[En] ICT marketing

YANN A. GOURVENNEC – HTTP://VISIONARYMARKETING.COM – © 2005

M A RKE T I N G
I N F ORM ATI ON &
C OM MU N I CAT I O NS
T E C HN O LOG Y ( ICT )
P RO DU C T S A N D
S E RV IC E S

YANN A. GOURVENNEC

OV E RV I E W, C H A R AC T E R I S T I C S ,
METHODS & EXAMPLES

CONTACT YANN A GOURVE NNEC AT HTTP://VISIONARYMARKETING.COM/ENFEEDBACK.HTML


ICT MARKETING BY VISIONARYMARKETING.COM
OVERVIEW, CHARACTERISTICS, METHODS & EXAMPLES
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TA BLE O F CON TE NTS
Exploring The Context Of Ict ___________________________________________________ 7
Foreword_________________________________________________________________ 7
above all a matter of definition _______________________________________________ 7
the amazing complexity of ict marketing ______________________________________ 10
basic principles & definitions __________________________________________________ 11
tentative definition of ict marketing __________________________________________ 11
Marketing Ict Products/Services At Or To People? _____________________________ 14
strategic marketing _______________________________________________________ 18
ict marketing segmentation ____________________________________________________ 19
ict marketing mapping_____________________________________________________ 19
tentative segmentation of ict marketing _______________________________________ 21
B2C (Business to consumer, aka consumer, ICT products marketing) _______________ 21
b2b (business to business) ict marketing ______________________________________ 21
B2E (business to employee) _________________________________________________ 21
c2C (consumer to consumer)________________________________________________ 22
b2c2b (business to consumer to business) _____________________________________ 22
C2B (consumer to business) ________________________________________________ 23
Enterprise Mobility or the archetypical complex project_________________________ 23
Project marketing Or marketing Projects? ____________________________________ 24
key success factors of ict marketing projects___________________________________ 25
shared vision, internal feuds and their impact on innovation projects ______________ 25
of projects and vapourware_________________________________________________ 26
Key Success Factors of Marketng projects ____________________________________ 26
Innovation Projects Methodology ___________________________________________ 27
Of Successful Marketing Projects and Hype ___________________________________ 30
Methodological Toolbox ______________________________________________________ 31
Crossing the Chasm: A vision Of ICT Lyfecycles _______________________________ 32
software products and their recurring revenues. _______________________________ 37
robert metcalfe’s magic quadrant ___________________________________________ 38
markets are conversations __________________________________________________ 40
strategic Marketing __________________________________________________________ 41
the future of Marketing according to regis mc kenna ___________________________ 41
a real life example: the strategic dilemma of incumbent telcos (2003 – 2005) ____________ 42

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changing the engine while flying _____________________________________________ 42
growth & diversification ___________________________________________________ 43
growth implies value-selling ________________________________________________ 44
a few sample strategic matrices______________________________________________ 48
sample table of contents for a strategic plan ___________________________________ 48
a few real life examples _______________________________________________________ 49
(1) B2B smb: viasolutions in a box ___________________________________________ 49
PHASE 1: DESK RESEARCH._____________________________________________ 49
PHASE 2: FACE TO FACE INTERVIEWS ___________________________________ 49
PHASE 3: QUANTITATIVE SURVEY ______________________________________ 52
(2) b2c2b smb’s: unified messaging online survey ______________________________ 57
(3) b2b: viaconferencing.com, ft’s web conferencing service ______________________ 59
(4) B2b example: alliance management (mnc environment) ______________________ 59
golden rule n° 1: develop a strategic vision ____________________________________ 59
golden rule n° 2: setting up ambitious, smart objectives __________________________ 60
golden rule n° 3: the right level of management focus____________________________ 60
golden rule n° 4: enforce strict governance ____________________________________ 60
golden rule n° 5: no partnership without alliance managers _______________________ 60
golden rule n° 6: enforce respect between parties _______________________________ 60
golden rule n° 7: cross-business is not a taboo__________________________________ 60
golden rule n° 8: involve your lawyers… at the right time ________________________ 60
golden rule n° 9: don’t give up! _____________________________________________ 60
golden rule n° 10: spot the busy bees_________________________________________ 61
golden rule n° 11: communicatE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE ____________ 61
golden rule n° 12: programme management & expertise is a must __________________ 61
golden rule n° 13: 3-way and more alliances aka ecosystems ______________________ 61
golden rule n° 14: keep off intellectual sessions ________________________________ 61
golden rule n° 15: set up joint events _________________________________________ 61
golden rule n° 16: segment and certify________________________________________ 61

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INDEX OF FIGURES
(Note: this table does not take framed pictures into account)

FIGURE 3: ROBIDA’S VISION OF TV ON DSL,… AS EARLY AS 1876!............................................ 9
FIGURE 4: IF THIS IS YOUR OPINION OF MARKETING, DO US THE FAVOUR TO KEEP ON READING
THIS PAMPHLET AND WE HOPE YOU MAY HAVE CHANGED YOUR MIND BY THE TIME YOU
FINISH IT. ............................................................................................................................. 10
FIGURE 5: MOBILITY, OR THE ARCHETYPAL COMPLEX MARKETING PROJECT, ACCORDING TO
UNISYS’ MARC FESLER ....................................................................................................... 10
FIGURE 6: THE STRESSFUL AND INEFFECTUAL BUDGETING EXERCISE WILL NEVER REPLACE A
PROPER MARKETING PLAN................................................................................................... 12
FIGURE 7: (SOME OF) THE VARIOUS TYPES OF ICT MARKETING APPROACHES .......................... 15
FIGURE 8: ICT MARKETING SEGMENTATION MAPPING .............................................................. 19
FIGURE 9: AMAZON FRIENDS AND THE ‘TOP REVIEWERS’ ONLINE PANEL ................................. 22
FIGURE 10: THE LOGOS THAT SELL ............................................................................................. 22
FIGURE 11 BUYER BEHAVIOUR IN A MOBILITY PROJECT ............................................................ 23
FIGURE 12:SAMPLE MILIEU MAP (COVA, SALLE & GHAURI, IBID.)........................................... 24
FIGURE 13ORBITAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT BY JACQUES CIVILISE .......................................... 29
FIGURE 14: CLASSIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT OF COMPLEX PROJECTS IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER
............................................................................................................................................. 30
FIGURE 15: ADVANCED PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES OFTEN – IF NOT ALWAYS –
PRODUCE BETTER RESULTS ................................................................................................. 30
FIGURE 16: SOURCE : WEBORAMA – APPLE’S MARKET SHARE COULD WELL BE BELOW 4% .... 31
FIGURE 17: DIAGRAM#1 – ‘IDEAL’ LIFECYCLE CURVE .............................................................. 32
FIGURE 18: DIAGRAM#2 – CYCLE UPON CYCLE (FASHION-DRIVEN MARKETS) ......................... 32
FIGURE 19: DIAGRAM#3 –INNOVATIVEMATURE MARKETS ........................................................ 33
FIGURE 20: EVOLUTION OF THE EQUIPMENT RATES OF FRENCH HOUSEHOLDS ......................... 34
FIGURE 21: MOORE’S SEGMENTATION REVIEWED AND UPDATED BY DONALD NORMAN .......... 34
FIGURE 22: SOURCE : THIERRY BRETON, FRANCE TELECOM – IDATE 19-20-21 NOVEMBRE
2003..................................................................................................................................... 36
FIGURE 23: SOURCE : NICK ALLEN, GARTNER GROUP .............................................................. 37
FIGURE 24: WHY SOFTWARE IS DIFFERENT:THE IMPACT OF MAINTENANCE IN THE COST
STRUCTURE .......................................................................................................................... 38
FIGURE 25: METCALFE'S LAW .................................................................................................... 39
FIGURE 26: REAL LIFE EXAMPLE OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REVERSE-ENGINEERING
MARKETING IN THE CREATION OF A NEW SERVICE .............................................................. 40
FIGURE 28: THE INCUMBENT TELCO DILEMNA ........................................................................... 43
FIGURE 29: TELECOM OFFERINGS AT THE END THE INTERNET BUBBLE...................................... 43
FIGURE 30: GROWTH IMPLIES VALUE-SELLING.......................................................................... 44
FIGURE 31 : THE VALUE MATRIX ............................................................................................... 45
FIGURE 32: THE VISIONARYMARKETING STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY................. 45
FIGURE 33: SAMPLE STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT QUESTION ........................................................... 46
FIGURE 34: SAMPLE VISION STATEMENT AS PART OF THE STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT PROCESS... 47
FIGURE 35: THE PEST MATRIX FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS .............................................. 48
FIGURE 36: THE CLASSIC SWOT MATRIX ................................................................................... 48
FIGURE 37: THE BASIC BUT USEFUL BCG MATRIX. VARIATIONS ON THAT THEME ABOUND ..... 48
FIGURE 38: THE ANSOFF MATRIX ENABLES MARKETEERS TO ELABORATE ON THEIR STRATEGIC
OPTIONS ............................................................................................................................... 48
FIGURE 39: A SAMPLE PRODUCT FAMILY MATRIX ...................................................................... 48
FIGURE 40: THE ‘VIASOLUTIONS-IN-A-BOX’ CONCEPT AND STRAWMAN OF A PORTAL
(UNTRANSLATED) ................................................................................................................ 50
FIGURE 41: THE FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEW LEARNING CURVE .................................................. 51

