Martin Homlish was hired to improve SAP's marketing which was an afterthought. He made many changes such as moving marketing to New York, simplifying marketing language, and improving marketing events. These changes helped improve SAP's image and customer understanding of their products. However, transforming SAP's culture from an engineering to marketing focus will take more time and effort.
Martin Homlish was hired to improve SAP's marketing which was an afterthought. He made many changes such as moving marketing to New York, simplifying marketing language, and improving marketing events. These changes helped improve SAP's image and customer understanding of their products. However, transforming SAP's culture from an engineering to marketing focus will take more time and effort.
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Martin Homlish was hired to improve SAP's marketing which was an afterthought. He made many changes such as moving marketing to New York, simplifying marketing language, and improving marketing events. These changes helped improve SAP's image and customer understanding of their products. However, transforming SAP's culture from an engineering to marketing focus will take more time and effort.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
SAP Decides; Image Matters, Too By NEAL E. BOUDETTE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WALLDORF, Germany -- When Martin Homlish came to SAP AG to sharpen the German software giant's marketing, his first move was to shoot down the blimp. Meeting with his new colleagues in Germany, the American winced as they sketched out a plan to fly an SAP blimp from San Francisco to Berlin. "I don't want SAP on a blimp," Mr. Homlish said, silencing his hosts. "Blimps are slow, hard to turn. They're full of hot air. That's not the image we want to project." Only later did he mention that the most famous German airship to fly American skies was the Hindenburg. Since that tense January meeting, the onetime boombox salesman and executive at Sony Corp., one of the world's consummate marketers, has taken on a formidable challenge: to remake the image of SAP from boring "business applications" company to slick supplier of software that makes e-business work. It's an effort critical to the German company's future. Since SAP's founding in 1972 by four programmers, engineering has been its strength, and in the 1990s, that alone fueled its growth. The quality of SAP's "enterprise software" -- programs that wring efficiencies out of manufacturing and purchasing -- was enough to keep sales climbing and the stock hot. Marketing was such an afterthought that the company dubbed its main product R/3 -- and rang up huge sales anyway. Then the Internet came along, and companies wanted software to link them to suppliers and customers through the Net. SAP was slow to react. It finally introduced Internet software last fall, but advertising for the product, called mySAP.com, was so vague that customers were hazy about what it was or did. SAP sales growth slowed, and profits fell. That's when Hasso Plattner, co-chief executive and one of SAP's founding engineers, came to a hard truth: Marketing counts after all. Marketing 101 His realization underscores an often-overlooked fact about the Internet revolution. Old-Economy companies aren't the only ones challenged by the Web. Even technology giants are being forced to adapt. One way SAP has done so is by offering stock options for the first time, to stanch a brain drain to Silicon Valley. Now the huge but staid software maker is taking a crash course in marketing, taught by a New Yorker who spent 15 years selling Walkmans and PlayStations, not applications and interfaces. Under his guidance, SAP is changing everything about the public face it presents. Take its whimsical rendering of "mySAP.com" with each letter