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The Product Marketing Handbook for Software, 4th Edition
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.
Yes, it's a great example of why you should be very cautious when working with Microsoft.
How to market your over priced book on Slashdot for free.
There's only one thing you have to know for Macintosh software:
http://www.versiontracker.com
I'm serious here. Mac software products live and die by their rating on VersionTracker. Tucows is similar for Windows software, but it just doesn't have the near 100% of users pull that VersionTracker does.
Oh, and one more hint. Since most people see your software while it's on VersionTracker's front page, release early and release often.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Wearing pants should always be optional.
In my limited experience, marketing books are usually not very useful. I assume this is because marketing people are better at marketing their book about marketing than they are at writing a good book. Which of course is understandable.
If i've learned anything from the tech industry. If you simply say "Linux, Database, Synergy, and dot com" anywhere in the product description you'll instantly make millions in the stock market and not need to actually sell your product.
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
Yuck, marketing. Right up there with Lawyer and Politican for 'most fundamentally corrupt occupation'. 99% of the job is to trick people into buying shit that they neither want nor need.
I can't stand adverts these days--and I live in the UK, where advertising is relitively subtly. I think if I ever returned to the US I would die from an overdose.
Especially chapters 4 through 7. Albeit, judging from the review, the contents of some other chapters seems to be obvious, to say the least (Internet marketing, Web site optimization...) I guess the business bits are what developers are missing, not the technical ones! Then again, image is quite important and most of us devs only really care about internal structure, good design, etc. Seems like the book deserves spending some hours reading it to find out about those topics and whether they're obvious or not.
The revolution will not be televised.
As MS as shown, a good marketing strategy most often trumps a better product.
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')
The software business is already oversaturated with people trying to sell code. Its a dead end, and this is why every diversified IT firm is going into services and why MSFT can't get above $30 to save its life.
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.
Rule #1: Marketing people are evil.
Rule #2: Even though they are necessary, Rule #1 is always true.
Digital is, by definition, imperfect. Analog is the way to go.
Maybe it's not obvious from the review, but I would have thought that a big part of a software marketing program would be costing out how much the campaign will cost along with a dicussion on different methodologies for raising additional funds for paying for advertising, booths, travel, giveaways, etc.
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
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Let's say you're starting out small, like working out of your spare bedroom, and your working capital is whatever is left over after paying your monthly bills. Sure, that method is not usually your ticket to the bigtime, but it can be a foot in the door. It *could* turn into a thriving business, building its own capital for expansion as it progresses.
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.
Wonder if they read the book while writing it?
I'm not a doctor, but I play one in bed.
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 :)
Platform independent bug tracking software
That pretty much assures me the author does not know what he's talking about. The vast majority of software packages are sold exclusively via the web. They are mostly Windows software, mostly small companies (<10 people, skewed towards the 1-man band), and mostly make such a modest amount of money that the author should perhaps be forgiven for not noticing where the bulk of the software market iceberg lies.
If you want to really learn about selling software, join the ASP and talk to the little guys who (cumulatively) are making most of the software that gets sold in the world today.
Disclaimer: I'm a member, but I (alas) make no money for telling people to join :-).
It's happening now, didn't you read that article on what Red Hat has to do to "succeed" the other day?
.com whiz-kids actually count on VC as "revenue".
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.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
The SCO edition of this book contains nothing but lists of copyright attorneys and their phone #'s.
I view this from a software developer point of view. This book is good and bad. It is good because it helps a programmer get the whole picture and in that may have a better understanding of his/her role. It is bad if a programmer uses a book like this for anything more than just a clearer picture of how things work. I have never met a great programmer that could also be a marketer of software. I am not saying it can't happen, I am just saying that I have known and do know a lot of programmers, the great ones would tend to find marketing software as boring and un inspiring. If you are a bad programmer, think about a career in marketing...it will make the programming area much happier.
Nuttles
Saved by Grace
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.
"Yes, Jayne, she's a witch. She's had congress with the beast..."
