Technology Marketing BLoG

Usability! Remember that usability is relative to the user’s frame of reference and the application at hand (i.e., task). Command-line interfaces are very usable to many UNIX "power" users. Using a GUI would slow them down and require them to learn a new way of interaction. Dvorak keyboards are more efficient, produce higher speeds of typing and reduce the chances of acquiring carpal tunnel syndrome. The current QWERTY keyboard was a "good" design -- it was designed to slow your typing speed so that the keys on typewriters would net get stuck together.

Publishing a web site is relatively easy, right? Well, sort of. All you have to do is set up a web server, write html, ftp files to your web server and overcome several other minor technical hurdles. And of course, you can host somewhere else and use their tools to accomplish things like sending out newsletters or providing a shopping cart. This is why we have millions of web sites, right. These tasks are really simple for technical people, fairly simple for the technically inclined but what about the other 85% of us? Even if a techie set up your system and all you have to do is edit your web pages, you need to know how to logon, navigate a Unix file system, download, edit/write html, ftp your files back to the file system, etc. For most this is a technical barrier impossible to penetrate. Even if you can do manage these tasks, the inconvenience and tedium makes publishing a chore at best.

Then came blogs. It's the pet rock of web publishing. Use a simple web-based publishing system, make it really easy for even a technology laggard to use and now you have millions of people publishing web sites. There is simply no other answer to its popularity. Some would argue that they're timely and easy to update. Well, yes when technology is dirt simple people will use it more often. Some would argue that Napster had very low usability but since it had such incredible usefulness millions of people would use it to download music. I would argue differently. Napster was incredibly useful and it was very novel (so buzz had a lot to do with it popularity). But who really used it? Not my grandmother or my Aunt Jo. Early adopters, gadget freaks, technical adventures. . . we know who we are. The point is that to get millions of users is a whole lot different than getting the other 100 millions users to use your application. As hard as it is to build something that attracts millions of users, it’s infinitely more difficult to attract the mainstream.

Blogs are on the cusp of the mainstream. As it turns out Grandmother and Aunt Jo can use this stuff. To paraphrase Allan Kay at the 1995 3rd annual WWW conference in Darmstadt, Germany, "We'll know we've made it when one of our cuff links can communicate with the other via satellite. The question is, 'Will we have something to say"? It turns out that the answer is yes.

My feeling (and experience) is that traditional market research does not work. . .well it certainly doesn't give us the entire picture. If it did, everyone would just email a survey to customers or prospects and, abracadabra, we would know what product to build. Or better yet, lets hold a focus group with--nothing to do better paid participants--and they'll tell what they like and don't like.

One of the well-know facts about creating new, innovative products is that typical customers can not tell you what they want or need. So why not create the future in a virtual environment, place people in the center of that environment and measure what people do? I'm not talking about an expensive, science fiction, 3-D Holodeck. This can be as simple as a paper prototype of the main screens and functions of your revolutionary idea. Ok, we're the innovators! So we can be as imaginary as we want to be and create it in an hour! We may even mock up a few "hard coded" web pages that simulate the eventual functionality.

Why do so many companies rush to code their great ideas and spend millions in the process (if you're that lucky) when you can render hundreds of paper and html prototypes and run hundreds of people through your ideas in a month or two??

When you code, you have one version of your idea running down the track. Yeah, you can tweak it, change it a bit and even add those nifty v2.5 features you've been dreaming up but couldn't get it in v1.0. But eventually it is a train of people, code, money, momentum and ego that's almost impossible to stop.

Prototyping can take on this same type of energy with a passion to discover what's really important to people and what, hopefully, will make a profit for the company. You can test completely different ideas, different forms of certain features and different features, constantly refining and considering modification until you have a decent representation of what it is you want to begin building. Along the way, you've improved usability, you've created a culture around solving and discovering people's problems and needs, you may have even built a visual representation and product specification to hand to developers and you certainly have a better chance of creating a great product.

