Marketing Value Chain

The Big “M” What, why and ways to manage Prepared for SCU | May 06, 2009

About Rubicon • Serving high tech firms to win markets through business and market strategy – Since 1999 – Practices: define, deliver, defend, optimize Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 2

Re: Nilofer Merchant, CEO • Started at Apple – As admin. Worked thru undergrad – Had 23 managers in 7 years • VP Sales & Marketing, GoLive (bought by Adobe) • Chief of Staff, Americas, Autodesk • Started Rubicon in ‘99 as sole proprietor Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 3

Marketing: what is it? • Adds no value / lots of value •Product • This is the coolest widget Management • We’ll do logos and fonts later • Let’s make a t-shirt! • Let’s price same as the competition •Product Marketing • Brand can elevate stock price • … but it has no real meaning • A slick, a brochure, a website, •Field Marketing that’s all we need • “the product will sell itself” Brand Management Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 5

The Parts of Marketing: Overview Brand Management Customer Product Product Field Product Management Marketing Marketing Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 6

Product Management Brand Management Customer Product Product Field Product Management Marketing Marketing 1. Who, specifically, is the customer for this product? (Note: “young people” does not count as a target market, neither does “professionals.” Be specific about their lives and needs.) 2. What compelling problem does your product solve for them? (We’re talking about a problem that actually causes pain, not a mild annoyance.) 3. Do they know they have the problem, and do they care? (The tech industry is wonderful at retrofitting imaginary problems to features that engineers wanted to build anyway.) 4. Seriously, do customers really care? Enough to spend money on a solution? 5. Does your product, need an ecosystem to, solve that problem? Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 7

Product Marketing Brand Management Customer Product Product Field Product Management Marketing Marketing 1. What is the competitive situation and how is this product differentiated? 2. What is the unique price or value we can derive? 3. Do we have the right value proposition in mind on what problem it solves? 4. Is this a new market, an existing market, and so what do are the requirements of investment in awareness, consideration, purchase 5. What’s the right channel partners for this product? 6. Do you have the go-to-market in alignment that will cause the flow of product to the market easily? Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 8

The Field Marketing Function Brand Management Customer Product Product Field Product Management Marketing Marketing 1. What are campaigns, strategies, tactics that will generate interest and leads? 2. Have I got a motivated channel? If not, what do I need to do to fix it? 3. Am I doing effective (high ROI) campaigns? What’s my cost per lead? 4. Am I generating enough leads for sales? How long is the sales cycle to support the pipeline? 5. Do we have a right share of voice in the market? Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 9

The Value Chain Brand Management Customer Product Product Field Product Management Marketing Marketing 1. Have I created enough “air cover” for the business so that the buyer knows what we do and find us relevant in that space? 2. Are we positioned correctly? 3. Are we competitively positioned 4. Are we evolving our image? 5. Do we create emotional connection? Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 10

Perspective on 3 Challenges Product Mngmt Prod Mktg Field Marketing Brand Focus What Market What Position How generate Drive consistent What Business Model interest experience of What Customer What Value company, How support the product, How Differentiate business pipeline solution. Challenge Reading the tea leaves Things change Budget Lack of outside control involvement in Almost always product the core business changes from ideation Must support to ship regional view Skills Technical + Business Business + Marketing + Sales Business + Marketing Marketing Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 11

The “Big M” challenge • No one owns the full value chain – Each piece reports into different functional focus – The vision for the market is often not owned by the CEO* • Differences & Organizations – Communication / hand off points between the organization can be spotty – People don’t often understand or share vocabulary – People, retention, morale & turnover all impact this • The “must wins” are unclear – The highest leverage points are pricing related – The cost inefficiencies of doing duplicate research, and guesswork is not captured – The customer losses / risks are not typically measured Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 12

Key Ideas for Today • Marketing has many interdependent parts to take the product and create value in the market • However, without seeing it in it’s full glory, the Marketing Value Chain is inefficient • Senior, cross-functional leadership will be required to drive the necessary changes – Who owns it – Agree on the metrics need to be managed – Creating accountability within the organization Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 13

Next Steps: • Get Fed: – www.rubiconconsulting.com Get informed (and possibly entertained) via Rubicon Insight, or get the RSS feed. Find out • where we’re published or speaking next. No charge; no brainer • Get Connected. – www.twitter.com/nilofer • My personal obsession talking on strategy for the modern era. • Refer. – We welcome referrals as long we get to work with kick-ass people Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 14

Win Markets Trusted Advisors to high-tech firms seeking to transform their visions into strategies, strategies into plans, and plans into results. Practices: Define / Design / Defend / Optimize Big M Value Chain ©2009 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential Page 15

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Marketing Value Chain

by Nilofer Merchant

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