Marketing PostgreSQL brand - where to start?

Over the years, PostgreSQL developed organically - the improvements and the new features have been added by the companies as a result of specific client’s needs, bringing the database to the state as we know it today.

Though the popularity of PostgreSQL brand has, so far, grown without dedicated efforts to popularize it, I suggest, that now is a good time to tap into some marketing techniques to strengthen its positioning among other open-source solutions and accelerate its buy in. In fact, by exploring conversations about Postgres, we might be able to identify some unaddressed issues and understand the wider community interests that in turn can influence how we, as a community, talk about Postgres and how the database will evolve.

This talk shares some ideas on how to form Postgres messaging and to make sure that it resonates with our audience and what needs Postgres community needs to address through its marketing.

If you would like to be a part of Postgres Advocacy & Communication working group email pgsql-advocacy@lists.postgresql.org

Transcript

1. Marketing PostgreSQL brand where to start Valeria Kaplan dataegret.com
2. About me
3. facebook.com/dataegret @dataegret PostgreSQL: ➢ 24/7 Support ➢ Consulting ➢ Training dataegret.com github.com/dataegret pgcenter.org
4. What is marketing? 1
5. “Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” The Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2015 “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” American Мarketing Association, 2013 What is marketing? 01
6. “Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” The Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2015 “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” American Мarketing Association, 2013 What is marketing? 01
7. Marketing is a process that identifies needs and provides value to customers and society at large. value needs
8. Branding 02
9. 02 Branding BRAND
10. 02 Branding BRAND names "PostgreSQL" and "Postgres" The world's most advanced open source database font: Strait
11. 02 Branding BRAND
12. 02 Branding BRAND
13. 02 Branding Brand and logo - what’s the difference? PostgreSQL Brand Name, tagline, logo, mascots, colour, typography ... VS.
14. 02 Branding BRAND • diversity • openness • transparency • oldschool at core • openness to change
15. 02 Branding BRAND • diversity • openness • transparency • oldschool at core • openness to change • fun • puzzle solving • excitement
16. Community growth 03
17. 03 Community growth better code stronger community higher postgres popularity more contributors and reviewers Larger community
18. 03 Community growth better code higher postgres popularity more contributors and reviewers Larger community value needs How to sustain it?
19. Messaging 04
20. 04 Messaging customers and society at large person/company/ community that does marketing value needs
21. Who are you trying to reach - customer? What are their needs (interests, concerns, hesitations)? What value can you provide to them? How do you reach those customers? How do you stand out among competition? How do you make customers stay? 04 Messaging Key questions marketers ask
22. 04 Messaging There isn’t a perfect way, but there is always a better way! Curiosity Empathy Reflection
23. Needs & Conversations 05
24. ex-database concerns database functionality concerns Conversations 05 • Multi-Version concurrency Control (MVCC), • Vacuum • No hints • no automatic backups • No ON LOGIN triggers • Backups • Automatic sharding • and more... • licensing – open source license • Postgres features and how to use them • overall picture, what different companies in the community offer and how they can be used • “real” cost of open source product • documentation
25. ex-database concerns • licensing – open source license • Postgres features and how to use them • overall picture, what different companies in the community offer and how they can be used • “real” cost of open source product • documentation database functionality concerns Conversations 05 • Multi-Version concurrency Control (MVCC), • Vacuum • No hints • no automatic backups • No ON LOGIN triggers • Backups • Automatic sharding • and more...
26. Is it reflective of the “real life”? Conversations 05
27. Platform: Twitter Year worth of Tweets: 1 June 2018-31 May 2019 Keywords: PostgreSQL, postgres Language: English Social Media analytics Conversations 05 *data has been downloaded using Crimson Hexagon
28. • Popular • @PostgreSQL @pgconfeu @postgresplanet and more... • (relatively) unbiased market research • Everything is in public domain • Messages have character limit 05 Conversations “96% of People Who Talk About Your Brand Online Don’t Follow It” Breonna Bergstrom, CoSchedule blog* *https://coschedule.com/blog/social-media-statistics/ Why Twitter?
29. 05 Conversations 325,846 Pieces of content Sample 10,000 Tweets
30. Conversations 05 n=6,593* *not all conversations’ country is identifiable USA 2,337 Europe 2,059 Rest of the world 2,197
31. Twitter Topics Features 50% Advertisement 15% Events 10% Comparison with other DB 8% Jobs 7% News 4% General chatter 3% Documentation 1% Other 2% n=150
32. ex-database concerns • licensing – open source license • Postgres features and how to use them • overall picture, what different companies in the community offer and how they can be used • “real” cost of open source product • documentation database functionality concerns Conversations 05 • Multi-Version concurrency Control (MVCC), • Vacuum • No hints • no automatic backups • No ON LOGIN triggers • Backups • Automatic sharding • and more...
33. 03 Conversations “Cost” 56 mentions out of 10k (majority are positive) “Licensing” only 8 mentions of licensing, all in favour of Postgres 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of an open-source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation cheaper “...we used to use Oracle. The licensing fees were getting expensive for our clients though...” no risk of license change “...avoiding the risk associated with a company changing its license terms like #MongoDB did here is one of the under- appreciated benefits of community driven open source like #PostgreSQL over company controlled open source like #MongoDB” n=56
