Simulation-Based Product Marketing

Over the past few days, I have been trying to focus on what I do and where I feel me and my company’s expertise lies.

I enjoy creating effective materials that use equipment simulations as part of marketing and training efforts.  When I say “simulation” to any group of people (who will stand still for more than a few seconds), that word seems to eclipse the importance of whatever other words surround it.  However, as I quickly follow-up as an example, “good simulation-based training” is foremost about ‘good training’, not something to be judged necessarily on how accurate the simulation is.

While the field of “simulation-based training” is roaring along, I have yet to hear the phrase “simulation-based marketing.”  Based on some shoddy and incomplete research (i.e., doing hasty web searches and looking at the first few pages of results), I have yet to see this term used.  Feeling somewhat presumptuous, I wonder if I am the first person to use this term.

When I say a ‘simulation-based product marketing piece,’ I mean “a presentation designed to engage viewers with the product, in which the product is reproduced to some level of interaction, for the purposes of selling to, or persuading them to buy it.”

At its core, and this relates to our work over the past few years, is the notion of “Product Engagement” (PE).  I have seen people use the term “brand engagement,” but I haven’t seen as much attention to “product engagement”, though clearly this concept is at the heart of pretty much all types of sales.  Often we talk about “putting the product into a prospect’s hands,” or giving a prospect a “hands-on feel” for the product.  ‘Product Engagement’ could be a way to measure how successful a presentation is at giving the prospect the feel for a device.  Not to carry this too far, but PE doesn’t have to relate to a simulation — it could be an assessment of an experience with the actual product itself.

In the same way a simulation or model always makes assumptions about what it is representing, the engagement is never quite identical to using the product in an on-the-job experience (except, of course, using the product in an on-the-job experience).

The idea of PE highlights an important distinction between sim-based product marketing and what could be considered a broader, sim-based product training.  In training, ultimately, our goal is to transfer correct performance using the device in realistic conditions.  In marketing, our goal is to give the prospect confidence that they know how they will perform.

Here are two posts I think that relate very well to this discussion:

• Devin Day – ‘Authentic Product Engagement‘ (Nike)
• ShiftControl – ‘Selling Product Engagement‘ (Coke)

The materials I see on the web relate to how products can be linked into games and into social media.  At the forefront of this area, like most, seems to be the B2C manufacturers, though a post I made a few months ago about Malvern Instruments is one demonstration that the B2B community wants and needs this approach.

I think there is a confusion between ‘engaging the viewer’ and ‘engaging the viewer with the product’.  I think that is why so much interactive marketing today focuses on games and game-like elements, because they misdirectedly (is that a word?) believe that the goal is to engage the viewer and then sneak the product in somehow.  When I hear discussions around the idea of ‘product placement’, it almost seems like a dirty secret that the manufacturer is placing its product in a position, hoping the viewer notices it–but doesn’t notice it too much.

This seems ridiculous to me.   I believe that if one makes a marketing piece about a product and lets the viewers interact with the product in realistic situations, situations that highlight the competitive or unique features of the product, then the viewer engagement will take care of itself–those viewers who are interested in the product will be retained, and those interested simply in the ‘fun’ aspect will not.  Isn’t this the core group that the marketer wants to attract?

I think that one of the neat parts about simulation-based marketing is that the concepts and materials fit so well  into other important business categories, namely training (for sales reps, customers, service technicians, etc.) and even product design and manufacturing (designing products that can engage users).  The path, then, being set is to align processes along having users interact with the product.  If one has confidence in the superiority and quality of one’s products, isn’t that the best way to sell it or learn how to use it?

Simulation-Based Marketing

I think that the same concept I’ve presented regarding ‘product marketing’ could be viewed in a larger context of purely “Simulation-Based Marketing.”  My vision is that the broader concept does not necessarily involve equipment or devices (though it could), rather, it is about re-creating the ownership experience (hence the ‘simulation’) for a prospective customer.

