ESCAPE VELOCITY

1 - It's tragic that this meme repeats, too. I touched on it recently in a post as well. I agree that IBM has the best engineered solutions on Earth, as opposed to best designed. Design could be construed to include UI, and even with the improvements made in Notes 8 Standard there is still a long way to go before they completely exorcise all the demons of previous bad design choices.

I truly don't get where IBM's head is with regards to their marketing message. Buying Nitix was a good move, but ask the average SMB IT leader -- who will probably be the Customer Service Manager or perhaps the Accounting Manager -- what Nitix is, or even what Lotus Software is, and you'll probably get a blank look. An Accounting Manager may have heard of Lotus 1-2-3, but neither will have any idea that Notes or Domino exist.

At this point I'm not sure how IBM can make inroads with this group, either. About the only thing that would work would be locally targeted advertising . I'd love to see a Lotus Software billboard. I'd love to actually see a Lotus or IBM employee outside of Lotusphere. I asked for someone -- anyone -- to come visit when I was working for a Lotus customer and show the full Lotus Software portfolio to my management. I was told it wasn't cost effective since there are no customers in the area. Well guess what? There may end up being one less.

2 - Very well and cleanly written. You clearly have put a lot of thought into this and i has taken a long time to write. Either that or it was some random rant and you're just lucky!

While I agree with you from having been in the SMB market for a long ting (Denmark mainly has SMBs based on the IBM way to segmenting the market) I agree that if nothing is seriously done the Foundations offerings will be pushed to customers by BPs and not ordered directly by customers which is really what you want. Most SMB's will never get in contact with a BP or IBM unless something is seriously wrong. What we really want to have happen is for SMB's to order the Foundation servers like they used to order Cobalt Cube servers.

As to which segment adverticing is aimed at here's an idea. What if IBM chose to use another country than the US for marketing research into the SMB market? What if you chose a 10-50 million people country (in Denmark we're 6 million so I'm not thinking about us) and used that as a testbed for hardcore enduser/SMB marketing? Hey what if you chose an emerging market such as Eastern Europe? It would be hell of a lot cheaper than trying to get the same penetration in the US and more isolated from the "core adverticing".

Anyways it's going to be really interesting to see what happens. I really hope you're wrong but I fear that you're not.

3 - Great post Nathan, it's exactly what I find in my SMB here in the UK (actually Lotus would class us as smaller than that). There's a push to move away from Notes, and that push is from the users who want something different. Management know that it would make no sense from a business point of view, but if all the users are unhappy in their work because they think something else is better (and this is not necessarily a rational comparison, it's completely perceived), then management want to make their users happy. Because happy users are more productive.

Talking about IBM marketing though, we do get TV adds for IBM products here in the UK, but they're for blade servers!? Surely blade servers are a product that the average person on the street has absolutely no interest in whatsoever. So why IBM feel the need to market these to the average person watching their soap of an evening, and not something like an email client, one of which a good proportion of those people watching will use the next day of work, is beyond me.

I'm sure the budget for blade server marketing is completely separate to that of Lotus, but it only goes to increase the perception that IBM does large boxes server rooms that no-one's interested in.

4 - Excellent points, sir!

After long years of working with IBM products (I started my IBM experience configuring and rolling OS/2-based notebooks for a bank), I view IBM kind of like my kids (but more so). You have to keep leaning on them and 'force' them in the right direction.

I don't think that IBM will ever really 'get' the SMB markets, but IBM DOES 'get' specific tactial things that help me market to my SMB customers, examples:
* Update the @#$%@# base templates that ship with N/D so the SMB folks have ready-to-roll cool things.
* Make debugging the Standard client possible for humans.
* Provide Activities-like functions that don't require a fleet of servers (virtual OR physical) and a high priesthood to maintain.
* Make the Notes client integrate better at the desktop with third-party apps (ala MAPI).
* Bring back real, world-class web design to Designer, and make Notes a modern RAD platform.

It's very hard for IBM at a fundamental and organizational level to understand WHY these things are important, but they do respond to their customers (and partners in a lesser way) who tell them it's important.

As an aside, your comments remind me of why I laugh when you rail against folks who want small, tightly integrated systems based on N/D, instead of the loosely coupled, massively complex infrastructure that WAS/Portal/Connections brings. SMBs look at that and say, bring on M$ SBS, puhlease!

