ThoughtShare's first major trade-show marketing test "exhilarating"
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By the time it was all over, tired ThoughtShare executives had come away
from their first marketing challenge relieved, pleased and exhilarated.
They were at an important, two-day trade conference called Knowledge
Management World in Santa Clara, California.
ThoughtShare President and Chief Operating Officer Fred Fabro, one of the
company's team at the conference, says he was encouraged by the fact that
ThoughtShare, in the middle of one of the knowledge-management industry's
toughest, most knowledgeable crowds, and in the middle of the heavy hitters
of Silicon Valley, "was showing something unique and well-received." But it
is that uniqueness, Fabro says, that meant it was important for
ThoughtShare's marketing plans to be validated early.
"We thought of our attendance there as the tail end of the testing cycle
for our first program," said Fabro, who also took part in a panel
discussion that included Patti Anklam, Director of Knowledge Management,
Global Professional Services, Nortel Networks (more on this story in
another Meteor Monitor item).
Fred also attended the high-powered trade show and conference with
Thoughtshare's Vice President of Marketing, Guy Steeves; Chief Financial
Officer Blaine Bailey, Chief Technical Officer George Myers and Director of
Corporate Development, Chris Juras. "Except in this case we weren't so much
testing the program as we were testing marketing ideas and possible names
for the program before it is released to the public October 9 on ZD-Net,"
says Fabro. "We needed to ensure those ideas would work before we committed
our resources to them, and we're on the right track."
The marketing test at Knowledge Management World was critical for Meteor
Technologies' major investment, ThoughtShare. "We had a batch of ideas of
how we were going to do the marketing for our first program and the files
it creates, and how we would continue to market ThoughtShare for the next
little while," said Fabro, now back in Vancouver at ThoughtShare's head
office. "It was essential that we test them in a real situation before we
promoted the program at COMDEX 2000 in November and launched other
marketing initiatives."
Fabro says that the KM show, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, had an
official attendance of 2,069 and between 80 and 100 companies took part in
the trade show. "These people were from every corner of globe, and they
were all interested in effective tools that would help manage the
incredible amount of knowledge that's now being generated and stored
electronically. And these people were all the tops in the
knowledge-management field."
Fabro said that the people who came to the ThoughtShare booth for a
demonstration and a fully functional beta copy of the program and five
prepared Internet tours prepared by the program included, he says,
"representatives of the U.S. Army, NASA and the chief librarian for the
Library of Congress." Others who were there included knowledge-management
representatives of Volvo, Boeing, Texaco, Shell Oil, Compaq, Intel, Sun
Microsystems, 3M... Adds Fabro, "it was like a Who's Who of the industry."
Fabro says that the trade show confirmed some key marketing requirements.
One of these was that because the concept of the first program is new,
people have to be shown -- actually given a short demonstration -- of what
it does. "They required an explanation, and we knew that was probably the
case from our own experience, so that's included in the marketing plans.
But once they see it work, they caught on immediately. They understood what
it can do, they get what it can do for them, and then they begin talking
about how they could have used it for in a project they were working on
last week," says Fabro. "It was really quite exciting to see them start to
think about using it." Fabro estimates about 250 to 300 copies of a CD with
a beta demo and files on it were handed out from the
ThoughtShare booth. "And we kept all their names and e-mail addresses, so
there'll be some more interaction with them."
So does that mean the price of Meteor shares is going to go be affected as
a result of the Knowledge World marketing? "If you're asking whether I
think all those people are going to buy shares, I don't think that's what
they're about," says Fabro. "For the most part, that's not the kind of
people they are. They're the kind of people who know the value of managing
knowledge and the process of moving information into position so other
people can use it more easily. I think what they're all going to be doing
this week is trying it out, and then start showing it to the guy in the
next office, and then start sending it to their colleagues and friends
because they've made up a tour file about something they're working on and
they want somebody to see it action."
Fabro says that the trade show helped confirm for him in his own mind that
the overall marketing strategy is sound. "We've developed an eight-point
marketing plan, and over the next little while, we're going to be hitting
on all eight of those main strategic thrusts."
An aside: What were the files on the CD, created by ThoughtShare staff,
that are being used to help promote what the ThoughtShare beta version of
the program can do?
The files are all guided Internet tours of:
* Sydney, Australia, site of the 2000 Olympics -- what to see and do around
the city down-under.
* Las Vegas restaurants -- ideal for mapping out which eatery to hit when
you visit the city.
* Kodak, the huge photography company -- a profile of the company that's
developed as the program moves your around its prolific web site, and turn
information about the company into working knowledge of it.
* ScanOptics -- a profile about this company.
* British Columbia Institute of Technology -- one of the premier technical
colleges in North America, |
