Even at this age, I feel that there is still a lot to learn. When you belong to the IT industry, you are often exposed to new technologies and trends, so you have no choice but to feel that way. What I felt I needed to study this time was marketing automation.
Last week (the second week of December) I traveled to the U.S. to attend a quarterly meeting at Stratus headquarters. In addition to the usual quarterly agenda, December discusses business plans for the following year. Since the fiscal year 2021 will start from March next year, in December we will review the budget for each division for the next fiscal year and discuss the main activities to achieve that budget. One of the themes was marketing activities.
Research firms IDC and the Gartner Group predict that in the next few years, the majority of IT investments will be headed to the edge and around 75 percent of data will be processed at the edge. In light of this market outlook, we have already formulated a medium- to long-term plan to strengthen our products in the edge area. On top of that, what are some ways to make Stratus’ position as a leader in “Edge Computing” recognized by users and partners, especially in the market? Specifically, it is a discussion like this about what kind of marketing measures it is. Furthermore, the story progresses from marketing activities to the process of creating projects. I think that many people are already familiar with the flow around this area as marketing automation.
The discussion here is about practical marketing activities, but the process has changed greatly due to changes in the times and business environment. Actually, I myself took up the position of General Manager of the Marketing Division more than 15 years ago. In business at that time, marketing accounted for a large proportion of advertising and publicity, and other communication measures were mainly events, Participation in public events and private events held in-house.
Most of the discussions on marketing strategies and activities at Stratus HQ this time are related to digital marketing, that is, communication using various digital media on the Internet. On top of that, there’s a bit of discussion about the event and the media approach. By the way, the results of our marketing activities are clearly evaluated by expanding the number of prospective customers, setting goals for the actual number of projects and total amount, and the degree of achievement.
In the past few years of edge computing activities, we have accumulated a considerable amount of information that contributes to marketing communications, case studies in which Stratus products have been used in edge areas such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, energy, transportation and smart buildings to contribute to business. Reports on how edge computing is being adopted in each of the world’s markets, as well as the trends in investment in edge areas and challenges to adoption.
We will use this and a lot of information as resources to deepen communication with potential customers. When you search for edge computing-related things in your search engine, you will be directed to the Stratus site where you can obtain the information described above. Social media can be used to bring out content of interest in edge computing and get more information about it on the Stratus site.
As you may have noticed, this blog is also part of your marketing efforts. In calendar 2020, our website will also be greatly improved and we plan to have more and more useful information for your business. Stay tuned.
This will be the last blog of the year, and I hope you all have a good year.