in a different color. That's something you'd expect of a toy maker, not a business-software company, Mr. Homlish told SAP. Now the logo is all SAP blue. Another example: The marketing staff will soon move from a building in sleepy Walldorf that sits among cornfields to a cool loft in New York 's Silicon Alley. It will have a multimedia theater for news conferences and futuristic work pods that can pivot to allow for either privacy or collaboration. "If we are really going to create a marketing culture, you have to have the environment for it," Mr. Homlish says. Brand Building It's going to take more than new colors to transform SAP. Some pieces of mySAP.com have fallen short, such as its software for building online marketplaces. (It's trying to fix that through an alliance with Commerce One Inc.) SAP also faces competitors that are already strong marketers, such as Oracle Corp. and Siebel Systems Inc. SAP's 6,000 German software engineers have a history of rejecting U.S. salespeople's suggestions about what customers want. But Mr. Homlish insists his project is essential. "Every time you communicate with your audience, you either build equity in your brand or destroy it," he says. SAP's image has certainly suffered over the past year. Last fall, some big U.S. companies publicly blamed weak earnings on systems that involved software from SAP. This happened just as the company was launching mySAP.com, but the launch, instead of generating excitement that might have muted the bad publicity, was garbled. SAP used the mySAP.com name for several things: online-marketplace software, an actual marketplace Web site, an Internet-like look for older SAP applications and a bundle of older applications packaged with the new Internet products. Looking back at the mySAP.com launch, Mr. Plattner acknowledges the confusion: "Was it a product? A service? A Web site? A repackaging?" Mr. Homlish, then still at Sony but being recruited by SAP, had what Mr. Plattner wanted: an outsider's view and proven marketing smarts. (He had orchestrated the U.S. launch of the PlayStation.) But SAP's U.S. unit was based in the woods outside Philadelphia -- not an easy place to lure creative people to, Mr. Homlish told SAP. He suggested moving marketing to New York, where he could draw on his wealth of contacts, and Mr. Plattner agreed to the move. Soon after Mr. Homlish came aboard in January, the blimp appeared on the horizon. Powered by Porsche engines, it was supposed to fly across the U.S. and the Atlantic, beaming down images of city skylines and migrating whales for National Geographic. A Web site would track the voyage. "The idea was SAP bringing the Internet from Silicon Valley to Germany, and this was going to be a high-tech blimp, the fastest in the world," explains Herbert Heitmann, SAP's Walldorf-based vice president of corporate communications. Mr. Homlish's quick rejection of the idea took him aback. "I thought, 'Who is this American?' " But after asking around, Mr. Heitmann adds with a laugh, "I found out that in the U.S. blimps are for the fat guys watching the Super Bowl. I could see Marty was right." Mr. Homlish arrived too late to head off a TV ad campaign that aired during the Academy Awards show. One showed veteran golfer Gary Player lining up a shot and told how his caddy used the Internet to replace a broken club. The problem was, viewers couldn't tell just what mySAP.com was. They got little help from the commercial's opaque tagline: "You can. It does." Straight Talk Like many outsiders, Mr. Homlish had a hard time understanding exactly what SAP products did. Part of the reason, he figured, was the way acronyms and computer-speak had infiltrated ads, brochures and news releases. Abolish the "SAPanese," he told the management board. Talk to customers in a language they can understand. SAP executives might have been