Re: Marketing Strategy Notes

[Alan Kotok <akotok@disa.org>]

Ed, et al.

Good job.  You have identified key audiences and tools for reaching these 
audiences that we can exploit proactively  It will certainly help us focus 
our efforts and help keep from getting distracted from our main goal.

I would add one other audience -- current ebXML participants -- who should 
be our best ambassadors in their companies and industry organizations.  You 
may have included this cohort by implication, but it does not hurt to say 
it outright.

Best regards.

Alan Kotok
Director, Education and Information Resources
Data Interchange Standards Association
akotok@disa.org
+1 703-518-4174

At 02:03 PM 5/22/00 -0700, Ed Julson wrote:
>Marketing & Awareness team members,
>
>I've finally had a chance to write down my notes from our marketing strategy
>discussion in Brussels. This is not intended to be a polished document, 
>but the
>basic jist of what we talked about is captured.
>
>I believe the next step is to post for review, fill in the gaps, and then
>translate this strategy into a tactical plan to implement it. Even if we only
>identify the top 3-4 things to do right now, that will at least get us headed
>down the right path.
>
>Ann, would you like to chime in with a suggestion on the best way to proceed
>from here?
>
>Marketing Strategy Discussion - 5/11/00
>
>Target audiance
>---------------
>
>We identified four different target audiances for our marketing messages:
>
>o IT Architects
>o Developers
>   - IT developer (in-house app's)
>   - independent software vendors (ISV)
>o ebXML collaberative partners
>o Senior executives
>
>A distinction was made between in-house developers, who write app's for 
>in-house
>deployment within corporporations; and ISV's, who develop s/w for resale. The
>mechanism for reaching these two groups of developers may be different and we
>talked about the possibility of creating a "ebXML inside" type of branding 
>for
>packaged app's that support ebXML.
>
>Collaberative partners refers to companies who want to work with ebXML on 
>early
>access to ebXML specifications under development, reference 
>implementations, or
>joint marketing. Some of these collaberative partners may be ebXML members,
>others will not be.
>
>Since the ebXML effort is really a framework for data interchange, it makes
>sense to include IT architects on our list of target audiances, since 
>these guys
>are the policy makers in medium & large corporations.
>
>Push/Pull Strategy
>------------------
>
>We agreed that the most effective way to get the ebXML messages out is to 
>deploy
>a combination of "push" and "pull" marketing strategies. A pull strategy 
>is one
>in which the consumer of the information, tools, or messaging is proactive in
>seeking it out. The most common example would be a website where the 
>collection
>of ebXML marketing materials are posted for review, forwarding or download.
>This is a very passive approach to marketing and does not normally 
>generate much
>industry visibility.
>
>A push strategy is much more proactive, seeking a higher level of 
>visibility and
>utilizing a number of different mechanisms to deliver our messaging and 
>actively
>manage industry perceptions around ebXML. Examples of this approach would
>include PR campaigns, branding programs, seeding of technical conferences, 
>and
>joint marketing of ebXML with member companies.
>
>One of the determining factors in developing a marketing strategy will be the
>availability of funding to support a marketing approach that deploys some
>combination of push and pull elements. The less money we have available, the
>more we will have to rely on the more passive pull tactics.
>
>One of the outputs of our marketing plan should be a request for funding
>required to support our marketing objectives. We should not be bashful about
>seeking funding from the executive committee if we believe it is required.
>
>Communications Channels
>-----------------------
>
>We didn't go real deep here, but did identify the following alternatives for
>communicating our marketing messages. These are not prioritized in order of
>importance.
>
>o print media; combination of IT industry & general publications. This is not
>   advertising. What we are talking about here is contributed articles or
>   interviews about the ebXML mission and spotlighting of succeses along 
> the way.
>   (eg; Economist, Computerworld, Forbes, Information Week, etc.)
>
>o complementary websites; link to ebXML from websites that address 
>complementary
>   topics, such as EDI, XML, or b2b/b2c content. Also included in this 
> category
>   are links from ebXML member company sites, including the display of the 
> ebXML
>   logo where company policies allow for it.
>   (eg; XML.com, XML.org; Ann to provide others)
>
>o trade shows; since ebXML is a virtual organization, we need to rely on the
>   support of member companies to include ebXML in their trade show plans.
>   To make this easier to do, we ought to develop some "canned" materials and
>   artwork that can be accessed from the ebXML website. It was also agreed the
>   the project teams should be used as a conduit for access into member
>   companies and to influence trade show planning to incorporate ebXML 
> content.
>
>o press releases; we all know how this works, but we need to have more
>   visibility into what the project teams are up to, in order to put together
>   a decent PR plan and press kit.
>
>o analysts; one of the biggest influencers of industry thought are the market
>   analysts. They have enourmous influence with their clients, and analyst
>   recommendations carry a lot of weight in large companies. Again, our best
>   avenue of access to these analysts is through the existing relationships
>   that ebXML member companies currently have with these analysts. In 
> addition
>   to the official ebXML spokepeople such as Klaus and Bob, we need to have a
>   number of individuals within the member companies who can talk credibly
>   about the ebXML agenda and objectives. Out of all of our marketing options,
>   working with market analysts is probably one of the most leveraged and
>   effective things we can do.
>   (eg; Gartner, GigaGroup, Burton, Seybold)
>
>We didn't have a chance to get very far into the discussion of what a 
>tactical
>plan would look like to deliver on the strategy outlined above. However, 
>we did
>agree that most of the work will need to take place betwee these quarterly
>meetings and that we need to have a mechanism to track progress on a regular
>basis.
>
>Ann volunteered to set up a weekly conference call to touch base on 
>status, and
>help us manage this effort on an ongoing basis.
>
>
>
>=====================================================
>Ed Julson                       Sun Microsystems
>XML Marketing                   901 San Antonio Rd.
>XML Technology Center           MS UMPK16-201
>                                 Palo Alto, CA 94303
>
>ed.julson@eng.sun.com
>650-786-9258 (x89258)
>=====================================================