Symantec 2007 Annual Report Download - page 16

specialists. In the June 2006 quarter, we integrated the Symantec and Veritas sales forces and moved to a single
account manager per major account model in order to provide customers with more relationship oriented service.
We complement our direct sales efforts with indirect sales channels such as resellers, VARs, LARs,
distributors, and SIs, primarily to address the small to medium-sized enterprise market. We sell our products
through authorized distributors in more than 40 countries throughout the world. Our top distributors are Ingram
Micro, Inc. and Tech Data Product Management, Inc.
Another important element of our Enterprise Solutions strategy involves our relationships with OEM partners
that incorporate our products into their products, bundle our products with their products, or serve as authorized
resellers of our products.
Marketing and Advertising
Our marketing expenditure is primarily spent on advertising and promotion, which includes demand gen-
eration and brand recognition of our consumer and enterprise products. Our advertising and promotion efforts
include, but are not limited to, electronic and print advertising, trade shows, collateral production, and all forms of
direct marketing. We also invest in cooperative marketing campaigns with distributors, resellers, retailers, OEMs,
and industry partners.
We continually conduct market research to understand evolving customer needs and buying behaviors to
identify the latest consumer and enterprise trends, as well as overall customer satisfaction with our products and
services. We also communicate with customers through the Symantec website, regularly scheduled Web-based
seminars and online newsletters, as well as through direct mailings, both physical and electronic, to existing end-
users and prospects.
Other marketing activities include the production of brochures, sales tools, multi-media product demonstra-
tions, packaging, and other collateral materials. We help drive awareness and acquisition through search engine
marketing, online content syndication, various online and entertainment sponsorships, and word-of-mouth mar-
keting, as well as participation in focused trade and computer shows, sponsorship of industry analyst conferences,
and execution of Symantec road shows, seminars, and user group conferences. In addition, we invest in various
retention marketing and customer loyalty programs to help drive renewals and encourage customer advocacy and
referrals. We also provide focused vertical marketing programs in targeted industries and countries.
We typically offer two types of rebate programs within most countries: volume incentive rebates to channel
partners and promotional rebates to distributors and end-users. Distributors and resellers earn volume incentive
rebates primarily based upon product sales to end-users. We also offer rebates to individual users who purchase
products through various resale channels.
We regularly offer upgrade rebates to consumers purchasing a new version of a product. Both volume incentive
rebates and end-user rebates are accrued as an offset to revenue.
Support
We maintain centralized support facilities throughout the world that provide rapid, around-the-clock responses
to complex customer inquiries. We have support facilities with experts in technical areas associated with the
products we produce and the operating environments in which these products are deployed by many of our
customers. During fiscal 2007, we made investments in technology to link our global support centers together,
which has increased our capacity to deliver technical support to our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Additionally, our technology investments improved our ability to deliver online solutions to our customers. Our
technical support experts provide customers with information on product implementation and usage, issue
resolution, and countermeasures and identification tools for new threats. Support is available in multiple languages
including Cantonese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, and
Spanish. We believe that enhanced language support is an important element of our success and plan to continue our
investments in the delivery of non-English technical support.
Our Security Response Team consists of dedicated intrusion experts, security engineers, virus hunters, and
members of the global technical support teams that work in tandem to provide extensive coverage for enterprises
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