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Your Product Marketing Must Address as Many Target Audiences as A Las Vegas Buffet

Messaging. It’s what B2B product marketers do. And it’s also what proposal professional professionals do, as we shall see.

But even the simplest B2B product suffers with one-dimensional messaging.

Why? Because even simple products often require many types of people to get involved in the purchasing cycle.

Marketers often talk about target audiences. I personally believe that term doesn’t describe the concept properly, so I prefer to refer to hungry people.

Which brings us to the Las Vegas buffet.

Variety for hungry people

Las Vegas is a destination visited by over 40 million people per year from all over the world. And the casino hotels know that they’re hungry for food, and they hope the hungry people will stay on property.

So do they serve Caesars Burgers?

Um, no. 40 million people don’t eat the same thing.

This becomes very clear if you visit the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace, with over 250 items prepared in 10 kitchens.

“From Roman-style pizza to Carne Asada Tacos inspired by the food trucks of L. A., there’s something for everyone. Find a world of flavor at our nine live-action cooking stations. Indulge in originals like slow-cooked prime rib, smoked beef brisket, crab, and wood-fired pizza. Or try something different, like whole Ahi Tuna Poke, roasted duck, or Singaporean Blue Crab and seasonal agua frescas.”

There is literally something for everyone. And the hungry person salivating for Ahi Tuna Poke doesn’t care about the beef brisket.

Which brings us to local police automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) proposals.

Variety for hungry people

If you had asked me in September 1994 (before I started at Printrak in October) the target audience for local police AFIS, I would have replied, “fingerprint people.”

That answer would be incorrect.

Tenprint and latent people

Because, even if you limit things to the criminal AFIS world, there are (at least) two types of fingerprint people: tenprint examiners, and latent examiners. I asked my buddy Bredebot to summarize the stereotypical differences between the two. Here is some of what he said:

“‘Assembly line‘ comparisons: Because tenprint comparisons use high-quality, known impressions taken under controlled conditions, their work can be automated and is often perceived as a high-volume, less complex task. This is in contrast to the specialized analysis required for latent prints.

“Artistic and subjective: Because latent prints are often smudged, distorted, and incomplete, examiners must make subjective judgments about their suitability for comparison. This has led to the criticism that the process is more of an art than a science.”

Bredebot has never attended an International Association for Identification conference, but I have. Many many years ago I attended a session on tenprint examiner certification. Latent examiners had this way cool certification and some people thought that more tenprint examiners should participate in their way cool certification program. As I recall, this meeting way heavily attended…by latent folks. Even today, the number of Certified Latent Print Examiners (CLPEs) is far greater than the number of Certified Tenprint Examiners (CTPEs).

Other people

But you can’t procure an AFIS by talking to tenprint and latent people alone.

As I noted years ago, other people get involved in a local police AFIS procurement, using Ontario, California as an example:

The field investigators who run across biometric evidence at the scene of a crime, such as a knife with a fingerprint on it or a video feed showing someone breaking into a liquor store.
The information technologies (IT) people who are responsible for ensuring that Ontario, California’s biometric data is sent to San Bernardino County, the state of California, perhaps other systems such as the Western Identification Network, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The purchasing agent who has to make sure that all of Ontario’s purchases comply with purchasing laws and regulations.
The privacy advocate who needs to ensure that the biometric data complies with state and national privacy laws.
The mayor (still Paul Leon as I write this), who has to deal with angry citizens asking why their catalytic converters are being stolen from their vehicles, and demanding to know what the mayor is doing about it.
Probably a dozen other stakeholders that I haven’t talked about yet, but who are influenced by the city’s purchasing decision.

Feeding the hungry people

So even a relatively simple B2B product has multiple target audiences.

Should product marketers apply the same one-dimensional messaging to all of them?

Um, no.

If you did that, purchasing agents would fall asleep at mentions of “level 3 detail,” while latent examiners would abandon their usual attention to detail when confronted by privacy references to the California Information Practices Act of 1977. (The CCPA, CPRA, and CPPA apply to private entities.)

