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Marketing Plan for Ventura Publisher |
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Newsgroups: corelsupport.ventura8 Hello Ed and all others: The title to this thread prompted me to peruse my archives to retrieve the letter I wrote on November 3, 1999, to Michael O'Brien, who at that time -- as a tender college student working part-time -- was Marketing Manager and comprised the entirety of the Marketing Department for Corel Ventura at Corel Corporation. The letter was the product of lengthy discussion among Ventura discussion-group participants, many of them still active here, whose ideas, comments, and encouragement prompted me to write the letter. I don't know whether Mr. O'Brien is still an employee at Corel, but I do know that nothing appeared to come as a result of the letter and there has appeared to be no Marketing Department for Corel Ventura lo these many subsequent months. Well, the earth has revolved around the sun another year, Corel Corporation is still somehow not dead, and now we learn that a new version of our beloved Ventura is still being considered. Being an optimist in spite of my well-founded cynicism about these Corel matters, I offer my letter once again to this group (see attached PDF) in hopes that it might reach the eyes of the powers that now be at Corel Corporation. Some of my suggestions are now outdated, but I do believe the thrust of the letter remains valid. Also attached as a PDF is the list of 10 Compelling Reasons to Buy Corel Ventura Publisher 8 that I compiled at about the same time with the assistance of numerous discussion-group participants. We offered this list to Corel Corporation as a replacement on the Corel website for the abysmally inadequate list of features Corel Corporation was displaying. Of course, Corel ignored our list. Our list is still being carried at http://www.dtp-service.com/ventura/ueber_vp/10_reasons.html, a German site that together with your site at http://www.solid-us.com/pages/index.html, remains, in my opinion, a far better marketing agent for Ventura than anything Corel Corporation has yet managed to create. So I ask once again, is there anyone at Corel Corporation listening to us users out here crying in the wilderness? George Trask Letter to Corel Marketing November 3, 1999 Mr. Michael O'Brien Marketing Manager, Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Corel Corporation 1600 Carling Avenue Ottowa, Ontario K1Z 8R7 Canada Dear Mr. O'Brien: The following is what I would do to promote Corel Ventura PUBLISHER if I were in your shoes. You have suggested there is not much money in your budget, and I have followed that constraint. The plan I recommend is also not based on the presumption of a new version of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER any time soon. Here is my marketing plan:
Marketing Objectives 1. To double sales revenue from Corel Ventura PUBLISHER within 6 months. 2. To quadruple sales revenue from Corel Ventura PUBLISHER within 12 months. 3. To multiply sales revenue from Corel Ventura PUBLISHER at least 8 times within 24 months. 4. To re-establish Corel Ventura PUBLISHER as the No. 1 sales revenue producer in the structured-document segment of the PC desktop publishing market within 36 months. These are realistic goals considering that: a. Corel Ventura PUBLISHER is starting from a low base of unit sales compared to its competitors and thus has great room to grow. b. Serious users of DTP software around the world are currently re-examining their software choices because of the recent introduction of Adobe InDesign, which has failed to include structured-document features. With proper marketing of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER, users will seriously consider Corel Ventura PUBLISHER as their software of choice for structured-document production. c. Adobe Corporation has made the strategic decision not to include structured- document features in version 1.0 of InDesign. Feature omissions include table of contents, indexes, story-book editor, tables, and speed, all of which are basic features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. d. No other software package currently on the market offers anything near the superb structured document features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. e. Even if Adobe Corporation offers structured document features in a future version of InDesign or in a future version of FrameMaker, Corel Ventura PUBLISHER has a window of opportunity of at least six months (probably longer) to lay the groundwork to capitalize on its competitive advantages.