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FIGURE 42: CONFIDENCE INTERVALS FOR A GIVEN SAMPLE SIZE AND CORRESPONDING TYPICAL
ERROR MARGINS. ................................................................................................................. 53
FIGURE 43: FINAL SAMPLING MATRIX COMPARING ASSUMPTIONS AND END-RESULTS.............. 54
FIGURE 44: THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PHASE 3 OF OUR SURVEY (UNTRANSLATED) .................. 55
FIGURE 45 : OUR CAPI SYSTEM, WISCO SURVEY POWER ........................................................... 56
FIGURE 46: UNIFIED MESSAGING DIAGRAM IS A MUCH BETTER SERVICE THAN ITS NAME LETS
YOU THINK ........................................................................................................................... 58

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INTRO DU CTIO N

EXPLORING THE CONTEXT OF ICT

FOREWORD

This article is about Marketing information and communication technology (ICT) products and
services. Can you think of a more exciting subject? I doubt it. Even after the end of the well-famed
Internet bubble, new technologies are still fascinating to us all. The Internet is now part of our
everyday lives1. In most European countries, it is now possible to pay one’s bills or even taxes
online2, not to mention more traditional e-commerce, which has almost become trivial. Multimedia
mobile phones are ubiquitous; SMS messages make up 25% of most mobile operators’ revenues
while they almost didn’t even exist 7 years ago. Last but not least, all of this is now aimed at all and
sundry and no longer to a small horde of snobbish specialists.

However, when French economist Michel Volle asked me to work on this subject for a
meeting that took place at the beginning of 2004, I was then forced to deal with a dilemma due to
the amazing complexity of this subject. As I suddenly realised, ICT Marketing was all things to all
people. I have spent 15 years trying to market technology products and services at various levels
(consumer, SMEs, MNCs, direct and indirect sales, France, UK, Europe, worldwide, alliances, etc.)
but even that sort of experience does not suffice to cover the entirety of the scope of this subject.
Most of the time, I have been involved with B2B products or services, and that was mostly done on
purpose. Yet, I have tried to tackle other subjects on the fringe of consumer markets and in this
document, you will be my judge for it.

I also want to add that this present work is by no means a proper research paper. On the
contrary, I have intended to commit to paper some of my latest and most striking real-life
experiments in order to share mere best (or worst) practices with the online Marketing community.
Such methods and examples are meant to serve my readers who wish to get ready for action. My
aim does not go much beyond that humble ambition.

ABOVE ALL A MATTER OF DEFINITION

First and foremost, one should endeavour to define ICT Marketing. What are such
technologies and what is their scope? Where do they begin? When do things cease to be
‘technological?’ What are the boundaries of ICT? These questions may seem trivial but they aren’t.
A refrigerator is anything but ICT and that’s for sure. But an Internet-enabled fridge, which enables
you to order more food automatically from the supermarket next door, certainly is ICT; besides,
with an in-built service capability.

Likewise, all consumer stereo and TV products are not part of ICT, but what about Apple’s
iPOD, Sony’s net MD or the Vaio PC-W1 which is a true media centre gathering a hi-fi, a TV set

1 Even in conservative France, Le Figaro remarked that in 2003, approximately 22 million
people had connected to the Internet. This survey
(http://www.mediametrie.com/web/resultats/barometre/resultats.php?id=916 only took into
account individuals above the age of 11.

2 In France, where PAYE has not yet been enforced, taxpayers who declare their income online are given an extra-week

to complete the process.

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and a computer all in one appliance. Similarly with modern motorcars: are they still mere vehicles or
have they become incredibly sophisticated and desirable technological objects?

To begin with, should we talk about technology or technique or even technicality? Isn’t
technology a little grandiloquent a word for what is in fact a suite of technical products or services?
Isn’t it a sign that we confer an almost sacred status to whatever is the fruit of our most advanced
techniques? Perec had already pointed out the importance of objects in our lives in his book
entitled Things3 but our society has taken that to the extreme. Thus, behind technology, isn’t there
a twinge of modern times ‘mythology’ as the consonance would lead as to believe?

Such thoughts are casting a different light on the subject of Marketing of ICT products. The
paramount importance of fashion and trends – mixed up with that post-modern passionate quest
for immediate authenticity – is key to the understanding of our environment. Such contradiction in
terms is best experienced when looking at the websites designed by anti-globalisation movements
(e.g. http://www.left-links.com/global.htm) therefore proving how much such movements are in
their turn using globalisation as a tool for promotion.

The next important issue is that regarding the scope of
ICT Marketing. Should we deal with B2C rather than B2B
Marketing as a priority? As far as B2B Marketing is
concerned, should it not be segmented between 3 main
different types: MNCs4, SMEs5 and SOHO6 users?
Marketing products or services to any of these targets
certainly means different things altogether. One will have to
bear that in mind and I will use some real-life examples to
prove my point. Besides, one should establish a clear
Figure 2: Is Apple’s iPOD a distinction between the Marketing of products and that of
personal stereo or a 40 GB services. Marketing services is very different from marketing
hard drive? products, which people can actually see and touch. This
phenomenon is in fact even more obvious when it comes to
selling online services. Buyer behaviour and buying processes will vary according to circumstances:
for instance, marketing an Internet-based Message broadcasting service7 or multimedia mobile
phones will be two horses of a different colour.