So, whether you like it or not, you need separate messaging for each of your categories of hungry people.

One time, as part of an account-based marketing effort, I had to construct a multi-variable messaging matrix…for a product that is arguably simpler than an AFIS.

And yes, I used Microsoft Excel.

And I can use my mad Excel skillz for you also, if your company needs content, proposal, or analysis assistance in your technology product marketing operations. Contact Bredemarket at https://bredemarket.com/mark/.

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers

Content for tech marketers.

And proposal professional professionals, read this.

One More Time…and Content Reviews

“I ask, then I act” is an attention-grabbing statement, but it’s admittedly simplistic. I don’t fall in the “ready, fire, aim” school, but believe that action incorporates review. As the management consultants Daft Punk stated many years ago:

One more time

And they proceeded to say:

One more time

So I guess it’s important.

“One more time” with a client’s content

One time I used my technology product marketing expertise to draft a piece for a client, which the client then edited with Track Changes on. The client made a number of improvements to my text, so I should have been happy with that and let it go. But I thought I’d look at the document.

One more time.

Stupid Word tricks, the Read Aloud edition

So I made a copy of the document, accepted all the changes in the copy, and had Microsoft Word read the document to me (Review menu, Speech section, Read Aloud).

Unlike the audio transcription tool (now superseded by AI meeting assistants), the built-in “Read Aloud” feature remains essential today.

Everything flowed well, and Word’s built-in editor didn’t flag anything.

My eyes had seen the problem

But my eye caught something.

In my initial draft, I had referenced the client’s 800 number.

Which in and of itself isn’t bad.

Except for the fact that this is a worldwide company, and many of the prospects who responded to the piece would be calling from outside the United States, where 800 numbers are not supported.

So I shot an urgent message saying to correct my error and change the number from an 800 number to a domestic number.

That one additional review eliminated a possible source of friction between my client and its prospects.

Problem solved, even before anyone noticed there was a problem.

You knew this was coming

Anyone notice the similarity between this song and Phil Collins’ “One More Night”? Or is it just me?

And So Ends July

(Imagen 4)

Told you it was going to be a busy day.

Although my first of my three meetings started at 7:30 am, my day actually started three hours earlier with light Things To Accomplish. Suffice it to say that the Bredemarket blog will have daily content until Monday, August 4.

Sneak preview. Come back Monday. Imagen 4.

My first two meetings were followed by content creation (including a personal LinkedIn article on product marketing strategy) and other tasks.

I took a mid-afternoon break before my third meeting, the Inland Empire BizFest in Montclair. I wrote about that here and here, plus on the Bredemarket socials.

In fact I knew I would be so busy today that I declined a personal invite at 10 this morning. Good thing I declined, because I was neck deep in a requirements workbook (yeah, Microsoft Excel again) for a Bredemarket client’s end customer. (Can you say TOT? I knew you could.)

Anyway, I left Montclair Place before 7:30 pm and called it a night after a long day.

Thankfully the first day of August only includes a single meeting.

Which starts at 7:00 am.

FBI, DoD, DHS, and Other Biometric Standards

(Imagen 4)

When I started in biometrics 30 years ago, the most important operational biometric standard to me was what was then called the Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification or EFTS, published by the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Record types from the 1993 ANSI/NIST standard.

Unlike the ANSI/NIST biometric data interchange standard, the EFTS can actually be used out of the box to transmit data. The ANSI/NIST standard doesn’t define any “Type 2” fields, nor does it define any “types of transactions” (TOTs). EFTS did.

Other standards

But the EFTS, now the FBI’s Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification or EBTS (downloadable here), isn’t the only biometric transmission standard derived from ANSI/NIST.

State police agencies have their own law enforcement transmission standards. Here’s New York’s version (PDF).
Other U.S. federal agencies such as the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security have transmission standards.
Other countries have their own transmission standards.
Multinational agencies such as INTERPOL have their own transmission standards.

