Steve Jobs and Product-Market Fit

Steve Jobs is famous for saying that Apple does not do market research. Here is a sample quote:

“We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants. The only consultants I’ve ever hired in my 10 years is one firm to analyze Gateway’s retail strategy so I would not make some of the same mistakes they made [when launching Apple's retail stores]. But we never hire consultants, per se. We just want to make great products.”

What I think is misunderstood here is that they do not depend on market research to decide what products to make. They do, however, do a lot of research about the markets they will operate in to market and sell their products. Below are some examples of the understanding Steve Jobs has of his markets.

Here is an early draft of the Apple Macintosh business plan which includes a section on markets for the Mac. Here is the Macintosh Product Introduction Plan written in 1983.

Here is a video where Steve Jobs explains the market fit for NeXT computers, his startup after leaving Apple.

Sales Topics

There are many sales methodologies you can employ for managing your sales pipeline. Solution selling is one of the more popular methods and it is the basis of the sales process for many large companies like Microsoft. If you are a partner of Microsoft, they have some excellent training materials on the Microsoft Solution Selling Process (MSSP) that can found on their partner site. Here is a link to a PowerPoint that outlines the Microsoft sales process in the context of a Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization (BPIO) campaign.

Another popular methodology with technology companies is the SPIN selling method. Popularized in a book by Neil Rackham entitled SPIN Selling, his firm, Huthwaite, offers a lot of online resources. As well, I found this excellent summary of the concepts online from the University of Ohio ...

SPIN Selling Sales Class Overview

.

Click here for a great sales management checklist from JustSell.

For an example of how a company employs sales management, here is a link to resources from Salesforce.com that describe how it manages its own salesforce using its software.

And if you want some ideas on crafting a good sales letter, here is a step-by-step process.

3forward has a great resources page with many links to white papers and reports that are useful for sales teams.

Marketing Calendar Topics

A key homework assignment coming out of our Marketing Communications session is the creation of a marketing timeline to proactively define when marketing communications will occur.

Some good guidelines about building a marketing timeline ...
http://marketing.about.com/cs/advertising/a/mktgcalendar.htm

Sometimes called a marketing calendar, here is a simple overview of why you need one .. http://www.eversmall.com/2008/02/06/want-a-simple-marketing-calendar/

and a simple YouTube overview of the process ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHDM-Y2kMPM

Here is a sample template ...
http://www.hgf.org/uploads/11878Worksheet_-_Marketing_Timeline_in_WORD.doc

Here are some other template examples:
http://www.brandeo.com/node/1135
http://www.businesspartnerships.ca/downloads/marketing_calendar.pdf
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/Calendar.pdf

Brandeo provides a FREE template for Microsoft Excel for creating a marketing calendar.

Here are some more tips ...
http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/2006/12/how_to_create_a.html
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/25165.asp

A great summary of "internal communications" tasks/milestones you should incorporate in your overall timeline ... http://www.communicationtoolbox.com/internal-communication-timeline.html

A tradeshow planning guide that should help you incorporate into your overall timeline ...
http://www.trade-show-advisor.com/trade-show-planning-timeline.html


Good luck preparing your marketing timeline/calendar.

Social Media Topics - Part 3

Once you begin implementing your grand scheme using Social Media, you need to actively engage in measuring your outcomes. The trendy word for the analytic tools for Social Media is "socialytics".

This article on econsultancy.com outlines 10 ways to measure social media success. Those tips are well complemented by these from Microgeist. Here is a good list of near-free analytic tools for social media.

Twitter is a social media tool that provides an opportunity to observe the power of "word of mouth" to build awareness, and has stimulated the creation of many analytic tools.

For people that love to justify their efforts in financial terms, there is a social networking ROI calculator that you can use for campaign measurement.

Social Media Topics - Part 2

Establishing a strategy for social media is not unlike any other marketing strategy - know your audience, know your objectives, choose an engagement method, and engage in a conversation. In fact, social media is more focused on the quality of the "conversation" than traditional media. In particular, I like how this article focuses on listening as a step before engaging customers.

This website called Brandtology has a blog that covers some of the fundamental elements of a good strategy. Forrester Research has published a good 4 part strategic model called POST. Using POST (People, Objectives, Startegy, Technology) is a great way to organize your strategic thinking for social media.