Very few marketing specialists will be able to cover all those
topics with authority and I believe it is easy to understand why.
According to the context, approaches are radically different,
mentalities are extremely diversified and therefore Marketing
methods vary greatly. On top of everything else, trying to define
marketing itself is far from being a useless attempt. Judging
from the example described later in this document, working on
Figure 1: Sony PC-W1 : Is
such a definition is quite rewarding when it comes to
it a PC? Is it a Hi-fi or
a TV set? Or is it all
these things at the same
time?
3 Things by Georges Perec, 1965 (1990 for the English text) Read http://www.complete-
review.com/reviews/perecg/choses.htm for details

4 Multinational Corporations

5 Small and Medium Size Enterprises

6 Small Office, Home Office

7 No wonder such services are so hard to market. Who understands what fax or e-mail broadcasting is really about

anyway?

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understanding what marketing ICT products and services is about.

Lastly, whereas ICT is often pointed out as being fraught with novelty, one may rightfully
regard the concept of ‘the new’ in the 21st century as a subject for investigation. Are ‘new’ things so
novel anyway? What does the word ‘invention’ mean today when almost any possible concept has
already been invented and – maybe – re-invented a few times? What do people (customers,
prospective customers, opinion leaders, etc.) understand when they come across so-called ‘new’
concepts? Thus, are service providers moving in the right direction when they brand their services
as ‘new’? For instance, should we consider that pay-per-use downloadable music is new when
Marcel Proust could already do that with his ‘théâtrophone8’ as early as … 1881? So is all this hoo-
ha about iTunes et al much ado about nothing? Likewise for TV on DSL when we compare it to
the vision expressed by French nineteenth century humorist Robida9 (1876). To name but a few
examples of not-so-new innovative concepts.

Figure 3: Robida’s vision of TV on DSL,… as early as 1876!

In this article, we will also deal with the notion of project, which is key to the marketing of ICT
products and services. Should we in fact talk about ‘Marketing Projects’ or ‘Project Marketing’
rather? In particular, we will address the question as to whether ICT marketing Managers have to
master certain special skills that others don’t, in order to market ICT products or services?

8 Read http://www.telemuseum.se/historia/teatrophon/defaulte.html for a description of the system design

9 I.e. that of visual news sent by phone, which he labelled phonoscopic (as in telescopic I suspect) news, Cp
http://www.remyc.com/robida.html (please note that he was a humorist but still, this idea was so visionary)

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As a conclusion for this foreword, marketing is extremely complex and such complexity should
not be hidden; on the contrary we believe that this complexity deserves to be analysed in a very
straightforward fashion. Moreover, such a level of complexity will force us to resort to very simple
tools in order to reduce complexity
and master it. What it also teaches us
is that generalities about any
marketing object should be handled
with utmost care. All the potential
targets (B2B, B2C, etc.) are different
and require relevant approaches,
tailored to the needs of each of
them. This reminds us too that
marketing is not a science; it is a mere
means of approaching buyer
behaviour, but even that is far from
being meaningless. Yet, such
Figure 4: If this is your opinion of marketing, do us the favour to behaviours are elusive and so is the
keep on reading this pamphlet and we hope you may have
knowledge attached to them.
changed your mind by the time you finish it.
Let us try now to focus on a few
tips and tricks, which I have found useful to improve my grasp of ICT marketing. I will base my
demonstration upon real-life examples and a few simple methodologies, which can be directly
applied to field-action.

THE AMAZING COMPLEXITY OF ICT MARKETING

Above all, the most amazing characteristic of ICT marketing is its enormous level of
complexity. Whereas consumer marketing is accessible to almost anyone, ICT marketeers revel in
using far-fetched, highly technical acronyms, which may render this discipline a little off-putting to
Joe Public. But this is not all. ICT marketing doesn’t just sound complex; it really is so.

Mobility, or the archetypal complex Marketing project

(Source : Marc Fesler, Unisys France)

SEAMLESS INTEGRATION
Access Phone, PDA Pocket PC Clamshell Notebook
Device Access Device
Smartphone (Palm, Symbian) (XDA, Dell, iPaq) Handheld Tablet PC
Manageability (Asset Management, Configuration, App. Deployment)
Profile
Mgmt. Profile Management
Personalization
Authentification
Business & IT Consulting

Transport (Bandwidth, Compression, Seamless Network Roaming)
Link Synchronization (On-/Offline)
Link Layer
Delivery
Maintenance

Layer Session Management
Integration

Security (Encryption)
Carrier-less Carrier (Telco, VNO, XSP, …)
Network
Wired Network Layer
PAN (Bluetooth,..) wLAN (802.11, ..) wWAN (GPRS,..)
Phone, PDA Pocket PC
Clamshell Notebook
Present. Presentation Layer
http://visionarymarketing.com

Smartphone (Palm, Symbian) (XDA, Dell, iPaq)
Handheld Tablet PC
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Figure 5: Mobility, or the archetypal complex marketing project, according to Unisys’ Marc Fesler

I have borrowed a slide from Unisys10 in order to illustrate the extremely high level of
complexity surrounding the making of a mobility solution. Indeed when it comes to ICT marketing
10 Marc Fesler, Business development Manager, Telecom business Unisys France, 2003

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– and mainly IT or Telecommunications related ICT marketing – understanding the gist of those
highly technical subjects is more than just necessary. First of all, ICT marketeers have to be able to
understand technical subjects in general, that is to say not just the vocabulary but the very concepts
that these technologies underpin. That level of functional understanding is crucial in order to enable
ICT marketeers to project themselves into the future and deduce from such technologies what uses
can be derived. Such projections will enable our ICT marketeers to find new ideas. However
important the understanding of the technical background of ICT products may be, one must in no
way lose sight of the proper aim of ICT marketing. As it were, marketing is only a means to an end.
In fact, the more one delves into technical details, the higher the risk to lose sight of functional
aspects and clients. Hence the requirement for ICT marketeers to be able to tell the difference
between functional and technical knowledge. There are cases where marketeers succeed while
failing to understand the basic concepts governing their offerings; but such cases are really rare.
ICT marketeers have to be some sort of two-headed beasts in so far as they need to be au fait
regarding the technological background of their products/services and regarding marketing
management per se. They may be marketeers attracted by technological subjects or engineers
attracted by marketing. As a matter of fact, it does not really matter who they are; only their ability
to deliver is the key driver to ICT marketing success. Last but not least, ICT marketeers have to be
very competent in terms of high-level project management.

Very often, ICT marketeers are meant to supervise a number of project managers – otherwise
known as product managers in certain cases – and they will have to lead the team in terms of
functional design and requirements. ICT marketeers will then have to direct the course of ICT
marketing projects by laying the emphasis on potential customers’ drivers and inhibitors; at first,
they will have to put themselves in the shoes of their potential users and buyers (prior to the
launch) and subsequently, they will have to echo their clients’ and users’ feedback in order to drive
their projects and steer clear of abstraction.

This is a tough job, but it is also really exciting because it is really varied and because the sheer
complexity of ICT marketing is utmost stimulating. Such a multiplicity of skills required from ICT
marketeers may actually prove useful for ICT marketeers to solve conflicts between teams, i.e. sales
persons, engineers and marketeers themselves. Above all, ICT marketeers are managers not only of
their own teams but of all the resources involved in their projects, regardless of organisational
charts. Feeling at ease with horizontal or even orbital management across the organisation and even
with contractors is a key success factor.

BA S I C P R I N C I P L E S & D E F I N I T I O N S

TENTATIVE DEFINITION OF ICT MARKETING

For this tentative definition, I have chosen Christophe Bénavent’s work (2002) as a starting
point. Christophe Bénavent is an expert in ICT marketing as well as the website owner of
http://christophe.benavent.free.fr/.

Bénavent has segmented marketing as follows:

§1 Marketing as a means to address consumers’ expectations.