Luckily all the different standards have some basic similarities, but if you have a mobile biometric device that must submit to DOJ and DoD and DHS, you need to switch to the proper profile for each submission.

Last week I downloaded two different standards so I could understand the TOTs. I would have downloaded a third, but the agency restricts its distribution.

Word up

But I will tell you the biggest frustration I have with the standards.

In the EBTS and some other standards, there is a type of transaction referred to as “Criminal Ten-Print Submission (No Answer Necessary).” The abbreviation for this TOT is CNA.

Microsoft Word in default mode auto-corrects this from CNA to CAN.

CMOs, I can help you

But I’ve overcome this frustration over 30 years of immersing myself in all things biometric-translation related. This experience is benefiting a Bredemarket client that communicates with end customers regarding many of these standards.

Can my experience benefit you as your organization produces content, proposal, and analysis materials on a deadline? If Bredemarket can help you catch up or get ahead, let’s talk.

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Tech marketers, are you afraid?

(Guest Post?) Copilot on Bredemarket’s Impact on the Biometric Industry

Preface

Remember vanity searches?

These days you need to perform vanity generative AI queries.

So I abandoned my usual gen AI tool and asked Microsoft Copilot some questions about Bredemarket. Copilot’s response to one of these questions, emojis and all, is below, as a “guest post.”

And I will certainly credit Copilot if I use the “not anti-tech—it’s pro-accountability” quote.

Microsoft Copilot-authored content

📣 Bredemarket’s impact on the biometric industry lies in its unique role as a thought leader and watchdog—especially when it comes to ethical use and public understanding of biometric technologies.

Here’s how it’s making waves:

🧠 Thought Leadership & Advocacy

Bredemarket frequently publishes critical analyses of biometric misuse, particularly in law enforcement and surveillance contexts.
It champions the principle that biometric tools like facial recognition and DNA should be used only as investigative leads, not as sole evidence for arrests A.
Through blog posts and social media, it raises awareness about wrongful arrests, such as the case of Robert Williams, and calls for governance and forensic oversight in biometric applications A.

📝 Industry Education

Bredemarket helps biometric firms communicate complex technologies in accessible ways—bridging the gap between engineers, policymakers, and the public.
It produces content that demystifies modalities like iris scanning, facial recognition, and multi-factor authentication, making them more understandable and marketable.

🧭 Ethical Compass

By highlighting real-world examples of misuse, Bredemarket nudges the industry toward responsible innovation.
It’s not anti-tech—it’s pro-accountability, advocating for biometric systems that are accurate, fair, and governed by clear policies.

In a field often dominated by technical jargon and corporate spin, Bredemarket brings a human-centered, policy-aware voice that challenges the status quo.

What Good Are Notebooks?

(Imagen 4)

Whenever I bought a car or a computer, I used to buy a small spiral bound notebook to log important things, such as repairs.

And I always failed to log the important things.

I took a new approach on Sunday when Bredemarket bought a new computer.

(It was time. For the last five years, Bredemarket has been operating on a Windows 10 computer with 4 GB RAM from 2017.)

As I started setting up the new computer, I started an ONLINE log stored on a cloud service. And accessible from the new computer and several other devices.

So even if the computer is inaccessible, I can log things from my phone or another computer.

Hopefully I’ll be more faithful in logging this time around.

As long as my cloud service doesn’t fail. Then I’m screwed.

It’s like, um, life during wartime or something.

You Have the Interview Transcript for a Case Study. Now What?

(Imagen 4)

Back in May 2021 I was in the midst of ghostwriting case studies for a Bredemarket client. I didn’t know at the time that I’d end up creating a dozen of them.

At the time I wrote about how I obtained the raw material for the case study.

“As part of the work that I do for one of my clients, I participate in half-hour interviews with the client’s customers and ask them questions about the client’s software. Before the interview begins, the client asks the customer for permission to record the conversation. After the interview is over, I can then refer to that recording to extract nuggets of information.”

