9. MarketingGetting people to buy your product

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Product

Flickr:laurapadgett

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Price

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Promotion

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Place (Distribution)

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The Marketing Mix (4P)

ProductAlready discussed in previous chapter

Promotion TV? Newspapers? WOM? Blogs? What works. What doesn’t.

PriceChallenging (especially for software and on-line services)

Place(assume mostly web-based)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix

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Flickr:jamesjustin / dexxus

Focus is onconsumerin this talk

Not so much on businesscustomers

Promotion

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Some Promotion Options

OnlineBlogs, Google Ads, Social Media, App Stores

TVPrint Media

WOMWord of Mouth

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Traditional media might not be effectiveespecially in the early stage

Press Releases are Spam - ReWork

Forget about the Wall Street Journal - ReWork

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Technology-Adoption-Lifecycle.png

Promotion: Blogs

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Behind each blog are people

Flickr:jdlasica

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Behind each blog are people

Try to connect to them. At events. By calling. By knocking on their door. Be personal. Don’t spam.

Which blogs to target?Only the big ones? Most blogs have only one reader - the author

Warning: Early adopters and tech blog readers might not be your customer group (e.g. women/shopping (like.com), art lovers (plink.com), kids, ...)

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Ferris which blogsTimothy Ferriss at LeWeb 2009

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/12/13/how-to-create-a-global-phenomenon-for-less-than-10000/

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Blog yourselfbecome an authority

Flickr: daklein

Promotion: WOM

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Events

Meet early movers at events. Getting the first users can be hard work. But getting the right ones may pay off.

Partners can also help promote.

Talk to people on the bus ...If that’s not your strength hire somebody ...

Pricing

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Pricing

One of the biggest challengesEspecially for new products and digital services

Free vs. “a price” (see business model chapter)Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free

Thoughts on pricing for software by Joel Spolskyhttp://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html

Place: Platforms

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Place

New distribution platforms on the web/mobileIf you play those right you will be very successfulThese are really new ecosystems with incredible reach.

ExamplesFacebook: the social graph as multiplier. Example: zynga (Farmville)The iPhone App Store: easy usage fuels distribution

Still lots of learning to do how to play those platforms What are the success factors? What drives usage?

What is special about Vision?In Terms of Marketing

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What’s special about Vision

Products may need explanation

Products may fuel fears (face recognition)

Customers may have no (or incorrect) expectations on performance

B2C or B2B or both?Often, when there is traction in B2C, there is also traction in B2B (not vice versa)

So maybe you have to generate some initial B2C traction yourself (huge task)

Or a competitor does it for you.

How we did it

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How we did it

Biggest effect: blogposts and print mediaTV appearances had nearly no effect (same experience as ReWork)

Building network of personal contacts to bloggersE.g. just knocked at Michael Arrington’s door 2 years ago.Still building network. Geographic targeting as challenge.

App store distribution really importantFirst visual recognition app on the app store worldwide was kooaba

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How we did it

Huge attention in press from time to timeWe contacted influential writers directly (traditional media & blogs)

Generated discussions and attention but not users/traffic

“Provoking” releasesE.g. Recognizr (700k YouTube views, TV networks and press spinning stories)

Through partner integration“Partner’s users are our users”

Now: direct sales (licensing)

Q & A

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ResourcesMarketing Mix 4P http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix

Technology Adaption Lifecycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Technology-Adoption-Lifecycle.png

Timothy Ferris: How to Create a Global Phenomenon for Less Than $10000

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/12/13/how-to-create-a-global-phenomenon-for-less-than-10000/