Measuring Engagement

Thanks to the folks at Unisfair via Twitter, I just saw a very nice blog post about developing metrics for engagement of social media: http://econsultancy.com/blog/4887-35-social-media-kpis-to-help-measure-engagement.  As my focus is on ‘product engagement’, I have been thinking about how that fits into other activities that express a viewer’s/user’s interest level.

Joerg from Unisfair mentions the Unisfair Engagement Index, an attempt to measure engagement in virtual events–another  interesting concept.  It seems like a useful endeavor to focus on a grouping of interaction opportunities — like a virtual trade show — and then distill the engaging elements.

Critiquing “Instrument maker invests in 3-D demos”

I just recently saw an article by Karen Bannan at B2B-Online entitled “Instrument maker invests in 3-D demos“.  It is great to see the word getting out regarding the success that companies are having who recognize the investment in online product demos.  The article presents some of the typical argument for going this route, such as cost and logistics savings.  The important parts are clearly that this company, Malvern Instruments, is

• Reaching many more people than it could ordinarily do so with demo units
• Helping customers understand a sophisticated device in an easy way
• Seeing that prospects/customers are using the online demos to gain confidence in the purchase
• Saving a lot of money.

Regarding the particulars, Malvern Instruments is using a 3-D modeling software from Kaon Interactive, but I don’t believe the results are necessarily special to that software.  When I visited Kaon’s web site, they have demos of 3-D renderings of products, but as far as I could tell, little real interaction apart from zoom, pan, and rotate.  So much more so, then, the arguments should be for demos in which prospects, customers, and salespeople can really try out the product, in a simulated real environment.

The article barely scratches the surface about what is possible, for example, the enhanced tracking and user behavior monitoring possibilities that can help companies understand how prospects are evaluating their products.  Nonetheless, It’s always good to see these kinds of stories because ultimately companies considering going this route want to know there are real results.

New Entry into Virtual Event Field – Jack Morton

I just saw a press release about Jack Morton Worldwide creating a new “virtual experience platform”:

http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/13349

Anyone know how it is different from the other virtual show platforms?

My Virtual Trade Show Evaluation Cut Short

Just as I was getting into some of the demos with the vendors, the group that had wanted me to review them pulled back their desire to do a show, so they said to put this on hold.  I had gotten about half way through the vendor demos so I did get a chance to see some interesting information, but unfortunately I can’t spend the time now to do a thorough evaluation (too many other pressures).

I hope to return to it within the next few months.  I think the group I was doing this for were not expecting costs to start in the $20K or $30K range, so it was a wake-up call (not to mention that I would bet costs would be higher than that).

Interestingly, I was surprised by the savviness of this group to recognize what they wanted even if they have never participated in a virtual trade show. Instead of merely saying that they wanted something like a live, on-site show (with presentations, booths, etc.), they were able to identify that they really wanted something that was an extension of their society/group web site or office, essentially providing an on-demand access to a group of vendors/exhibitors.  Instead of thinking about a show once or twice a year, I think they were honing in on one of the efficiencies of the virtual trade show venue, that is the ability to collect a variety of companies/vendors for the benefit of the society/group’s customers (the members), for interaction in a real-time way.  I see that some of the trade show vendors are thinking along the lines of integrating trade show processes into day-to-day business operations.  I believe it is a smart move to project how the pieces of a virtual trade show (presentation, exhibit hall/vendor functionality, resource center, etc.) might be organized and assembled in different ways to support specific efficiencies, rather than being forced into a one-size-fits-all virtual trade show format.

Some Impressions Based on How Far I Got

In general, I believe there is a lot of similar functionality that really only can be evaluated during actual shows–everyone talks about the virtues of their platform, but I believe you need to see it under stress to find out how well they hold true.  For example, I attended one show in which I consistently got disconnected and/or could not load content reliably.  Admittedly, I have an internet connection barely better than tin cans and string (thanks, Verizon, which says my speeds meet min. limits, and yet you continue to tease me with your FiOS commercials not available in my area).  However, with such a situation, what better time to find out about in-show customer support?