5 - Excellent post, absolutely spot on. In all the organisations I have been in its the end users that to a large extent dictate the software they use (esp in SMB).

CIO's make decisions on software to keep users quiet and happy. A user doesn't care whether a server in a data center is Windows or Linux, they do care that their email/ document management systems etc are simple and easy to use.

I dont want to talk about IBM marketing directly, but I do remember for years posting and reading on forums that IBM needed to overhaul the Notes client to make it look good/work as expected to compete with MSFT. Year after year IBM ignored the Lotus community and went for engineering over user experience. Finally IBM woke up and worked out you need both, and we have Notes 8 (hurrah), but my questions is where would we be now if Notes 8 had happened in 2001/2002.

I would say to IBM that we are seeing a repeat of this situation again, your Business Partners, supporters and users are clearly telling you what type of marketing/interaction you need to engage in. Please dont make us wait for 5 years before decide to listen, you may have already lost the market by then !

6 - Loosely coupled <> massively complex. IBM's current implementation of it does, sure. But there's no reason why the WAS/Portal/Connections stack couldn't be as easy as Domino. Lotus software merely lacks the mandate to do so.

But there's nothing embedded in the nature of the software that makes it necessarily complicated.

Hell, I remember setting up TCP/IP stacks under OS/2 and then installing the SMTP gateway for Domino servers. That took WAY longer than setting up the WAS stack.

7 - Absolutely superb post Nathan.

I could not agree more about the last point regarding not showing the interface in any marketing/advertising. Not too many car adverts fail to show the product on the screen at some point during the commercial.

8 - This is spot on! The story of my life. Best of breed no longer matters, best ad campaign, pitch man and memorable commercials. The exact reason I refuse to buy Nike and wish I could still not have to buy Microsoft.

9 - sheesh,
I think you've been drinking so much of the Lotus911 Kool-Aid that your hair is going to turn yellow!

10 - I totally agree. The CIO is not dictaing the systems/software in teh company where I work, it is a combination of the users and (mostly) the CEO. The CEO hear from one of his buddies in the MBA class that XYZ is a good document imaging system, he then decide (without checking any alternatives) that we will buy it. A 500K+ investment and two people working full time for 12 months to implement, configure and support it in 8 branches...
Or one end user (actually a kind of contractor) who want to use Acrobat 8 because you can create slideshows in it so he can create presentations of accident scenes (we are an insurance company). He start using it, and forced everyone to upgrade to Acrobat 8 so they could see his files...
We have users going rouge and using Google Calendar and other tools to exchange information, instead of using tools we have in-house.
I don't think this is a unique situation. I have said it for years, IBM must do end-user advertizing, they are the ones driving IT today. Not in big companies like IBM, but in the SMB area.

11 - I have to agree with Mikkel in that I imagine this took far more time and effort to write than it took me to read!

I also see the shift in power and decision making in far more areas than just IT now. I used to think that a company could not be run as a democracy, yet this seems to be increasingly untrue. (And yes, democracy is probably the wrong word!)

You make some excellent points, I wonder whether IBM will be as willing to listen on this one as they seem to be in other areas.

On that note, do we know of anyone in IBM marketing publicly blogging....!?

12 - @6 In theory, you're 100% correct. In practice you're not.

In theory-world, 5 years ago today wouldn't have happened, and the US would be 3TRILLION dollars richer. In practice, well, we're stuck but at least the next president will look stellar by comparison.

I really like the loosely-coupled theory, but IBM doesn't follow it. What IBM has is LOGICALLY loosely coupled, but technically tied at the hip products. All the pieces parts have extemely specific versions that are required to make the whole thing go. And God help you if you don't have all the rights verisons and the right install order(!).

Exampe: connections 1.0.2 ({ Link } Skim down the list and look at the various fixpacks,etc. that are required. Mind-boggling to say the least.

13 - I agree, I think that was well said. The fact that in all the IBM ads, one has never actually SEEN any hint of the Notes interface has always irked me. Here's the one important fact. Small businesses do not have the money to have very specialized people who have time to research products they have no idea about. These people hear about things that can help their business by the after hours conversations/networking in the local pub at the 5PM happy hour. These decision makers are overworked, frazzled jugglers who spend their days keeping track of software licenses, hardware support contracts, planning the latest software update, etc. And most of their really big projects are always 'on the back burner'.