• This first aim of marketing is summarised by the author as the means to address
consumers’ expectations in a profitable manner.

§2 Marketing as a way to elicit Corporate strategies.

• This second item is “no longer focusing on customer requirements, but on the areas
where Corporate action is necessary”.

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§3 Marketing as a way to foster exchanges.

• This is the third purpose of marketing according to Bénavent. It focuses on symbolic
exchanges, the theory of the gift and reciprocal benefits11.

One may think that trying to define marketing is beyond reach. Indeed, Mc Kenna’s famous
motto is well and truly in our minds while we are attempting to achieve this superhuman task:
“Everything is marketing and marketing is everything12” he wrote in the Harvard Business Review.
However, Bénavent’s work enables us to isolate three main fields for actions and this is why his
definition is a good starting point for us.

The first thing I would like to point out though regarding §1 is that marketing is hardly
restricted to answering customer’s requirements. For one thing marketing is not always about
consumers. In certain cases, clients are invisible (or hidden), or at least they are not perceived as
clients per se. All clients are not “consumers”, but regarding ICT products & services, one may add
that all consumers are not forcibly clients either. This is namely the case regarding B2B services and
mobility services in particular. In this case, users (let us call them “consumers” for argument’s sake)
are influenced by other groups of people, some of which are procurement people, some of which
are their managers, others simply making recommendations to the former etc.

All those people have different motivations, and they all belong to some very complex
ecosystem of decision and usage. This description is in fact valid for most advanced
communications services: users are not the buyers, and vice versa. Failing to bear in mind this
amazing complexity for a moment could render the marketing and selling of such services
rewarding in terms of positive user feedback but will engender very poor results in all likelihood13.

Perhaps case §2 should have been put on top of the agenda. Indeed, purpose §2 is probably the
most crucial. Strategy is actually what places marketing above mere salesmanship because it serves
the objective of eliciting a vision and spreading it across the organisation. At the end of the day,
when this vision is clear and widely shared, sales can thrive in a far better way.

Source : The Marketing Plan, a Pictorial Guide for Managers

Figure 6: The stressful and ineffectual budgeting exercise will never replace a proper marketing plan.

This is why forecasting and budgeting – however important they may be – cannot supersede
proper marketing Planning satisfactorily. Budgeting is an exercise whereby growth percentages are
applied arbitrarily – mostly based on what happened the year before – whatever the reality of
11I will recommend two main references as far as §3 is concerned: “the anthropology of file sharing” by Markus Giesler
and “Tribal Marketing” by Bernard Cova. All two available on Visionary Marketing, Ibid.

12 “Everything is Marketing and Marketing is everything” Regis McKenna, HBR 1991
(http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/prod_detail.asp?91108)

13 See Figure 11 for a tentative mapping of decision makers/opinion leaders on a particular market. Please note that in
this diagram, there is no mention of the fact that there may be several decision makers, and even that the decision may
sometimes be taken by a group of people as opposed to just one buyer.

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supply and demand may be. Budgeting often produces good enough results when the overall
economic trend is well oriented. As soon as the economic situation deteriorates and business
becomes more difficult, the budgeting exercise almost inevitably produces major disasters. This is
easily understandable since such exercises do not help businesses anticipate changes. On the
contrary, they tend to encourage people in believing that trends go on and on unabated. There is no
example in real-life of a market that goes on expanding forever. This is pure fantasy.

Case §3 may appear a bit weird to some of my readers. However, that purpose of marketing is a
fundamental aspect of ICT marketing14. During the Internet bubble, such informal and symbolic
exchanges were highly valued and heavily commented upon. But it would be damageable to throw
the baby with the baby bath and overlook such a fundamental aspect of marketing that has already
produced some very interactive results on the fields. Whereas the years of the Internet bubble
produced great and undeniable collateral damages, one should also be wary of radical anti-internet
bubbles stances which may prevent us from benefiting from past best practices. Burning too many
bridges will serve no purpose.

This surfeit of definitions is one more sign of the complexity surrounding marketing
Management, and that entices us once more to take a holistic view of that subject. Should ICT
marketing be offering-centric, demand-centric or should it focus on desire instead? This is the ICT
marketing conundrum, and what is true of marketing in general is even truer of ICT marketing in
particular. Indeed, most people take it for granted that when a product/service is useful, it should
sell in large quantities. In these people’s minds, marketing new products or services is indeed plain
sailing. All you need to do – according to them – is measure the needs of your potential customers
(provided you know who they might be). Subsequently, you would then have to match your options
against the declarations of your interviewers, and hey pronto! Rational customers will inevitably bite
into your well-designed rational baits. I wish life were so simple. Unfortunately, it is far from being
so easy. First of all, with ICT marketing, targets are not always known. In a way, this is quite normal
in so far as ICT marketing is actually about ‘new’ concepts, some of which are very technical and
sometimes hard to explain, even when they are targeted at specialised audiences.

Besides, there is no such thing as a passive ever-ready customer in this context. Anything could
happen. In actual fact, anything will happen. This is what I found out when I launched an out-
bound fax online service for Wanadoo15 in 1999. Originally, the whole team assumed that our
clients would be the typical mass affluent young males that all market surveys at that time described
as being the standard profile for Internet surfing audiences. Reality proved very different and we
soon found out that this service was extensively used by senior clients.

Strangely enough, none of the surveys we had indicated anything about older users being more
inclined to buy services online. None of the vast amounts of money poured into advertising were
aimed at these people. Youngsters and students were at the centre of all strategies, despite their
extensive taste for free downloads and the free-for-all business model. This explains why spending
a bit of time on the notion of ‘need’ is necessary. Discussions have been going on that subject for
over 2000 years but still, do we always understand what it really means to ‘need’ or ‘require’
anything16? Let us get back to the discussion between Socrates and Glaucon, in Plato’s Republic17, in

14See Net Gain Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities, by John Hagel III, Arthur G. Armstrong
(1999). Available here from Amazon.

15 Wanadoo is the leading French ISP (Internet Service Provider). It is part of the France Telecom Group. In 2001,
Wanadoo took over Dixon’s Freeserve ISP. Freeserve was rebranded as Wanadoo in the UK in 2004.
http://www.wanadoo.co.uk.

16The following definitions were taken from the online version of the Merriam-Webster online dictionary: Need (noun):
2 a : a lack of something requisite, desirable, or useful b : a physiological or psychological requirement for the well-being
of an organism. 3 : a condition requiring supply or relief Desire (noun) 1 : conscious impulse toward something that
promises enjoyment or satisfaction in its attainment 2 a : Longing, craving b : sexual urge or appetite 3 : a usually formal
request or petition for some action 4 : something desired.

Page 13 / 62


which Socrates exclaims: “I do not think that we have adequately determined the nature and
number of our desires, and until this is accomplished the enquiry will always be confused.”

The divide between desire and requirement is not a clear one. In book II of Plato’s republic,
Socrates tries to draw the line between pure necessity and luxury. In his description of the ‘Ideal
State’, adding sofas and tables off which one could dine is a sign that the country has become a
‘luxurious State’. Indeed, you do not need to sit at a table to be able to eat your dinner. You may
very well sit on the ground or even stand up for that matter, like people do in receptions for
instance. So, what difference is there between tangible requirements and luxury? In other words, are
we not abusing the term ‘need’ when we are talking about marketing new products and services?
And subsequently, when does ICT marketing have to address potential clients hidden (or obvious)
desires instead of trying to fulfil basic requirements?

