IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MARKETING MEDIA TECHNOLOGY Focusing the message The request from broadcast and media technology buyers is clear: they want 02. marketing communications from potential suppliers to be honest and transparent. About the supplier’s company... Buying modern broadcast and media technology is often more about trust than product specs. Particularly in software and services, the product is never finished (and in many cases not yet started), so buyers are instead looking to build trust in their supplier’s ability to deliver. In this sense, marketing communications play a vital role in conveying the credibility, experience and capability of the company and its people. Avoid coining new marketing terms. Call the products what they Buyers want reassurance that a prospective provider: are so buyers can see Has enough resources and bandwidth to deliver their project, and that their particular needs will not get pushed to the end of the roadmap. where they compete. Head of infrastructure, stream- Can articulate a clear vision for how they respond to the changing industry. ing platform, MENA region Demonstrates a cultural fit in the way of working. Can run critical infrastructure reliably and securely for SaaS solutions. Is stable and secure, and investing in its product roadmap. Unfortunately I have to be less and less trusting ...And its products of suppliers’ ability to deliver on promises. Of course, buyers also want to understand the capabilities of individual products so they can assess how these could meet their needs. Ultimately this pushes up procurement costs as Buyers value accurate, honest descriptions of what a product does, so they can easily we have to do extra due see where it fits into a project. diligence. Buyer, survey respondent Making sweeping or inaccurate claims about a product leads to buyer frustration. Common complaints from our focus group include buyers that invent new terms for products instead of using industry conventions, or claiming that they can cover all requirements by o昀昀ering an ‘end-to-end’ solution. We dislike vendors that In a modular, microservices world, buyers are more interested in suppliers that are are misrepresenting focused on doing a few things very well. their abilities and jumping on industry Pilots, proofs of content (PoCs) and loan equipment are an increasingly important part of this process. In SaaS, customers increasingly expect to be able to try out a product with minimal initial cost and no commitment. Product marketers can learn bandwagons. Buyer, survey respondent from the strategies of consumer SaaS businesses, and the role of the ‘free tier’. And with many SaaS products and public cloud providers moving to transparent pricing, there is pressure for more specialist broadcast and media technology suppliers to follow suit and move away from the opaque ‘enterprise pricing’ models of old.