Download Marketing: Necessary (but not evil)

Marketing:
Necessary
(but not evil)
OSCON 2012
@vmbrasseur
Marketing has earned a bad rep, particularly among those with a
technical bent. Many see it as inherently evil and want nothing to do
with it. What these people may not realize is that not only are they
already performing many tasks which are defined as 'marketing,' they
are also shooting their product in the foot by avoiding the subject.
Photo: flickr ‘Official Star Wars Blog’ CC BY
Silence is golden
Before I really get going, I'd like to take this moment to ask two things
of you. First, please check that all your cellphones and devices are set
to silent mode. Secondly, please feel free to ask questions at any point
during the talk. Just raise your hand and as soon as I’ve completed my
thought I’ll call on you.
About me
(very briefly)
My name is VM (aka Vicky) Brasseur. If you’ve checked my bio you
know that I’m a software engineering manager and therefore a
somewhat unlikely candidate to be here speaking to you about
marketing, of all things. As you can imagine, it was not a straight path
which brought me here today.
Currently I am the Manager of the Software Engineering department at
Twistage. We're a B2B online media provider, powering the video, audio
and image album offerings of organizations like...
...Mattel Toys and...
perezhilton.com
and our awesome hosts today, O’Reilly Media.
Prior to joining Twistage I was honored to spend about six months at
Internet Archive as product manager, developing a digital archive
service for memory institutions like libraries, archives and museums.
But my path to marketing evangelism started earlier than this.
Before I joined the Archive I spent six years at iPost, an online
marketing provider based in the Bay Area.
Photo: flickr ‘JeanineAnderson’ CC BY-NC-ND
I wore many hats while I was iPost...
starting as software engineer,
then a short stint as product manager
before spending my final few years as Director of Software Engineering.
To be successful in any role at any company it's important that you
learn about your domain and how to navigate around within it.
If you're at Square you learn about banking and point of sale.
Ravelry? Knowledge of knitting, crocheting and other fiber arts is
crucial.
While at iPost I had to learn about marketing and marketers.
Photo: flickr ‘Oberazzi’ CC BY-NC-SA
Naturally the very first thing I had to do was answer the question, 'What
is marketing?'
This was a question I almost didn’t ask. After all, I’m a modern
American. I’ve spent my entire life steeped in marketing, right? I mean,
we can’t really avoid it. I TOTALLY know what marketing is.
Photo: flickr ‘Orin Zebest’ CC BY
Like most people, I was under the impression that 'marketing' was
synonymous with 'advertising'. It is, after all, the most visible facet of
marketing so it makes sense that a non-marketer might think this.
It’s a good thing I did ask the question though, since it turns out there
so SO MUCH MORE to marketing than just advertising.
Since I’ve learned the hard way not to accept assumptions (my own or
others), I went searching for a definition for marketing. The first place I
looked was the AMA--the American Marketing Association. The AMA is
the premier professional association for marketers in America. This is
what they had to say for the definition of marketing:
“Marketing is an organizational function and a
set of processes for creating, communicating, and
delivering value to customers and for managing
customer relationships in ways that benefit the
organization and its stakeholders.”
American Marketing Association
'Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for
creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for
managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization
and its stakeholders.'
<PAUSE> So...yeah. I shouldn’t have been too surprised to find the
AMA--an organization full of the marketers I’d learned to distrust-had a definition like that. Let’s take it apart a little bit.
“Marketing is an organizational function and a
set of processes for creating,
communicating, and delivering value to
customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization
and its stakeholders.”
American Marketing Association
According to the AMA definition, marketing creates value,
communicates value and delivers value to customers. OK, so far so
good. I understand and respect all of those things. I like value.
“Marketing is an organizational function and a
set of processes for creating, communicating, and
delivering value to customers and for managing
customer relationships in ways that
benefit the organization and its
stakeholders.”
American Marketing Association
The definition goes on to say that marketing manages customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its
stakeholders...
...but apparently not in ways which benefit the customer.
Photo: flickr ‘vladeb’ CC BY-ND
As definitions go, I think this one stinks. I know that definition comes
from THE the American Marketing Association itself, so it kinda ought
to be the final word as far as defining the field of marketing, but this
last bit--leaving out the benefit to the customers... Well, it really didn't
sit well with me.
Photo: flickr ‘karla_k’ CC BY-NC-ND
I'm an open source girl. I also take on the role of user and customer
advocate in my development teams. I believe that the best way for a
company or project to succeed is to listen to its users and deliver
necessary solutions for them. This AMA definition didn't do that.
Photo: flickr ‘Images_of_Money’ CC BY
Furthermore, at the time I was doing this research we were about to hit
what turned out to be the worst recession since the Great Depression.