Marketing Strategies 1. Use the Appropriate Name for the Product. Adopt and use consistently and incessantly a descriptive name for the product that properly identifies its purpose. Given the goodwill that the product has developed over the years, the name should be Corel Ventura PUBLISHER with the word PUBLISHER in all caps, the same as the word DRAW in the name CorelDRAW. (Alternatively, call the product Corel PUBLISHER without the word Ventura, which would especially please Italian customers. But consideration of this thought should await the creation of version 9 so as not to add confusion to the current product offerings.) Cost to use the appropriate name for the product, Corel Ventura PUBLISHER – nothing. 2. Define the Appropriate Market Segment for the Product. The exceptional strength of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER is the layout of relatively long, structured documents such as books, professional theses, technical publications, and catalogs, as well as the layout of shorter structured documents such as essays, term papers, booklets, pamphlets, and technical periodicals. The operative words are "structured documents" in contrast to relatively free-form documents such as advertisements, brochures, and popular periodicals. Thus the key concept that needs to be emphasized is "structure", a concept that is currently being emphasized in many aspects of culture world-wide because of the perceived need to bring more discipline and responsibility into human life. "We bring structure to your work" and "We bring structure to your life" can thus become appealing key words in the marketing of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. These concepts can be especially useful in marketing the product to college and university students, most of whom are facing a structured environment for the first time in their lives. Corel Ventura PUBLISHER can help them to structure their thoughts and their writing. Cost to define the appropriate market segment for the product – nothing. 3. Differentiate the Product from its Competitors. The principal competitors of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER are currently viewed as Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign, Adobe FrameMaker, and QuarkXpress. Except for Adobe FrameMaker, none of these products handles structured documents as well as does Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. Moreover, Adobe FrameMaker, which was designed for technical documents on UNIX systems, is an obsolescent product at the end of its technological lifespan. Thus Corel Ventura PUBLISHER, properly differentiated, currently has no strong, direct competitor in the structured-document marketplace. The challenge is to articulate this difference to the marketplace. Cost to differentiate the product from its competitors – to be paid from increased sales revenue. 4. Vastly expand the categories of people who are qualified for the promotional upgrade pricing incentive in order to entice every existing and new user of other Corel products and of competitive products to consider purchasing a copy of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. This includes, for example, placing special-offer upgrade coupons for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER in every package of CorelDRAW, Corel WordPerfect, and every other Corel product, and extending the promotional upgrade offer to every user of every possible product that feeds information into or out of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER (text, graphics, tables, data bases, web publishing, etc.). See detailed recommendations below. Cost to give promotional pricing incentives – to be paid from increased sales revenues. 5. Promote peer-pressure incentives to induce existing and prospective users of competing products to understand that it is "prestigious", "cool", "fun", and the "in thing" to use Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. For example, placing low-cost testimonials in professional publications can show publishing peers that some of the powerhouses of the publishing industry use Corel Ventura PUBLISHER instead of the less able competing products. See detailed recommendations below. Cost to promote peer-pressure incentives – almost nothing. 6. Piggy-back the promotion of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER on the existing promotion of all other Corel Corporation products. This includes, for example, a reference to Corel Ventura PUBLISHER on every product-promotion page of Corel's web sites, in every news release issued by Corel Corporation, and in every mail-order catalog that carries Corel products. See additional recommendations below. Cost to piggy-back the promotions – almost nothing. The following is an outline of tactics to implement the above strategies.
Product Segmentation Tactics 1. Articulate accurately the unique strengths of the product. For starters, revise totally the company's principal web pages describing the features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER as follows: a. http://www.corel.com/products/graphicsandpublishing/ventura8/index.htm fails to explain that the principal strength of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER is the production of structured documents such as books, booklets, technical documents, pamphlets, manuals, catalogs, essays, theses, etc. The current product description vaguely talks about satisfying "publishing needs". It tries to be all things to all people instead of being something special to special people. b. http://www.corel.com/products/graphicsandpublishing/ventura8/whybuy.htm is a list of "10 Reasons to Buy". None of the reasons directly addresses the unique strengths of the product. For example, the first reason stated is "Increase speed and use your system resources more effectively with improved image handling and greater control over picture resolution." This makes the product sound like some sort of system speed and graphics-card utility. That cannot possibly be a good first, compelling reason to purchase Corel Ventura PUBLISHER! And nobody is going to purchase the product for most of the other reasons stated on that web page . The 10 reasons need to be totally revised. Ask the folks on the Universal Thread to give you the 10 best reasons to purchase Corel Ventura PUBLISHER – they'll tell you in a skinny minute. Cost to develop these 10 reasons and to revise the web pages – nothing. 