Category Archives: Solutions

Products or Solutions?

– By Steve Robins

What Should You Market?

It seems so obvious.  If you have a product to sell, you must to market that product.  But as it turns out, marketing your product is not always the best way to go.

Depending on the product’s market maturity, you may actually be better off not marketing the product.  That’s right, don’t market the product.

Let’s review.

If you’ve read Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm, you already know that technology markets move through a bell curve of market adoption, progressing from sales to Innovators and Early Adopters, across The Chasm (we hope) and rising sharply with sales to the Early Majority and Late Majority, and then dropping as only the Laggards remain to purchase the technology.

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Filed under Overviews, Product Marketing, Solution Marketing, Technology Adoption Life Cycle

Build a Winning Solution Marketing Strategy – ProductCamp Boston

– By Steve Robins

ProductCamp Boston

Practical Advice on Building a Solution Marketing Strategy

Session abstract: What is solution marketing strategy and how does it differ from product marketing strategy? Solutions go beyond product to solve business problems. During this session, you’ll learn how to assemble a compelling solution marketing strategy. We’ll look at segmentation, personas, competition, solution portfolios, the solution maturity model, and marketing strategies.

Thanks to everyone that attended the ProductCamp Boston session, Building a Winning Solution Marketing Strategy.  Following is additional information. Continue reading

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Filed under Access, Information, Messaging, Overviews, SIVA - Elements of Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing, Solution Maturity Model, Solutions, Value

Apple iPad: Tablet or Solution?

– By Steve Robins

The Apple iPad is a complete solution
iPad Series Part I

iPad is here

Read Part II, Apple iPad: Solution Evaluation

In recent weeks, you may have wondered about the anticipated success of the Apple iPad, similar to that of the iPhone and iPods that preceded it.  Yes, Apple builds powerful, well-designed and easy-to-use products.  And yes, despite Apple products’ frequently higher price, consumers have snapped up Apple Macs, iPods and iPhones at a rapid clip (over 75 million people use the iPhone and iTouch today).  At the same time, the media industry itself is all abuzz that Apple devices, especially the iPad, will finally provide a content platform that enables them to make money from their digital content.

Apple doesn’t create technology platforms alone:
Apple solves problems.

But all of this misses one critical point: users have problems to solve and Apple does a better job of solving their “problems” than most other PC or electronics companies (Do you agree?  Comment below!).   So what is this “problem”? As the computer experience has shifted from digital content creation (think spreadsheets and documents – which will always be important) to digital content consumption (music, Web, images, video), people want to be able to access content from anywhere – on the go, at the office, in the living room.  And thus far, Apple has solved the problem better than anyone else.

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Filed under Case Studies, Solution Marketing, Solutions

The Apple iPad Solution

– By Steve Robins

Apple iPad: Game-Changer?  Device?  Solution?

The iPad Solution. Why all the fuss about the Apple iPad?  What makes it special?  Read on to better understand the potential success of the iPad.  Hint: the iPad is more than a device… it’s a solution.

The original post from April 4 has been split into two posts:

Part I, Apple iPad: Tablet or Solution

Part II, Apple iPad: Solution Evaluation

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Filed under Case Studies, Solution Marketing, Solutions

Solution Frameworks Shorten the Last Mile

Platforms or Applications?

Solution Frameworks Combine the Best of Both

— By Steve Robins

A few weeks back I attended a discussion by Alan Treffler, CEO of Pegasystems at the Vilnu Shul in Boston.  Treffler described Pega’s decision to focus on frameworks atop their platform rather than applications.  Let’s take a deeper look at software platforms, frameworks, and applications.   Continue reading

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Filed under Solution Frameworks, Solution Marketing, Solutions