Meteor Monitor - Wednesday, August 30, 2000
Meteor Monitor: New VP Marketing hired, program launch date set
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ThoughtShare has hired a veteran software marketer as the company prepares to roll out its first program, launch its new industrial-strength web site and begin implementing its international sales and marketing program.
And Guy Steeves, ThoughtShare's new Vice-President of Marketing, wasted no time in confirming the official launch date of the company's first program
-- a key marketing decision. "We'll be launching the program on October 9 through one of the world's top distribution systems for new software, and we'll immediately begin leveraging that event with a number of other marketing initiatives."
For instance, he says, "We'll be introducing the program, which should have a fair amount of buzz by that point, at COMDEX 2000 about a month later."
COMDEX is one of the largest annual computer trade shows and symposium in the world. It takes place in Las Vegas this year from November 13-17. "That's a potential audience of 200,000, plus another 2,000 exhibitors, and
I expect both groups will be interested in the program." Steeves is no stranger to COMDEX -- he's been there as an exhibitor for previous
employers nearly half-a-dozen times. Steeves also says he'll let us know about more marketing plans once he's had a chance to get his bag unpacked.
Steeves, a roll-up-his-sleeves type, says it was the tremendous potential of the ThoughtShare concept and the people involved that led him to join the company. "The ThoughtShare plans for its products make a lot of sense,
the first program itself is really intriguing, and that means to me that people who turn information into knowledge are going to like them and use them -- a lot."
Steeves also says the fact that so-called 'viral' marketing will be used as one of the key selling strategies for ThoughtShare's first product enticed him, as he firmly believes that companies should look to their customers to
do some of the best marketing for the company. "Viral marketing is better than word-of-mouth because it's fueled by technology," he notes.
Viral marketing is a proven concept in marketing that has been given new life by the ease with which data can be moved via the Internet. The underlying idea is to make it as easy as possible for people to acquire a
ThoughtShare program so they'll use it and talk about it with their friends and colleagues. They, in turn, do the same thing. Several big software companies -- including Microsoft, Adobe and Qualcomm -- all successfully
use this type of marketing for some of their software.
Steeves has an honours marketing-management and advertising diploma in Technology from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). He's
coming to ThoughtShare from a long-time connection with a well-known computer program -- he was most recently Director of Strategic Relations
for the world-renowned Multiactive Software, which publishes Maximizer, the sales and customer-management software.
During his work at the company, he authored the firm's Strategic Relations Plan and supervised corporate alliances with Compaq, Microsoft and Oracle. Earlier, he was the top Maximizer value-added reseller in 1993 and 1994.
In other work, he designed and implemented a comprehensive tracking system for global jet sales for use by British Aerospace, and he also developed and implemented an automated customer/vehicle follow-up system for a
British Columbia car dealership. The system was later implemented at several other dealerships. He also developed and managed the British Columbia Trade & Development export databases to aid business selling
internationally. And, he's developed marketing and public-relations plans, reseller programs, re-engineered web sites and implemented Internet marketing strategies.
He's not content to stop there. He's passing along his expertise in other ways, such as teaching courses in Internet Marketing Strategies and in Electronic Commerce at BCIT this year.
Steeves has been marketing and selling since 1984, coming in to the sector through the wine business as the Vancouver Island Manager of Jordon & Ste. Michelle Wines in British Columbia. By 1985, he was the company's top
salesman. He moved to Carling O'Keefe breweries in 1987 and then went on to BCIT later that year. After graduation from BCIT, he b egan working with Richmond Software, the original owners of Maximizer.
Peter Morgan, Managing Editor, Meteor Monitor |
