Extreme Marketing

Marketing done the ExtremeWay, by applying the principles that also are the basis of ExtremeProgramming. Marketing done the TraditionalWay? is inefficient, too expensive, always comes late and should be more fun.

Think about UserStory [get to know what the customer really needs], MarketingInPairs, RapidFeedback etc. -- HelmutMerz, corrupted by BenAveling ;-)

ExtremeMarketing is an integrative part of ExtremeOpenBusiness, which is characterized by extreme openness in developing products/services, negotiating all financial aspects of contracts, ownership and transactions. Making all these normally hidden processes transparent to the public, supports Marketing by building trust. It's attractive like an interactive reality show.

Be careful. Subsequent ManagementOfReputationalRisks? type mopup activities could be made necessary by Extreme focus on PromotionIsTheProduct.

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Here are the ExtremeProgrammingCorePractices; how do they translate to ExtremeMarketing?

• Fine scale feedback
  • TestDrivenDevelopment via UnitTests and AcceptanceTests -- Suggests that marketing should be driven by customer needs and research
  • PlanningGame
  • OnsiteCustomer -- Just as Development relies on Marketing to play the role of the OnsiteCustomer, Marketing must retain close contact with real customers in order to play the role accurately.
  • PairProgramming -- Becomes MarketingInPairs
• Continuous process rather than batch
  • ContinuousIntegration -- Continuous reinforcement of the marketing message
  • RefactorMercilessly -- Continuous re-assessment of the marketing message
  • SmallReleases -- Market steadily over time, instead of occasionally bombarding the public with your message
• Shared understanding
  • SimpleDesign (DoSimpleThings, YouArentGonnaNeedIt, OnceAndOnlyOnce, SimplifyVigorously) -- Create a simple, compelling MarketingMessage
  • SystemMetaphor
  • CollectiveCodeOwnership
  • CodingConventions
• Programmer welfare
  • SustainablePace -- Ensure product releases at regular intervals. Keeps a steady cash flow and avoids bunching up multiple releases at once with attendant overtime and diluted marketing message.

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UserStory has to translate to MarketingMessage and vice-versa. The user drives usage, long-term adoption, and new requirements. It is the user, not the DecisionMaker, PurchasingAgent, or TechnologyExecutive? that makes for success. It's the humble user and its their true and proper UserStory that has to be the foundation of the product. Whatever MarketingMessage is being created must reflect the UserStory at some level of abstraction (distortion) depending on how far from the real user the target of the message is.

HumanBehavioralPatterns type remark made by another contributor -> Unfortunately, the business needs of the business and the personal self-interests of the decision makers come before the desires of the users. If a company hired you to create a customer information tracking database. Would you still build this application even if the sales people, the ultimate end users, didn't want to share such information.

At a very important level, ExtremeMarketing is as badly needed as ExtremeProgramming. It demands marketing (and sales) people teach higher-level people in customer organizations how to demand software that answers the real needs of their workers. If a MarketingMessage can't be directly tied to a UserStory in one or two sentences, it's selling a different product. -- MartyHeyman

SpinBallers to note -> In SPIN Selling, the seller does not "teach the customer", the seller is taught by the customer. This distinction is important because the buyer (or customer) has business domain knowledge that the seller doesn't have, the buyer has access to decision makers the seller doesn't have access to, and even if the seller knew for a moment what he was talking about, the buyer simply couldn't repeat to his colleagues the same words of the seller with the same kind of details and sincerity.

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from the defunct MarketingInPairs

In the 1990s, I was introduced to a procedure known as "Concept Engineering" which arose from a project at MIT. To gather requirements, this procedure specifies customer interviews with 2 man teams. One person is responsible for interacting with the interviewee while the second is responsible for writing down the points raised.

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Somebody has discovered it already, they call it "the CluetrainManifesto", http://www.cluetrain.com. This seems to be not only ExtremeMarketing but even ExtremeBusiness - "the end of business as usual". -- HelmutMerz

Why do you say that?

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There is now a book by Chuck Fresh, Extreme Marketing and Promotion: Promoting and Protecting Your Small Business, [ISBN 1929554095 ]. However, although it uses the same buzzwords, "Extreme" and "Marketing", is it really related to Extreme Programming?

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CategoryAdoptingXp