filename: "rds_class_notes_22feb" icreated: 22feb94 source01: chalk-and-talk, in class -------- the following is a pretty close approximation, as copied from the work developed by the class and seminar guest discussion leader, co-founder of diva corporation, mit alum mr. hans peter brondmo. recall: diva was the mit media lab's first commercial spin-off, and was sold last year to avid corporation [1] for four million dollars. mr. brondmo and his partner mit alum mr. jonathan harber, had entered their idea into the 10k student competition, and did not win. nevertheless they persevered. topic: second in a series of discussions on marketing mr. eddie elliot's product _video streamer_, the subject case presented at the previous class meeting. _video streamer_ was mr. elliot's thesis project at the media lab, and for which the media lab has applied for patent protection. NB! a new angle on the assignment: at the start of this seminar nearly all of us could be considered to be naive marketeers. the first writing assignment assumes no one has done any real outside work or reading of anything more than the papers in the locker, and the first 14 pages of the b-plan template (gbc-bound price- waterhouse handout, number 1 in the set of two), plus having listened to mr. elliot's presentation and generated individual input to contribute to the discussion. at the meeting on tue the 22nd, i asked that the first paper be based only on existing personal knowledge, and that next we shall develop a considerably more detailed marketing plan for _video streamer_ based on the readings and further discussion in class. (there was one turn-in on tuesday, so this should not represent much re-writing). the suggested reading during the next two-to-three weeks includes the balance of the price-waterhouse handouts, with emphasis on the second document, as well as chapters 2,3, and 4 in glen urban's _design and marketing of new products_. those wishing to read ahead should go then to chapter 15 "test marketing" (ed '80; there's a recent edition, of which dewey has several copies. look in those for the equivalent chapters. personally i think urban should be read along side timmons. we'll talk about the readings and next paper at the next meeting. now to the material discussed in class on tuesday, the 22nd: point: an attempt to define marketing, compared to advertising, began with an around-the-table-collection of ideas and definitions. goals of marketing, and sub-topics of varying degrees of relevance and importance at different stages in the development of a plan for launching a product, especially a technology product, began to emerge, and a map of terms and relationships between different marketing ideas and activities developed on the board. MARKETING (vs ADVERTISING, which was ------------------------- characterised as a form of "bribery"; and as the prime some main ideas: means of selling one's self or / or a product. "push" vs "pull") strategy - ethics & - image | developement decision - what the product is | ------------ making - who's making it | "PR" possibility some goals, defined: of being (generalisations) | organisation out-marketed - creating awareness | be productive! - education | * satisfy a need: - communication | (be customer-oriented) / (define customer) image issues: - corporate / - home - quality (vs just being different) - educational (vs just being better) - professions - credibility, (a given :-)) | | stay variable! | research, investigation | image -------------- | | ---------- important option | | philosophy | | | who? <----------------"FORCE" / \ (manipulation?) consumer focus? sales "induction" / <---------------> / weak strong major decision ^ -------------- adv | begin "test" marketing? ---> pr | | modelling | | - if numeric -- if yes - otherwise, seat-of-the-pants | and potential for hoax model think: - naive investors | | planning - technology -----> selling points: a hot technology! -------- ---------- hot at the media lab! one possible video streamer strategy: bears mit's name! an artistic, "teaser" demo - broadcast over mit cable tv ch. 36 - "video jocky" version? - set up demo in lobby 10? - tool on one monitor, results on second monitor (side-by-side), get test- user-feedback from students, faculty, staff; - send final results to lobby 7 and get "public" viewer feedback there; the naive marketeer vs the "genius" ------------------- ------------ (us. we write papers and jonathan harber, read works of others, listen, according to scheme on our own) hans peter a few notes on diva: the original sources of start-up money were the traditional three-effs: "friends, family and fools", according to brondmo. diva was doing 1 million in sales, based on one product and a work force of 15 people when it was bought by avid. last year avid technology did $112 million in sales. some discussion about avid, another mit spin-off followed. [1] here, excerpted from _the red herring_, december '93, column "vc whispers" page 20, is a useful paragraph: `avid technology, a digital video and film editing company that went public in march 1993, is considered the most successful venture investment in the tools arena to date. backed by greylock, highland capital partners, sutter hill ventures, john hancock ventures, and sequoia capital, avid's ipo generated $56 million in new capital for the company and brought home nice returns for its investors. avid's 1992 revenues of $51.9 million and earnings are dwarfed by it's 1993 projected revenues of $100 million and earnings of $0.55 per share.' later in the term i'll hand out copies of excerpts from several more of these columns when we start to analyse successful b-plans and look more closely at the projections of start-up founders and the results of their planning and marketing strategies. and if dewey doesn't yet, or plan to, subscribe to _the red herring_ i'll manage to put some back issues and relevant articles on reserve. comments? corrections/additions to the notes? thanks, - r .