offended by this blunt appraisal, but instead they appreciated it. " 'SAPanese' -- that was good," Mr. Plattner says, laughing. April brought further confirmation that SAP needed change. The company reported first-quarter sales growth of just 10%, plus a 43% plunge in net income. Worse, first-quarter sales of mySAP.com were lower than in the fourth quarter, when the product was barely in the market. The head of SAP America, where sales were particularly weak, resigned, and SAP decided Mr. Homlish should head marketing for the whole company. That put him nominally in charge of a big annual conference of European customers, coming up in May. SAP had booked the event into an aging and gloomy exposition center in Berlin, where visitors had to follow long, twisting corridors for phones, food, e-mail access or a place to sit and talk. Mr. Plattner's rather cranky keynote speech didn't help matters: He began by complaining about marketing tricks by Oracle and news reports saying SAP lagged on the Internet. Then, when he showed off SAP technology, one live demonstration crashed. In the audience, an analyst from AMR Research Inc., Bruce Richardson, scribbled a note to his neighbor: "This is the Titanic without the band." Hazardous Waters Afterward, Mr. Homlish and Mr. Heitmann moved quickly to revamp presentations before the American version of the conference, coming up in Las Vegas. Mr. Heitmann held a daylong coaching session for executives. Mr. Homlish and two public-relations staffers booked a big block of time with Mr. Plattner on the flight to Las Vegas. Working with laptops and a PowerPoint artist aboard the corporate jet, they redid his graphics. They finished just as the Golden Gate Bridge came into view. When the Las Vegas conference opened, it bore little resemblance to the one in Berlin two weeks before. Exhibits used hundreds of projectors so visitors could see demonstrations without crowding around monitors. For the keynotes, special loudspeakers gave voices deep, resonant tones. In one room, Mr. Homlish put sleek designer chairs to help build a picture of SAP as a cool company. One day, another SAP executive tried replacing them with desks where reporters could write, but Mr. Homlish intervened. "You're destroying my picture," he said. The cool chairs stayed. The conference made a difference to at least one customer, Alan Zekelman, president of Atlas Tube Inc. in Montreal. He had sneered at a mySAP.com sales pitch six months ago, saying he "can't see what this is going to do for my business." After the Las Vegas show, Mr. Zekelman said that while he still wasn't ready to buy mySAP.com, he now was convinced it was a good Internet product. Once the conference was over, Mr. Homlish focused on creating a new marketing strategy. He called on an old contact, Ogilvy & Mather Chief Executive Shelly Lazarus, to ask for a new creative team and ads that would replace the "You can. It does" theme (which O&M also had produced). A New Contract The result is a campaign that strikes a trendy new theme in the Internet industries: that profits matter even in the New Economy. The new ads feature major companies such as Nestle SA that use mySAP.com, and claim that "the best-run e-businesses run mySAP.com." The line is a subtle dig at rival Oracle's ads boasting of its many dot-com customers, some of which have scant profits. The 25-country campaign made its debut Friday. On Sunday came an event that replaced the blimp flight: The SAP U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis, a new American venue in Formula One auto racing. "Fast, agile, high-tech, global -- that's our message," Mr. Homlish says. Whether it sticks remains to be seen. SAP has become an eager student of marketing, but it passes only if sales and profits start growing in the next few quarters. There was good news on that front Friday. Exxon Mobil