Cakewalk Web Strategy (excerpt)

Andy Caddy Music software has never been more popular and more prevalent, however, the market is confused and in danger of product saturation. Cakewalk has an established brand that has a respected presence on the Windows platform in the form of Cakewalk Pro Studio though it's position as one of the big three is slipping. New products and partnerships may help but without a clear roadmap and marketing strategy, opportunities to entice new users into the Cakewalk product family may be missed.

The Cakewalk website is desperately out of line with current internet offerings and is in need of an update. Product information is hard to find, relationships between products are unclear and user support is kept to a minimum neglecting opportunities for cross sales.

Online competition is likely to increase over the next 2 years as broadband becomes more prevalent and the web becomes a significant distribution medium as well as a marketing and support channel. Any new web strategy developed in 2001 must be extensible over the next 18 months to adapt to the fast pace of change in music software and must also be closely aligned to the company's general sales and marketing strategy. With the launch of Sonar / Pro Audio 10 this year, Cakewalk has a significant opportunity to revise its online offering and to make it a viable sales channel, a cross-selling tool, a user community builder and therefore a differentiating feature in a currently crowded marketplace.

Current Market
The music software market used to be simple and used to be easy, but dance music and the internet have changed the playing field forever. Where once, music hobbyists were a niche group making acoustic or electronic music using a relatively small range of sophisticated products, nowadays large numbers of people enjoy creating music through the diverse range of packages available. The Internet has created the biggest audience ever known for amateur music makers and with the cost of high powered technology falling year on year, the draw of creating and broadcasting your own tracks is forever increasing. But it's a crowded market place with an unprecedented number of competitors over several new sectors within music software as a whole. To survive in this market the change in customer must be understood and reacted to accordingly. Five years ago PCs were not as capable as they are today and consequently the range of music creation tools was more limited. This meant the big sequencer makers such as Cakewalk, Steinberg and Emagic could concentrate on their core sequencer product and release new versions each year. With the increase in PC power however, young, upstart companies such as SoundForge and Propellerheads discovered that they could provide music creation software that didn't fit into the traditional sequencer mould. Rebirth™ and Acid™ were breakthrough products that lead the way for a new generation of "point and click" music makers to enter the market. This change has combined with the arrival of the DJ as a fashionable career choice for 14-17 year olds and created a thriving interest in dance music, both in playing and producing. With dance music now so common, teenagers are eager not just to emulate the DJs they admire, but to become one as well.

Virtual instruments and loop-based creation tools are now more widespread than the traditional sequencer but they are a long way from replacing it. Instead they form a feeder channel for new users who can move on to more complex products as their interest develops. The addition of VST, VST2, DirectX and now Dxi has made the sequencer into a far more sexy and marketable product that is more of a logical upgrade from the new breed of software than the staid boring sequencer of old. It has also meant that compatibility throughout a range of products ensures that add-ons and plug-ins can be retained when moving to a new package.

But the installed user base and the customers of the pro range of sequencers are still very important. This group form the loyal knowledge base of users that give the product credibility and allow it to develop. Innovations in the lead product set will filter down through to the other products and improve the whole software stable. Opportunities in this market have also subtly changed in recent years as virtual instruments and plugins become prevalent and expected in a pro sequencer setup. This leads to opportunities for software companies, both large and small to sell to a mass market of sequencer owners who, five years ago, would only have been interested in annual version upgrades.

Web Site Strategy
The web presence of any company should be an extension of that company to an online medium. Using a web site effectively should mean the continuing nurturing of the marketing, sales and support relationship with customers. New customers must be informed and excited about the products that are available. They must get a good feeling for the company they are about to embrace and they must see a visible demonstration of a happy user community who have all made that commitment before them. This enforces the notion that the software they are about to purchase is more than the sum of it's functions which in turn becomes a powerful differentiator from the other sequencers on the market.

Current customers must be supported and engaged in communication. The web site should 'know' who they are and what products they use and adapt itself respectively. Making the users feel part of a community will help breed loyalty and understanding what they are trying to do with Cakewalk products will help to identify potential new sales opportunities.

When selling to customers, an online channel must be available. With broadband access beginning to infiltrate the user population, online software download is becoming feasible. Selling small, low cost add-ons such as directx plug-ins and virtual instruments online in an effective manner encourages impulse buying. Pairing this with site personalisation means that targeted upgrades and products will be available and will increase the likelihood of cross-selling to the customer. As the range of products increases and music hardware becomes available in software incarnations this represents a massive sales opportunity.

As the current site is so established and re-visit rate so low, a springboard will be required for launching a new site to ensure awareness is at it's highest and the largest capture of new visitors is achieved. The most obvious choice for this will be the launch of Cakewalk 10/Sonar which itself provides an opportunity to re-align and re-emphasise the company's product range both off and online.

Fortunately for Cakewalk, neither of the main competitors are achieving the best use of the online medium. Though Steinberg has provided a Cubase user community as in the form of Cubase.net, the main site, and that of Emagic is not much further advanced than Cakewalk. This means that there is still time to establish a strong online brand for which Cakewalk can become well known and be seen to be the market leader in this field.

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