2. Articulate boldly the exciting aspects of the product. To the people who use Corel Ventura PUBLISHER day in and day out, the product is indeed bold and exciting because it can do so much more of what needs to be done in a structured-document environment than any other product, and it is a pleasure to use. Many users go so far as to say that Corel Ventura PUBLISHER is "fun to use". Now how many other products in this market segment are fun? Ask the folks on the Universal Thread to give you the ideas you need for your marketing themes for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER – they'll knock your socks off with good ideas. Cost to obtain these sizzling marketing themes – nothing. 3. Target direct marketing efforts to those market segments that truly need the product. These include people involved in every aspect of creating structured documents, from college students writing term papers and senior theses, to sole individuals trying to write and self-publish the next great American novel, to huge book publishing companies, plus everybody in between these extremes. To take one segment, the book publishing industry, the way to reach these people is through direct mail to the members of trade organizations, simple advertisements in the newsletters published by trade organizations, product offerings and promotional coupons placed in specialty bookstores and software stores, and similar targeted direct marketing efforts. The participants on the Universal Thread can no doubt give you plenty of ideas and lots of specific names and addresses. Here are some for starters: a. Publishing associations such as Publishers Association of the South, whose membership includes all of the university presses as well as most of the corporate and private presses in the South. They publish a membership list and a quarterly newsletter to all members, telephone 850-914-0766. Similar organizations exist in all of the other geographical regions of the USA and in other countries. b. College and university bookstores and software stores, particularly those that are known as centers of creative writing and book production such as Princeton, Duke (including Duke Young Writers' Summer Camp) , Yale, University of Iowa, Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard, Radcliffe Summer Book Program, etc. c. Book printing companies including those that cater to the short-run book market (composed of tens of thousands of people who write and self-publish books). Examples of major short-run book printing companies are McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., 960 Woodland Drive, Saline MI 48176, telephone 734-429-5411, and Thomson-Shore, Inc. 7300 W. Joy Road Dexter MI 48130, telephone 313-426-3939. d. Numerous large corporations that produce in-house training manuals and technical documents. e. Numerous large corporations that produce structured catalogs and directories. f. Groups, organizations, and corporations in other countries around the world, where some of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER's most ardent supporters reside and work.
Product Differentiation Tactics 1. Brag about the difference between Corel Ventura PUBLISHER and its competitors. The fundamental, overriding difference is that Corel Ventura PUBLISHER has been designed from the ground up to handle structured documents of all lengths, from several-page outlines to 1000-page books. In contrast, its competitors have been designed to handle single pages, page by page, without a consistent, structured approach. Make this difference the basic selling point of the product!
2. Brag about the exceptional features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER, which are considerably greater than its competitors. For example, almost everyone who uses a DTP program eventually wants to produce a folded booklet, printed front and back. Corel Ventura PUBLISHER makes it absolutely easy to produce a booklet. PageMaker, InDesign, FrameMaker, and QuarkXpress make it almost impossible to produce a booklet. That's a major feature in Corel Ventura PUBLISHER that needs to be emphasized in marketing the product! Ditto tables, running headers, etc., etc., etc. 3. Brag about the ease of use and comprehensive feature set of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. Yes, there is a learning curve for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER, but it's nothing like as steep as the curve to learn Adobe PhotoShop. Yet PhotoShop stands at the top of the heap in number of users, number of units sold, and profitability in its market segment. Corel Ventura PUBLISHER should stand at the top of the heap in its market segment too, above PageMaker, InDesign, FrameMaker, and QuarkXpress!
Price Incentive Tactics 1. Reduce the company's advertised promotional upgrade price for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8 from USD 209.95 to 179.95. Your website shows the upgrade price as 209.95 when, in fact, your mail-order dealers such as PC Connection offer the upgrade for USD $179.95. The company's price and the dealers' price for the promotional upgrade should be the same, just as Adobe InDesign's introductory promotional price of USD 299.95 is the same directly from Adobe Corporation and from its mail-order dealers. And the price point of USD $179.95 for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8 is better because it is below USD 200.00 instead of above it.