Corp. chose mySAP.com for a global computer system to be used by more than 100,000 employees. It is supposed to allow them to use the Web to run the oil giant's operations, from refineries to service stations. Write to Neal Boudette at neal.boudette@wsj.com TRANSLATE: Oleh Neal E. BOUDETTE Staf Reporter dari THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Walldorf, Jerman - Ketika Martin Homlish datang ke SAP AG untuk mempertajam pemasaran perangkat lunak raksasa Jerman itu, langkah pertama adalah untuk menembak jatuh balon udara tersebut. Pertemuan dengan rekan barunya di Jerman, Amerika meringis saat mereka digambarkan rencana untuk menerbangkan balon udara SAP dari San Francisco ke Berlin. "Saya tidak ingin SAP pada balon udara," kata Mr Homlish, membungkam tuan rumahnya. "Blimps lambat, sulit untuk mengubah Mereka penuh dengan udara panas.. Itu bukan citra kita ingin proyek." Baru kemudian dia menyebutkan bahwa pesawat Jerman yang paling terkenal untuk terbang langit Amerika adalah Hindenburg. Sejak itu pertemuan Januari tegang, penjual tape mantan dan eksekutif di Sony Corp, salah satu pemasar yang sempurna di dunia, telah menjadi tantangan berat: untuk remake citra SAP dari membosankan aplikasi bisnis "" perusahaan kepada pemasok perangkat lunak yang licin membuat E-bisnis bekerja. Ini merupakan upaya penting untuk masa depan perusahaan Jerman. Sejak berdirinya SAP pada tahun 1972 oleh empat programmer, rekayasa telah kekuatannya, dan pada 1990-an, itu saja memicu pertumbuhannya. Kualitas "software enterprise SAP" - program yang mencekik efisiensi dari manufaktur dan pembelian - sudah cukup untuk menjaga penjualan saham naik dan panas. Pemasaran seperti baru teringat bahwa perusahaan dijuluki utama produk R / 3 - dan menelepon penjualan besar pula. Lalu Internet datang, dan perusahaan ingin perangkat lunak untuk menghubungkan mereka kepada pemasok dan pelanggan melalui Internet. SAP lambat untuk bereaksi. Akhirnya memperkenalkan perangkat lunak Internet musim gugur yang lalu, tetapi iklan untuk produk, yang disebut mySAP.com, sangat jelas bahwa pelanggan yang kabur tentang apa itu atau tidak. SAP pertumbuhan penjualan melambat, dan keuntungan jatuh. Saat itulah Hasso Plattner, Co-chief eksekutif dan salah satu pendiri insinyur SAP, datang ke sebuah kebenaran keras: Pemasaran penting setelah semua. Marketing 101 realisasi Nya menegaskan fakta yang sering diabaikan tentang revolusi internet. Lama- Ekonomi perusahaan adalah bukan satu-satunya ditantang oleh Web. Bahkan raksasa teknologi dipaksa untuk beradaptasi. SAP Salah satu cara telah melakukannya adalah dengan menawarkan opsi saham untuk pertama kalinya, untuk menyumbat menguras otak ke Silicon Valley. Sekarang pembuat perangkat lunak yang besar tapi tenang dan serius adalah mengambil kursus kilat dalam pemasaran, diajarkan oleh New Yorker yang menghabiskan 15 tahun menjual Walkman dan PlayStations, tidak aplikasi dan interface. Di bawah pimpinannya, SAP adalah mengubah segala sesuatu tentang wajah publik itu hadir. Ambil rendering aneh tentang "mySAP.com" dengan setiap huruf dalam warna berbeda. Itu sesuatu yang Anda harapkan dari seorang pembuat mainan, bukan perusahaan perangkat lunak bisnis, Mr Homlish kepada SAP. Sekarang logo semua biru SAP. Contoh lain: Staf pemasaran akan segera berpindah dari sebuah bangunan di Walldorf mengantuk yang duduk di antara ladang jagung ke kandang dingin di New York 's Silicon Alley. Ini akan memiliki teater multimedia untuk konferensi berita dan polong bekerja futuristik yang dapat pivot untuk memungkinkan baik privasi atau kolaborasi. "Jika kita benar-benar akan menciptakan budaya pemasaran, Anda harus memiliki lingkungan untuk itu," kata Mr Homlish. Merek Bangunan Ini akan mengambil lebih dari warna baru untuk mengubah SAP. Beberapa lembar mySAP.com telah jatuh pendek, seperti perangkat lunak untuk