Spangly new SpaceClaim website - sloppy marketing 101
Published 01 August 2008
Posted by Al Dean
Motorola RAZR - probably not designed in SpaceClaim
Looks like SpaceClaim has been spending some more of that VC cash with the web-designers again and there’s a brand new SpaceClaim web-site on the block. I like it, its shiny and has lots of nice things in there.
There are a couple of bits and bobs that aren’t quite right. I love it when people tag that annoying little TM trademark thing after something that really doesn’t need it. Particularly when the company in question, according to a USPTO search, doesn’t even own the trademark (I’d love to stand corrected) or its been owned and abandoned by someone else.
I’m specifically thinking about “Natural 3D design” which was previously owned by Metatools and “Design the way you think” which was owned and abandoned by Ceira Technologies in 2005.
What’s also often interesting is the models that CAD vendors choose to illustrate their web-site, brouchures and such. Perfect example of this are two of the images featured there.
A Motorola RAZR and an Aston Martin. The RAZR is pretty fair game, model something up and use it as a demo. What’s really… Ummm.. what’s the word? Irritating, is the Aston Martin image.
Aston Martin: Not designed by Pininfarina and not designed with SpaceClaim - allegedly
It reads Credit: Bunkspeed/Pininfarina. Unless I’m very much mistaken, Pininfarina had nothing to do with the design of any Aston Martin and certainly not the model shown - and I’d bet the house on the fact that SpaceClaim wasn’t involved. Could it be that this the 3D model that appears in this Youtube video?
A model that was created in SolidWorks, at the turn of the century. And modelling by the talented Mark Biasotti, who was working at IDEO at the time I seem to recall. Guess where he works now? Yes, he works for a company based on Baker Avenue, Concorde, Mass - but it ain’t SpaceClaim.
Comments:
I think you’re right although Pininfarina do engineering/production for other manufacturers. At one stage it was rumoured they’d help with production of the new 4 door Aston.
Posted by RobiNZ on 01 January 1970 at 12:00 AM
Oh absolutely, I saw that they were being considering for assistance with the Rapide build - but to have a marketing program for a design tool, using these types of imagery is horrendously misleading.. Motorola use Pro/E I believe too.. <BR><BR>Jon, I’d love to see SpaceClaim succeed too, and if nothing else, its given other vendors a kick start - when I first saw the product, it was clear there was potential - and that’s the thing with potential, it has to be taken advantage of and used. And it seems no matter who’s in charge, they seem to be making a lot of mistakes. the problem is that these days, those mistakes are done publicly and news spreads like wildfire.<BR><BR>It’s disappointing and if I were one of the design team at either motorola or aston, that had put time, effort and talent into developing both those products, I wouldn’t be too happy about them using that effort to try and market a product that had nothing to do with the process.
Posted by Al Dean on 01 January 1970 at 12:00 AM
Juicy stuff man. love it. I checked this morning and it’s still up there, so must be no big deal to them.<BR><BR>Nice rendering, but it is misleading. Sort of like a case study you commented about one time.<BR><BR>anyway, the models they show are more telling. They need to be more confident about their programs abilities, not someone else’s skills.
Posted by Josh on 01 January 1970 at 12:00 AM
There is nothing wrong in a company using TM with specific phrases. (For instance, I use TM for “upFront.eZine” and “the business of cad, enlightened.”)<BR><BR>TM (trade mark) just means that the word or phrase identifies a service or product of a company. It serves as an alert that other companies shouldn’t use the same mark. In this case, it unofficially belongs to the company.<BR><BR>Only when the TM is registered with the government does it turn into the circled R, a registered trade mark. In that case, it officially belongs to the company. You would find it listed at the USPTO.<BR><BR>In any case, you are right: it is dumb for a company to use images of products its software has not designed. A case of a lazy Web designer.
Posted by
SpaceClaim actually seems to have no marketing plan at all. Trying to piggyback on Rhino VAR’s is never going to work. Neither is using Novedge. I’ve never seen such bad marketing. It’s almost like SpaceClaim is waiting to come up with a better and more complete product or a whole new direction. There are quite a few CAM systems that would become great products if they ran inside SpaceClaim. If SpaceClaim is as lost as they seem then it’s only a matter of time before something hits the fan. I find all of this really sad. I’d like SpaceClaim to do well and be very successful. <BR><BR>Jon Banquer<BR>San Diego, CA
Posted by Jon Banquer on 01 January 1970 at 12:00 AM