There is no definitive answer to such questions, at least not a simple answer. But the very fact
that we are asking ourselves these questions is actually improving our understanding of the context
of ICT marketing and helps us avoid reaching rash conclusions. Having said that, the vision
whereby ‘rational’ thinking leads to ‘rational’ buyer behaviour is fundamentally distorted and should
not be relied on. Satisfying basic needs is in no way the aim of ICT marketeers, and visions whereby
a ‘just do it’ – some sort of ‘Nike’ approach to marketing – would prevail are fundamentally wrong
and ineffectual.

To take but a few examples, would you say that browsing your e-mail from your living-room or
even at your kitchen table using WI-FI is a ‘must have’ (need) or a ‘nice to have’ (comfort)? or is it
just a ‘cool’ thing to do (desire)? Is that new multimedia mobile phone you have (or will inevitably)
just purchased a real must-have or that status symbol linked to peer-pressure? Also, will you wait
for your current TV screens to break down in order to buy a new one or will you yield to that
inevitable desire to possess one of these brand new flat LCD TV sets as soon as they have – in your
opinion – become affordable? Let’s face it; we have to go beyond the mirror that is hiding our
clients’ real motivations from us.

MARKETING ICT PRODUCTS/SERVICES AT OR TO PEOPLE?

Offering-centric, demand-centric or desire-centric marketing?

Offering-centric marketing markets products at people Demand-centric marketing markets products to people

Aaah! X-rated late After due consideration
night film shows!? I'd rather watch BBC2!

? !

Desire-centric marketing focuses on hidden desires Reverse-engineering marketing is based on analysing
rejections

Jan 2004 ICT Marketing © 2004 by Yann A Gourvennec 23

17 Read http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html for a transcript of Plato’s Republic online.

Page 14 / 62


Figure 7: (Some of) the various types of ICT marketing approaches

I have tried to elicit some of the various types of ICT marketing management approaches that I
have come across in the field (see Figure 7 for details).

First and foremost, what I would call ‘offering-centric’ marketing is probably the most
common type of marketing that can be observed in the ICT playground. However ubiquitous, it is
often despised as being anti-marketing so to speak. In a manner of speaking, I would describe this
approach as marketing at people as opposed to marketing to people. But it does not mean that
offering-centric marketing is totally negative, although there may be a few traps that one should try
and avoid. When it comes to domains where pure innovation is key, offering-centric marketing is
indeed inevitable. In these domains, preliminary research is mostly unavailable and futuristic
predictions from market analysts tend to become the focus area of market intelligence and God
knows upon what such predictions are based most of the time.

Investing in new products and service launches may in some cases prove less costly than going
for expensive, long-winded market research in cases when market knowledge is low, target
customer understanding is feeble and product awareness almost doesn’t exist. Offering-centric
marketing therefore acts as an enabler when the requirements are virtually impossible to measure
beforehand. Very often, the very requirement for that newfangled product or service will be
revealed when buyers can actually see or use it; the more conceptual the service, the more you need
to confront it with the public in order to understand their reactions. This method is also perfectly
suitable to the generation of top-of-the-mind awareness around a product or a brand which is little
known, and also when you have little money left to spend on advertising. The downside of
offering-centric marketing is manifold though. Poor monitoring of that type of marketing could
indeed prove very costly. Offering-centric marketing may actually result in some sort of chain
production of useless products, with no clients, no sales force and no future in sight. As a
conclusion, however interesting offering-centric marketing may be, it really is a few cents short of a
penny, and other approaches will be necessary for us to better grasp customer incentives and
desires.

The second type of marketing approach I have isolated here is also well-known. I shall name it
‘demand-centric’ marketing. The principles guiding demand-centric marketing are straightforward,
or so it seems at first sight. The starting point is the target population. One takes a sample out of
that population, interview that sample, deduce what the market is after and build new (or adapt
existing) products to match the needs and desires of the target population. This method is really
valuable in so far as it forces product/service managers to think about their clients first. It prevents
the design of far-fetched unrealistic products and it brings realism into R&D whereas R&D has
sometimes that tendency to go haywire with haphazard new product development. This approach is
also about alleviating risk by adapting products or services to demand. Having said that, there are
too many people asserting that demand-centric marketing should supersede offering-centric
marketing altogether. Such over-simplification would not do here, mainly when it comes to ICT
products or services. As with offering-centric marketing, there are also a number of danger areas
revealed by this type of approach.

First of all, assessing the needs or desires of a given target population which you do not know
is mostly useless and it can also prove very costly. Similarly, carrying out quantitative in-depth
measurements of customer feedback to stimuli that apply to products barely understood by a
population is not a good idea18. To prove my point, I just want to quote a real-life example, which
originates from my work on the launch of a webconferencing service at France Télécom (branded
as viaconferencing.com)19. One of the main questions we had was related to the pricing of that new
18For all characteristics of market survey methodology, (including Internet-based surveys), please refer to my earlier work
published on the Internet at http://visionarymarketing.com

19 Check the Francetelecom.com website for details. Viaconferencing is the brand name retained by France Télécom for

the distribution of the Webex service in France.

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service. As always with communications services, we had to choose the right ‘business model’ for
the new service. Choosing the right business model is always a mind-boggling problem for
communications services (pay-per-use, by the minute, by the hour, packaged use-as-much-as-you-
like prices, combined packaged and usage-based prices etc. the list is almost infinite). In that
particular case, it became even more complex and we almost came to a deadlock. As a matter of
fact, way back in 2001, our target population could only grasp the concept that we wanted to
promote with utmost difficulty. Notwithstanding our sustained efforts at educating our sample
users, their understanding of our offering remained limited; not that it mattered that much or even
prevented them from using the system and becoming more familiar with it. On the contrary, we
realised that hands-on experience could help them form their own opinion on webconferencing.
This is why most of our task during this pilot phase consisted in recruiting new users so that they
would gain hands-on experience and then form opinions and express them. When it came to
‘pricing’ structure and pricing level, even hands-on users found it difficult to give us their opinion
on the subject. As a consequence, measuring pricing acceptance at that stage meant actually running
the risk of spending vast amounts on surveys with few hopes of ever being able to make anything
of the results. At the end of the day, when asking users – who may not even be the decision makers
– about price levels, one often runs the risk of gathering answers such as “it shouldn’t be too
expensive, you know”, which are not going to be very helpful at all. As a conclusion, demand-
centric marketing cannot supersede offering-centric marketing so easily. The situation is slightly
more complex than that, and it is certainly not a case of offering-centric = bad or demand-centric =
good. Both have to be taken into account.

The third approach that needs to be described here is what we have decided to name ‘desire-
centric’ marketing. Desire-centric marketing is different from demand-centric marketing in so far as
it doesn’t assume that consumers (or even enterprise customers) are rational. That type of
marketing appeals to hidden-desires and one’s clients’ profound motivations. It is a kind of
marketing that fosters innovation, and it enables marketeers to unveil new opportunities and new
markets. It relies more heavily on sociology20. In that sense, desire-centric marketing is more
sophisticated and more innovative than other forms of marketing.

Yet, at the same time, it is also less predictable and more creative. Desire-centric marketing is
more a question of analysing trends and predicting fashion and fads than carefully and thoroughly
gathering and measuring customer feedback. That type of marketing is therefore time-bound
because fads tend to evolve very quickly. They do disappear quickly and are replaced by other fads
as part of a cyclical process. That kind of marketing approach is more qualitative than others. It
mostly focuses on the emergence of new trends, whether they be long-term or short-lived, whether
they be mainstream or just weak signals. Those interested in delving deeper into such subjects
should refer to Bernard Cova and Olivier Badot’s research papers21 and the reference books they
quote.