membangun pasar online. (It's mencoba memperbaikinya melalui aliansi dengan Commerce One Inc) SAP juga menghadapi pesaing yang pemasar sudah kuat, seperti Oracle Corp dan 6.000 Siebel Systems Inc SAP perangkat lunak insinyur Jerman memiliki sejarah tenaga penjualan US menolak saran tentang apa yang pelanggan inginkan. Tapi Mr Homlish menegaskan proyeknya adalah penting. "Setiap kali Anda berkomunikasi dengan audiens Anda, Anda membangun ekuitas merek Anda atau menghancurkannya," katanya. gambar SAP telah jelas menderita selama setahun terakhir. Musim gugur yang lalu, beberapa perusahaan besar AS terbuka menyalahkan laba lemah pada sistem yang melibatkan perangkat lunak dari SAP. Ini terjadi hanya sebagai perusahaan telah meluncurkan mySAP.com, tapi peluncuran, bukan menghasilkan kegembiraan yang mungkin telah diredam publisitas yang buruk, sedang kacau. SAP menggunakan nama mySAP.com untuk beberapa hal: perangkat lunak online-pasar, pasar yang aktual situs Web, ekspresi internet seperti untuk aplikasi SAP lebih tua dan lebih tua seikat aplikasi dikemas dengan produk-produk Internet yang baru. Melihat kembali pada peluncuran mySAP.com, Pak Plattner mengakui kebingungan: "Apakah itu produk layanan A? Sebuah situs Web?? A pengemasan ulang?" Mr Homlish, itu masih di Sony tapi direkrut oleh SAP, telah apa Mr Plattner inginkan: pandangan orang luar dan kecerdasan pemasaran terbukti. (Dia telah diatur peluncuran PlayStation AS itu) Tapi. SAP's US unit berbasis di hutan di luar Philadelphia - bukan tempat yang mudah untuk memikat orang-orang kreatif, Mr Homlish kepada SAP. Dia menyarankan pindah pemasaran ke New York, di mana ia bisa menarik kekayaannya kontak, dan Mr Plattner setuju untuk pindah. Segera setelah Mr Homlish datang kapal pada Januari, balon yang muncul di cakrawala. Didukung oleh mesin Porsche, yang seharusnya untuk terbang di Amerika Serikat dan Atlantik, berseri-seri bawah gambar dari langit kota dan migrasi ikan paus untuk National Geographic. Sebuah situs Web akan melacak perjalanan. "Idenya adalah SAP membawa Internet dari Silicon Valley ke Jerman, dan ini akan menjadi balon berteknologi tinggi, yang tercepat di dunia," jelas Herbert Heitmann, Walldorf berbasis SAP wakil presiden komunikasi perusahaan. penolakan cepat Mr Homlish tentang ide membawanya kaget. "Saya pikir, 'Siapa ini Amerika?" "Tapi setelah bertanya ke sana kemari, Mr Heitmann menambahkan sambil tertawa," Aku sudah menemukan bahwa di blimps AS adalah untuk orang-orang gemuk menonton Super Bowl aku bisa melihat Marty benar.. " Mr Homlish datang terlambat untuk menghadang kampanye iklan TV yang ditayangkan selama acara Academy Awards. Satu menunjukkan veteran pegolf Gary Player berbaris ditembak dan menceritakan bagaimana caddy-nya digunakan Internet untuk mengganti klub yang rusak. Masalahnya adalah, penonton tidak tahu apa mySAP.com itu. Mereka mendapat sedikit bantuan dari tagline kegelapan komersial itu: "Anda bisa Itu.." Bicara Lurus Seperti banyak orang luar, Mr Homlish memiliki sulit memahami apa itu produk SAP. Sebagian dari alasan, menurutnya, adalah cara singkatan dan komputer-bicara telah menyusup iklan, brosur dan rilis berita. Menghapuskan "SAPanese," katanya kepada pengurus. Berbicara dengan pelanggan dalam bahasa yang mereka bisa mengerti. eksekutif SAP mungkin telah tersinggung oleh penilaian ini tumpul, tapi mereka menghargainya. "'SAPanese' - yang baik," kata Mr Plattner, tertawa. April membawa konfirmasi lebih lanjut bahwa SAP dibutuhkan perubahan. Perusahaan melaporkan pertumbuhan kuartal pertama penjualan hanya 10%, plus terjun 43% atas laba bersih. Lebih buruk lagi, penjualan kuartal pertama dari mySAP.com lebih rendah dibandingkan pada kuartal keempat, ketika produk tersebut hampir di pasar. Kepala SAP Amerika, di mana penjualan tersebut terutama lemah, mengundurkan diri, dan SAP memutuskan Mr Homlish harus kepala