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The sharewarist’s central
WEEKLY ARTICLE - Avr.11, 2001
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The sharewarist’s central
WEEKLY ARTICLE - Avr.11, 2001
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The end of marketing as we know it. Part 2, Imagery - by Owen Ransen*
This is the second part of Owen Ransen’s article about marketing shareware. Enjoy! Click here for the first part.
USAGE IMAGERY
You are telling your potential customers when the product will be used, why and how. That is your job, not your customer's job. If you think hard you will probably be able to come up with some new ways of using the product, which will help sales.
USER IMAGERY
Who, qualified in the field you are aiming at, uses your product? These "experts" have the trust of consumers and show that your product is a serious contender.
For Repligator and Gliftic I cultivate WEB masters of sites which deal with authoring WEB pages. I also cultivate contacts in the quilting community. Neither job is easy but both jobs are necessary. I could just about bluff my way into a WEB design job, but I am no quilting, sewing, basketry expert. Then I show them, maybe with photos, on my WEB site as experts in the field I am trying to sell in. I don't believe Repligator and Gliftic are limited to these applications, but they could sell well there.
PRODUCT IMAGERY
This was explained a bit on trademarks on the previous page. Other examples are Coca-Cola has taste, British Airways means luxury.
ASSOCIATIVE IMAGERY
Famous people, not necessarily experts, promote and or use your product.
Ransen Software does not have the clout to do this, though maybe some ASP members do, and I reckon if you can get someone famous to endorse your product you should. But it is a logical fallacy to think that someone famous in one field (sport for example) knows anything about another field (textile design software for example). I think this would work for Coca-Cola, but not sure it would be worth it or even possible for Repligator. I prefer User Imagery, i.e. experts in the target market.
(continue...??)
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* Owen Ransen produces “image generators” for mouse challenged artists. He divides his time between his shareware programs and consulting for companies who use AutoCAD. You can visit his Web site at http://www.ransen.com
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This article: (C) 2000 Owen Ransen - Used with permission
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