OS/2 Shareware BBS: 8 Other/08-Other.zip/week_3.zip/chapter3.txt

Text File | 1996-02-27 | 3KB | 56 lines

#: 70684 S20/Marketing OS/2 Apps
    08-Jan-96  21:09:39
Sb: Chap 3:Thoughts/opinions
Fm: Esther Schindler [EXEC] 72241,1417
To: All

Post your contemplations, head-scratchings, and ruminations about Chapter 3 of
Crossing the Chasm as a reply to this message.

(And I *do* hope you're all keeping up with the reading. There might be a pop
quiz!)

"As opportunities from the early market of visionaries become increasingly
saturated... and with the mainstream market of pragmatists nowhere near the
comfort level they need in order to buy, there is simply an insufficient
marketplace of available dollars to sustain the firm. Having flirted with
going cash-flow positive... the trend is now reversed, and the enterprise is
accelerating into negative cash flow. Worse still, mainstream competitors
..now have caught sight of a new target, experienced one or two major losses,
and set their sales forces in motion to counterattack."

Gee, have any of you encountered this situation yet? I can think of a few OS/2
ISVs that have, whether or not they're willing to raise their hands in public!


"We are going to cross that chasm as fast as we can with an invasion force
focused directly and exclusively on the point of attack (D Day)."

Starting to think about focus, folks?

"Companies just starting out, as well as any marketing program operating with
scarce resources, must operate in tightly bound markets to be competitive.
Otherwise their 'hot' marketing messages get diffused too easily, the chain
reaction of word-of-mouth communication dies out, and the sales force is back
to selling 'cold.'"

.. "Whole product commitments must be made not only sparingly but
strategically -- that is, made with  a view toward leveraging them over
multiple sales. This can only happen if the sales effort is focused on one or
two niche markets."

Give an example of a mistake you've made by not following this wisdom -- or
explain how it hasn't been true for your experiences. Give examples of some
niches that you might contemplate addressing... application niche or thematic
niche? Or, if you're concerned about talking in public here "just between us
chickens" at least let me know that you HAVE thought about it. (I want to know
that this exercise is valuable, after all.)

After that (and ONLY after that), explain how this marketing advice applies to
IBM's marketing of OS/2. (Those people who were upset that IBM chose to focus
on "the networked computer user" at the expense of the ma'n'pa user might take
especial note of this.)

--Esther