So today I received in my email a brochure for "offshore development services".  I guess if you have any indication on your website that your firm develops software, you'll get a notice that offshore software development is available.  What struck me as very odd about the marketing collateral was the image the company is portraying.

Clearly, the firm is positioning itself to offer my firm equivalent development services as what we can hire and maintain in the US, but at lower costs.  Clearly then, most of the development work will be done overseas, hence the "offshore" language in their marketing copy.  However, the marketing collateral is full of pictures of "American" looking individuals huddled over a table staring at the camera in a conference room.  If the marketing collateral is correct, these people add no value to me as a buyer, yet they are placed front and center in the marketing.  Later in the collateral there are pictures of what appear to be two young executives walking along a corridor - fashionably dressed and demographically friendly.  A young man and a young woman.  What do these people have to say to me, the buyer?  They are simply stock photos.  They do nothing for the marketing collateral or for my sense of what this firm can offer me, unless I want my "offshore" development team to be full of beautiful, actualized Americans.

What's more, there's no meat to the collateral.  The firm notes it is a certified Microsoft development partner, which is OK I guess, except every other offshore firm is as well.  There's nothing distinctive about the copy and no differentiated offer is made.  I'm told the firm has achieved on-time projects and has satisfied clients, but there are no quotes or references from any clients.  I'm told the developers have state of the art development facilities and the latest hardware and software (doesn't that drive up the cost?) but nothing about the protection of my IP or the quality of the development work.

This is less than lazy - this is a marketer's answer to phoning it in.  No distinctive or differentiated message, nothing that speaks to the buyer's needs or anxieties, photos of people who aren't doing the work and won't have anything to do with the delivery, no proof of their experience or benefits.  If you are interested, you can see the collateral here - Download Trisoft.pdf

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Rather than telling me what you think you are good at, with pictures of people who won't be involved in my projects, how about helping me understand how you can solve my challenges in a way that makes me a hero?  All this presents me is stock photos, stock marketing language and stock answers.