the mac pip
Apropos of nothing, from the Stanford site that documents the making of the Mac, the original Macintosh Product Introduction Plan, written by Regis McKenna in October 1983.
Macintosh cannot and will not be “all things to all people” – especially at time of introduction. Yet the dynamics of the industry warrant an extremely aggressive marketing program from the outset. It is our premise that we will only get to introduce this product once. We have an extraordinary product. We must surround that product with excellent service, support, applications software. In addition, it is of crucial importance that we communicate a believable and achievable marketing plan to our sales force and the public at time of introduction.
It’s a great read; not only for the religion (McKenna was instrumental in creating the cult of the mac), but also for the process. The doc covers the marketing strategy, product positioning, the product line strategy (for Mac software and peripherals), packaging, competitive analysis and repsonses, the marcom plan, the sales plan (and forecast) and the plan for seeding and building a developer community.