But, you haven't even engaged a developer yet and hence saved a lot of money. You will save a ton of money in the development process avoiding all the arguments (except the good ones) about what to build, what features to include, what's important and those inevitable, startled and confused looks on marketer's faces when they see the first representation of the developer's idea of what they were suspose to build, "Is that our vision"?

So if you want a new future, create it for your prospects, put them inside it and go nuts!

One of the key reasons technology marketing is different than traditional marketing it that it involves the end user, buyer and/or organization to adopt technology. There are two sides to this story. One is that people/organizations will regulate themselves along the technology adoption lifecycle either being willing to more readily adopt new technology or to take a more conservative, follow the herd approach. The other side of the story is that tech companies have conditioned customers to non-working beta versions of their software usually with all the dubious claims of immense cost savings and efficiency.

One of the other facets that make technology marketing different is that the incredible pace of product development and competition can leave even the most practiced marketer's head spinning. Faster time-to-markets, little or no information on market requirements, rapid development cycles, tradeoffs between functionality and time, ad infinitum. Additionally, your marketing strategies need to radically change as your product moves forward in its' business cycle.

That is if you're lucky enough to survive the early market!

I previously wrote about titles and roles. Despite what they may be called and how many people are in these roles, I think there are two main functions of technology marketers. The first is typically called the Product Manager. Their primary role is to understand the market, define their problems and create a business case for creating a product or service that will be successful and profitable. However, often times I see that the Product Manager writes the product requirements document, is considered "technical" and spends most of their time with the development organization.

The second role is that of Product Marketing Manager. They are typically in charge of the marketing plan. Now that we have a product how do I sell it, advertise it, create publicity, exhibit it at trade shows, etc. Sometimes these people are called marcom (marketing communications) managers. Many times I see this person doing the up-front business planning and business case development and then the Product Manager handles the translation of those requirements into a product, then the Product Marketing Manager "takes it to market."

There are hundreds of tasks to do and your company's success depends on it. It's important to outline all those tasks, who you need to do them, assign titles/roles and put a framework in place. I have found it useful to map out a marketing framework, outline who is responsible for which task in the framework and put a workplan in place to accomplish these tasks. You'll also need to communicate this marketing roadmap with the other departments that you will work with: executive management, sales, development and support.

Don't forget to measure and constantly communicate your ROI! You are marketing, right?

How many of us have felt the shocking revelation that we were annoying the company personnel we're doing business with, couldn't get a call back if we were president of the U.S., spoken rudely to by some CSR, or told that, "there is nothing we can do." It sucks!

Wait, we're paying the money. Presumably, this company wants to make money, do good, and drum roll please. . . . . have us recommend their great product/service to someone else!

Well, apparently not. I recently had my back patio area re-surfaced. It kind of went like this:

• Call several vendors
• They come out and give estimates/quotes
• Together we could not estimate the desired color/texture combination
• So they decided to make a sample - it was great. We said, "Make it so."
• You negotiate price, schedule an appointment, they explain the process
• They strip off the base and start putting the new layers down
• The patio area is fairly large and is a defining feature of the back yard, so we're dripping with anticipation
• We start asking ourselves, "That doesn't quite look like the color, does it"?
• They worked all day. We knew there were two more layers so we thought the color would change
• Meanwhile, the two workers were telling us they really wanted to work in a hospital (this didn't make us feel good). While it might be true, don't tell your customers this while doing work for them.
• After day two and speaking to the workers, we call the owner and tell her that we don't think this is what we agreed upon. The color was off, the pattern was wrong and they ran out of part of the base surface, mixed some new stuff, and it created a different underlying color which was quite noticeable.

Ok, fine. Everyone makes mistakes or gets something wrong. Most people will tolerate minor mistakes, but they want it to be fixed and to be treated special in the process or at least with respect! But now this is where customer service comes in.

