The raison d'être

Hi there, it really feels great to write my first blog here. So let me introduce myself – I am http://software-marketing.blogspot.com/, and I am here to speak on two of my favorite topics - software and marketing, and everything that lies in between. Now, wait a minute, aren’t these topics too broad? Sure, let me try and scope this for us. Let me start with the easier and older topic first – Marketing. Kotler defines Marketing as “Marketing is human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes”. Now, although this sounds like a more cerebral definition this doesn’t define the nuances. Another definition that appealed to me is –

“Marketing is the ongoing process of moving people closer to making a decision to purchase, use, follow...or conform to someone else's products, services or values. Simply, if it doesn't facilitate a "sale" then it's not marketing." (Source – www.wikipedia.org).

I like it simply because it is more concrete and direct and gets closer to the nuts and bolts. Thus, we will stick with this definition and look at possible marketing activities that can be visualized in the scope of above description. Let me try and define software here, not with the intent of educating my readers (I won’t even try and have absolutely no illusions about my capabilities here) but with the idea of creating a scope around which I would like to discuss my ideas. Thus by software, I mean IT services, software products, Web 2.0 and other internet based companies including but not limited to search engines, eCommerce, e-Learning and so on. The beauty of adding “and so on..” is that it allows me that much needed ability to scale (read digress) into other topics that I may not be able to think of right now but might soon develop my interest in :-).

And as I write this piece, I realize that this flexibility is so very important. I am using MS Word to write this article and I realize that every time I write the word “blog”, MS Word introduces the universally known “twigly”, suggesting that it doesn’t recognize this word. How outdated? Now, the word “blog” is not new and has been around since 1999 but our friends at Microsoft did not think that it’s too important a word to be included in their lexicon in the latest version of MS Word. As I write this, a Google search string on “blog” shows more than 2.5 Billion search results!! The word “Blog” indeed deserves recognition.

Okay okay, I know I am digressing but the simple point that I am trying to drive is that we realize that software and the definition of it is evolving and can take shapes and forms that we may not be able to foresee now, and hence we will try and keep the scope of “software” so that we can (and I am sure we will) digress a bit :-).

Thus the reason for existence of this blog is to discuss every marketing related topic in the context of software.

The source of my words in this forum would be my experiences, my thoughts, my readings and of course the internet. I spend my time reading on software marketing, and from today onwards, I would like to share (on this blog) everything interesting that I come across. And to really complete this blog, I will need your inputs through feedback, ideas and agreements / disagreements.

I guess, this is enough to explain the raison d'être of http://software-marketing.blogspot.com/, now lets get into the act. I am thinking of choosing between a few topics – software pricing,
service vs. product marketing, marketing campaigns – for my next blog....Any suggestions?