Comments on: Marketers: you are the software you use

By: Scott Brinker

Scott Brinker — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:44:37 +0000

Hi, Tewks — thanks for the comment.
Powerful phase about “some will be fighting with spears and others with smart bombs” — a vivid metaphor.
Alterian and LoopFuse are great examples of the diversity within a particular application space. As you point out, they come at the same problem from extremely different angles, and that’s a great thing, in my opinion.
As far as categories that are rich for innovation and opportunity, I’d be hard-pressed to think of one that isn’t. Every time I think a category has maxed out — say, for instance, email marketing — some bold and bright new start-up takes a fresh approach. These categories also tend to have very porous and malleable boundaries: mixing web analytics, marketing automation, and email marketing for example.
Now, personally, my money is on the post-click marketing space of testing, optimization, landing page management, and conversion content marketing — but I’ve definitely got a vested interest there (ion interactive). 😉

By: Tewksbum

Tewksbum — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:31:50 +0000

Here Here on the increasing needs for technology influence within the marketing organization. The lay of the land is shifting dramatically and technology will significantly impact the outcome. Some folks are going to be fighting with spears and others with smart bombs.
Now, with that said, I’m curious on your outlook for what that technology picture should look like. I work with Alterian and Loopfuse – two companies that come at the same problem from extremely different angles. Maybe swaying away from vendor specifics, are there at least certain areas you see as opportunity rich?
– Tewks
http://www.themarketingmojo.com

By: Jeff Ogden

Jeff Ogden — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:51:15 +0000

Love this post, Scott, especially how you used an incident from history (Cuban Missle Crisis) to tell a story. I too loved Adams thoughtful series. Great software married with strong leadership resulting in change (content, processes, etc) are the keys to success.
Hopefully more businesses will embrace this in the future.
Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor
Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple”
http://www.findnewcustomers.com

By: Scott Brinker

Scott Brinker — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:39:37 +0000

Thank you, Eric — reading your post yesterday on technology selection and cultural fit was the inspiration for this piece.
It’s funny, the article you mention in the ACM journal is an example of this. The ACM might have its best practices for software selection — a kind of business algorithm, if you will — but such recommendations are inherently colored by their culture. They are defining the problem in their worldview and solving it within that framing.
Economic stability is arguably a valid requirement in a software vendor. But there’s a lot of big companies that go bankrupt, sell out, cut off software programs without warning. Take Google, for example? Nice, big, financially strong company. Sure hope you weren’t selecting Wave based on their backing.
Okay, you say, Wave didn’t yet have the large install base — fair point, although it does raise a paradox that if you should only select software with a large install base, how do we ever get anywhere? But consider situations like Oracle’s acquisition of large companies, most recently Sun, and the way in which they phase out products that were once the “large installed base giants” of their field.
This isn’t to say that the ACM’s approach is “wrong.” But it’s not the only approach. And it’s only the “best” approach if you buy into their culture for software selection.
Maybe you and I should take a pass at our own 7 Principles for Software Selection?

By: Eric D. Brown

Eric D. Brown — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:19:20 +0000

Thanks for the kind words Scott. Much appreciated.
Culture is so important to any organization but most get it all wrong when they attempt to understand their culture….or worse they don’t care about culture.
A recent article in the Association of Computing Machinery Journal provides 7 Principles for Software Selection and while the article is good and provides keen insights, one of the principles is to ‘choose a software package with a large install base and financially strong company’. While its hard to argue against that (remember that nobody got fired for hiring IBM), it leads many organizations to overlook those platforms that might be a better for for them.
Great stuff as always Scott.

By: Scott Brinker

Scott Brinker — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:54:44 +0000

Marketing tools as an aspirational purchase — well said, Jim. I think you’re quite right. That may very well be the most powerful device available to software marketers, a real incentive for them to polish and promote the “coded culture” of their software products.
When companies blindly buy the biggest software in the market, I think that *is* a kind of cultural referendum too. I believe the phrase is “regression toward the mean” — relative to everyone else who has adopted that software, sacrificing an opportunity for differentiation and competitive advantage.
Lots to think about — thanks for the comment!

By: Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:42:19 +0000

Great post, Scott. Marketing tools, as it turns out, are like any other major purchase in that that there’s an aspirational component to it, which the software companies count on (no offense). Just because you purchase Omniture, doesn’t mean you’re suddenly going to be a web analytics wiz- especially if your company really only values basic reporting, but feels the need to show status.
I think in a way it’s unforunate that so many companies buy marketing tools for the tools themselves – or worse, the “name brand”) – with no vision at all for what they want the tools to do.
If people at these companies started with the vision, as the 37 signals guys suggest, I suspect that the big enterprise software companies would be in a bit of trouble and there would be a much higher rate of adoption for smaller open-source tools. I’ve been blown away by the quality and flexibility of some of these tools.
Then again, that’s kind of my modus operandi (culture) – simple, quick and results driven – no fluff.