Question

Topic: Strategy

How To Market Something You Know Nothing About.

Posted by Anonymous on 11/19/2004 at 5:23 PM ET 250 Points
As a recent marketing graduate, I accepted a job at a linux vendor company. My first day exsisted of "there is another program that you can do stuff with besides microsoft office?" and now I am supposed to strategize, and market this product, which evidently is free. Under the mass of confusion, by my third day I realized we sell customized solutions. I spoke with my computer analyst coworkers, and have realized that not only will it take me years to comprehend, but decades to understand. I want this job, and I want to be good at it, but i dont even know where to begin. How do you market something you dont understand yoruself?
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  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/19/2004 at 6:14 PM Member
    Your frustration is palpable, and when I first read your post, I thought to myself, "Who made the bigger mistake here? Your employer for hiring you, or you for accepting the job?"

    Then I thought it through for a moment, and I realized that your lack of subject matter expertise should not really come into play here. After all, you're not a "computer guy" (or gal) or "IT guy." You're a marketer! And you should be able to market just about anything once you have a basic understanding of your product or service, its marketplace, your competition, etc. Your sales team, however, will certainly need to have a more technical focus so that they can "talk the talk" to which your customers are accustomed.

    (And are we to understand that you've been completely thrown to the wolves on this one--that you have no supervisor or manager in marketing who can help you with some of your issues? That you've actually been tasked with developing this company's marketing strategy and plan all on your own?)

    If you have a degree in marketing, then you have without doubt plenty of examples of the kinds of questions that a marketer needs to ask to do her job.

    If you don't understand something, I am sure there are plenty of people at the company who are willing to explain it to you. You just have to ask the right questions.

    Don't let your fear get the better of you!
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