You’re not selling software, you’re selling emotional engagement
// April 12th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Advertising, Branding, Startup
Those of us who are parents will know the pulling power of a good bait-and-switch campaign whenever we drive past McDonalds with the kids in the car.
Those blasted McHappy Meals usually go half-eaten so it’s not the few moments of fat, salt and sugar that makes them irresistable, it’s the movie tie-in, limited-time collectible nature of the bloody near-worthless-will-break-before-your-car-leaves-the-carpark toy included with the meal.
Believe it or not, what works for selling fast food also works for selling enterprise software products.
Mike Cannon-Brookes is a fellow mentor/investor in Startmate.com.au and also the co-founder of one of the most successful Australian software companies of this generation.
When Mike recently spoke at a Sydstart event in Sydney, he said he realised some time ago that Atlassian’s most effective marketing strategy was not to sell software, but to sell very witty, cool t-shirts that developers will kill to get their hands on. “We sell great t-shirts that you have to buy a software licence to get,” he said.
Most of the Sydstart audience thought he was joking, and he was funny, sure, but he was serious. By selling t-shirts individuals want and bundling them with software corporations need, Mike has been practicing the ‘good’ kind of bait-and-switch — the kind that creates a desire so powerful for one thing, you end up buying another just to get it.
Why bait-and-switch? Well, there’s nothing funny or exclusive about selling software that helps developers track bugs and publish internal wikis. So getting customers passionate about Atlassian and its products would be tough, if the company restricted itself to just marketing software.
But after trialling all sorts of give-aways and branded items, Mike and his team hit upon the ideal marketing medium for Atlassian: short runs of exclusive, clever and usually very funny t-shirts.
It’s impossible to underestimate the importance of clever t-shirts in developer culture, but if you are a developer, you likely have a problem expressing yourself in conversation, and a great t-shirt message makes a great warning signal, much like the yellow and black stripes on a poison dart frog, except, well, less cold and slimy. Usually.
A great developer t-shirt will include a message, graphic, or both that will leave passers-by in no doubt that they haven’t watched enough cult sci-fi movies, played enough cult XBOX games, listened to enough undiscovered bands, or compiled enough great code to really understand the person wearing this t-shirt. One of my favourites of all-time just had the message, “Of course you realise I could replace you with a shell script?”
You see, a shell script is… Oh, never mind.
T-shirts are also great because they make the fashion decision for you — wear a business shirt to work and you need to decide between stripes or plain, tie or no tie, etc. A t-shirt is a t-shirt and a developer can pull one out, tug it on and be one pair of jeans and one pair of shoes away from being ready for work. That’s how stereotypical developers roll.
Atlassian’s newest promotion, playing off the popularity of the iOS/Android game Angry Birds is wonderful marketing. See how it plays off a current meme, borrows from exactly the kind of landing page design that nearly every web business other than Atlassian uses these days, and most important of all, stacks on the developer in-jokes that only they will truly understand (or will believe that’s the case).
The key to good bait-and-switch marketing (and all subculture marketing) is to make your audience feel like you are peers in the same subculture, and this promotion achieves that beautifully. There’s even what I think is a clever stab at Mike and his fellow co-founder Scott under “The Founder” (at least, I think it is, after all I’m not truly a member of the Atlassian customer subculture). You can’t be peers with Mike and Scott unless they are brought down a couple of pegs.
Finally, this may look like a promotion for what might be the lowest-selling iPad game of the year, but it isn’t. It isn’t even an ad for Atlassian software (see their products, or any of their features, or benefits, mentioned anywhere on the page? No.)
Instead, it’s an opportunity to buy a witty/cool t-shirt or plush toy. A t-shirt or plush toy that, had you not read this, you would not be cool enough to understand. Which would make developers wearing the t-shirt very happy, and more likely to feel that Atlassian was a brand that understands them.
If I were Mike, I’d make sure I had very limited stock of this merchandise, and I’d make it clear that if you’ve missed out, there will be no reprints. You’ll just have to pay closer attention to Atlassian, act faster next time, spend less time considering the purchase decision rationally and get used to making emotional decisions about Atlassian products.
Because Mike’s clever enough to know he’s not selling software, he’s selling emotional engagement, in XS, S, M, L, XL and XXL.