And that's on the higher end of users in the SMB market. They have no time to look at an abstract ad and research what it means. They need concrete, focused ads that at the very least, show hardcore evidence that IBM is talking about a physical PRODUCT, not an idea. They don't have time for abstract ideas that software products can help them achieve the latest buzzword. They need to know exactly HOW it can help them. A perfect example of great targeted ads for small businesses are shipping ads, such as UPS and Fed-Ex. These ads, in a very short amount of time, clearly state what UPS and Fed-Ex can do for ME. There's no question. We see screenshots of the PC interface in which one user schedules a pick-up online, and then another frame of the recipient on the other side of the planet receiving the package.

Now on the much smaller end of the SMB market, IBM needs focused ads in very targeted places just to prove that "Lotus" does not mean "Lotus 1-2-3", as in the old word processors and spreadsheets. Because right now, that's what they all think Lotus is. They have never heard of Notes, and even if they did, they'd have NO idea what it was. As you so elequently said, it's not a BAD reason for that, it's just that IBM has never targeted this particular demographic before, so why SHOULD they be expected to know what it is? These decision makers in the smaller SMB market are already confused enough trying to make sure all their desktops are running the same version of Quickbooks so that multi-user mode works, and trying to figure out how on earth they navigate the Norton Antivirus site so they can get their content license file downloaded and installed correctly.

These people would faint from happiness if you told them they could run their entire business on a licensed appliance that only took a half-hour to set up.

14 - Every major software vendor is trying to expand to the SMB market due to limited growth opportunity in the Enterprise segment. Do they honestly think that Oracle, SAP and the rest belong in a 100 employee organization? In the case of IBM, I think that the Lotus appliance concept actually would work well in these small companies. As already mentioned, updated templates are still the missing ingredient.
At Lotusphere I asked an IBM employee what he thought about this year's SMB initiative. "DOA" was his response. He cited several other failed attempts to get traction in this market and indicated that there was nothing different this year. He felt that because of the incentives structure for IBM sales that this product would be better off in the hands of the Business Partners. I agree.

15 - @12 - How on earth am I not correct in practice? I made the observation that Lotus doesn't have a mandate to make the WAS stack as easy to install as Domino (yet.) How can that be true in theory but not in practice? Are you saying that they DO have a mandate, and it's just secret?

I'd believe that, but I don't see how it would go to your point, Craig.

16 - I am in an internal IBM session where we are discussing this issue right now :)

17 - @ Ed M...

Don't forget Google. Google Apps is a pretty solid product for those <=100 employee companies out there.

18 - Mary-Beth, Let the example of Apple be your guide, they captured 13 percent of PC sales last month, market share is increasing at a rapid rate. Great advertising success story.

19 - @15 When I have time (in 2053) I'll have to go scrounge around for a reference, but my (poor, addled) memory was that there was at least on blogosphere discussion where you supported the WAS/Connections implementation as an example of loose coupling. If not, then my public, sincere apologies for slandering you!

I'm not sure if it's indicative of anything, but the "remember em" checkbox does not work....

20 - uh, that's Remember ME.

Dyslexic, I am not...

21 - Perhaps I took your responses in this thread the wrong way,
{ Link }
but at the time I took them as being a proponent of IBM's WAS/Portal/etc. approach.

22 - Craig, whether I said that or not (and I'll admit that they are in practice very tightly coupled,) the reason it's a pain in the ass to get Connections up and running is not because of the coupling. It's because there's no global install process for the platform, like there is with Domino.

So they need that. And I've suggested here before that the install teams should be moved from Engineering and into Marketing. If the mandate was that "this is the customers' first impression with the product and it'd better be as clean and simple as the rest of the product is supposed to be" then we'd see a different kind of goal from that group.

But NONE of this changes the fact that IBM, at the most senior level, doesn't think they need to appeal to end-users in order to break into the SMB market. And if they continue in that thinking, then they'll fail in that market. It's just that simple.

23 - Point yielded, quite willingly.

24 - .....better educational penetration so the college intern that helps with the computer systems can say "hey I know this cool software we use at school"; pre-installation on OEM hardware,.......


