Sam Levin on messaging and branding

Sam Levin just gave a presentation titled “Messaging & Branding; After the Product is Developed, What’s Next?” at the O’Reilly Mac OS X conference in Santa Clara. Below are quick notes from the session. I also recorded the session (21.1 MB MP3, 46:28).

There are many Apple resources for developers and partners to tap into.

Marketing 101:

  • 20-25% of your total budget should be devoted to marketing.
  • Data sheet. Example on Sam’s iDisk.
  • Press releases, targeting good press channels.
  • Editorial/reviews/awards. Put review directly into Web site and product literature. Sam has an Excel workbook of contacts for Mac product reviews.
  • Viral marketing through online affinity groups such as specialty news sites and user groups.
  • Cross marketing opportunities. License, co-market, channel bundling.