Adobe Converts Quark Faithfuls to Make the Switch 

Goal:
Adobe’s uphill battle to lure customers from Quark -- an unchallenged leader in the layout and design software market for over a decade -- got off to a rough start. Adobe’s first release of its layout and design product, Adobe InDesign, was riddled with printing glitches, souring product reviews that had anticipated a “Quark Killer.” The next version of InDesign, a greatly improved product, faced an even steeper climb, given the fate of the first version. The PR team executed a competitive de-positioning campaign that spanned across product launches and incorporated constant customer and media relationship cultivation. In the end, InDesign gained numerous customers, service providers and developers, but most importantly, convinced the design community that InDesign is a worthy competitor to QuarkXPress.  

Challenge:
While reviewers were grappling with the printing problems of the first version of InDesign, Quark in the meantime upgraded QuarkXPress, directly addressing complaints of graphic designers who had considered switching to InDesign. Adobe was also faced with the misconception that service providers could not print jobs easily using InDesign. Printing with InDesign was, in fact, as simple as printing with QuarkXPress, but this false impression could prove costly as most designers depended on these service providers to print jobs. Finally, the team needed to dispel the myth that switching from QuarkXPress to InDesign was difficult. While untrue, if designers believed that making the switch was not as easy as Adobe claimed, they risked losing countless potential customers.  

Strategy:
Adobe realized that a standard launch for the next generation of InDesign would be too little too late, and set out to de-position Quark through grass-roots PR. The approach was a deliberately quiet campaign that would shed light on key InDesign product advantages to open the minds of product reviewers, rearrange their agendas and timing, and in turn invite delays in the decisions of prospective buyers until they could consider the newest version of InDesign. Simultaneously, the team initiated high-profile tours for Adobe executives and designers, keeping them in front of journalists even in the absence of news announcements, upgrades or launches.

The PR team assessed all past coverage, measuring press sentiment and identifying particularly negative press for targeted outreach. In addition, user groups and message boards were consistently tracked to identify the hot buttons of graphic designers and truly understand how the creative community perceived InDesign versus QuarkXPress. The team also researched the specific product features in both QuarkXPress and InDesign that were most important to designers.

Based on extensive research findings, the team held PR summit meetings to brainstorm plans. They agreed that the campaign required a multi-faceted approach guided by consistent goals. They crafted objectives aligned with Adobe’s business goals and remained committed to accomplishing them throughout product launches, reactive campaigning and proactive outreach.  

Several strategic initiatives aimed to drive and sustain interest as well as combat competitive threats were conducted:

• Pitched trend stories about customers and service providers adopting InDesign.
• Targeted publications such as Macworld, MacAddict and MacDesign to leverage InDesign’s support for the Mac OS X platform, which Quark lacked. Benefited from Steve Jobs’ “sneak preview” demonstration of upcoming InDesign features and customer roundtables at influential Macworld conference.
• Built relationships with news media through conversational, executive/customer dinners.
• Worked with customers to write letters to the editor disputing InDesign’s printing issues.
• Conducted media tour prior to the launch of QuarkXPress 6 to keep InDesign top-of-mind for press and give still more previews of new features.
• Scheduled meetings with reviewers knowing they were about to beta test the new version of Quark to encourage juxtaposing the two products in reviews.
• Proactively offered Adobe executives for commentary regarding any Quark initiated announcements and outreach.
• Conducted “Switchers Customer Campaign” to promote conversions.
• Conducted competitive clip analysis to determine what areas needed emphasizing during the next launch.

Materials developed to support strategic initiatives:

• Created step-by-step “how-to switch” guides.
• Developed a side-by-side comparison of announced QuarkXPress features to encourage head-to-head reviews rather than stand-alone QuarkXPress reviews and influence the coverage.
• Developed and distributed release announcing momentum of service provider acceptance.  

Results:
Adobe transformed standard product launches into strategic maneuvers that successfully whittled away at Quark’s stronghold in the layout and design market. The campaigns didn’t just win favorable coverage; they changed minds.

On the PR front, the team was able to delay stand-alone QuarkXPress reviews, instead encouraging head-to-head comparisons with InDesign with ninety-nine percent of reviews declaring InDesign’s features superior to QuarkXPress. InDesign was also featured on the cover of six different publications. Finally, the team was able to infiltrate more than 70 percent of the Quark 6 stories with Adobe references and quotes.

The PR campaign drove sales of InDesign in several ways. More than 100 universities and designs school in North America adopted InDesign as part of their curriculums. Top design firms made the switch to InDesign and the number of trainers now teaching InDesign tripled since the launch of the new version. Finally, Adobe became known as the company that cares about and listens to users.

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