Thoughtworks

Marketing Assignment #1 November 9, 2007

Thoughtworks Positioning Statement and Analysis

Our Position: Thoughtworks is your system integration partner for innovative solutions and on-time delivery.

Target Audience: IT managers/CIOs/ technical decision makers of Type A enterprises - larger companies who can take risks and are pioneers in advanced technology and innovation. In addition, inclusively IT managers/CIOs/technical decision makers of smaller enterprises (Types B and C) who see that we can handle the larger deals.

Thoughtworks wants to contract more large-scale projects, because in their current situation key analysts are often tied up in smaller projects for long periods of time.

This target audience is specified in Part A of the Thoughtworks text; however, John Guerriere, VP of Marketing, was expecting a direct correlation between Type A enterprises and an appreciation of agile technology, in which Thoughtworks is a pioneer. The customer research showed no such correlation. Instead, the customer research showed that customers hire Thoughtworks primarily because of their proven track record of effective and on-time delivery and service.

Additional Target Audience: opening market due to the trend of outsourcing by many organizations, including the Big Five.

Positioning - Thoughtworks must own its image, not share it.

Therefore, we will NOT focus on advanced technology and innovation because this can be duplicated.

We will NOT focus on exceptional staff and incredible talent, because every competitor claims this and it is hard to prove.

We will NOT focus on Fowler because many companies have a major personality, and his name is not well-known enough to be recognized by decision-makers, only by developers. Also, customer feedback showed that in general, Thoughtwork's clients had heard of Fowler but didn't really know who he is.

We will NOT focus on agile methods because customer feedback showed that in general, Thoughtwork's clients were not familiar with Agile methods, and were more concerned with the outcome and efficiency, regardless of why.

Also, a positioning statement should be targeted to decision makers who can hire or not hire Thoughtworks, and the language used should be entirely comprehensible to them.

We considered focusing on the idea that Thoughtworks is a smaller company equipped to serve larger companies with a community feeling of trust and intimacy, similar to the Saturn brand, but decided that this is NOT what customers are looking for in a system integrator. Therefore, we will NOT focus on the smaller size of Thoughtworks in relation to the companies that it serves, for fear that larger companies want larger system integration outsourcing. Our small size could hurt us.

The most important attributes of a successful partner are efficiency, success, and timeliness.

Therefore, we WILL focus on Thoughtwork's proven track record of delivering projects successfully and on time, in particular ON TIME because in our research of competitor's slogans, nobody mentions timeliness.

Exs: EDS: Expertise, Answers, Results.

Accenture: High performance, delivery.

IMB: Dedication, Innovation, Trust.

Timeliness is crucial to attracting customers in this field, because from the Thoughtworks text, we know that:

"With software projects failing (over budget and late) at an alarming rate of 80 percent, a premium had been placed on competent delivery methods and capabilities."

Positioning