Except that I didn’t refer to the recording, but to a TRANSCRIPT of the recording in Microsoft Word. I describe how I created the transcript here.

But that was in 2021. Four years later we can access easy-to-use generative AI transcribers.

Now what?

But obtaining the raw interview material is only the beginning.

Now you need to extract relevant text and fit in into the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

No you don’t.

Rather than arrange our case studies into four parts, my client and I agreed on a three-part outline that effectively combined “S” and “T.” Our outline? Problem, Solution, and Result. The STAR people were horrified, but we didn’t care. The client was a maverick anyway.

Not the other maverick. By Warner Brothers Television – eBayfrontback, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30035548.

I should note that before the interview took place, the client had already provided me with a general idea of what its end customer faced: the problem, the application of the client’s solution, and the results that solved the problem.

So we already knew what we wanted the case study to say, and the interview let us concentrate on the sexy points and correct any facts we had wrong before the interview. Yes, the client’s software delivered the solution in 8.675309 seconds. No, it didn’t use laser technology to do it.

So when I drafted the case study, I wrote it in the problem, solution, results format. And then I increased its effectiveness by sprinkling customer quotes throughout the case study.

Adapted slightly.

Since the original transcribed text looked like this:

“(SPEAKER 3) So then I um submit the search and the system gave me a candidate list pretty quickly like in 5 seconds or so excuse me I still got this cold sorry and um the boyfriend was second on the list.”

In my draft the raw text was reworded ever so slightly.

“According to Sgt. Preston of the Yukon Detachment, ‘I submitted the face search to SuperInvestigator, and the system gave me a candidate list in 5 seconds. Connie’s boyfriend was second on the list, giving us an investigative lead for further analysis.’”

(Because you ALWAYS have to treat facial recognition results as investigative leads.)

Once my text was combined with the end customer’s quotes and the client’s graphics, we had a collection of powerful case studies that resonated with the client’s prospects. Because bad boyfriends are in many jurisdictions.

What about your prospects?

So that’s how my client and I worked together to create effective case studies.

Can I work with you?

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Content for tech marketers.

Why I always write the first draft

As a postscript, I want to provide a peek into how this post came to be.

Actually, I already provided the peek in an early morning post in the Bredemarket Technology Firm Services Facebook group. I’ll just give you the TL;DR version: here’s what Google Gemini gave me for a title and abstract.

“From Conversation to Conversion: Leveraging Interview Transcripts for Marketing Magic

“Abstract: The spoken word holds immense value for your marketing content, especially with the rise of transcription tools. This post examines how to transform raw audio from customer interviews into compelling case studies, testimonials, and other marketing assets. We’ll discuss the process of extracting key insights and transforming them into persuasive written content, bridging the gap between customer conversations and tangible marketing results.”

As you can see, I avoided some of the wording (“marketing magic”???) but kept the basic idea.

Thanks Danie. And if I’m stuck for future content I have four additional ideas.

The Joy of Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are wonderful things. Not just for numbers people (the real CPAs). But also for words people (the content-proposal-analysis folks).

Whether you use Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or something else, the ability to sort the data in multiple ways is a godsend.

I am gathering requirements for a Bredemarket client, and my spreadsheet allows me to logically sort and group the requirements.

Better than taking time to cut and paste blocks of text to order them properly.

Voracious Crawlers: Cloudflare and AI

(Animals strike curious poses. Imagen 4.)

Matthew Prince of Cloudflare recently described an alleged imbalance affecting content creators, and what Cloudflare and others are doing about it. It turns out that today’s AI web crawlers behave differently than yesterday’s search web crawlers.

The revolution

Prince began his article by describing a win-win deal facilitated by a content-gathering company known as Google. Google’s web crawlers would acquire site content, but the content creators would win also.