As number 18 said, look at apple. What do you think these kids are going to be pushing for once they get into the business world:

{ Link }


Lotus should be pushing like mad to get into every major university and offer free/low cost help to get them upgraded to the newest release. That way these kids coming out sit down at their first job, be it an exchange or notes 6.5/5 shop and say "you know, we had a much better email system in college, and it worked natively on a mac." This will help kill the notes is dead chant. Nothing stops someone from repeating a tech meme like a younger person treating them like they are out of touch.

25 - Wow, that's quite a good crystallization of the problem. A few thoughts:

* @2 - Mikkel, the problem with doing test advert/marketing in a non-US country is that the results won't be relevant to the US experience. The problem in the US is that many people THINK they know what Lotus and/or Notes is about and have a very negative view of it (either that it "sucks" or is simply irrelevant). The challenge here is to undo the damage to the brand at the same time you pitch the benefits of actual products. You need drive home why Lotus is cool again, and that is going to involve getting the products (in some fashion) into the hands of normal users who will in turn become advocates for them at work.

* Speaking of test marketing, I think the Domino online community - blogosphere, bleedyellow, ideaJam, etc. - is tailor made for testing potential advertising messages. Where else will you find a smart, vocal community that is already plugged into the markets you're trying to reach? I can envision using something akin to IdeaJam, or even an actual IdeaJam-based site, as a place to capture and discuss reactions to various marketing and advertising "ideas". You could even make it private if you want, as long as you invite anyone in the community who wants in. However, I'd prefer it be public.

* Point taken on the IBM name. Advertising/branding for "Lotus" should probably be broken out and handled by a completely different set of folks, with a completely different mindset that is not oblivious to the SMB reality. The "Lotus" brand NEEDS to re-enter the consumer market even if "IBM" does not.

* 10 years ago Apple was dead. Now through great products AND clever advertising, they are dominant, to the extent that people are starting to see them as a potential enterprise vendor. There was certainly a lot of negative feeling to overcome during that journey, but they did it. So can Lotus.

* Speaking of Apple, I'd love to see IBM and Apple form some sort of alliance where Notes/Domino can be sold pre-installed on Apple PCs/Servers. This might appeal to SMB but might also be a way to get an "outlook express" version of the Notes client into the hands of the "cool kids". Steve might not like the idea given the obvious competition with Apple's iWork (or whatever its called), but you never know.

* CONSUMER PRODUCT IDEA. At least for Windows users, offering a consumer version of Notes that includes a great email client with built-in virus checking and multi-account support, all the Symphony stuff, AND organizes all the files on their machine into a much more usable and searchable format than Windows explorer would be a winner IMHO. Certainly a good value from the perspective of those who hate having to renew their McAfee/Norton/Office licenses.

* PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Get Notes into primetime TV. Maybe an episode of the "Office" where the boss gets pitched by Microsoft and is ready to buy into it, but the cool/smart underlings point out that with Notes/Domino they get a much cooler interface, won't have to deal with xyz problems or hire n people to support the system yadda yadda. At a minimum somebody could produce a spoof piece based on this idea for Youtube.

So much for a quick comment

26 - For the SMB market, isn't this really the responsibility of the business partners? Do we really want IBM playing here anyway? Nathan is right IBM is all about big business, they are a massive organization, and massive organizations are not really good at connecting to the SMB market one on one ... Not that thay can't be, and im sure someone will drop names of large organizations that do this well, but i think they are the exception.

What IBM needs to do is get the proper tools in place to make it really easy for the Partners to easily plug Domino, etc into the SMB space (ie Foundations and a whole lot more) and give us the tools to go to town. Thats what they are starting to do.

This is an opportunity for us partners in the SMB to grow. IBM should do some better end user marketing targeted at the small shops to let them know they are out there and they are a better answer than MS SBS, but then we business partners need to get out there and make it happen.

