Thesis work paper Strategic Realignment: Check the Target Market and Complement Industry “Power Players”

Shapiro observes that information and software companies can focus too much on marketing features rather than customer benefits.
The software turnaround then, will most likely need a strategic and marketing realignment (which reinforces Davidson’s (Davidson, 2001) observations). As always, the focus must return to solving a customer problem and presenting them with a clearly defined solution, than advertising about particular product features. As Sutton (Sutton, 2002) remarks, sometimes it is merely a need to change the message of the advertising and to target the correct market, than a need for operational measures.
Shapiro (Shapiro et al., 2000), states that normally in the software industry poor marketing is the most common problem for firms (after lack of capital).
Furthermore, he observes that even in cases where firms have targeted their market correctly, the timing of the software release has been inappropriate, as many newer products require long-term market education.
Chakravorti (Chakravorti, 2004, 58-67) recommends strategically realigning what customers want with those of the industries ‘Power Players’. By complementing their products rather than merely seeking self-contained niches, firms can feed off their product growth. E.g. Adobe turnaround was aided by their redesigning their Acrobat Reader to work inside Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Allowing their documents to be read via web pages. Further strengthening demand for their Adobe Acrobat Writer product.