Now Market It

Happy New Year! 

It is the time of year to start fresh and look forward to the New Year with optimism and hope.  The last year has been difficult for many.  People from all professions, large companies and small, have faced a variety of challenges.  Many have been frustrated by an economy where the growth is very limited and the focus of many businesses is how to get by with less.

Perhaps making it more frustrating is the magnitude and breadth of apparent problems, and the ability for an individual to have any impact.

As I look to the New Year, I am asking myself how I can change things in small ways that make a difference.  Are there things we could all do to make a collective difference?  Here are my simple common sense intentions for the coming year:

1)   Count my blessings.  We all have aspects of our lives that are good and fulfilling.  I plan to be more mindful of all the good in my life and put that positive energy to work.

2)   Look for opportunities to help others.  There are no shortages of opportunities to help people you know in small ways.  I plan to try to take a little more time to provide assistance to those around me who could use some help.

3)   Now the hard one - Get more engaged in the elections.  At all levels of government, those who are supposed be representing us – seem to be representing their own interests.  I plan to look beyond the demagoguery and TV commercials.  Just like I would look at a new hire, I will look at past actions, integrity and work ethic, holding candidates accountable with my vote.   

Have a great 2012 and share your thoughts for the New Year.

Recently, I encountered an all too common frustrating marketing scenario.  It’s often a situation found in small companies, but I have seen it in medium sized companies as well.  I refer to it as the ‘marketing silver bullet.’  It is the concept that with a simple single stroke of well directed marketing, business will take off and money will instantly come streaming in the door.

The marketing silver bullet is rooted in the thought that the product or service concept is so great, so intuitively obviously great, that with a simple well designed exposure, customers will come running.

Here’s when it’s likely to occur.  The initial inspiration for a new concept has blossomed into a product or service ready for launch.  Marketing is called to develop a marketing program.  A marketing strategy is created with a complete integrated marketing plan.  All the elements have been designed to work together.  The appropriate positioning is established with consistent supporting messaging.  The pricing is determined along with the channel required to reach the customer.  A promotional plan is created with web presence, digital marketing, social media, public relations, etc.  All the elements are integrated to effectively communicate the value proposition and deliver the solution.

So far, so good.  Now it gets interesting.  The strategy is validated and the plan is complete, but inevitably, the irresistible desire to “pick and choose” arises  So, rather than implement a complete integrated plan, it’s picked apart and only the parts liked best are chosen.  Here are some examples of these types of scenarios:

• “The pricing looks good, but I don’t want to spend the money required to support direct sales – we will sell it over the web and with telesales.”
• “Let’s just try a couple of low cost promotions to get some quick sales or better yet – why not just do social networking, its free.”
• “Let’s get some good PR – once people see what we have done it will go viral and our website will be overwhelmed with prospective customers.”
• And the best one, “It’s a great product….it will sell itself as soon as a few people know about it!”

I have heard all of these spoken by an executive or board member.

Today’s economy is difficult and it is a challenge to allocate marketing budget.  It is critical to spend every dollar as effectively as possible, but picking an choosing from a marketing plan is not the way to meet the budget.  The marketing plan does not need to be expensive, but it does need to be a complete integrated plan.  All the elements need to fit together and support one another in a manner where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

If you have a marketing plan you cannot afford – do not pick and choose.  Revise your plan so that you have a complete integrated plan you can afford.

Let me know some examples you have seen.

Visit my website at www.TimeForPI.com

Take a look a random look at web sites of high-tech B2B companies.  Have you noticed how many high-tech B2B companies have weak messaging based on the technology they sell?  An unfortunately large number have messaging based on technical capabilities and features.  Even the images are often of equipment – 1U “pizza boxes” or racks of servers.  Some have pictures of people using generic technology such as a laptop or a mobile phone.

The problem with this approach is that it says nothing unique about the company, or their solutions.  It is also uninteresting, doing very little, if anything, to covey the company’s message in a unique way to get above the noise.  Sadly, many high-tech B2B companies’ web sites look all too similar.

It is not enough to identify the problem being solved – it is critical to show how the company provides a solution that is uniquely better than the alternatives available to the target market. 

This should be obvious, but it is amazing how many companies take this technology-based approach.  Perhaps it is simply a lack of willingness to put in the effort and imagination required to create compelling messaging that conveys a company’s differentiation on all levels.  Or, perhaps it is a belief that the differentiation is so obvious that prospective customers will discover it on their own once they have read through the details.

