Project Management Software Maker tries Memetracker approach

by on February 21, 2006

OK, here’s a fun little marketing test. Axosoft is selling its $495 project management software for only $5 and it’s donating that to the American Red Cross. I’m not getting a thing, they just emailed me and I thought this was cool. It’s only for three days. It’ll be interesting to see how many takers they get. I’m a sucker for innovative marketing approaches.

  • themask
    Pretty interesting.
    However, Axosoft site describes the product as a bug tracking tool, not project management software:
    "Axosoft's OnTime is one of the most popular bug tracking solutions on the market today."
  • themask: yeah, I see that. In his email he said it's project management software. On their home page they say it's both.
  • Christopher Coulter
    If Project Management, I am game. Thanks for tip. Good deal.
  • Since I'm in the Philippines, and they mentioned our mudslide, they got me. Spreading the meme onward.
  • Christopher Coulter
    Kinda reminds me of ole skueel Peregrine Asset Center with a dash of Remedy and a sprinkle of Vivid CRM...but gosh, like it thus far, tho still too 'server-based bug-defect finderish', needs more on strict Project Management side. Been off my radar as seems developerese focused. Yah know, they could use this 'promo' for other 'networks' too. ;) Blogs aren't the world always. But this is something that's a natural to tag on blogs. They should host a big "junket" of sorts. I would if I was them.

    As an aside question...things are either CRM/SFA/Contact Management or Projectish Pert and Gantt charting serious and Project Management software as advanced to do's. Nothing really that sweeps CRM/SFA into a Project Managers role. Or maybe I just haven't found it, or maybe no market. CRM/SFA/Project Timeline/Workflow/Project Management/Asset Management tracking as one, that exist (that doesn't require a Fortune 500 to purchase)? Thinking Peregrine + MS Project + Salesforcey CRM + ACT/Goldmine + Project Management, something Suiteish like that, which hits all bases. Or that too tall of an order?
  • Guzzard
    Any company trying to upsell installation services for $395.00 deserves to sell it's software for $5. Can you imagine Microsoft giving away Visat for $5 then charging the poor schmucks $395 to make it work correctly? Nice try, but I won't even part with $5 for this stuff.
  • I bought it for our team, even if there are installation issues, 5 bucks is easy enough to pass off on an experiment
  • Hey Guzzard, remember, this software doesn't cost $5. It costs $495 for 5 users and for larger installations (such as 50 or 100 developers) the costs could be upwards of $10K or $20K. Therefore, a $395 optional installation service is well worth it to a lot of companies.

    In fact, OnTime is one of the easiest applications to install. Most people have it up and running in less than 15 minutes. That service is really intended for the more complex installations for companies that don't necessarily have their own IT expertise.

    Finally, the intention of this experiment is not to "upsell" anything. As we've said before, we're even donating the $5 from each sale to the American Red Cross, so rather than bashing the software without having ever even tried it, I encourage you to go install the free single-user version. For that, you don't even have to pay a dime. You can get it here:

    http://www.axosoft.com/Products/downloads.aspx
  • Not The Brightest
    Okay, I bought it, now what? How dod I get it?
  • The most significant feature of this blog thread is the nature of Axosoft's marketing strategy. It's word-of-mouth sales combined with traditional time-limited offer constraints. If blogging is to serve customers well, then perhaps buzz isn't as important as descriptions of the features of the product and testimonials from actual users. See http://bringingclosure.blogspot.com/2006/02/mar... for more details.
  • You can download the software at this location: http://www.axosoft.com/Products/downloads.aspx
  • I think its great, installed it tonight and wrote a post about it as well, it says bug tracking, but its very easy to reconfigure it for project management!

    You can read more on my blog http://steves.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/200...
  • I first saw this offer through Download Squad, but what really intrigued me was a post by Steve Richards on the David Allen GTD forum, linking to his blog. In that post (http://steves.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/200...), he discusses how he configures a bug-tracking program into a project and task management tool. That alone was enough to get me to try it out. Unfortunately, the AxoSoft store seems to be down right at this particular moment.
  • That marketing approach was too cool!

    Who would have thought they would get 2300+ orders?

    - Brandon Hopkins
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