“The deal that Google made with content creators was simple: let us copy your content for search, and we’ll send you traffic. You, as a content creator, could then derive value from that traffic in one of three ways: running ads against it, selling subscriptions for it, or just getting the pleasure of knowing that someone was consuming your stuff.”

Sounds like a win-win to me.

The new power generation

What Prince didn’t say is that not everyone was thrilled with the arrangement.

Let’s start with Spain, and the relationship between Spanish online publications and Google Noticias (Google News).

The publishers thought they were getting the raw end of the deal, since Google would present summaries of the publishers’ content on Google pages, but no one would go to the publishers’ pages. Why bother? Google had shared the important stuff.

So Spain passed a law in 2014 requiring Google Noticias to pay…and Google Noticias shut down in Spain in December of that year.

“Reacting to a law that requires news sites in Spain to charge for their content, Google shut down its Google News service in the country….The tech company and other news aggregators would face steep fines if they publish headlines and abstracts without paying.”

At the time, I cast this as a battle between the nations and plucky individuals fighting for freedom…ignoring the fact that Google (cited twice below) was more powerful than some nations.

“So it’s possible for individuals to flout the laws of nations. The nations, however, are fighting back. Spain has passed content laws that are forcing Google to shut down Google Noticias in Spain. Swedish laws have brought the Pirate Bay offline. Russia is enacting laws that are forcing Google (again) to take its engineers out of Russia.”

As an aside, it’s worth noting that several nations subsequently banded together to implement GDPR, shifting more power to the governments.

Oh, and the Spanish law was changed to conform with European Union copyright law. As a result, Google Noticias came back online in Spain in 2022, eight years later.

3rdeyegirl (bear with me here)

Back to Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince, who talked about a brand new voracious web crawler that didn’t feel like a win-win. Rather than presenting links to outside content, or summaries of content accompanied by prominent links, AI tools (including Google’s own) would simply present the summaries, burying the links.

“Google itself has changed. While ten years ago they presented a list of links and said that success was getting you off their site as quickly as possible, today they’ve added an answer box and more recently AI Overviews which answer users’ questions without them having to leave Google.com. With the answer box they reported that 75 percent of queries were answered without users leaving Google. With the more recent launch of AI Overviews it’s even higher.”

So the new AI-sponsored web crawlers and their implementation effectively serve to keep readers in the walled gardens of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and the rest.

Walled gardens again? It’s just human nature. Having to click on a link to go somewhere else causes friction. This very post links to Cloudflare’s article, my old Empoprise-BI blog, and a multitude of other sources. And I bet you won’t click on ANY of those links to view the other content. I know. WordPress tells me.

As Prince himself puts it:

“…increasingly we aren’t consuming originals, we’re consuming derivatives.”

Ran out of band names

Back in 2023 I already noted a move to block AI web crawlers.

So what’s Cloudflare doing about the AI web crawlers that are sucking information away with little or no return to the content creators?

Blocking them by default.

“That changes today, July 1, what we’re calling Content Independence Day. Cloudflare, along with a majority of the world’s leading publishers and AI companies, is changing the default to block AI crawlers unless they pay creators for their content. That content is the fuel that powers AI engines, and so it’s only fair that content creators are compensated directly for it.”

Cloudflare envisions a marketplace in which AI companies will pay creators for high quality content.

However, today’s content creators may face the same challenges that Spanish periodicals faced from 2014 to 2022. They may prevent their content from being ripped off…but no one will ever know because the people who go to ChatGPT will never learn about them.

Because in the end, most people are happy with derived content.

But your hungry people want to hear from you.

If you are a tech marketer who needs help creating content, talk to Bredemarket.

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers

Content for tech marketers.

On Complexity (the Ray Ozzie quote)

I recently referred to a nearly 20 year old memo (remember memos?) from Ray Ozzie, then-Chief Technical Officer at Microsoft.

Perhaps you remember this quote:

“Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges, and it causes end-user and administrator frustration. Moving forward, within all parts of the organization, each of us should ask “What’s different?”, and explore and embrace techniques to reduce complexity.”