Our roundtable in Frankfurt in March started with a bang:
Marketing for BI is even lower in the priority order than documentation.
You really have to let that sink in. Is that the case?
Our speaker Kim de Vries (Identity Driven) explained to all participants that this should not be the case. Quite the opposite: Her presentation Data Management and Marketing - an unlikely couple? showed all the necessary elements to lead BIA projects to success in external presentation and communication with a good brand and marketing strategy.
"Marketing is to ask somebody for a date" and "Branding is the reason they say - yes", this pattern is found in all actions for a BIA marketing: address and brand. In this way, the BIA project creates an understanding in the company of what the project offers and at the same time it gets feedback about what it needs to offer, and what the company's needs are. After all, data is super important but somehow still "unsexy." This is where a good marketing strategy sharpens users' understanding of complex content and unsexy data; elevates them to a colorful, simplified rainbow world.
The resulting brands of a BIA project provide orientation and guidance for all users. Because even in a company there is no more than max. 1 second to "catch" the target group, to arouse curiosity. There is a lot of competition between projects and plans in a company. Marketing is the basis for growth or scaling in a project: better funding and more employees!
The main goal is recognition, recognition, recognition by the users. This leads to the desired user engagement, an active participation in a community and the improvement of the apps offered by the BIA project. Because only if I know why I need my data, then they have a purpose!
Kim showed in the presentation how a project gets to the goal:
- Define brand architecture
- Formulate core messages
- Authenticity as the key to success
- Less is more
The necessary actions for this are:
- Basics first
- Fill needs gaps
- Set goals and prioritize
At the end of the presentation, the key takeaways summarized that a branding and marketing strategy is
- makes sense for any project or company size,
- a visual implementation of complex facts leads to recognition and
- leads to the scaling of "People & Money".
So long,
Dirk & Kim
P.S.: The slides and the recording of the presentation are available in the TDWI members area for those interested.