hosting, telecom services and software-as-a-service are all asking Forrester about the implications of cloud, what to offer, and how to position themselves as part of the mega-trend.

Forrester defines the term “cloud” as a standardized IT capability, such as software, app platform, or infrastructure, delivered via Internet technologies in a pay-per-use and self-service way. The appeal of instant service provisioning, unlimited capacity and pay-per-use accounting is strong and has led to many starry-eyed predictions of revolution. The reality is that we’re in a hype bubble that will crash soon. Forrester believes that this new set of ideas will endure and grow dramatically; what won’t endure is the all-encompassing use of the word “cloud”.
The term “Cloud” is confusing because media, pundits, and marketers use it to refer to a range of often contradictory technology concepts, value propositions, and business models. And this confusion leads many technology executives to give trendy, but vague presentations, while customers try out the new language without knowing what they really want, leading to conversations in which neither side understands one another. Ultimately, for the technology marketers, this confusion arising out of cloudy language obscures their brands, clogs prospect pipelines and lengthens sales cycles.

So, what’s the right way to message your cloud offering? Just be clear about your offering and value without creating hype. As technology marketers, you have to move with the market, address CEO demands for market leadership and satisfy influencers monitoring the latest trends. But, these goals aren’t served by fogging up market efforts with cloudy language. In fact, leave “cloud” out of your top-line messaging entirely. To fend off new threats and make the most of new opportunities, Forrester recommends that marketers should:

Develop the Entire Marketing Message without using the “C” Word: It’s a good discipline to force you to explain the full offering, value propositions and differentiation without reference to cloud. This forces you to be as specific and clear as possible rather than hoping that a catchy phrase will give you affinity cachet. And it will make you be very specific about the applicability of the new product or service to specific use cases, such as Greenfield Web applications, rather than making generic statements that can be broadly interpreted.

Retrofit “Cloud“ to the Message for Buzzword Compliance with Market Influencers: Once you’re clear on the core message, identify your target buyers and research their affinity for the “C” word. If some customers or influencers look for “cloud” rather than being put off by it, add it back to key messaging points to show how your offering or value proposition can be compared with the specific attributes of “cloud” that are relevant, rather than opening the Pandora’s box of cloud possibilities. Doing so, enables marketers to show compatibility with the industry mega-trend without the blanket associations and misconceptions that cause confusion. And if a significant chunk of your target audience will be put off by cloud language, leave it out entirely — you don’t need it to succeed, as long as your core value is clear.