2. Extend the promotional upgrade price to include users of all mainstream programs that feed into or out of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. Corel Ventura PUBLISHER is a layout container for text, tables, and graphics. In addition to the current list of eligible products, the promotional upgrade price should be available to every user of every program that feeds into or out of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER: word processing programs (any version of WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for Windows, Lotus Word Pro, etc.); suite programs (any version of Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, etc.); office desktop publishing programs (Serif PagePlus, Microsoft Publisher, etc.); vector graphics programs (Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Corel Xara, etc.); bitmap graphics programs (Adobe PhotoShop, Corel Photo-Paint, Paint Shop Pro, etc.); and web publishing programs (Macromedia Dreamweaver, NetObjects Fusion, etc.). 3. Extend the "Cash Back" promotion advertised on the company's web site to include Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8. Almost every product offered by the company is included on the "Cash Back" program on your web site except Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8. Why not? 4. Offer Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 5 as a separate product promoted as Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5. There are still a large number of users of the older versions of Ventura, both the GEM DOS versions and the later Xerox and Corel Windows versions. Many of those users continue to plead for a copy of version 4.1.1 (Xerox) or 4.2 (Corel). Well, sell them the copy, which is essentially Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 5, but give it some pizazz by calling it Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5. The promotional selling price should be USD 79.95 and should be viewed as a feeder price to entice the purchasers later to upgrade to Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8 at the upgrade price of USD 179.95. This promotional selling price for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5 should be available to the same expanded list of qualified "upgraders" as the list of qualified "upgraders" for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8. In addition, there are a number of previous users of version 4.1.1 and/or 4..2 who threw away their diskettes or CD when they upgraded to version 7 and/or 8. Many of them have a nostalgic yearning for version 4.1.1 or 4.2 (I know because I am one of the them). So this is an opportunity for Corel Corporation to satisfy that yearning. Here are two other specific things that need to be done immediately to promote Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5: a. Offer an unbundled package of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5, separate and apart from the CorelDRAW 5 bundled package that is currently being offered. The bundle sells for USD 99.95. As described above, the unbundled product should sell for USD 79.95. b. Update the current web page that promotes Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5 to make it possible to actually purchase the product. At present it is not possible to purchase Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5 from the following web page: http://www.corel.com/products/graphicsandpublishing/ventura5/index.htm 5. Offer additional software bundles that include Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8 and/or 5 as part of the bundles. For example, there should be a Corel Professional Publisher's Bundle that includes Corel WordPerfect, CorelDRAW, Corel Photo-Paint, Corel Xara, and Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8 and 5. The price should be high. There should be a Corel Office Publisher's Bundle that includes Corel WordPerfect, CorelDRAW, Corel Photo-Paint, and Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8. It doesn't make any difference whether you sell many of these bundles; what the bundles do is to tell the marketplace that you understand that Corel Ventura PUBLISHER is part of a production cycle in professional publishing houses and in general business offices that should include all of these products. 6. As an alternative to Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 5, re-introduce Corel Ventura 4.2 and call it Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Classic Version 4.2. All of my comments immediately above would apply to this classic. You need to talk with Allan Shearer about this idea for classic version 4.2, which may have some real appeal to him as opposed to version 5. 7. Emphasize in all of the promotions for the bundled and unbundled packages that the product includes tremendous additional value: fonts, font manager, booklet print manager, bar code maker, etc. These goodies should not be promoted as the reason to purchase the product nor as a "suite" but as icing on the cake (no pun intended).
Peer Pressure Tactics 1. Position Corel Ventura PUBLISHER as the elite software product for producing books, booklets, manuals, professional theses, technical documents, etc. Peer pressure is a great incentive in the desktop publishing realm as illustrated by the excessively irrational reverence given to Apple Mac products by many run-of-the-mill desktop publishing employees. Corel Ventura PUBLISHER's strengths fortunately address the needs of structured documents that are just as likely to be produced on PCs. Corel Ventura PUBLISHER's reputation also fortunately harks back to a time when the product was known as the powerhouse software for laying out books and similar publications. Therefore, the product has the opportunity and the potential to regain its rightful place at the head of the pack in terms of perceived quality and utility in its market segment. The marketing images should play on the snobbishness and elitism that is part and parcel of the public's perception of the publishing industry. That this snobbishness and elitism is only a perception, not a reality, is beside the point. The marketing should use elite imagery to raise the level of desire for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER, just as Toyota plays on the snobbishness and insecurity of luxury car buyers to market Lexus products, which are often in reality merely upfitted models of Toyota Camry products.
