Software Marketing Research

Each student should pick one software product that is "sold" by a company. Investigate the software marketing and sales strategy for that product and prepare a brief (3 minutes) informal presentation for class on May 26. Consider the following topics in your research:

• Who is the target customer?
• How is the product sold? (annual license, floating/per-seat license, one-time/upgrade purchase, free with paid advertising, ...)
• What is the pricing model?
• Estimate the number of customers and projected annual revenue.
• Who is the competition?
• How is this product differentiated from the competition? (brand recognition, price, features, patent protection, ...)
• Does the company partner with/resell services/products from another company?
• What must the company do to continue to sell this product? (new features, new content, new customers, ...)
• How does the company attract and acquire customers? (trial software, advertising, bundling with other products, direct sales, ...)
• How would you classify this software product? (see marketing issues)