Which brings me to customer support.  Virtually all of the vendors claimed they had great support, and that was something distinctive.  It was amusing because they all claimed it as distinctive.  Clearly this is a critical factor — what kind of support do you get before the show, to help make the show a success, what kind of support do your vendors get, what support do you get in-show, post-show, etc.  This is a hard one to evaluate, but I would say that typical business procedures should help — get references you can speak with.  I think it is essential to have marketing and technical support before, during, and after the show, even if costs extra.

In general, some vendors have a lot about their platform online, and some very little.  In the cases of very little, I found out that it usually is a business decision not to post more.  I can certainly understand that there is no need to tip off competitors about interesting developments or features, but I didn’t see any one feature that makes the platform clearly better than the others.  In the current age of Internet-based research, having less info on the site I think ultimately hurts the platform vendor–there probably isn’t really a secret feature that the competition doesn’t know about.

That having been said, one important factor will be determining if you want your exhibitors to have their own editing abilities (InXpo, Unisfair, iConGo) or turn it over to the platform vendor (ON24, DesignReactor).  Important Caveat: ON24 did say they are developing more self-service features, and I didn’t really get a chance to speak with the DesignReactor group about this area.

One thing I regret not getting a chance to delve into further is the potential for e-Commerce in these shows.  If a platform had any e-Commerce features, it would be linking out somewhere to a shopping cart or other hand-wavy integration.  I don’t think there is an easy answer here, but I can see that the ability to conduct business through a show, in a way that could integrate with an exhibitor’s online e-commerce functionality, or provide something during the period of the show, would make for an interesting competitive feature.  The downside is that this may be an abyss, trying to grasp at something concrete when e-commerce functionality (specific way in which inventory, sales, etc. are processed) is typically not common across vendors.

About to start virtual trade show demos

A couple of other urgent work projects took me away for a bit from the virtual trade show evaluation, but I’ve been gearing up to talk with the virtual trade show vendors.

In the process, I’ve refined my questions and added a few, so here is the final list I came up with.  I’ve told the vendors that I don’t want them to fill it out, I just want to use it as an overall guide to help steer the conversation/demo.  Of course the overall questions are the most important

Overall Questions
•    What do you feel are distinctive characteristics/features of your platform or company?
•    How long have you been hosting virtual trade shows?
•    Approximately how many of your customers have come back to host a second or subsequent show with you?
•    What is the overall process for coordination once you begin working with a client?
•    In general, what aspects of the show do you handle and what do you require of your clients?
•    How do you help steer clients to get the most value from their show, before, during, and after?
•    Do you have any kind of user groups/networks for organizers to share experiences?
•    Are there any upcoming shows in which we can take a look?
•    Please provide two references.