2. Position Corel Ventura PUBLISHER as an absolute bargain in terms of price, which in fact it is. Everybody likes a bargain, especially if the bargain gets you a luxury item at a rock-bottom price. Young people especially like bargains, and they need them because they usually do not have the money to purchase the high-priced stuff. So point out the fact, which is indisputably true, that Corel Ventura PUBLISHER delivers more bang for the buck than any other software product that even remotely provides the level of services that Corel Ventura PUBLISHER does. 3. Position Corel Ventura PUBLISHER as the desktop publishing software that is FUN TO USE. Everyone wants to enjoy using a software product, especially when the product is used in the everyday performance of a job or a business. Coupled with the bargain-pricing aspect of the product, buying a product that is fun makes the joy even more complete. This is especially true, again, in the case of younger people. Not only is Corel Ventura PUBLISHER actually fun to use, its name, Ventura, lends itself to spoofing and humor, assuming Corel Corporation's legal department clears the use of the word Ventura in connection with subtle references to ringside battles between Ventura and its challengers. The variations of this theme can be endless, including cartoon imagery that links the champ, Ventura, against the contenders, lesser endowed DTP packages. 4. Place low-cost user testimonials in professional and similar publications such as in newsletters of book-publishing associations. Harvard University Press, for example, publishes hundreds of books each year using Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. A short testimonial from someone in authority at Harvard University Press would be an impressive selling point to book publishers and to writers if placed in the newsletter of the Publishers' Association of the South and in similar professional newsletters. At the other end of the spectrum, testimonials from college students about how they earned an "A" on an essay produced in Corel Ventura PUBLISHER should be placed in student newspapers. The cost of such advertisements is negligible. These advertisements could also be attractive promotions in DTP journals and other general-circulation periodicals reaching a larger audience.
Piggy-Back Promotional Tactics 1. Include a Corel Ventura PUBLISHER promotional coupon in every package of CorelDRAW, Corel WordPerfect, and every other Corel product. The coupon should be redeemable at the promotional upgrade price of USD $179.95 and should be available to users of every possible product that feeds into or out of Corel VenturaPUBLISHER. Cost to implement – essentially nothing.
2. Include a Corel Ventura PUBLISHER icon on every appropriate page of Corel Corporation's two web sites. All pages on both www.corel.com and www.designer.com need to be reviewed to determine where additional references to Corel Ventura PUBLISHER can be placed. Cost to implement – nothing. 3. Use www.designer.com as a special place to promote the features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. The marketing department of Corel Corporation is to be congratulated for this excellent, helpful web site dedicated to the finer points of design. It is the perfect place to showcase Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. Cost to implement – nothing. 4. Include a product listing for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER in the ad for CorelDRAW, for Corel WordPerfect, and for other Corel products in every mail-order catalog. Corel Corporation places display ads for CorelDRAW, Corel WordPerfect, and other products in every major mail-order catalog. A single, simple price line in the ad to list Corel Ventura PUBLISHER will let people know that the product is alive and available. Cost to implement – essentially nothing.
Public Awareness Tactics 1. Publicly Announce the New Marketing Plan for the Product. Articulate and publish as a news release to every PC-related software magazine, DTP software newsletter, on-line DTP news source, etc., an enthusiastic announcement of this new marketing program for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. The announcement should explain the essential elements of the marketing plan. Cost to issue the news release – nothing. 2. Enthusiastically decree the new marketing plan within every segment of Corel Corporation. It is mandatory that every employee of Corel Corporation understands that Corel Ventura PUBLISHER is a superb, essential product within Corel's family of software products and that all employees are empowered and obligated to promote Corel Ventura PUBLISHER the same as CorelDRAW, Corel WordPerfect, etc. Cost to make the intra-company pronouncement – nothing. 3. Prepare and disseminate a comparative list of the features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. Highlight on the list the strengths of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER in the structured-document segment of the DTP marketplace vis-à-vis its competitors. Disseminate the list with the public announcements described above and with all promotional materials for the product. Such a list already exists; it has been prepared by Ed Brown. Cost to prepare the list – nothing. 4. Promote the publication of enthusiastic news articles in DTP journals about Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. Get well-known authors who are already enthusiastic promoters of Corel products to write the articles, such as Ed Brown, Gary Priester, Tom Anzai, Alex Gray, Tom Arah, and that outstanding young man who held the Corel conference in San Diego several months ago (I can't recall his name at the moment). Cost to get the articles written and published – nothing.