In essence, desire-centric marketing is geared towards consumer marketing. Yet, it would be
wrong to think that it doesn’t apply to B2B or Project marketing at all. Most people think that B2B
is purely rational and I can assure you it’s far from being true. In fact, it’s just the other way round
most of the time. As a matter of fact, there are myriad ways of writing RFP’s22 and of justifying
one’s choices once a tender has been submitted. Besides, sales persons know how to work their

20Bernard Cova often refers to it as a “societing”. Olivier Badot et Bernard Cova, Le NéoMarketing, 1992 (in French). See
http://www.webcom.com/ygourven/fmkgtext.html#NeoMarketing for an online exec summary of this book.

21A number of Bernard Cova’s texts are available from the visionary Marketing website either in French or in English
(use the sites search engine with Cova as the main or keyword).

22Request for proposal: a statement of requirement whereby an organization describes its target requirements and
imposes potential suppliers to submit their tenders for selection.

Page 16 / 62


ways around such processes by approaching CXO’s23 in order to influence future RFP’s, overtake
their competitors or even just ensure that there won’t be any at all (this is of course not applicable
to procurement processes related to local and central government bodies, which are regulated by
stricter rules). At the end of the day, B2B marketing is not at all rational.

The last type of marketing approach that we will describe here is far less popular than the
former three (by the way, please note that this list is not meant to be comprehensive). French
researchers Michel Demarest and Georges Krycève (CEO of income International, a Paris-based
consulting outfit specialised in marketing and innovation)24 developed this methodology more than
ten years ago25. ‘Reverse-engineering marketing26’, in a way, means designing products or services
based on customer feedback. But it goes way beyond the simple and straightforward analysis of
customer dissatisfaction. As a matter of fact, ‘Reverse-engineering marketing’ actually paves the way
for product and service improvement and it is not just about analysing user or customer
dissatisfaction. The principle guiding Reverse-engineering marketing is the following: “It must be
easier to improve something that people know about, rather than ask them to specify what they ignore or even fail to
understand”27. This basic principle is key to ICT marketing success in more than many cases.
Reverse-engineering marketing is in fact the best of both worlds: the perfect match between
demand-centric and offering-centric marketing. Reverse-engineering marketing favours real-life
product/service testing as well as community-work with one’s clients in order to improve one’s
products until customer satisfaction is fulfilled. This is how concepts and new ideas – however
eccentric – can be developed, in real-time, in real-life. Besides, Reverse-engineering marketing is a
great means of establishing a special relationship with your clients as well as getting them involved
in the product-design process. And God knows that most of them like that, for it puts them in a
role that is far more rewarding than that of mere ‘consumers’.

Microsoft certainly were one of the first to implement such an approach on a global scale. They
indeed managed to generate a certain level of intimacy with their clients when they asked them to
participate in the design of their new product, prior to the official release date28. In that case, beta
testers actually volunteer to test the product. Most of them are real enthusiasts who share a
common passion for either the brand or the product. Being part of the design of a new product is a
sign – in their eyes – that they are also part of the company, that they are more than mere
“consumers”.

Beta testers are not the result of the random sampling of a given population, they are real
enthusiasts. Most shareware designers use that method in order to let their users test their products
free of charge. After a 30-day-period, users who want to go on using the software will then have to
pay a small fee to the software editor. Most of time, this process is carried out online. Amongst
23CEO’s or CFO’s, CIO’s, etc, i.e high-level decision makers, also known as VITO (The Very Important Top Officer).
Selling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer), by Anthony Parinello, Denis Waitley.

24.The income website can be accessed at http://income.fr . Their book ‘le Marketing créatique’ ISBN 2-907418-02-5
will certainly be hard to find, even in French but it was ground-breaking material which I warmly recommend.

25 Similar concepts were developed later on by Geoffrey Moore in the updated and revised version of ‘Crossing the

Chasm’ but we will only refer to Demarest & Krycève in this article.

26Reverse-engineering per se is when you are redesigning a piece of software that has already been developed instead of
rebuilding the software from scratch; the designer will then redesign a statement of requirement which will include
existing and new functionality.

Desmaret & Krycève’s “créatique” concept was hard to translate (a mixture of creativity and technique). I decided to use
the reverse-engineering metaphor instead.

27 ‘le Marketing créatique’ by Desmaret & Krycève, Ibid.

28As was the case namely with the pre-release version of Windows 95. Beta testers had to pay for that version of
Windows 95 in order to be able to use MS’s new OS before everyone else.

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some of the most popular office desktop utilities, Jasc’s Paintshop Pro imaging software is probably
one of the most successful29.

Paintshop Pro is very inexpensive and yet, most of its functionality is as good as Adobe’s very
professional Photoshop suite. Besides, Photoshop is far less user-friendly than Paintshop Pro. And
yet, very few of Paintshop Pro’s users can remember what version 1 of their favourite piece of
software looked like in 199130, i.e. a very immature imaging utility, hardly better than the Microsoft
paint utility that came standard with Windows 3.0. Reverse-engineering marketing made it possible
for Paintshop Pro to evolve so dramatically.

STRATEGIC MARKETING

Strategic marketing is in our eyes one of the pillars of marketing Management. As such, I have
also dedicated a whole chapter to that theme at the end of this article.

Strategic marketing is the enabler that makes it possible to share a common vision across the
entire organisation. At the heart of Strategic marketing, one can find strategic assessments31 which
make it possible to elicit the current strategy and spell out all the strategic objectives which will
guide future action. Thanks to a strategic assessment, one will be able to target actions according to
the lifecycle of products and services and to establish priorities in terms of the development of new
products and services. This preliminary phase is crucial for providing the necessary strategic focus.
Without it, most strategic endeavours tend to end up with managers turning around like headless
chickens and trying to compensate hindsight with frantic haphazard activity. Lack of focus often
forces managers to multiply innovations with no apparent reason or logic. A proper strategic
assessment will provide vision and guidance to product marketing but a frantic bout of innovation
will never provide a strategic vision for the organisation.

On the other hand, proper strategic planning should not be mixed up with that stressful and
ridiculous exercise named financial planning, which consists in projecting growth year on year
based upon last year’s results and without the underpinning of a proper strategic market and
product analysis. Financial planning is unfortunately very commonplace. It won’t give however any
hint as to how markets night react, it mostly overlooks markets and products issues by putting
more pressure on the sales force; but in times of crisis, it proves mostly ineffectual. Last but not
least, it almost always fails to encourage the anticipation of future issues32.

29 Read about the official and legal ‘unlock’ procedure of Paintshop Pro at http://www.jasc.com/unlock.asp

30 See http://www.lakies.com/story.html for details about the Paintshop Pro saga.

31 Our original strategic assessments methodology is available at http://visionarymarketing.com/stratassessment.html

32 Cp The marketing Plan, a pictorial guide for managers by Malcolm H.B McDonald and Peter Morris.

Page 18 / 62


I C T M A R K E T I N G S E G M E N TA T I O N

ICT MARKETING MAPPING

ICT Marketing Segmentation Mapping

2 main trends, in opposite directions
Consumer markets

Consumers
Deskjet
Amazon

Telephonie
printers (reco)
PC's, PDA's
xDSL
Office automation

Ex: Easyoffice
mass-customisation
mass-

SMB's
Semi
SMB ERP's Shrink-wrap
durables

Telephonie
software

Corporate Accounts
software
Bespoke
Commodity

Products/services
Products/services
ToIP/VoIP
for Corporate accounts
Services Bespoke B2B
Web services, réseau de
Grid computing base Alliances
???