We can demand innovation and new products and easier to install products from IBM, to make our jobs easier and help our bottom lines grow. But if we want IBM to get traction in the SMB marketspace, then lets make it successful. Maybe we need to look at our marketing and how we get the message out too. Who knows, maybe Marketing Groups like the auto dealers who get together to pool resources to increase marketing resources is a good idea, maybe its not, but bottom line, Nathans title says it all .... Lotus Marketing doesn't suck, but it doesn't matter, Lotus BP marketing as a general rule isnt better, and often worse, we need to figure out how to do better, how to get the message out, how to better evangelize. One of us evangelizing is worth mutliple IBM'rs out there doing the same thing, and multiples of multiples than an IBM ad that says "clear your desk". ESPECIALLY in the SMB space where "big blue" sounds like "big brother" and the impression is "not as sexy as microsoft."

27 - @26 - "For the SMB market, isn't this really the responsibility of the business partners?"

I knew someone would say that sooner or later.

Let's say you're an IBM BP. Odds are good that you're also a MSFT BP. Margins are pretty much equal on them, except that you sometimes make more on services revenue for MSFT products because they don't work as well.

So a customer comes to you and says,

"we want to buy a calendaring and scheduling solution."
"well, you can use the Notes/Domino platform from IBM or you can use the Outlook/Exchange platform from Microsoft."
"ah, I heard about Outlook from my buddy, and that's what my wife uses at home, so let's do that!"

As a business partner, you have a choice: you can try to sell them on the IBM technology instead, or you can simply close the deal.

Sales 101: when the prospect says yes, you STOP PITCHING.

One could argue that channel partners should be out generating this user interest, but where's the incentive? If I can turn over a MSFT CAL or an IBM CAL, and I get the same trivial percentage, why advocate one over the other? Some sense of personal responsibility? Engineering passion? A belief that MSFT is the "evil empire?"

Most consultants will say "we do what our customers ask us to do." Well, they ASK for what they know, don't they? You're not going to ask for something you've never heard of. How could you!??!?

28 - @27
"Ouch," said the nail,
"I've been hit on the head."

29 - @26 "Let's say you're an IBM BP. Odds are good that you're also a MSFT BP".

Is that true?

30 - @27 - I guess it depends on the business partner ... I don't perceive MS as the evil empire .. but i do believe in making sure the client has the best solution long term. Theres more money in it really. If you sell the MS solution because "thats what his wife uses", but you know they arent going to be as happy with it long term versus if they went with the domino platform. Why sell them the MS platform? That just means that at some point you are going to have to deal with an upset client, and lose credibility.

Looking at just the up front licensing margin is short sighted. I can give them what they think they want, or I could be a real salesman, and explain to them what they are really saying they want, and sell them that. Besides, if I sell them the MS platform, I can't as easily sell them all the really profitable stuff later like custom app dev, or some of our "boxed" apps. Sure, i can sell them the MS development platform of the month, VB, .Net, etc ... but the cost is much higher, the returns lower, etc.

The same short-sightedness is there when saying you make more money from the other platform because it crashes more. You will always make more from a stable platform and a happy client than the always-crashing unhappy client.

So, if I am a BP, and I can make the same margin on both licenses, why would I sell them the closed platform that I know they may be unhappy with, and that I am going to have a harder time selling them additional services and products for later?

I'd much rather sell them the one I know they will be estatic with, that they didn't know they needed, that helps me become in integral part of their business, which earns me more money long term, which will make my clients my evangelists, which will lead to more sales. (Your existing customers are your best sales tool)

Most consultans get a bad rap because they do exactly what you say, doesnt mean that its right. I'd much rather fight harder for the big win, and lose a few more here and there that didn't want to do what I thought it was "the right solution for them" ... Both client and consultant win that way.

@28 - "Ouch," said the nail,
"I've been hit on the head."
"Good thing your thumb was there to cushon the impact."

31 - Jeremy, I work for a company called "Lotus 911" that as a community project, runs a site called "Bleedyellow." Lotus technology is ALL WE DO. So I'm not using us as a case study.

But people that actively push IBM/Lotus technology in the face of user requests for competing technology are in the minority. Precisely because it's more work, frequently for similar returns, unless you're REALLY good at it.

32 - My comments were in no way any sort of characterization of Lotus 911 ... far from it. As I have said to you in the past, I think what you guys do for the Lotus community is great ... don't take what i said or say as anything other than that. If it read anything different than that, I apologize.

I'm not sure there are many Lotus BPs that are also MS BPs, I've never seen numbers on it, at a gut check level, I believe there is probably some cross over, but I don't think its on the level of "if you're a lotus bp, you're probably also a ms bp".

