http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:08:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en What makes sugar sweet? I mean, what is the chemistry involved in the sweet taste? Our tongue detects the sugar molecule by its shape. Sugar molecule fits into grooves in our tongue tip, and when this groove is filled a nerve sends a message to the brain that says -sweet!. It ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2009/09/why-is-sugar-sweet/ R&D investments stagnating and engineering software sales slow down. From a software customer perspective, three factors are shrinking investments in engineering software: Open source software. Customers start to consider open source software as an option. Mergers or acquisitions.  Newly-consolidating client companies maximize interoperability and reduce software redundancy, i.e. they get rid of the ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2009/05/bilateral-symmetry/ Here is my 2009 top 5: Passion 35% Creativity 25% Initiative 20% Intellect 15% Obedience 0% Baseline 0% is the time spent following the rules. Then comes the days spent trying to be smart. Next up is the Time spent waiting to be told. The #2 is the time spent saying stupid things. At the top lies passion and ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2009/03/full-time-equivalents/ A common marketing mistake, is using the wrong language with clients. An example of wrong language is the flight information provided by the captain over the intercom: "Our aircraft is flying at 625 knots Indicated Air Speed" Knots? I can barely convert miles to kilometres. Air-speed? I would rather know the aircraft ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2008/11/conversion-of-units/ Have you ever filled a super-long survey that "shouldn't take more than 5 minutes?" As marketers, we design questionnaire for qualification calls. Some questions are required by the sales team, some others by the company veterans. Questionnaires often turn out being a long and bothering list of questions; a key ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2008/10/do-you-mind-if/ Software and Sushi are two of my favourite things. I like the customizability of sushi meals. There's always a sushi meal that fits with my appetite. I also like the inexpensiveness of sushi. Or actually the inexpensive price per item. Three Euros for a Temaki, two for an Uramaki, etc. Low ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2008/10/software-and-sushi/ I was wondering whether software advertisings tell about customer benefits or not. Ads like: "Our software is flexible, it integrates with other software tools,.." seem more just senseless buzzwords. Our customers are mostly engineers. They pay attention to the words we use more than we might think. If saying "Our software is ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2008/10/meaning-free/ Brain science recently discovered that purchase decisions are processed in less-evolved areas of our brain. Therefore, product buying process, is processed by the same brain-area interested in basic matters like reproduction. Emotions make our customers buy even complex products like software. Rational thought leads customers to be interested but it is ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2008/09/rational-emotional/ Women have been used to sell products to men for decades. IF         - Male brain is wired to respond to attractive females. AND     - Engineering software are mainly used by young males THEN   - Engineering companies should attract prospects with sexual marketing tactics I wonder whether this would have real ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2008/09/software-and-bikini/ Componentware means software designed to work as components for larger applications. Like in the PC, that is built from keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc. In componentware, because the interfaces between modules are standardized, it is possible to mix software from different providers. Componentware is changing the dynamics of the business of software. Some software ... http://www.giorgiobuccilli.com/2008/09/software-dis-integration/