I'd had quite enough of organizations and stakeholders benefitting,
thankyouverymuch.
So, like any good open source citizen, I wanted a more open option to
this standard definition. I went on a quest to find it.
“The right product, in the right place, at the right
time, at the right price”
Dennis Adcock, Al Halborg, Caroline Ross in
Marketing: Principles and Practice
In -Marketing: Principles and Practice-, Dennis Adcock, Al Halborg and
Caroline Ross define marketing as 'the right product, at the right time,
at the right price.'
This definition strikes me as rather glib. Also, unlike the AMA definition
this one doesn't even mention customers. From my point of view these
are the most important part of the equation. If they’re not included in
the definition of marketing then the definition is wrong. Trying again...
“Marketing is the management process that
identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer
requirements profitably.”
The Chartered Institute of Marketing
According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, 'Marketing is the
management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer
requirements profitably.'
Photo: flickr ‘Marco Fleber’ CC BY-NC-ND
From the time I'd been spending doing my research I'd learned enough
about marketing to know that this definition was not only fairly
accurate but also one which sat well with my personal sensibilities. I
was going to adopt it as my definition of choice...
“Marketing is the social process by which
individuals and groups obtain what they need and
want through creating and exchanging products
and value with others.”
Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler in Marketing: An
Introduction
...and then I found Armstrong and Kotler. In -Marketing: An
Introduction- they define it as '...the social process by which
individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through
creating and exchanging products and value with others.
Photo: flickr ‘brianjmatis’ CC BY-NC-SA
I'd found a winner. This definition not only encapsulated everything I'd
been learning about marketing, it also appealed strongly to my open
source sensibilities.
“Marketing is the social process by which
individuals and groups obtain what they need and
want through creating and exchanging
products and value with others.”
Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler in Marketing: An
Introduction
'Social process.' 'Creating.' 'Exchanging.' 'Value.' This was a definition
with which I could feel comfortable and it's the one under which I'll be
working for the remainder of today's presentation.
Photo: flickr ‘andrewnprice’ CC BY-NC
As you’ve probably assumed (correctly), I'm a geek. I'm a former
software engineer and still dabble a little bit with the code. I like to
tinker and make things. Therefore I also enjoy taking things apart to
see what the constituent parts are and how they interact. So naturally I
took this definition apart. What pieces did I find? Well, from the 30,000
foot view, marketing is composed of 4 parts.
Photo: flickr ‘Valodja’ CC BY-NC
First of all--and most importantly--you need to discover who your
market is.
Photo: flickr ‘Fred Dawson’ CC BY-NC-ND
You also need to discover your market's needs.
Photo: flickr ‘damato_pat’ CC BY-NC-ND
Naturally you need to communicate with your market.
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons
And finally you need to deliver to your market. This is really more the
domain of Research and Development, so I won't really go into it today
and instead will focus on the other three pieces.
Keep in mind that while I'm going to address these three pieces
separately in today's talk they are in fact on-going processes which
occur in parallel.
Please also note that while I'm going to couch a lot of this discussion in
terms more applicable to a non-commercial open source project, it all
holds equally true for non-profits and for-profit ventures.
Photo: flickr ‘Valodja’ CC BY-NC
So let's start with discovering your market.
Photo: flickr ‘PhotoJonny’ CC BY-NC-SA
So, what exactly IS a market? You’ll be glad to hear that unlike the
definition of marketing, this one is actually pretty easy. All of us in this
room know the answer, whether we realize it or not.
Photo: flickr ‘Choconancy1’ CC BY-NC-SA
A market is a community of users. As people who are Open Source
Positive, everyone in this room is familiar with the importance of
communities.
Photo: flickr ‘Joe Pemberton’ CC BY-NC-ND
These are the people using your product
Photo: flickr ‘staflo’ CC BY-NC-SA
reporting your bugs
and requesting your new features.
They are also the one and only true reason for your product existing.
Without your market you don't have a product.
You have a hobby project that's going to be stored in a closet once it's
complete. No one will see it. No one will use it.
Photo: flickr ‘Valerie Everett’ CC BY-SA
Discovering your market is the most important aspect of marketing
and, I strongly believe, in all of product development.
Some organizations like to claim that their products are 'good for
everyone!' This is never the case.
If you try to make your product everything to everyone you'll quickly
discover that it becomes a poorly-defined hodgepodge. It is nothing to
no one.
Instead, take the time to perform even basic market research. Get to
know your community. Narrow it down. Ideally you'd be able to come
up with a market statement.
A market statement is a single sentence which encapsulates the
essence of who your market is. For example...
‘Our market is dev-ops
deploying software to
AWS instances several
times a week.’