My statement was merely saying that its not as cut and dry as up-front licensing margins, and in the end, if you want to really flourish, you should be pushing the technology thats right for the solution, and stand by it. In the over-simplified sales pitch you put forth, chances are the sales rep will (or should) ask a whole lot more question about what the needs are, etc, then propose the proper solution. Never had a sales meeting that went, I need C&S, ok Exchange or Domino? Exchange sounds good, Ok, lets go, here's the check, get it done.

This whole conversation started about the effectivness of Lotus marketing and I was adressing specifically the statments in the area of SMB, and my belief that the effectiveness of this recent foray by IBM into SMB is really in the hands of the BP.

33 - @24 re "Lotus should be pushing like mad to get into every major university and offer free/low cost help to get them upgraded to the newest release."

No! That's precisely how IBM gets it wrong. To the extent that they are in the education market at all, they target major universities. The people in the decision-making jobs in today's SMBs may be products of major universities, but as Nathan points out -- they are not the real decision-makers!

Where IBM needs to be is in the small colleges, the community colleges, the technical schools, and the adult education programs. IBM needs to be in every place where you can enroll in night courses to get an MCSE or Cisco certification. They need to develop a Linux/Lotus curriculum, and they need to provide co-marketing money to get these schools to send out mailings every month, so that the local IT Directors in the SMBs in their area will see that training is available. Apart from the marketing issue that Nathan has pointed out so well, this is IBM's #1 problem in SMB. And actually, it all goes hand-in-hand. Having presence in the local education system is part of the solution to the marketing problem!

34 - @28 - there's NO way you can know me that well....

35 - @33 you misunderstood my meaning, (and adding major came about from the pic I added, I should have said all higher learning). I was referring to the need to get people out there that will say "notes isn't dead". Getting marketing and other non tech people out there that are comfortable using the notes client.

I do like your idea of getting into the tech schools, that would help a lot with the comfort level of a small business where "tim" the solo tech guy has to get an email system working.

36 - Nathan Freeman, your my hero.

37 - @all

just a euroslanted 5 cents.. Here in Ireland I get the usual the plethora of IT related press. Computing, IT Week..etc etc... I have just done a quick scan of the ads for the last month ... loads of IBM ads for hardware but 0,zip nada about any of the Domino Range. There are a few news items but they all have APPLE or iPhone prominent in the title rather than Notes, Lotus or Domino.

Also.. it is just me .. or is Lotusphere or LSC2Y just preaching to the choir?
Don't get me wrong there is a very important place for launch events and user groups and Domino shindigs...so I do want them to stay and feature big time in the life of our community.

I haven't been to LS but the local Brit and Irish Lotus events are great events (and long may they last) however I have never met a non-lotus person at one of them. I for one, as a happy Dominoista, would be more than happy to take a day off and go to an event and talk about my 16 years of working with Notes/Domino to an audience of non-domino folk about what I as a user, admin and Lead developer think of life at the coal face.

Thats were I think we the users can help IBM. At the end of the day, it is our shared experience that now defines Notes/Domino. Mary Beth and her team are now actively seeking out and using those experiences to shape "the product" in the years ahead.

Perhaps she and our blogs can prod IBM's stealth marketeers entombed in their fortresses of solitude into stepping up a gear and perhaps letting us tell at least part of the story! (it's not like we are shy wallflowers!)

Cm'on IBM let us help!

Steve
PS I promise not to use the tag line "Domino - F'ing Wonderful" even if i do think it is kewll.

38 - Interesting.
I was this morning at a CIO conference here in South Florida.
And naturally I got a few, wow you still use it and some nastier discussions, I also received some very thoughtful words of people who love Lotus and wish everyone had it.
Now CIOs there want you to know they do not care what the product IS.
They only care about headaches it can cause or cure once they own it.
What the cost is (TCO or in a different light the ROI).
Who else in their industry uses it.

Some admitted to me they were solely MS shops and I respect them for it and hit them with plan #2 from Project Liberate.

As a non-conformist and a strong believer in the theory of the contrarian, I push the Lotus way because it is good for companies to collaborate. The CIO and CTO that discussed their Lotus issues with me outright said "we do not do collobaration, why should we keep it!"

And there lies the issue, in my mind.