Detailed Questions
(not necessarily in order, I just put numbers to have a point of reference)
1. Show Administration
•    What types of tools are available for managing vendors, speakers, attendees?
•    Are non-English languages supported, and how is it determined on show, vendor, speaker, or attendee basis?
2. Vendor/Exhibitor Administration/Setup
•    Variety of booth types
•    What is platform for customizing booths?
•    Can the booth integrate Adobe Flash?
o    If so, which versions (ActionScript 2 or ActionScript 3)?
o    Can Flash extensions access booth features, such as initiate Chats, open documents
•    What types of videos and/or multimedia can be used?
•    What, if any, e-Commerce facilities/functionality are available?
•    What formats are acceptable for the booth (contents)?
3. Speaker Administration
•    Can talks be done as live streaming?
•    Can talks be done as pre-recorded broadcasts?
•    Are Q&A’s (following) sessions all text chat, or mixed (text/audio/webcam)?
•    Are Q&A’s recorded for later use/review?
•    Can the speaker share his or her desktop, or other WebEx-type functionality (white boards, polls, etc.)?
•    Can the speaker browse to web sites or other content while allowing the participants to interact with that content?
•    Can audience members speak (audio) or take the microphone?
•    What technical requirements are there for the speaker to conduct a presentation?
•    What are the recommended specs for speaker equipment?
•    What formats are acceptable?
•    Can there be multiple speakers/presenters, and from different locations?
4. Attendee Administration
•    Platforms (Win/Mac/Linux)?
•    Require any browser plug-in?
•    Browser or other compatibilities (e.g., Windows Media, etc.)
•    How intrusive is sign-up?
•    How intrusive is login?
5. Talks/Presentations
•    What browser and software does an attendee need to participate?
•    What kind of support is given during the conference for attendee problems?
6. Exhibit Hall
•    How does a participant “see” the possible booths or vendors?
•    Are there booths of different sizes?
•    Do booths have different areas, or just one view?
•    What kind of interaction can an attendee have with a sales/booth rep?
•    What kind of tracking is kept for an attendee?
7. Attendee Networking
•    Does it integrate with networking after the show?
•    How do attendees network?
•    Is there a place like a lounge where attendees can network?
•    Why does an attendee want to hang out in the lounge?
8. Reporting/Tracking
•    What kind of reporting is done, and how is that accessed?
•    Can extensions or loaded content hook into tracking (read/write)?
9. Support
•    What kind of support is available before the show, for
o    Vendors
o    Speakers
o    Show Organizer
•    What kind of support is available during the show, for the same groups as above, as well as Participants/Visitors?
10. Pricing/Costs
•    Pricing/cost structure/options
11. Beyond the Show
•    What are the archival capabilities for talks, exhibit hall, etc.
•    How can the show creators get value after the show?
•    How can exhibitors get value after the show?
•    How do participants get value after the show, for example, social networking?

Formulating a Framework for Interpreting Show Features

I’ve now made contact with most of the virtual trade show vendors, and of course all were eager to demonstrate their platforms.  Most have some type of event occurring around now, so the best thing to do is to visit them during those events.  I know firsthand that there is a big difference seeing the features in a sterile environment vs. seeing the actual flow of people and their use of the platform through an event.

Since the show is going to be in mid-2009, perhaps June-ish, I know I need to get materials together for a decision very soon.  The association needs time to evaluate my recommendations and then spread the word to their base.  This association is fortunate because it is a pretty tight group (they know their vendors and their attendees, and both are very motivated to exhibit and attend).  It seems like 5-6 months is a minimum amount of time before the show to be getting in gear, even for this tight group.

It became clear to me that, rather than go from demo to demo initially, I should put together a basic list of feature areas, and then engage the vendors.  I don’t mean to create an RFP, especially before seeing more demos, because I also have firsthand experience as a potential bidder knowing what a pain it is to respond to RFP’s (and, although it’s a bit cynical, many times RFP’s are used really to justify the author’s selection not a real competition).

So here are my initial thoughts.  I will revise them over the coming days as a I review web site materials from the vendors.  I don’t expect to dump them on vendors and expect the vendors to answer — I figure I can review their web sites to get a better picture of their platform, start filling out the various areas, then double-check my observations with the vendors.
Overall
•    Are non-English languages supported, and how is it determined on show, vendor, speaker, or attendee basis?

Show Administration
•    What types of tools are available for managing vendors, speakers, attendees?

Vendor/Exhibitor Administration/Setup
•    Variety of booth types
•    What is platform for customizing booths?
•    Can the booth integrate Adobe Flash?
o    If so, which versions (ActionScript 2 or ActionScript 3)?
o    Can Flash extensions access booth features, such as initiate Chats, open documents
•    What types of videos and/or multimedia can be used?
•    Any e-Commerce facilities/functionality?
•    What formats are acceptable for the booth?

Speaker Administration
•    Is there live streaming?
•    Is there pre-recorded broadcasts?
•    Are Q&A’s (following) sessions all text chat, or mixed?
•    Are Q&A’s recorded for later use/review?
•    Can the speaker share his or her desktop, or other WebEx-type functionality (white boards, polls, etc.)?
•    Can audience members speak (audio) or take the microphone?
•    What does a speaker have to prepare o
•    What formats are acceptable?
•    Can there be multiple speakers/presenters, and from different locations?

