We propose a quite different way that an open source company can initially segment its community. This is a generic framework that applies to any commercial open source company, though each company must customize it according to their own situation.

Our community segmentation approach is built starting from the business model and strategy used by the open source company. If the ultimate target for marketing is to support and improve the company business, segmentation efforts have to be addressed in this direction.

With this perspective, a community might be segmented using the following dimensions:
•  Financial Impact, i.e., the value different groups can provide to the open source company, ranging from indirect to direct monetization, or non-monetary contribution to monetary. As a result, we could plot the different groups in the community according to their financial importance, i.e., the value generated for the company. By "financial impact," we mean both direct benefit, like revenue enhancers, and indirect benefit, such as cost savings.
•  Strategic Importance, i.e., the relevance of the benefit provided with respect to the overall business strategy of the company. Beside the value generated by each group, the impact on the corporate strategy has to be considered as well. For example, for a company targeting consumers, enterprises don't represent a strategic priority. As a consequence, marketing efforts should be focused on community groups that are closer to the core business strategy.

Jointly considering these dimensions, it's possible to construct a matrix that identifies four main sub-groups that a community could be segmented into by an open source company (see Figure 1).
•  Catalysts: They are the enablers of the market: they don't heavily impact on the financial side (especially in the short-term), but help the open source project the company is built around to grow. As a consequence, they're critical to the success of the company. They should be leveraged and addressed with community programs, i.e., with dedicated marketing actions to keep them involved with the company and the project.
•  Market Makers: These are the entities that truly "make" the market for an open source company: they are strategic paying customers. They are the targets of both marketing and sales efforts. In this case, marketing efforts are more traditional than in the Catalysts case.
•  Cash Calves: They're not core customers but they can help the open source company generate some revenue. They are pure sales targets. Only a little money needs to be invested on the marketing side, considering their distance from the company's core business model.
•  Roll-Your-Own: They're groups that are far from the core business and low revenue contributors. They benefit from the open source company but typically they give little back. The approach to be followed with these groups is "Do-It-Yourself": the company doesn't need to invest money to support them on either the marketing or sales side.

The matrix is a tool that can help organizations analyse the impact that different groups could have on their business model, which can help them decide which groups to focus on. This is often a very difficult decision, especially for a start-up in a big market, where there are several choices and it's not obvious which way to go. Often, the decision is 100% critical since the company can really prosper if it makes a right move, but if it makes the wrong move, the company can be jeopardized. Once an open source company understands which subgroups are most important, it can focus on them with a mixture of traditional B2B and community marketing techniques.

Community Segmentation & Effort: Funambol's Experience
Funambol is a multinational American open source corporation in push e-mail and PIM synchronization aimed at consumers supported by a global network of users and developers representing more than a million downloads and 10,000 contributors in more than 200 countries. The commercial version of Funambol's software has been deployed at wireless carriers, Fortune 100s, hardware ODMs, and ISVs including customers such as EarthLink and Computer Associates. It is headquartered in Redwood City, California with an R&D center in Italy.

Funambol identified several groups in its community and what it could potentially get back from them:

• from professional end users ("prosumers"), you can get testing and product information
• from non-technical end users, you can get market information and simple testing
• from open source developers, you can get software contributions (e.g., additional functionality), quality assurance, device compatibility, product feedback, and community influence
• from system integrators, you can get value by selling training and support, plus accelerated introductions to prospective customers and inclusion in their projects
• from enterprise IT personnel, you can generate revenue by selling subscriptions consisting of training, support, and deployment services. And they can act as references for other buyers
• from ODMs, you get value by licensing the software and/or selling professional services, training, and support
• from ISVs, you can make money providing professional services
• from mobile telecommunication operators, you can sell your software or a hosted service
• from channel partners (VARs/VADs), you can get revenue selling them training and certification programs and your product
• you may not be able to sell other users, such as students, anything but you might still get significant value, e.g., word-of-mouth advertising to other potential community members

Table 1 summarizes the output of this analysis, stressing the value and the strategic relevance of the contribution for each group in the Funambol community, while Figure 2 shows how the groups are plotted in the Figure 1 matrix.

It's implicit that these evaluations are directly related to the company business model. Funambol's core strategy targets the mass market through mobile operators and is based on dual licensing.

So end users are considered as Catalysts, because they help the company create the market: the more they use the product, the more appealing Funambol is to mobile operators. Open source developers are Catalysts, because their development and QA effort can improve the company's offerings and reduce time to market. Mobile operators are Market Makers, while ODMs and ISVs are Cash Calves. Funambol doesn't consider enterprises a primary target and so they fall into the Roll-Your-Own quadrant.

Table 1 presents potential community contributions. To make these happen, two standard marketing principles must be followed:
•  Target segments must be chosen since it's often impossible and ineffective to address too many segments in a heterogeneous community; marketing should focus on the most relevant groups, Market Makers and Catalysts.
•  Each group must be addressed properly through an appropriate combination of right messages, offers, and mediums. As a consequence, one marketing program may work effectively with one segment but not with another.

At the end of this article we'll describe the open source programs that Funambol launched in the past two years, discussing which ones worked and didn't and the reasons why.

Open Source Marketing Programs: Funambol's Experience
Here we'll describe the open source community programs that Funambol launched recently. For each one, we'll highlight the desired benefit and the community groups targeted.

Program: Funambol Community Research Survey
Target: Whole Community

Benefit: Insight about Community composition and interests
As an open source company, it's not always easy to know who's in your community or what their interest is vis-à-vis your project. This is because there's often a fair amount of anonymity associated with people in the community: while some people are willing to identify themselves and be recognized, others don't want to. Getting information represents the cornerstone of community segmentation; it helps you identify and know the different groups in your community better, gaining valuable insights about it. Funambol routinely polls its community to learn more about it. This was how Funambol learned that there were six different kinds of people in its community: mobile operators/service providers; open source developers; system integrators, ISVs and ODMs; enterprise IT personnel; and end users looking for a mobile solution. Funambol learned a lot about what their interests were, like what interfaces to back-end systems they'd like and what devices they preferred. This made it easier to collaborate with the community and create a product roadmap that kept it engaged. It also helped Funambol think about relevant and appropriate ways to monetize the different groups, since each represented a different potential to the company.