Symantec 2012 Annual Report Download - page 88

Small and Medium Business
We sell and market our products and related services to small business customers through a partner channel
consisting of SMB Specialized Partners around the world, who are specifically trained and certified to sell our
solutions. This group includes value-added resellers, large account resellers, and managed service providers
across all levels of the Symantec partner program. Our products, tailored specifically for the needs of small
businesses with up to 250 employees, are also available on our eCommerce platform, as well as through
authorized distributors and OEMs who incorporate our technologies into their products, bundle our products with
their offerings, or serve as authorized resellers of our products.
Enterprise
We sell and market our products and related services to enterprise customers through our direct sales force
of more than 4,500 sales employees and through a variety of indirect sales channels, which include value-added
resellers, managed service providers, large account resellers, and system integrators. We also sell our products to
businesses around the world through authorized distributors and OEMs who incorporate our technologies into
their products, bundle our products with their offerings, or serve as authorized resellers of our products. Our sales
efforts are primarily targeted to senior executives and IT department personnel responsible for managing a
company’s IT initiatives.
Marketing and Advertising
Our marketing expenditures relate primarily to advertising and promotion, including demand generation and
product recognition. Our advertising and promotion efforts include, among other things, 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 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 the amount of product sales to end users. We also offer rebates to end users who
purchase products through various resale channels. Both volume incentive rebates and end-user rebates are
accrued as an offset to revenue.
Research and Development
Symantec embraces a global research and development (“R&D”) strategy to drive organic innovation.
Engineers and researchers throughout the Company pursue advanced projects to translate R&D into customer
solutions by creating new technologies and integrating our unique set of technology assets. Symantec focuses on
short, medium, and long-term applied research, develops new products in emerging areas, participates in
government-funded research projects, drives industry standards, and partners with universities to conduct
research supporting Symantec’s strategy.
Symantec’s Security Technology and Response organization is a global team of security engineers, threat
analysts, and researchers that provides the underlying functionality, content, and support for all enterprise, SMB,
and consumer security products. Our security experts monitor malicious code reports collected through the
Global Intelligence Network to provide insight into emerging attacks, malicious code activity, phishing, spam,
and other threats. The team uses this vast intelligence to develop new technologies and approaches, such as
Symantec’s reputation-based security technology, to protect customer information.
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