Christina Kerley has published a checklist for putting a social media marketing plan together. Another useful checklist is provided by ClickZ. The Social Media Group offers a very useful download to help you prepare a proposal for a social media project.

Although a lot of B2C social media strategies focus on brand awareness, most B2B social media strategies are focused on more direct forms of revenue generation. This is a good article on creating a B2B lead generation pipeline.

Social Media Topics - Part 1

We didn't cover much on social media in seminar 3, but it is an emerging area of much interest to marketers.

According to Wikipedia, Social Media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Another way of defining this is describing it as media which are formed mainly by the public as a group, in a social way, rather than media produced by journalists or other traditional media producers.

According to PC Magazine, Social Media is the "online forms of communicating to the masses, which include blogs, microblogs, social networking sites and podcasts. Contrast with 'industrial media,' which refer to radio, TV and film."

So what are the tools you need to get started? This post by Chris Brogan outlines the essentials. (Chris is the author of an interesting book entitled "Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust").

Christina Kerley has published an informative presentation on the benefits of social media for B2B marketing. Also, social media is very different from traditional media.

There is a lot of new concepts to understand to capitalize on social media. I think Blogs and Video are the best tools to start with for a young technology company.

The purpose of blogging is well outlined by this Inc magazine article.

There are many great examples of how to use video to great advantage, and here is a case study published by DH Communications on one example. Of course, there are risks as well, and this blog post discusses some of the issues for this particular case study.

(in part 2, I will discuss developing a social media strategy, and in part 3, I will cover twitter and social media analytics).

PR and Publicity Topics

As we mentioned in seminar 3, publicity is the most cost effective means of generating awareness. The goal of publicity is to get attention in online and traditional media (appearing in print by this "unpaid" manner is sometimes known as "free coverage"). The broader term of public relations is the process of molding public opinion through a variety of methods ranging from events, public speaking, and newsletters to the media and Internet communications channels we associate with publicity.

The most common method of getting media attention is through a press release. You need to write a press release, identify a distribution method, and have a list of contacts you want to work with to make sure your press release gets the attention it deserves. With your targeted media list, you need to approach this people directly and use a pitch letter to make the "story opportunity" crystal clear.

Remember as well that the most important side effects of good and frequent press release distribution is search engine optimization and increased website traffic.

Here are some valuable links that will help you with this process:

Publicity Do's and Don'ts

Useful overview of the process

How to write a press release.

How to write with template and sample

Here is an annotated example

Best practices for quotes in a press release

Creating a pitch letter:
from the Publicity Insider
from Inc magazine
Here is a checklist

Developing a media list:
article from eHow
article in Inc magazine
article from Suite101

Commercial Press Release Wire Services:
Marketwire
PR Newswire
BusinessWire
PRWeb
Canada Newswire/CNW Group

Free Press Release Wire Services:
http://presszoom.com/
http://www.pitchengine.com/
http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/
http://www.prlog.org/submit-free-press-release.html

Marketing Communications Topics

In follow up to this broad topic, I thought it would be good to review the concepts. This site, Small Business Notes, has a great definition for Marketing Communications and links to some simple explanations of advertising, sales materials, and public relations.

An HP article on making a marketing brochure (includes a template). Also, here is a good article on making the content convincing for customers. You may also find this article on "How To Improve Your Marketing Collateral" useful.

A Business Week article on "The Bang for Your Marketing Buck" (includes link to a ROI calculator).

Often people use tradeshows as a key promotional activity, here is an article on "Trade Show Marketing Mistakes".

(I'll make separate posts on publicity and social media as I have extensive list of resources for that) ...

Partner Program Topics

Here are a few articles that are interesting reading on the topic of "why partner?"

• Learning from Starbucks (point 4 is about partnering)
• Some of the global expansion of Starbucks in the 1990's was possible due to partners and allies.

Here are some articles on the topic of "how to execute a partner program".

• Phases of a Reseller Program
• Recruiting Resellers
• Intel's MDF Use of MDF

Here is a website very rich in news and articles about information technology partner programs, along with some notable articles you will want to read from those publications:

Channel Insider

• IBM Tops IDC ISV Program Study; Microsoft, SAP Follow
• Marketing Programs Vary Widely Among VARs
• Microsoft ISVs Outperforming Peers