Customer Feedback Tactics 1. Create an informal Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Advisory Council (CVPAC) composed of loyal, perceptive, articulate users of the product. The purpose of the council will be to provide feedback to the Corel Ventura PUBLISHER marketing department about the perceived effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the various marketing efforts. To get the effort going, the CVPAC should be composed of the members of the Publishing Forum of the Universal Thread. Cost to create and operate the council – nothing.
2. Formally announce the essential elements of this marketing plan on Corel Corporation's on-line Corel Ventura 8, 7 and 5 Newsgroups. Enlist the support of the users of those newsgroups to provide feedback to the Corel Ventura PUBLISHER marketing department about the perceived effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the various marketing efforts. Additionally, extend the CVPAC effort to the newsgroups in addition to CVPAC activity on the Universal Thread. Cost to create and operate this function – nothing. 3. Empower the C_Tech Volunteers on Corel Corporation's on-line Corel Ventura 8, 7, and 5 Newsgroups to act as marketing volunteers in addition to their technical-support function. Technical support is implicitly a marketing function because it helps to keep existing customers happy, to encourage existing customers to talk favorably about the product, and to encourage others to purchase the product. Adobe Corporation takes this concept further by using its on-line technical-support forum explicitly to market products by pointing out the merits of the various Adobe DTP products whenever technical questions about a product are asked. Corel Corporation should do the same on its technical-support forums. In other words, the Corel Ventura PUBLISHER technical-support forums should explicitly be expanded to become not just "technical support" but also "marketing support". Cost to create and operate this function – nothing.
Product Improvement Tactics 1. Produce immediately an updated German version of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8. There have been numerous on-line requests for a German-language SP2 version of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8 (there never has been a German-language SP1). Based on comments of Allan Shearer on the Universal Thread, it appears that the only hold-up is producing a German-language version of the Help file. Why not issue the German-language version of SP2 now without the Help file, then issue the Help file when it is ready? The main requirement is to get the German-language SP2 application files on-line for downloading by the users immediately. Cost – nothing.
2. Use the Corel Ventura PUBLISHER Advisory Council (CVPAC) as a forum to provide ideas for improving and supplementing the features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 8 into an eventual new Corel Ventura PUBLISHER 9. The current process for users to make suggestions to Corel Corporation for improvements to the product is inadequate. There is no adequate published master list of suggestions and no formal way for users to be sure that their suggestions are being added to the list. The CVPAC groups on the Universal Thread and on the Corel Ventura 8 Newsgroup should be empowered to administer a formal process to feed new-feature suggestions to the company. Cost – nothing.
Implementing this New Marketing Plan 1. The time is ripe to implement this plan. Adobe Corporation's promotion and introduction of InDesign has stirred up the marketplace, and users around the world are now re-evaluating their commitment to all of the various DTP packages. Users are discovering that Adobe oversold the features of InDesign, and they are complaining bitterly about its lack of long-document features such as table of contents, indexes, tables, story-book editor, and speed. These are all standard features of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. As a result of this unique situation in the DTP marketplace, there has never been a better time for the promotion of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER.
2. There is a window of opportunity of at least 6 months before Adobe Corporation introduces an update to FrameMaker. Adobe has announced that it intends to update FrameMaker, which is Adobe's contender in the structured-document market segment, and has hinted that the update might contain features similar to those in InDesign. But Adobe has also announced that the update will not appear until spring 2000, which provides Corel Corporation at least 6 months to vastly improve its promotion of Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. 3. This new marketing plan can be implemented within the constraints of the existing marketing budget for Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. This new marketing plan calls for no R&D expenditures to update Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. This new marketing plan calls for no new promotional expenditures to market Corel Ventura PUBLISHER. This new marketing plan simply calls for a change in the way Corel Corporation views Corel Ventura PUBLISHER and a shift of that view into the currently existing marketing efforts. 4. This new marketing plan can be implemented immediately. All of the elements of this new marketing plan can be implemented within a matter of a few days, weeks, or several months. For example, using the correct name for the product can be done instantaneously; updating the web pages can be done overnight; and implementing the targeted marketing can be accomplished in a matter of weeks.
The Bottom Line Every element of this plan can be, and should be, accomplished no later than February 28, 2000. Very truly yours, George G. Trask President, Coastal Villages Press |