The Product Marketing Handbook for Software, 4th Edition 135
| The Product Marketing Handbook, 4th Edition | |
| author | Merrill R. Chapman |
| pages | 690 |
| publisher | Aegis Resources |
| rating | 9/10 |
| reviewer | Daniel Shefer |
| ISBN | 0967200865 |
| summary | A great guide to marketing, promoting and selling software. |
Rick Chapman is also the author of In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters (previously reviewed on Slashdot.) He is also the publisher and editor of Soft*Letter and the Software Success Newsletter. The Handbook presents today's best practices based on Chapman's extensive experience, and includes up-to-date information on everything from advertising to OEM agreements, pricing to visual identity.
The book offers practical insights into vexing product marketing-problems. Throughout the book, Chapman gives relevant, down-to-earth descriptions of how to (and how not to) plan and deliver product-marketing efforts. There are case studies from every aspect of the high-tech industry, as well as detailed lists of dos and don'ts.
This is a great, safe place to learn about marketing, distributing and selling software before putting your own time and money at risk; the Handbook includes comprehensive checklists to help manage the product-marketing process. (These lists are also provided on a CD that accompanies the book.)
The text starts with an overview of some changes the software market has seen since the book's first edition. Chapman focuses on one of the most significant changes since then and discusses the rise of open source computing and Linux. He then continues to the book's raison d'être with a brief discussion of why software companies fail.
The first chapter covers market research. Before spending resources on writing code, it is always best to know if there is a real need for the product, and what other companies are up to in the intended market space. The chapter starts with an overview of several research techniques such as conjoint analysis, focus groups and competitive intelligence.
The next chapter discusses some of the hardest issues in marketing software: positioning, pricing and naming. A great example, the OS/2 debacle is a classic study in how not to name or position a product.
These chapters detail how to position a product, how to brand it, and how to price it so both you and your sales channels can make money off of it.
Chapter 3 discusses channel distribution. Channels are the organizations that move a product to the customer. First, you have to decide if you will provide the product as an ASP or shrink wrapped. In the latter case, selling the software requires a logistics backbone that small independent software vendors (ISVs) may not be able to afford. While some software packages can be successfully sold using online channels exclusively, these are the exceptions. Other ISVs have to utilize distributors, VARs, store chains and catalogs to move their products. Getting these channels to distribute the product is not as easy as sending them a copy and expecting them to "see the light." It takes a good understanding of the channels' business models and capabilities (as well as hard work on your part) to get to the point where a customer sees your product in a CompUSA or a printed catalog. Channels have to be located, contacted, convinced, trained and constantly supported to make this happen. This chapter also covers OEM and international distribution issues.
The next chapters discuss collateral advertising (brochures, white papers etc.), PR, advertising and sales promotions respectively. While none of these are rocket science, getting them wrong is a costly proposition. In addition to the effort involved and their cost, there are legal implications as well. For example, not properly estimating the return rate of a rebate coupon or making an inaccurate claim in a piece of collateral can land a company in hot water. Most ISVs outsource these activities to experts, but even doing that successfully requires at least a general understanding of these topics.
Chapter 8 discusses direct marketing. Some of the topics covered in this chapter are direct mailings, infomercials, telemarketing, mailing lists and fulfillment.
Chapter 9 covers software bundling. Bundling is where companies offer two or more products as a bundle. You're almostly certainly familiar with this from the way companies like Amazon offer two related products for a slightly better price then their combined prices. How and why to bundle are explained in this chapter.
Chapter 10 discusses the topics Internet marketing. In theory, the easiest way to market a product these days is over the web. One creates a website, submits it to Google and Overture (Yahoo!), and presto, there are visitors who buy the product. It's not so simple,though: The problem is luring potential customers to the website, keeping them there, and leading them to purchase the product. This chapter covers designing and optimizing websites as well as managing discussion groups, list servers and online ad campaigns. Another important topic is search engine optimization (in simple English, getting your website to the top of the Google and Overture Results pages). The text includes many dos and don'ts on how this is done.
Chapter 11 discusses trade shows. I don't think highly of tradeshows (see the rightful demise of Comdex) but if you decide to go down this road, here's how to do it properly.
Chapter 12 discusses sales methodologies and strategies. It opens with the trick question that most people get wrong: What is the number one reason that software companies fail? The correct answer, of course, is "not enough sales."
There are inherent reasons that you are a developer writing code or a sales rep doing sales. There are the basic character traits that make each of you good at what you do. I'm not saying that as a developer you can't sell. You may be able to -- but probably not as well as a seasoned sales rep. As with other issues, you will need to understand the dynamics of the sales process so you can create a product that makes it easier to sell. This chapter will introduce you to basic concepts such as the pipeline, prospecting and, the software selling cycle. It will also take you through the multiple steps of complex sales cycles which are a painful part of selling large systems. But, as bank-robber Willie Sutton supposedly said, that's where the money is. No less important is the discussion of negotiation and presentation techniques.
The last chapter in the book gives a brief overview of product management and the processes involved. While relevant and accurate, I would defer to other texts on the subject for a more thorough discussion of product management. See, for instance, Software Product Management Essentials by Alyssa S. Dver, or The Product Manager's Handbook by Linda Gorchels.
The book includes three appendices: A product marketing cost matrix, a product marketing resource directory and a product marketing timeline, and ends with a glossary and index. Attached to the book is a CD which includes all the checklists that are dispersed throughout the book as well as several sample files.
The Handbook's depth and breadth as well as the author's experience make it the best book on product marketing I've encountered.
Reviewer Daniel Shefer is a Software Product Management expert and has written numerous articles on this topic. The Product Marketing Handbook, 4th Edition is available only through the author's website. For more about product marketing see: www.ProductMarketing. com.
