Wednesday, May 27. 2009

Charity Support and Branding PBBI Style

I'm all for corporations supporting charities, so I was pleased to read that Pitney Bowes Business Insight, (which includes the company formerly known as MapInfo) was supporting a drive around the world in a 1978 Cooper Mini to raise funds for several charities. The company donated $10,000. Great.

Now, the odd part: MapInfo is in the car and there's a Google Maps website to track its travels (and donate). That suggests to me that a casual reader would think that PB Insights is in the tracking and car nav space, not the location intelligence space. That said, a quote from a PB notes the most important part is the address locating, a technology where MapInfo has played for some time. The sponsorship is also aimed at promoting MapInfo Professional 10. I know that promotions need not directly relate to a sponsors product or service, but this one is "close enough" perhaps, to confuse potential users regarding the new brand.

Per IT World Canada:

The 31-year old Mini is equipped with Pitney Bowes’ mapping and geographical analysis software MapInfo Professional, which is linked to a GPS system that Mortimer is using to replace paper maps.

Pitney Bowes is tracking Mortimer’s trip through his GPS-enabled cell phone and providing updates on the tour via a Website that launches today. Visitors to the site will be able to subscribe for notifications on Mortimer's location and status.

The most important part of the technology is the global addressing, according to Justin Barota, architect in Advanced Concepts and Technology at Pitney Bowes, who was on-site at the Toronto event. If you want to meet Duncan in downtown San Francisco on June 8 and he happens to be there, the system will notify you that he is in the vicinity and provide a route to the event, he said.

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