Attendee Administration
•    Platforms (Win/Mac/Linux)?
•    Require any browser plug-in?
•    Browser or other compatibilities (e.g., Windows Media, etc.)
•    How intrusive is sign-up?
•    How intrusive is login?

Talks/Presentations
•    What browser and software does an attendee need to participate?
•    What kind of support is given during the conference for attendee problems?

Exhibit Hall
•    How does a participant “see” the possible booths or vendors?
•    Are there booths of different sizes?
•    What kind of interaction can an attendee have with a sales/booth rep?
•    What kind of tracking is kept for an attendee?

Attendee Networking
•    Does it integrate with networking after the show?
•    How do attendees network?
•    Is there a place like a lounge where attendees can network?
•    Why does an attendee want to hang out in the lounge?

Reporting/Tracking
•    What kind of reporting is done, and how is that accessed?
•    Can extensions or loaded content hook into tracking (read/write)?

Support
•    What kind of support is available before the show, for
o    Vendors
o    Speakers
o    Show Organizer
•    What kind of support is available during the show, for the same groups as above, as well as Participants/Visitors?

Pricing/Costs
•    Pricing/cost structure

Beyond the Show
•    How can the show creators get value after the show?
•    How can exhibitors get value after the show?
•    How do participants get value after the show, for example, social networking?

Other Features
•    ?

And In This Corner…

I have been tasked to help coordinate a virtual trade show next year.  Obviously on my list are the big two players, Unisfair and InXpo.  I’ve also got Design Reactor, On24, GoExhibit, and iCongo on my list.  While I have been in contact with some of them, I only have really participated (as a vendor and visitor) to shows run on InXpo’s platform so far.

I have been trying to find comparisons of each, as well as other platforms, to give my client a run-down of which would fit best.  Searching on the web, I have found some posts here and there, but pretty little as far as I imagined.  So that was the genesis of this and a few more future blog entries!

As I get more information about the various platforms I will discuss them here.  Right now, it’s just the beginning.

From what I know, both Unisfair and InXpo use AS 2 (Flash 7/8), but I’m going to find out if they’ve updated their system to AS 3 (note: requirements for both of these list Flash Player 9, so maybe they’ve taken the leap–stay tuned).  In the last trade show I exhibited at, I used Flash extensively to customize the booth, and, according to the organizers, did some things that no other vendors were doing in terms of building out interactions.  I will discuss some of this in future posts.  I think this is a huge potential area for interactive marketing, but honestly the reactions I’ve gotten so far from Unisfair and InXpo have been lukewarm at best.

Of course web conferencing software like WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc. can have similar functionality in some areas, so I will need to go through some of those to see how they might fit the needs.

One of the trickiest things to find out, of course, is pricing.  From my investigative work, it seems that the starting price is in the neighborhood of $30,000, but it’s onward and upward from there.

Even with the limited investigation I’ve done, I keep seeing people talk about Second Life as an environment for business.  I made a character there last year and tried moving around to get a sense of what’s there, but I’m very skeptical that it can deliver results anywhere near what a dedicated platform can do.

Some discussions like this talk about “improving the level of reality they offer in the virtual environment.”  While the statement is sufficiently vague so as to obscure what really needs improving, it sounds to me like a throwback to when the virtual shows started — they wanted to imitate real trade shows.  I would argue that this can be a red herring, and this is why I’m skeptical of Second Life.  The online trade show should exploit the medium to offer visitors and vendors the right level of detail, not just imitate reality more closely (there are a lot of things in live, on-site trade shows that are not particularly efficient).

Here are some links I’ve found that relate:

• It’s All Virtual, a vendor-neutral blog about virtual meetings, shows, etc. by Dennis Shiao
• Forbes: Kill the Business Trip (talks about Webinars, not virtual shows)
• Folio Magazine: A Perfect Storm for Web Events
• Business Week: Virtual Conferences’ Home Advantage
• ON24 Launches Virtual Tradeshow Platform (ON24)
• Trade Shows Go Virtual (Unisfair)
• First Impressions of The InformationWeek Virtual Trade Show (InXpo)