Looks interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
Marketing is Job 1 (Score:5, Interesting)
Books like these are good reading for sftwr designers. Some are obvious (determine product focus and need thereof), and including the flops definitely helps.
Much like the Linux marketing tends to be on the we're the good guys/we're free like beer.
Apple may have been much bigger than they are if the "We're just better" message resonated better than the fire-sale prices of early-MS ('like nickel beer night vs. Ballpark beer prices')
More to it (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently the OS/2 betas used Star Trek names "Klingon", "Ferengi". When IBM decided to make "Warp" the official name of the product and launch it with a spacey futuristic marketing theme (right down to Patrick Stewart), Paramount got ticked and IBM dropped the space theme.
Missing Topics - Costing/Funding and Retailers (Score:5, Interesting)
While the focus seems to be on direct sales, I would be interested in seeing Chapman's comments on dealing with retailers. I have a bit of experience with the issues of dealing with retailers and would have liked to understand how to respond to how the retailers (Best Buy and Radio Shack specifically) carry out test marketing in their stores as well as helping underlings pitch your product to their management.
myke
Re:Really... (Score:5, Interesting)
In that case, yeah, I'd go for the book. I could afford that, but couldn't afford "outsourcing" it. I think it would help. The time for the self-starter with no capital and no connections selling software may have waned a bit, but with the help of the web, it's still possible.
I have this book... I sell software... (Score:2, Interesting)
2 caveats - the graphs/diagrams at the beginning look like photocopies of photocopies... kind of strange... and another curious thing is that when I got it in the mail, it smelled like tacos, but the smell is gone now :)
Re:OS/2 debacle (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sure the list goes on much longer, but those are some of the highlights that truly brought OS/2 to its knees in the battle against MS. Not being able to run Office 97, and the inability of Office 97 to be backwards compatible with previous versions forcing large-scale upgrades (yes, I worked for the military back then, and when the admiral gets a shiny new PC with the latest and greatest Office on it and starts sending out Word attachments, you better be able to read them....).
I'm sure there's much more, but OS/2 failed for some bad decisions on IBM's part in licensing contracts, and some underhanded tactics on MS's part forcing sole distributorships while simultaneously forcing upgrade cycles. None of that hides the fact, however, that for all intents and purposes, a 10 year-old copy of OS/2 still smokes the latest from Redmond in almost every way technically.
Re:Lol (Score:3, Interesting)
The summary: To succeed, Red Hat has to posture itself to attract more investors.
Forget attracting customers, who needs customers? We only want investors! And forget having a product or service that you can exchange for revenue. Nope, these
It makes SCO's "sue people for money" business model look intelligent.
Re:Really...Outsourcing marketing not safe (Score:5, Interesting)
First is simply understanding what's involved. Routinely, engineering types (I speak from experience) underestimate the effort and focus required to take a widget and convince someone to buy it. Having a brief understanding of the problem will allow for better project planning, bugeting and preparation, greatly speeding time to market.
Furthermore, if a marketing group's strategy and focii do not align with the prodct company's, such a mismatch is unlikely to produce a smoothly-running marketing campaign. Knowing enough about marketing to understand what marketers do (and evaluating how well do it) will allow you to select a provider and manage their efforts effectively. If the product company won't manage those wild-eyed creative types in marketing (who throw facts to the wind and revel in vague hype-speak; again, I speak from experience), who will? They will likely end up managing more than one would like, or else they give up in frustration; neither option will sucessfully increase business.
Finally, paying attention to marketing (rather than just the 'it's done, throw it over the fence' attitude commonly evidenced) is a proactive, agressive stance that helps eliminate factual, technical and tactical errors which can lead to costly reprints, embarassment in the marketplace, poor reception and possibly litigation due to misrepresentation.
As a marketing hack, I absolutely rely on the informed input of our engineering staff. I take time to learn the product so I can represent it fairly. The good ones in engineering take the time to learn what my group does so that they can support the work. The better our partnership is, the better represented the product is. One could almost graph it as a linear relationship.
To many, marketing is almost as unpalatable as politics, but it's a necessary evil. Knowing the rules and order of the game can be the difference between a sucessful, profitable experience and unmitigated, bank-draining disaster, no matter which group of over-dressed Powerpoint-wielding mercenaries is hired to do the dirty work.
Key to Software Sales (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't this book belong in the "Idiots" category (Score:1, Interesting)
My sales person rant being over, marketing fools are typically sales drones with less people skills and more capacity to interpret any random statistic into a completely inaccurate slogan misusing as many buzz words as possible. These slogans only make sense to corporate execs which have elevated through the ranks from sales drone or couch jockies which feel the gray matter in their skull is strictly for memorizing war stories and sports statistics.
A perfect example of marketting intelligence which I ran into yesterday is right here. Symantec recently announced that they'll be shipping their 2005 series of applications shortly. They'll stagger the releases over the next two months. The cost for Symantec Norton Antivirus 2005 is $49.95 for one, $89.95 for 3, $199.95 for 5, or $399.95 for 10. Let me break this down
- For 1 unit it's $49.95 per copy
- For 3 units it's $29.98 and 1/3 cent per copy
- For 5 units it's $39.99 per copy
- For 10 units it's $39.995 per copy
What this tells me is that if I buy in 3 packs, I can do this
Buy 6 copies for $179.90 instead of 5 units for $199.95 saving me $20.05 and getting an extra license for mom.
Buy 12 copies for $359.80 instead of 10 units for $399.95 saving me $40.15 and getting an extra one for mom and one for my neice.
The only kind of intelligence that can possibly produce a pricing scheme like this has to come from marketting since sales people aren't even smart enough to come this close.
My 2 cents.