Avigilon Key Executive Keith Marett Gone

Gone. The self proclaimed [link no longer available] "principal designer of Avigilon’s global expansion and industry ownership" is out and looking for a new job [link no longer available].

Can Avigilon survive? Is this the error that crashes their hypergrowth or does this correct Avigilon's most glaring weakness?

The Executive

Up until the beginning of November, Keith Marett [link no longer available] ran much of Avigilon's overall business, controlling marketing, communications and product strategy / management:

 And yet, now, he is abruptly out on the street looking for a new job:

[link no longer available]

Greatest Misses

Avigilon's marketing executive damaged their reputation globally with a number of head scratching unforced errors:

• When defending their incredibly misleading home page advertisement, his bizarre defense was, "Nowhere do we say it’s actual, as it's really just meant to visually illustrate how powerful our system can be when compared to analog." Which leads to the insane conclusion that when Avigilon shows an image labelled 'Avigilon', they do not actually mean it is from an Avigilon camera.
  
• Created the 'pissing contest' fiasco and did nothing to minimize the damage.
  
• Fostered a widely read ethical critique of the company by not only failing to take any responsibility but arguing that an Avigilon's employee illicit redistribution of IPVM content was "doing something good for us," and then demanding a refund when we cancelled their service for violating our terms of service.

Certainly, we do not expect manufacturer marketing people to be technically accurate or even ethical but even junior marketing people are capable of minimizing damage and spinning politically sensible tales. 

Despite Avigilon's skyrocketing growth, the company's industry reputation is marred by various moral / ethical / marketing issues. Indeed, recently, the bizarrely popular (and poorly done) AvigilonSucks website has become an underground hit.

'Resigned'

Marett 'resigned', according to Avigilon's press release, though that appears to be a euphemism as it is highly unlikely that someone voluntarily leaves an executive position at a skyrocketing company without having, at least, a new job lined up.

The current VP of Sales, Brian Schmode [link no longer available], is taking over marketing (in addition to sales), further consolidating power.

What's Next For Avigilon Marketing?

If Avigilon is sensible, they will realize their fast and loose marketing (which continues in their microdome campaign and third party support) does little to help them and much to damage their overall reputation. This can then become a turning point.

But who knows. Maybe Avigilon 'resigned' Marett because he was too conservative and not aggressive enough?

UPDATE New VP of Marketing

Nearly a year after, Avigilon has finally gotten a new VP of marketing.