• The owner came out. We said please bring the sample (why it was not there so the workers could use it, I don't know)
• It clearly did not match and yes the base layer special batch stood out and looked out of place.
• The discussion went like - didn't the workers ask you if you like it? Well, we said we told them they were doing a good job and thank you and offered drinks, etc. We were immediately put on the defensive.
• After some discussion, the owner agreed to "fix it"
• They came back the next day and continued with a process we agreed to
• Since this process was somewhat different, they left "edging" marks and colors streaks that looked like a wet sponge wiped over a counter.
• After they finished, we left the owner a message that we were not satisfied and did not get a return call for 3 days
• The owner agreed to come out and "fix" some of the problems; she tried and said she could not and wanted to know from us, "what we wanted to do"?

I had even told the owner that I realized this job was causing some extra work. However, our friend was getting their patio done next week and we were going to recommend them. In fact, I was dying to recommend them. I think most people want to show off their new "thing" and tell everyone about it. Our neighbor had seen the truck in front of our house and wanted to see the work after it was finished. Not only this, we have a large group of regular friends that we see through of kid's sport's team. We talk about all of our "war" stories on home repairs and enhancements.

While it may have cost this vendor another $500 or so in labor to correct their own mistakes, they decided to give us 10% off the price and call it quits. We did not want the 10%, we wanted it to be done correctly, the way they had promised. In so doing they probably lost at least two customers they would have got from us and who knows how many from these new customers.

This could have represented over $10,000 of new business. Instead they were willing to give us $350 off the price and leave us unsatisfied. There is no supplement for good service! In fact, look at the ROI and there can be no other business decision. How about going two steps further:

1. Ask your newly satisfied customer for qualified leads
2. Pay your customer for those leads that convert to a satisfied customer.

I have found in many discussions, meetings, debates and other forms of human discourse, that usually people begin with different definitions of things and head down different paths from the get go. I think this is the part of meetings that so many people hate. It takes 45 minutes to get to some kind of common understandings, 15 minutes to discuss ideas, then 5 minutes (running into your next meeting) to schedule a follow up meeting where we can start this process all over again.

Here are some of the titles in technology marketing I've held, known at companies, know of others holding such titles, etc. that will help begin to frame technology marketing. But before I list these (and hope you can add some yourself) you need to look at other dimensions and variables in the equation such as: size of the company, size of the marketing organization, structure of the marketing organization and processes and priorities that marketing maintains. All of these factors have an impact on what defines technology marketing and the specific roles that marketing personnel perform on the job.

Here are some titles: VP of Marketing, Product Line Manager, Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager, Director of Marketing, Marketing Communications Manager (please provide others). And to a lesser degree I've seen Program Manager and Brand Manager.

The fact is that the roles these people play and what they do viz a viz their title are overlapping and change from company to company. Not good for the marketing discipline. However, I think it is important for marketing departments to define for themselves the titles, job responsibilities and connection points both within marketing and as it interacts with other disciplines such as sales, development, management, finance, support, etc. Then, communicate it folks outside marketing so it is well understood within the company. Hey Marketing, "What card is in your wallet"?

Why it is marketing technology products, right? Well, yes. Let's start with marketing first. I'm amazed at how many people have either misconceptions or too narrow a view about what marketing is, does and what ROI can be expected. Advertising and sales collateral seems to be the common understanding of what defines marketing.

This is the latest definition of marketing provided by the AMA and approved by the board of directors on 8/04.
Definition of Marketing: Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

Not too much to go on really. It seems like one of those definitions that took months to complete and worked on by a committee where everyone had to be nice and agree. That just the way it goes sometimes. We'll get into this much more deeply later on.

Now, what about technology? This is perhaps even more difficult. Technology can be just about anything. I found this definition that I liked: Technology is people using knowledge, tools, and systems to make their lives easier and better. I like it because it puts people first and is inclusive of people and their knowledge. It's important to people that we feel good about things like this. Then if technology isn't sophisticated enough, we must define high tech. This refers to technology that is the most cutting edge, most promising, most speculative - and really refers to information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, etc.

For this blog I want to limit the discussion to mostly software. For software is the Ghost in The Machine.