Why the Name “Marketing (Analyzed)” ?

Marketing has a bad rap; the name “Marketing” in fact has negative connotations, especially among technical audiences. This has a variety of reasons – many of them deserved – which I won’t be discussing right now.

“Marketing” may well be equated with advertising, collateral and tradeshows, or, perhaps the marketing babe. Overall, it’s too narrowly and shallowly considered, and often suffers from a lack of respect within the world I inhabit, enterprise software. In fact, there are times when, simply due to my title, VP of Marketing, that I can’t be involved with a given activity. For example, recently, our New York sales rep needed someone to visit a prospect, to help move things along. I was actually already planning to be in New York at the same time, but the sales rep’s comment was “sorry, this prospect doesn’t want a marketing discussion” (insert sneering tone).

Part of this is justifiable, where customers and salespeople have interacted with too many content-free marketing people. And part is likely due to the fact that the most visible part of marketing is also the least interesting, basic blocking and tackling – creating collateral, executing trade shows, and operating the website. These are important, but in many ways secondary to (and dependent upon) the creation of compelling messaging & positioning, for which Marketing should also be responsible.

In any case, as a result I’ve half-seriously considered changing my title (and Department name) to something like “Market Analysis”, or “Marketing and Messaging”. My goal for this blog (and, in many ways, in my job) is to, in whatever small way I can, elevate Marketing, by showing that it can be smart, analytical, and relevant.

Why? Clearly, a lot of them stems from my technical, analytical background as a software engineer, and my experiences as a product manager. In fact, over the years as I’ve grown into a broader role, my mentors have often had to push me out of my comfort zone (technical discussions) and into the less concrete areas of business value. However, as I’ve explored and experienced marketing, and seen it well-executed by some amazing mentors from whom I’ve learned a ton, I’ve grown to respect the field, and become determined to demonstrate how it can be done well

Make a suggestion for an alternate name for “Marketing” !

Hurricane Irene and Marketing

Those of us living in the Northeast US and New England are bracing for this weekend’s onslaught from Hurricane Irene. Between cleaning my gutters, recharging the household lantern, and putting away the kids’ yard toys (to prevent them from turning into lethal projectiles), I’ve been tracking the storm on the excellent NYTimes.com website.  As you may recall, the Times recently shifted to a digital subscription model, providing everyone with 20 articles free per month, after which paid access is required.

Looking through the hurricane coverage, I noticed today that the websites states “During this emergency, The New York Times is providing unlimited free access to storm coverage on nytimes.com and its mobile apps”.  This policy decision is a testament to both the central role that the web now plays in our lives, as well as the ongoing importance of the media  in their classic role of good journalism -- (performing primary research, as well as capturing official information), and distilling and packaging so that it has maximum relevance and impact for their target audience.   Think about this – how wonderful it is to have dedicated, intelligent people focused on pulling together raw information from city, state, and federal government agencies, weather forecasts, and local businesses, and presenting it to us in a single place, in a readable and engaging format. (Can you tell that I’m a fan?)

In addition, this decision also great marketing – reinforcing the New York Times brand as a trusted provider of valued information – while simultaneously providing a public service in a time of crisis for the region.

So, how is this relevant to us in the enterprise software space, or (more broadly) those of us marketing and selling to businesses?  We need to be very careful not to fall for the First Fallacy of B2B Marketing** – believing that B2C approaches, principles, and metrics apply to us. Very often, they don’t!

For me, as an enterprise software marketer, the lesson is not to be afraid of giving things away.  When we have an audience, a customer base, or an ecosystem, it’s often better to err on the side of freely providing more information, rather than trying to charge for everything.  What do you think? What are you charging for today (or hiding behind registration) that might be more valuable if freely available?

** More (much more) on this topic in future postings.