Mass Bespoke

Figure 8: ICT marketing Segmentation Mapping

In the above diagram I have mapped ICT marketing against two axes: one axis is showing the
type of clients (consumer, SME’s, corporate accounts); the other axis caters for the level of
customisation which applies to the type of product or service that is being sold. I have excluded
Soho clients from this diagram although they do differ from both the consumer and enterprise
markets (whether they be small or medium).

From this diagram, we can isolate two main trends: on the one hand, most consumer markets
are now penetrated by professional products, although such products were not aimed at them at the
outset. In 2003, more than 50% of personal computers sold in France were purchased from
supermarkets33. Amongst such products, one can find a great number of products of a professional
standard which could be used by the average white collar, if not superior. Another example is the
amazing penetration of three-in-one printers – originally aimed at SME’s – within the consumer
market.

On the other hand, a similar trend in the opposite direction can be observed on professional
(B2B) markets. Most people would in fact associate the corporate market to bespoke products and
services. However, one is forced to observe that there is a strong movement towards the
commoditisation and generalisation of a number of services that used to be considered as high
range, specific and professional. This is indeed the case in the software arena. The software industry
is probably going through a certain number of issues, which are the foretelling signs of future major
disruptions. This industry, once all geared towards bespoke software design, opted for an all-ERP
approach at the turn of the 1990’s. To a large extent, this era of ERP is not completely over, as we

33By supermarkets I mean supermarkets and hypermarkets as opposed to specialised computer stores. Please note that in
many European countries, supermarkets are also selling non-food products contrary to what is happening in the UK with
the standard configuration of a Tesco, Sainsbury’s or other supermarket in that country.

Page 19 / 62


speak, but an increasing number of ERP experts are now finding themselves on the shelf whereas
finding a job for them was so easy only a few years ago.

Indeed IT standardisation – through the copying of best practices – is becoming increasingly
pervasive. But the standardisation is no longer going through Business Process Reengineering (aka
BPR) as one used to do at the end of the 1990’s. Best practices are indeed more and more to be
found within the software itself, by dint of improving it upon the recommendations of previous
customers and users who have contributed to its improvement. (if anything, it will contain too
much functionality, and very seldom not enough functionality). Software corrections and upgrades
are thus delivered through the new versions of modern software34. Of course this is a trend, which
will take years to mature and believing that our entire universe will be wiped out overnight would
not be reasonable. But one has to admit that a great number of software houses – amongst the
largest – are now in search of new business models. This quest for new business models is at the
heart of new IT strategies with the soaring impact of offshoring but also nearshoring35 practices.

Numbers are there to underpin my comments about the commoditisation of IT. In France,
rumour has it that already 5% of all projects could be offshore projects, but accounting for not
more than 1% of the sector’s overall revenue36. In the United States, according to an IDC report,
offshore has now gone beyond the status of fad and is now turning into mainstream. “In 2004, the
value of IT services provided to U.S. businesses through offshore labor will double to $16 billion.
In the subsequent three years it will almost triple yet again to $46 billion, capturing almost one-
quarter of the U.S. opportunity37.” To give you an idea of what $8 bn are worth, Capgemini’s
revenues in 2001 worldwide were not higher than that. And they are certainly lower now. Such
frightening prospects are enticing many Americans to believe that it is no longer a good sector for
their children to work in, hence certain reactions such as “Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to
be IT workers” by Shelly Powers38.

However, if observation shows that the consumer and enterprises domains are seriously
intertwined (mass market and bespoke solutions, consumer and enterprise) as far as products and
services are concerned, one has to admit too that the ways such products and services should be
marketed vary greatly.

34 Cp my summary of Nicholas Carr’s IT DOESN’T MATTER available at
http://www.visionarymarketing.com/articles/it-doesnt-matter.html

Critical material of this article are also available at that address.

35 Definition of Nearshore outsourcing (source http://searchcio.techtarget.com/) : “Nearshore outsourcing is the
practice of getting work done or services performed by people in neighboring countries rather than in your own country.
Many companies in the United States, for example, outsource work to Canada and Mexico. Geographic proximity means
that travel and communications are easier and less expensive, there are likely to be at least some commonalities between
the cultures, and people are more likely to speak the same language”. In other words, nearshore outsourcing is similar to
offshore outsourcing but this kind of outsourcing is operated from neighbouring countries as opposed to remote
countries. In France, most of nearshore developments are carried out in Spain, namely for CAPGEMINI who set up their
nearshore “factory” in MADRID (their offshore operations are in MUMBAÏ, India.

36 However, it has not been possible for me to confirm such statistics with hard facts.

37 Source, IDC Predictions 2004: New IT Growth Wave, New Game Plan Insight #30499 - Dec 2003 by Frank Gens.
Voir également le dossier consacré à ce sujet par The Economist, Special Report Offshoring, Decembre 13th 2003, pp79-
82

38 More about this engrossing debate online on Phil Wolff’s Klog (Knowledge Weblog) A Klog Apart at
http://dijest.com/aka/. Read the article entitled “Where does IT go from here?” (direct access from
http://dijest.com/aka/2003/11/03.html). The beginning of it all was Shelley Powers’s article entitled “The state of Geek
Part I: Temp jobs, no health” available now at
http://weblog.burningbird.net/fires/life/the_state_of_geek_part_1_temp_job_no_health.htm. Powers’s exclamation
‘Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be IT workers’ struck the imagination of many a ‘blogger’. It is also tale-telling
with regards to the growing disenchantment of many US citizens regarding IT after the Internet bubble burst.

Page 20 / 62


TENTATIVE SEGMENTATION OF ICT MARKETING

B2C (BUSINESS TO CONSUMER, AKA CONSUMER, ICT PRODUCTS MARKETING)

This is certainly the most popular type of ICT marketing and it is inevitably drawing on
standard consumer marketing techniques. One of the main differences though is that it
won’t apply to perishables but durables or semi-durables instead. Because new technology
and hi-tech products are increasingly successful with the general public, ICT Consumer
marketing is naturally closer to the marketing of household appliances and mainly that of
sound and video systems. As a matter of fact, traditional products such as computers,
PDA’s etc. and sound and video products and now being merged into hybrid devices which
combine high-end multimedia with IT and vice versa in order to produce increasingly
sophisticated systems aimed at broadcasting – or should we say ‘narrowcasting’ instead –
multimedia contents, where video plays an ever increasing role, and where wireless
technology is ubiquitous. In a little more than three years, the good old stereo has now been
replaced by more sophisticated equipment. It may even disappear in no time39.

B2B (BUSINESS TO BUSINESS) ICT MARKETING

This type of marketing, which is aimed at professionals, is also well known. The necessary
divide between Corporate and SMB B2B marketing however, is far less known, or at least, field
practice shows that very few people master the subtle difference between diverse B2B segments i.e.
Soho, SMB and corporate accounts.

Large corporations often are international; in fact, very few aren’t if we except central
government bodies. Their number is limited and they require face-to-face, personalised contact
over a long-term period. Selling to large corporate accounts mobilises large account-teams, which
can amount to dozens of dedicated professionals in certain cases (sales, business consult engineers,
and delivery….). This investment in sales resources is justified in so far as the revenue, which is
generated by such mega accounts is proportionally huge too (sometimes above €100 m p.a. for one
particular account).