‘Our market is dev-ops deploying software to AWS instances several
times a week.’
‘Our market is single
mothers in Philadelphia
who are looking for
affordable childcare.’
‘Our market is single mothers in Philadelphia who are looking for
affordable childcare.’
‘Our market is deaf
people who are trying
to buy products at your
average checkout
counter.’
‘Our market is deaf people who are trying to buy products at your
average checkout counter.’
‘Our market is
librarians who acquire,
catalog and circulate
electronic texts.’
‘Our market is librarians who acquire, catalog and circulate electronic
texts.’
These are well-defined market statements. If you are working on a
product, know this market statement and keep it at the forefront of
everything you do. This will help focus every process and effort. Never
lose sight of for whom you're doing the work.
Photo: flickr ‘farleyj’ CC BY
While market research can and often is a full time job, coming up with
a market statement is something which anyone can do. It's likely you
already have a market and you just need to recognize it.
Photo: flickr ‘lightsight’ CC BY-NC-ND
If your project is a work in progress or just a gleam in your eye then
look at the features and elements you're looking to add. Who will gain
value from them? Focus this answer and you'll focus your product.
Photo: flickr ‘jemasmith’ CC BY
If you already have a completed project, look at your existing users.
Who uses your product the most? Do you have any vocal evangelists?
How about squeaky wheels and detractors? Make a list, check it twice.
Condense it down to its essence and you'll have a market statement.
While you've been able to condense your market down into a single
market statement, it’s important not to lose track of the fact that it's
made up of many sub-communities.
For instance in Perl, my language of choice in those rare times when I
DO code, there is the overall market of all people who code with Perl.
Within that there are important sub communities.
There are experienced Perl coders... (Larry Wall and Tom Christiansen)
Photo: flickr ‘Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’ CC BY-NC-ND
...and there are those who're new to the language.
Excerpt from 2011-2012 edition of ‘Modern Perl’ by chromatic
There are the users...
...and then there are the user-contributors who add to and maintain
the modules on CPAN.
When it comes time to develop features or to communicate with your
market, be aware of whether you're addressing a sub-community. If so
you may need to use a slightly different dialect or approach in order to
reach them well.
To many techies coming up with a market statement may seem like a
lot of pointless busy work. It's not. The benefits can make the
difference between a successful project and one which just limps
along.
Photo: flickr ‘loop_oh’ CC BY-ND
Knowing your market helps to set the identity--the brand--for your
project. In his 2011 TED talk, Bunker Roy said 'You are certified by the
community you serve.' Not only are you certified, you’re also identified
by it. Once you know whom your project serves you know what it is and
what it can become.
Photo: flickr ‘Michael Dales’ CC BY-NC
When you know your market you get project focus, reducing the scope
of work and allowing you to develop the features which matter most to
the people who'll actually use them.
When you know your market you gain insight into what those desired
features actually are. This helps you eliminate all those hours that
would have been wasted on features that no one will ever use. Yeah,
we've all been there, haven't we?
Photo: flickr ‘will-lion’ NC-NY-ND
Full disclosure: I’m not a fan of Facebook. Still, Mark Zuckerberg has
this great quote which I really like. 'Communities already exist...think
about how you can help that community do what it wants to do.' You
now know who your community--your market--is. But do you know
what they want to do? And how they want to do it?
If you don't then any development you do is composed of best guesses
and fish you shot in some barrel somewhere.
This is expensive, wasteful and demoralizing to the teams building
your product. Please do your organization and your market the service
of speaking with your community to discover their needs before you
start creating a lot of useless crap.
Discovering your market’s needs isn’t a very simple process. It’s not
just a matter of knowing their needs. You also need to know your
market on a more personal level.
Once you know your market and have market statement you can gather
some basic identifying information about your market: demographics.
Demographics are statistical data about a group of people. Here are
some demographics for Portland. These data usually focuses on things
like race, gender, income, age, etc.
Demography is a highly specialized endeavor involving statistics and
sociology. You don’t have to get that in depth in order to make a
difference in your project. Using one of my example market
statements...
‘Our market is
librarians who acquire,
catalog and circulate
electronic texts.’
Because I know a fair bit about libraries, librarians and electronic texts,
I can extrapolate some demographics from this statement.
I know that librarians are very intelligent and well-educated.
They have exceptional attention to detail.
They believe strongly in use of standards, open standards in particular.
They’re currently very frustrated with how most large publishers (both
of books and journals) are handling electronic texts.
These last two points--belief in standards and frustration with
publishers--aren’t demographics. They’re psychographics.
Psychographics are like demographics but they’re related to beliefs,
personalities and the like. They’re just as important as demographics
when determining what and how to deliver products to your market.