pemasaran untuk seluruh perusahaan. Itu membuatnya nominal memimpin sebuah konferensi tahunan yang besar dari pelanggan Eropa, datang pada bulan Mei. SAP telah memesan acara tersebut menjadi tua dan pusat eksposisi mendung di Berlin, di mana pengunjung harus mengikuti panjang, memutar koridor untuk telepon, makanan, akses e-mail atau tempat untuk duduk dan berbicara. pidato agak rewel Mr Plattner tidak membantu hal-hal: Dia mulai dengan mengeluh tentang trik pemasaran oleh Oracle dan laporan berita mengatakan SAP tertinggal di Internet. Kemudian, ketika ia memamerkan teknologi SAP, satu demonstrasi hidup jatuh. Dalam penonton, seorang analis dari AMR Research Inc, Bruce Richardson, menulis surat kepada tetangganya: "Ini adalah Titanic tanpa band." Berbahaya Waters Setelah itu, Mr Homlish dan Mr Heitmann bergerak cepat untuk merubah presentasi sebelum versi Amerika konferensi, muncul di Las Vegas. Mr Heitmann mengadakan sesi pelatihan bagi para eksekutif sepanjang hari. Mr Homlish dan dua staf hubungan masyarakat membukukan blok besar waktu dengan Mr Plattner dalam penerbangan ke Las Vegas. Bekerja dengan laptop dan seniman PowerPoint pesawat jet perusahaan, mereka redid grafis nya. Mereka selesai seperti Golden Gate Bridge mulai terlihat. Ketika konferensi Las Vegas dibuka, tidak mirip dengan yang di Berlin dua minggu sebelumnya. Pameran digunakan ratusan proyektor sehingga pengunjung dapat melihat demonstrasi tanpa berkerumun di sekitar monitor. Untuk ceramah, pengeras suara khusus memberikan suara dalam, nada resonan. Dalam satu ruangan, Mr Homlish menempatkan desainer kursi ramping untuk membantu membangun sebuah gambaran tentang SAP sebagai perusahaan dingin. Suatu hari, seorang eksekutif SAP mencoba menggantikan mereka dengan meja-meja di mana wartawan bisa menulis, tapi Mr Homlish campur. "Kau menghancurkan gambar saya," katanya. Kursi dingin tinggal. Konferensi ini membuat perbedaan untuk setidaknya satu pelanggan, Alan Zekelman, presiden Atlas Tube Inc di Montreal. La menyeringai pada penjualan mySAP.com pitch enam bulan lalu, mengatakan dia "tidak bisa melihat apa yang akan lakukan untuk bisnis saya." Setelah pertunjukan Las Vegas, Mr Zekelman mengatakan bahwa saat ia masih belum siap membeli mySAP.com, dia sekarang yakin itu adalah produk internet yang baik. Setelah konferensi selesai, Mr Homlish berfokus pada membuat strategi pemasaran baru. Dia meminta kontak tua, Ogilvy & Mather Chief Executive Shelly Lazarus, untuk meminta tim kreatif baru dan iklan yang akan menggantikan "Anda bisa. Itu" tema (yang O & M juga telah menghasilkan). Sebuah Kontrak Baru Hasilnya adalah sebuah kampanye yang menyerang trendi tema baru dalam industri Internet: bahwa keuntungan materi bahkan di Ekonomi Baru. Fitur Iklan baru perusahaan- perusahaan besar seperti Nestle SA bahwa mySAP.com menggunakan, dan menyatakan bahwa "jangka-e-bisnis terbaik mySAP.com lari." Jalur ini adalah menggali halus di iklan Oracle boasting saingannya banyak pelanggan dot-com, beberapa di antaranya memiliki sedikit keuntungan. Kampanye 25 negara memulai debutnya Jumat. Pada hari Minggu datang suatu peristiwa yang menggantikan penerbangan balon udara: The SAP Grand Prix AS di Indianapolis, tempat Amerika yang baru di Formula Satu balap mobil. "Cepat, gesit, teknologi tinggi, global - itulah pesan kami," kata Mr Homlish. Apakah tongkat masih harus dilihat. SAP telah menjadi seorang mahasiswa yang penuh semangat pemasaran, tetapi hanya melewati jika penjualan dan laba mulai tumbuh di kuartal mendatang. Ada kabar baik pada hari Jumat depan. Exxon Mobil Corp mySAP.com memilih untuk sistem komputer global yang akan digunakan oleh lebih dari 100.000 karyawan. Hal ini seharusnya memungkinkan mereka untuk menggunakan Web untuk menjalankan operasi minyak raksasa, dari kilang ke stasiun layanan. Menulis untuk Neal Boudette di neal.boudette @ wsj.com