"She's in Congress?" - Firefly, "Objects in Space
Here is some great marketing information based on the "22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" that has been adopted towards software, by an ISV. This is a windows-centric company, but still good info:
s _M arketing.html
http://software.ericsink.com/laws/Immutable_Law
(There is also a PDF download on this site)
For example, I "outsource" my cooking to HotPockets, as I have no knowledge in that area. Laundry, however, is something that I can handle, and therefore, take on myself.
In my experience, software companies (probably true of many other industries as well) fail because they are trying to sell kewl technology instead of selling a solution to the customer's problem.
FreeSpeech.org
All you have to remember is to deliver enabling technologies to your human resources in order to facilitate the concurrent development of an upside-down, inside-out, flat organisation that harnesses the synergy of the valuable employees in their various capacities with a view to consolidating the company's empowerment in all areas of the marketing mix so that ........
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Now, I can't be sure, but it sounds like Slashdot published a carefully placed success story. I work in marketing, and I can't say I blame Shefer or Chapman. But I've never seen such a blatant placement on Slashdot before.
-- SYS 64738 --
I really should try crystal meth sometime.
The real problem was that nobody was pre-installing it, and IBM was also trying to push their own bus architecture on the PS/1, and people got confused about that too.
:-)
It was not hard to install if you knew what you were doing, but it could be impossible if you didn't.
Also, IBM just assumed all the printer and video companies would put out drivers, and they didn't. The smart thing would've been to PAY them and ship 'em with the package, but that didn't happen. So even if you got it installed it was entirely possible you wouldn't be able to get a decent printout or use your video card to the max.
The printing fiasco was a real shame, because Presentation Manager gave you great support for fonts, shearing, a lot of cool stuff. DeScribe was a really decent word processor/layout package.
I ported a DOS control system to OS/2 V1.3, and it rocked. Ran on a 25Mhz 386 with 8M of RAM, 50 threads, named pipes and shared memory between control processes and a separate graphics display, and it was solid as a rock in power plant conditions.
Now it sits next to my Amiga.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
The stories (not just UL|FOAF) are rampant. Basically, "take our offer, or you'll face us a competitor."
. html
You also have to be careful (in Olympic lingo) "synchronized software development". Once the partnership is over, guess what's on their drawing board?
These should be considered using the word "together - a simple quiz for those who have been around for some time.
n.b. No google- or wick-cheaing!!! The answers should be clear enough.
1) Microsoft & IBM work on a windows-like product together what happened when they parted ways?
2) Microsoft & Sybase worked on a DBMS together. What Microsoft product arose when they parted ways?
3) Microsoft signed a contract to consult with Compu$serve to help them shore up their operations, etc. What online service arose when that contract was over?
4) When the specs for OLE2 were released, Microsoft was left in the dust. A company named Shapeware wrote a software product which was fully OLE2 compliant -- something Microsoft didn't accomplish until much, much later. (not unlike the fact many of their products do not make the same standards they hold 3rd parties to. Microsoft was in the process of writing a competitive product and decided to shop outside. What was that product?
I'm certain others can add - I'm just going to stop here so I'm not hogging the microphone.
\ As far as the naming conventions go, in the 10-15 years ago range, this was a common statement to those who were trying to make a move to OS/2:
DB/2, OS/2, PC/2
Half of a database running on half an operating system running on half of a PC.
Gotta love the peanut.
______________________________________ My Trunk Monkey can beat up your Trunk Monkey. http://www.suburbanautogroup.com/ford/trunkmonkey
if you want to make money, write a book about how to make money
did you forget to take your meds?
Dear "westendgirl",
I would like to point out the following:
1. I paid THE FULL price for the Handbook.
2. I NEVER received anything of monetary value from Pragmatic Marketing for the articles I posted there.
3. I added a disclaimer to my review to clarify the relationship between Chapman and myself. It seemed to have been dropped by mistake during the posting process. I asked the editor to look into this. Specifically, I stated that I offered my comments to the Handbook's chapter on webinars. I was not paid for this advice in any way.
Sincerely,
Daniel Shefer