Saturday, September 6th, 2008
Perception Is Reality
On Friday I attended a conference, “The Future of Software“, sponsored by Potomac Techwire and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. The participants in the first panel discussion (focused more on the future of software) were entrepreneurs and tech-types embroiled (one way or another) in the software industry. The second set of panelists (focused on investing in software companies) were comprised of representatives from various venture capital funds around the area. One of the most entertaining speakers was Andre Boisvert, who clearly isn’t afraid to say out loud the things that everyone is thinking.
In one of his rants about marketing for software companies, he commented about his days as Sr. VP of Worldwide Marketing at Oracle. “We didn’t have a great database at the time, I just had a whopping marketing budget of $240 million to make you THINK I had a great database.” Andre went on to clarify that Oracle did end up developing a really great database. Andre’s point though, is that marketing is about perception. And he’s absolutely correct. What YOU think of your company is irrelevant — what your CUSTOMER thinks of your company, your products and services is what counts.
Most of us don’t have a $240 million budget to sway the opinion of our buyers and cover the fact that our product isn’t that great <yet>. I guess that means we’re going to have to rely on building products that work, and delivering services that meet what we promised. But Andre’s comment is an important one to keep in the back of our mind. The perception of the customer will define your brand and your company. All the more reason to make sure that the company message is consistent with your goals for the business.
One of the best ways to ensure a consistent external message is to develop a message map. Easier said than done, it can take several meetings and iterations before you have a workable document. But the value of a message map lies in its consistency. No matter who is writing about your company, talking about your services, or pitching your products — if you’ve given them the key points to make, backed by valid data and clear explanations, then you can be assured that what’s going out of your company is clear, concise and consistent. The three magic words of marketing.