34. 03 Conversations “Cost” 56 mentions out of 10k (majority are positive) “Licensing” only 8 mentions of licensing, all in favour of Postgres There isn’t much conversation around licensing There is some conversation about cost (reducing license cost) n=56 Postgres attracts by its lower price, but it needs to deliver in terms of its scalability and features ➔worth highlighting on the website, in social channels 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of an open-source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation
35. 03 Conversations “Slow” Only 27 mentions out of 10k (half of them are not talking about postgres being slow) “Annoying” Only 6 mentions out of 10k “Difficult” Only 6 mentions out of 10k (3 of them are actually positive) slow replication “..system was unnecessary, borderline annoying - Postgres took way too long to have replication - MegaCLI arguments were bananas but this...this is truly unacceptable.” 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of open source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation “Security” 144 mentions out of 10k - often used in ads Term “feature” 309 mentions out of 10k - questions about functionality - suggestions about features needed - announcements about new features - blog posts about new features
36. 03 Conversations Term “feature” 309 mentions out of 10k - questions about functionality - suggestions about features needed - announcements about new features - blog posts about new features Nearly half of conversations on Twitter are about features (usage questions, announcements, case studies). There is definitely interest in such content. ➔ highlight features on the website, ➔ provoke discussion on Twitter about needed features to increase engagement from outside the community. 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of open source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation “Slow” Only 27 mentions out of 10k (half of them are not talking about postgres being slow) “Annoying” Only 6 mentions out of 10k “Difficult” Only 6 mentions out of 10k (3 of them are actually positive) “Security” 144 mentions out of 10k - often used in ads
37. 03 Conversations 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of open source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation n=150 15% of Twitter conversations are ads. • Should we rely only on companies? • Is there an issue of trust? mistrust “..There used to be a lot of mistrust around open source. Glad we've moved past that.”
38. 03 Conversations n=150 Companies using Twitter for promotion. Need for a more structured community overview? ➔ unbiased visual on the website to explain what community companies offer 15% of Twitter conversations are ads. • Should we rely only on companies? • Is there an issue of trust? 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of open source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation
39. Postgres docs Negative Reference Neutral Reference Advise Positive R eference Advise Call 4 ideas Praise non- Postgres docs "Documentation AND Postgres" mentions Conversations 05 Documentation 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of open source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation long “Can't remember being so confused, documentation is almost 1.4k pages. Dear Lord!” lack of examples “The postgres documentation is great, but boy I wish they'd throw a few examples in there.” Only 0.2% mentions of “documentation” within a year 587 mentions out of 325,846 pieces of content n=100
40. Conversations 05 Postgres documentation might be lacking examples and is long. ➔ add examples ➔ add visual explanations throughout documentation ➔ review most popular topics and highlight them on postgresql.org 1. Licensing 2. “real” cost of open source product 3. Postgres features and how to use them 4. Community companies offering 5. Documentation Postgres docs Negative Reference Neutral Reference Advise Positive R eference Advise Call 4 ideas Praise non- Postgres docs "Documentation AND Postgres" mentions n=100
41. Toolkit 06
42. 06 Toolkit Website Social media Blogs Events Videos Podcasts Brochures
43. 06 Toolkit Website Social media Blogs Events Videos Podcasts Brochures 2018 website makeover! There was over 30% increase in downloads! Documentation page - 40% increase in traffic! The About page had 37% increase in traffic! Can we top that? • Site navigation • Documentation • Case studies/success stories
44. 06 Toolkit Website Social media Blogs Events Videos Podcasts Brochures @PostgreSQL - 14k followers Consistency is a problem - need more people! High number of Postgres Twitter handles Guidelines? Content suggestions?
45. 06 Toolkit Website Social media Blogs Events Videos Podcasts Brochures Blogs fueling the engagement with Postgres community. Keep writing! Ask questions! Make pools!
46. 06 Toolkit Website Social media Blogs Events Videos Podcasts Brochures Event landscape is evolving! Community guidelines on how to promote them?
47. 06 Toolkit Website Social media Blogs Events Videos Podcasts Brochures Visual content makes our lives easier! ➔ Video content from events ➔ Interviews with contributors ➔ Explanatory videos / infographics to describe processes
48. 06 Toolkit Website Social media Blogs Events Videos Podcasts Brochures… There is so much more!
49. To sum up 07
50. ❖ PostgreSQL community is a unique and exciting place to be! ❖ Great code is not enough ❖ We must keep the momentum going for Postgres ❖ It’s open source, so responsibility is on all of us so, what do I propose?... 07 To sum up
51. credits for this slide go to Jonathan S. Katz
52. 07 Postgres community roles Developers Reviewers Translators Committers Associations User Groups Users Core Team Slide inspired by Lætitia Avrot presentation
53. Advocacy & Communication Working group credits for this slide go to Jonathan S. Katz
55. I WANT YOU FOR POSTGRESQL ADVOCACY & COMMUNICATION WORKING GROUP Contact pgsql-advocacy@lists.postgresql.org
56. Jonathan Katz 01 Thanks to David Page Magnus Hagander Lætitia Avrot
57. dataegret.com Consulting | 24/7 Support | Training Thank you! Questions? Ideas?