IBM may have done this, if they hired organizational psych students to define the companies IBM should be targeting because of their need to collaborate it would be very interesting in my mind. And also save most of us from banging our heads against the wall.

You can't change the tide, but you can ride the next one. When a company changes C level people is when to go after them. But know they will not commit for 6 months to a year. But if you don't make that effort you will not get anywhere anyway.

Lotus notes is not dead. Lotus 123 is and maybe THAT should be the start of a new IBM Campaign. While you are at it, include MS Mail, Jet Mail(with an * as it is till the base to exchange) or BOB or any number of other companies no longer in existence.

Cmon IBM get a real agency to create ads for you.

39 - @38 Now THAT is interesting:
"we do not do collobaration, why should we keep it!"

If a company uses Word documents, for example, they "do" collaboration. If they've ever distributed an HR policy doc, or even sent a company-wide email, or even ANY email that contains an attachment or any valuable information, then they "do" collaboration.

Here's a great marketing campaign, let's define collaboration in tangible terms that everyone can relate to. THEN tell them, "as long as you're doing it anyway, and trust us, you ARE, let us make it easier for you!"

40 - I really wish you could edit a blog comment sometimes..."your" should obviously be "you're" in @36.

trackback: { Link }

41 - Hard to believe but there are companies that switch not only because of lies from Microsoft salespeople but because they do not like how the product works.
I know this is not a good place to post this but I think if IBM would design its software in a way that it would get more applause from vowe (without the Mac part) then you would probably have a much better sell to SMB than with any marketing campaign.
Having said all this I think the current strategy is quite good for keeping the installed base with growth through mergers and acquisitions.

42 - @41 - Well, it's always nice to start the morning with a good chuckle. Thanks for that.

43 - Another benefit of a properly done mass media advertising campaign is that it will rip away the one thing that best protects those who make silly decisions (or the users who make silly requests) to move away from Notes: Ignorance. Right now, there are enough CxO and even regular user types who don't know any better when told MS is best and Notes sucks. Make those people feel foolish for not knowing Notes is so cool and you will have accomplished something.

And whatever is done, the point needs to be made that Notes is WAY more than email, because that is another common belief that needs to be shattered to gain mindshare, particularly among those who think Sharepoint is where its at.

@40 - Do also check out Keil's blog post with a draft TV ad script - very cool: { Link }

44 - @39, Jess you are correct. It was the implication of the way he said it which was very "what's mine is mine" attitude.

45 - While there is a lot behind the scenes that cannot be discussed openly, I have an example of where end user bias tilted the scales to MSFT in a battle IBM should have won. A large risk firm on the East Coast had been in a co-existence state with a firm they merged with for several years. The Notes shop had about 15k users, the Exchange shop about 12k. Consolidation and migration have been discussed for several years. Last year, the talks finally heated up and funding was found. Both camps fought hard, but in the end, Exchange won due to some rather aggressive tactics, and the fact that the users of the Notes side were stuck on R5 & 6 and hated the interface and they were pining for a better client. MSFT gave them to them in Outlook, and IBM didn't sell 8 well or did not get the right audience. In the end, MSFT also bundled the migration cost (easy to do when you own the majority of the firm hired to do the work), and a large enterprise customer for Domino is soon to be an Exchange shop. Saddens me greatly.

46 - [QUOTE]"What are they going to do? Put an ad in InfoWorld that says "IBM knows small business." Really? What does it know about it? Does it know that small businesses don't read InfoWorld?[/QUOTE]



That's a money quote.

And on the subject of actually advertising the product like Apple with the recent iPhone ads - that was a customer generated ad. Apple liked it so much they actually worked with one of their customers and ended up using it in a major mass-market campaign!

What a concept!

It would be so nice to have Mac/PC style add for Notes - Outlook vs. Notes - to address all the long litany of fallacies/lies that are out there. Show the product! Show people using the product! Show that people using the product is compelling - the current iPhone ad is BRILLIANT for doing that.

I mean, it only took over a decade to get a decent interface on the Notes client - that needs to be shown off! Heck, the Interface Hall of Shame/Notes section would be great fodder for these commercials too while at it. Throw in some real world customer experiences at upgrading to Notes 8 (while all your old apps continue to work) - this is all stuff "the other guys" don't have a solid answer to. Play up your strengths!