Promote products, not solutions

Hardly a day goes by without people sending me several announcements of new "solutions" aimed at engineers. The creative wordsmiths who produce press releases have stumbled onto new jargon, so expect to see the word solutions appear in more advertisements, news announcements, company mission statements, and sales brochures. These public-relations specialists don't realize their clients sell products or services, not solutions. Unfortunately, companies' marketing people may not understand the difference, either, so they use a fashionable new word instead.

Strictly speaking, a solution represents the answer to a problem, and no product I know of solves a problem on its own. By applying products, people solve problems. Thus, an oscilloscope may help an engineer track down a timing problem, but it cannot locate the problem on its own—scopes know nothing about timing problems. Nor can a scope solve a timing problem. It helps reveal a problem that engineers then try to solve.

I fear the PR agencies that promote solutions use the word because they cannot understand a product and how it can benefit people. So, they can't describe it succinctly. Instead of saying a product can do this or that, they say it's a solution. Products no longer exist as RF test sets or machine-vision software. Instead, they're RF-test solutions and vision solutions. Companies that promote themselves as providers of "solutions" need to decide what message they wish to convey. Do they wish to come across as fuzzy thinkers that can't nail down what they want to say, or do they have a clear message for engineers about their products, services, and new technologies?

The same companies and PR agencies that promote solutions also must learn the difference between features and benefits. All too often, companies promote features, but customers need to know about benefits. Feature statements such as, "Now with four differential inputs!" may appeal to the people who market a product. But unless a company can clearly state benefits such as, "Four differential inputs now let you perform xyz tests with one instrument," potential customers may simply wonder what it is the company offers. It's obvious—they offer solutions.

At present, you're on your own trying to figure out what a "test solutions" company sells and what a "total solutions provider" offers. For our part, we'll try to avoid using "solution" unless it refers to an answer to a problem. Thankfully, the word will become trite, as did the phrases "quantum leap" and "paradigm shift." In the meantime, the overuse and misuse of solutions may lead to dissolution or insolvency.