Conversely, SME’s are more varied in shape or form and they are more difficult to describe.
First and foremost, SME’s can be segmented in more than many ways: size, number of employees,
revenue, international presence, whether it is independent or part of a larger group…); secondly,
because SME’s differ greatly from one another. How could you compare an independent
organisation of 15 employees with another larger entity, whose staff goes beyond 500, which is
scattered across 3 different sites and, lastly, which belongs to a large multinational group? These
two organisations would not be said to have much in common at the end of the day, I would say.

As a result, marketing products or services to SME’s is a job in itself for it requires a lot of sub-
segmentation. Selling to SME’s is all things to all people; sometimes on the fringe of consumer
marketing, some other times on the fringe of corporate marketing. At the bottom of the SME
market segmentation, one can find the so-called SO-HO market. The behaviour patterns of the
latter are very close to those of consumers. The smaller the target customers, the more ICT
marketing techniques and know-how will be necessary to maximize the hit-rate/contact-cost ratio.

B2E (BUSINESS TO EMPLOYEE)

B2E marketing is a little less known than the previous categories, which we have just described.
B2E covers those activities aimed at corporate employees, mostly service-orientated. One of the
most striking examples I know of is Dominique Beaulieu’s Accor services concept (née Affiniteam).
The concept hinges upon the notion of “Cliemployee” an interesting concept, whereby Beaulieu

39 Read the Sound Of The Stereo Fades Into History, by Simon London, Financial Times, Nov 18, 2003 (Music is everywhere - on
computers, portable players, home theatre systems, mobile phones. Sales in the US of home audio...)

Page 21 / 62


advises corporations to treat their staff as if they were clients, which as a matter of fact they have
really become, by dint of recurring job-frailty and difficulties on the employment market, which
naturally lessen corporate loyalty and emphasize more self-centered strategies on the part of
individuals.

C2C (CONSUMER TO CONSUMER)

Building a community often – or should I say always – requires that users be allowed to talk to
one another as freely as possible. Amazon friends is a valuable example of client/user collaboration
with a company as a means to link users to one another.

(Marketing 3) Exemple de C2C : AMAZON Friends

Harriet Klausner

#1 top-reviewer
5990 reviews

Jan 2004 Club des MOA - Le Marketing des NTIC © 2003-2004 Yann A Gourvennec 14

Figure 9: Amazon Friends and The ‘top reviewers’ online panel

B2C2B (BUSINESS TO CONSUMER TO BUSINESS)

At first sight this category seems a lot less obvious than others. However, real-life examples
abound such as INTEL’s stickers on PC’s, which influence manufacturers when they make their
industrial choices. Indeed, suppliers like INTEL are putting pressure on them thanks to brand
power and top of the mind awareness. Besides INTEL, also subsidises PC manufacturers
advertising campaigns therefore putting even more pressure on them so that they promote INTEL
chips as opposed to third party components.

Figure 10: The logos that sell

In some cases, such a powerful marketing approach may even enable a supplier – however low
in the value chain – to narrow down the choice for end-users, through the bias that it manages to
introduce in the manufacturers’ sourcing processes40.

40http://news.com.com/2100-1005_3-986320.html on how laptop manufacturers were caught by Intel who managed to
narrow down the choice for consumers through particularly effective B2B2C Marketing Management.

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C2B (CONSUMER TO BUSINESS)

Italian researcher Giancarlo Livraghi41 has a very good definition of C2B marketing: “The most
important activity in e-commerce isn’t selling. It’s buying. Quite often that doesn’t mean buying
online but checking, comparing, analysing quality and price before baying in traditional stores or
services. Customer empowerment isn’t a legend or a theory, it’s hard fact and it will grow as more
people become more aware of the tools they have to pick and choose – and negotiate. This could
be the single most important development in the new economy. It may be daunting for some
companies, but an opportunity for all who know how to find the right clues. With or without the
Internet, in many businesses the concept of marketing (even of market) will have to change
radically. We are only at the beginning of a development that can have vast and deep
consequences”.

NB: Please note that this list of categories is purposely not comprehensive, as they only serve
to prove that more than one approach is available.

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY OR THE ARCHETYPICAL COMPLEX PROJECT

E.g: Users, Buyers and opinion leaders of entreprise mobility services
•ADMITTED DRIVERS & INHIBITORS
•Improved schedule management
•Faster, better …
•Information always available
•No re-keying of data required « Peer-pressure »
•HIDDEN DRIVERS & INHIBITORS (neighbours, family, colleagues)
•"status symbol"
•Independence from hierarchy •ADMITTED DRIVERS & INHIBITORS
•Working tools can be used for personal •New Technology appeal
reasons (eg: games, downloads,…) •Remote admin
•Security
•Less admin costs

Users •HIDDEN DRIVERS & INHIBITORS
•Reduce users’ leeway
•User control more difficult
•Project conveys good image
Public relations
Advertising &

MIS

Optinion leaders
or decision
Managers

makers

Optinion leaders
•ADMITTED DRIVERS & INHIBITORS or decision
•Better planning makers
•Supply chain optimisation
•Reduce costs & improve employee productivity

•HIDDEN DRIVERS & INHIBITORS Specialised & Industry
Industry
•Increase availability of employees (they can be Mass media mentors and
mentors and
contacted anywhere, at any time)
•Improve control over staff
advisers
advisers


Figure 11 Buyer behaviour in a mobility project

The subject of enterprise mobility is a very tale-telling example of the complexity surrounding
B2B marketing. Almost all the ingredients of industrial marketing are there (see diagram above).
The users aren’t forcibly the buyers for one thing; secondly, the motivations of each of the
categories described in our diagram (users, opinion leaders, decision makers…) are varied, when
they are not contradicting each other.

41 Giancarlo Livraghi (http://www.gandalf.it/offline/home_en.htm)

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PROJECT MARKETING OR MARKETING PROJECTS?

I take it for certain that in modern day organisations, project management is ubiquitous, and
not just in marketing. This is something I had already mentioned in Visionary Marketing42 in 1995,
therefore jumping into Olivier Badot & Bernard Cova’s footsteps43.

I would also like to refer to another book, which describes Project Marketing44 in depth;
Project Marketing in B2B/manufacturing and processing industries is all about the selling process,
where the selling process in this case is handled like a project, which requires in-depth analysis of
the complexity of the client’s ecosystem (both internal and external). This analysis is best depicted
through “Milieu maps” in which sales teams map the complex decision processes of their clients.

Figure 12:Sample Milieu map (Cova, Salle & Ghauri, Ibid.)

Selling to industrial clients requires a lot more than mere salesmanship. It will certainly involve
marketing insight, namely when building bespoke solutions (Otherwise named co-marketing).
Partnership Marketing is therefore very useful too, because selling goes – in this case – way beyond
shifting boxes or even services. It means building actual long-term partnership programs, which can
be described as industrial ecosystems. Even when industrial marketing is not involved, i.e. when
selling products or services are not so much based upon individual relationships, marketing still
resorts to project management techniques.

All in all, the way that marketing uses project management techniques is not that different from
what is done in IT. The main purpose is to inject marketing insight within the new product
creation process, therefore ensuring that usability, user-friendliness and functionality (and possibly
buyer behaviour) aspects are well taken into account. In this configuration, marketeers are both
product managers and user-project leaders and they have to assume both responsibilities.

42 Visionary Marketing, Yann Gourvennec, 1995 p 30 http://visionarymarketing.com/mkgorder.html

43 Badot & Cova (Le Neomarketing, 1992, untranslated; a summary of this book is available in French at
http://visionarymarketing.com/fmkgtext.html#Neomarketing).

44 B. Cova, P. Ghauri & R. Salle : Project Marketing, Beyond Competitive Bidding.

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[En] ICT marketing

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