Thoughts on Marketing

I recently came across this post by David Hornik. David talked about the tendency of VCs to focus on marketing issues, more than engineering & sales. I totally agree with David and to prove that, here is my post on marketing.

In my opinion, there are 2 types of marketing professionals. The majority (Call them "professionals") focus on the technical side of marketing (setting the website, the PR tour, names, trade-shows, etc.). These people are necessary in every marketing department. However, it's the 2nd type (the "wizards") that make a real difference, that come up the wild & crazy ideas.

Below are 3 examples of unique, highly appreciated, marketing campaigns:

1. Salesforce.com, 2000, the "Protests". From the NYTimes: Three months later, Salesforce started its service in grand dot-com fashion, at a party that included the B-52's band and cost $250,000. Mr. Benioff said he timed the introduction with a large Siebel Systems users' conference in San Francisco, staging a faux protest to ensure that he would gain considerable media attention. "We applied for a permit from the city to march against software," he said. "We claimed it was hurting the American economy. It was creating landfills full of CD-ROM's,'' he said. "And the city granted it to us.''
   
2. Google, 2004, the "email club". From Wikipedia:  Google did no marketing, they spent no money. They created scarcity by giving out Gmail accounts only to a handful of "power users." Other users who aspired to be like these power users "lusted" for a Gmail account and this manifested itself in their bidding for Gmail invites on eBay. Demand was created by limited supply; the cachet of having a Gmail account caused the word of mouth, rather than any marketing activities by Google. 
   
3. Apple, the "package" (With Apple, everything is unique. Probably the best example is the Mac commercial, "1984"). From Mac Observer: Calling Apple's iPod packaging "flawless," "inventive," and "utterly consistent with what we've come to expect," the judges awarded Apple with a 'design distinction' accolade. The judges praised the packaging of the original, white iPod for its "egg-carton" design that slowly reveals the product. "There's this ballet of unwrapping that is clearly intentional," said one judge. "It prolongs your excitement about finally owning the product."

I have been meaning to write this post for a long time, and  was convinced to do it after a great conversation with Esme Vos. When I talked with Esme about marketing, she said that really good marketeers do it as a mission, not as a job. I couldn't agree more.

Comments

[Uri Baruchin]

Hi Daniel, answered in a post on my blog. but for some reason the trackback didn't register.

[Fara]

I agree, Danny - but your examples are all consumer based products/services. Marketing for 90% of our enterprise focused portfolio companies is an entirely different ballgame. You don't necessarily appreciate them as wild & crazy ideas like your examples, but things like deciding to open- source some of your product code, or forgo the deal in turkey that you've worked on for 6 months to spend your resources to try to sign a deal with the operator in the country with the higest % of young mobile users (etc.) - these are still radical marketing ideas in our universe.