So if you ARE developing for those librarians you’ll know not to use
proprietary file formats which don’t play nicely with others.
How do you go about learning more about your market? How do you
start that conversation?
For starters, you can send out surveys. This gets you a lot of
information very quickly, but it does rely on your market actually
responding to the survey.
A more reliable but resource-intensive method is to read forums,
blogs, tweets and social networks and visit places--like this--where
your market hangs out.
Visit your market and observe them performing their tasks. You’ll
frequently be surprised by what you see, because...
...users never use things the way you think they will.
Photo: flickr ‘Rohit Rath’ CC BY-NC-ND
Or--crazy idea--actually sit down and speak with them. Most of them
don't bite, honest. Start up a dialog via email, IRC, Skype or face to
face. Ask them about the largest hurdle they face. Solve that problem.
Photo: flickr ‘John_Aquino’ CC BY
You'll get a lot of great ideas for features this way. Better yet, you'll
know that each and every one of them would be used by SOMEONE
because SOMEONE told you about it. Now all you have to do is winnow
them out, separating the wheat from the chaff, and start developing.
Approaching your market and asking what they need gains you a lot
more than just focus for your product development process. It also
gains you something far more precious: the respect of your market.
If your market realizes that you actually care what they think they'll be
more loyal to your product and your brand and remain productive
members of your community.
Photo: flickr ‘BenSpark’ CC BY-NC-SA
This inquiry is part of the on-going outreach and communication
which you'll need to do with your market in order to keep them
engaged with your product and your brand.
After all, what's the good of having a community if you don't
communicate with them?
Photo: flickr ‘uplandaccess’ CC BY
There are basically two different approaches you can take when
reaching out to your market.
There's advertising--which as I mentioned earlier we all recognize as
marketing. This is primarily a one-way form of communication.
Photo: flickr ‘www.guigo.eu’ CC BY-SA
We reach out but there is no one reaching back at us. This approach
communication intends to inform, promote and raise awareness of a
product or brand amongst your market.
And sometimes it also intends to manipulate.
You have the choice on how you advertise to your market. I’m not
going to tell you how to do that. But I WILL suggest that you avoid
being manipulative and instead concentrate on being open and sincere
with them.
Manipulation may work in the short run but your community will find
you out, resent you for it and vote with their feet as they walk toward a
different product.
Photo: flickr ‘amslerPIX’ CC BY
And then there's also the two-way communication. This is most
everything else you do in your organization. Every touch point with
your market is a form of marketing outreach.
“Marketing is something everyone in your company is
doing 24/7/365....Recognize that all of these little
things are more important than choosing which piece
of swag to throw into a conference goodie bag.
Marketing isn't just a few individual events. It's the
sum total of everything you do.”
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson in Rework
Jason Fried and DHH of 37signals sum this up perfectly in their book Rework-. 'Marketing is something everyone in your company is doing
24/7/365...Recognize that all of these little things are more important
than choosing which piece of swag to throw into a conference goodie
bag. Marketing isn't just a few individual events. It's the sum total of
everything you do.'
STFU NOOB! You may not think so, but this is marketing. Every single
interaction with your community creates or reinforces your brand. If
you want your product's identity to be associated with arrogance and
hostility then by all means allow this sort of thing to occur. If you don't
then do what you must to eject people engaging in this sort of toxic
marketing.
Photo: flickr ‘Sanctu’ CC BY-NC-SA
Knowing your market means knowing the language they speak. This is
where it's important to know the sub-communities of your market.
Just as you shouldn't address your new community members with
hostility, you also shouldn't address them in the same way as your
more experienced members.
You must always communicate with your market in a manner which
they'll understand and respect. Find the language and approach which
is the most effective.
This may involve doing some simple A/B tests to see which approach
receives the best response.
To continue picking on my beloved Perl, if you were new to the
language would you rather see this page or one which walks you
through your first contribution and points you at the documentation
and introduces you to a few people who are both willing and able to
answer questions from new community members?
Personally I’d love to see Perl run an A/B test on this sort of new
contributor page. I think it would generate some very intriguing data.
This has been a very high-level introduction to marketing. As you can
imagine, there are a lot of details which I’ve been unable to cover
today.
There are pricing strategies
There’s ROI: Return on Investment
There’s competitive research, which isn’t spying but I admit I couldn’t
resist the cute kitty photo.
And a whole host of other things.
Regardless, as you've probably realized, you are all already marketers.
Revel in it. Be proud. Love it. Give it a great big hug. It’s not evil.
Through marketing you create stronger communities and better
products, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.
VM Brasseur
(aka Vicky)
@vmbrasseur
http://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com
[anything you want]@vmbrasseur.com
Questions!