Angelo:
You wrote:
>> As for marketing their products, a good company does not have to really push to hard because word of mouth in a quality product is what really sells. Adobe has the best products for their area of expertise and no one can come close! I really do not think that shelf space makes that much difference with this in mind.>>
Although word of mouth certainly helps move a product, as Peter stated, Adobe is trying to capture market share outside of its core market in graphic design. Adobe has an excellent marketing strategy and execution when it comes to OEM sales. But they fall flat in other sectors of the market. So should they just give up that segment of the market, and let other companies capture it, or should they recognize the problem and attempt to correct it? They stated in a conference call that their research indicated that small business owners go to computer superstores to purchase PC software. They want to increase their sales of PC platform and therefore this is where they must put forth effort. Even if they have the best product in the world, it is tough to sell if it isn't on the shelf, (assuming that certain parts of the market do not want to purchase software over the net). So one of their major thrusts must be to get a better presence in the superstores. Unforetunatly, I don't see much results in their attempt. I was in a Comp USA in the PC graphics section and there was no Adobe products. I asked a sales person where are the Adobe products and he told me over to the side in the corporate sales section. (The reason is because people were opening up the boxes and stealing the CD.) I went over to the corporate section off to the side and Adobe was there with other expensive software, like Office 97. However, when I went over to the suites area, blank Office 97 boxes were prominately displayed on the shelf with a note to go to corporate sales for the cd. Why was this not the case with Adobe? I called Adobe and they said they were shipping out blank boxes, but, the truth is that they do not follow up to make sure that they have shelf space in the superstores. No shelf space no sales.
Jeff |
