Research Case Study: Oracle
Understanding the needs of a niche developer audience
The Problem
Oracle’s Java team was creating content that served a very passionate, but narrow swath of developers and software decision-makers. They came to us with a challenge: How do we broaden our audience for the brand?
The Program
Program 11 dove into the Oracle world, seeking to understand where developers go for information and who influences them. We then developed audience personas and a content strategy to delight existing fans and draw in a new cohort.
Market Research
We did a competitive review with other software brands and media serving developers, detailing cadence of coverage, levels of engagement, and uncovering topics of interest.
Surveys and Interviews
We surveyed hundreds of developers worldwide, then conducted in-depth interviews with internal and external stakeholders to surface insights around what content is helpful, who influences them, and what they need more of.
Personas and Strategy
Program 11 created user personas that identified mindsets, triggers, and content needs. Our content strategy showed Oracle how to best serve existing passionate developers and draw in new programmers into its Java ecosystem.
The results:
Our work with Oracle supported multiple initiatives:
Garnering a deeper understanding of a niche developer audience.
Recognizing the opportunity to bring in new influencer content creators.
Evolving Java magazine’s look, feel, and content to delight existing readers and support a new cohort of developers.