Prospective B2B customers are as much human as consumers are, and appreciate being able to quickly relate to a company's value proposition on a human level.  Ask yourself, does your marketing:

-       Identify how you solve customer’s problems for your target market better than your competition?

-       Have a complete messaging architecture that highlights the differentiation?

-       Have an over-arching concept that communicates and captures your differentiation on a conceptual level that is unique and memorable?

-       Support your value proposition with words and visual elements that communicate on a human, personal level – as opposed to simply describing the technology.

Conceptual human messaging is much more memorable than technical feature descriptions and pictures of technology.  Be creative – Be human.

What are your thoughts?

One of the dilemmas all marketers face is how to get above the noise.  This is particularly true for small companies. In the world of high tech marketing, most of what I see in terms of company image seems to fall into one of three categories that, for lack of better terms, I will call “Technical,” “Corporate,” and “Edgy.”

The first is “Technical,” which is marketing that driven by the nuts and bolts of the product or service being offered.  The Technical approach focuses on features/functions appealing to the technical buyer who would be making product or service comparisons.   This approach will sometimes include information about the cost in order to appeal to the buyer’s sense of value regarding price for a set of capabilities.  This is often the home of “low cost” provider.

 The second approach is “Corporate,” which is often more focused on the company itself.  There will be plenty of product information etc., but it will all go through the company’s “image filter.”  The Corporate approach is often an attempt to convey an image of size, strength and credibility.  The message is that the company is a reliable vendor or partner with whom customers should be comfortable doing business.  Those companies that are very focused on doing business with large enterprises often favor this type of approach.

 The final approach is “Edgy,” which is an attempt to do something different that will allow the company to standout and become noticed.  The approach will typically be a bit unconventional, and designed to offer a stark contrast to the competition.

 One might suggest an attempt to be all three: provide technical detail in the context of a reputable “wall street” worthy company with a very memorable, but professional twist.  This certainly seems like a worthy goal – but is it really practical – particularly for smaller companies?  Could the various approaches end up diluting each other, thus undermining the attempt to convey a clear company message?

 The challenge, of course, is to get above the noise – particularly for smaller companies with smaller marketing budgets.  As we all know,  there is plenty of noise, so the clearer and more specific the message, the better the chance of it standing out and being heard.  So let’s look at the different approaches.

 The “Technical” approach certainly has value in terms of conveying information to the technical buyer – but does it get above the noise?  In high tech marketing I often see this approach and I believe it’s because it is the easiest approach – simply provide the details of the product or service you offer.  The problem is that many of your competitors have taken the same approach and at a quick glance (even a more detailed exploration) the viewer does not necessarily get an understanding of why you are solving a problem better than the competition from the customer’s point of view.  The message of differentiation and the specific value proposition is lost within the technical details.  Even if the technical differentiation is highlighted – it is unlikely to represent a sustainable differentiation that can be built upon in the future.   It will likely be neutralized by changes in the market or the implementation of something similar by the competition.

 The “Corporate” approach attempts to address the credibility of the company and its employees to get above the noise.  It is very hard to differentiate on corporate credibility – particularly if you are a small company attempting to create a big image.  Again, how does this help establish a memorable position in the market?  Will this approach really convey anything unique about the company that will connect with the target market?  It is hard to see how this would be the case.  There are plenty of established companies, and many take the approach of focusing on the quality of the company and the products it offers – so it does not really offer any differentiation in offering a solution.

 Finally, the “Edgy” approach dares to be different.  This approach begins with the perspective of the company’s differentiation from a customer’s viewpoint.  How are we addressing our target customer’s problems differently than the competition?  Not simply how are our products or services different – but how do we solve customer’s problems differently?  This message is then singularly supported in a creative manner in the company’s communications.  Does this effectively get above the noise?  Yes – the right single unique message can unambiguously stand above the noise.  Will it appeal to everyone that might be interested in what you are offering? It’s not likely.  It will most likely appeal to a subset of potential customers – the ones who most resonate with your value proposition.  But. if your image appeals to that subset of customers so much more clearly – who cares? You have the right formula!

In fact, one of the problems with this approach is getting internal buy-in because the unique messaging will appeal to some tastes and not to others.  Often there is a desire to modify the image and message so it is at least acceptable to as many people as possible and will have broader appeal.  This approach ends up resulting in a homogenized outcome where the unique aspects that will get the message above the noise are now gone.

Articulating a unique value proposition to the customer in a manner that very clearly and concisely addresses the concerns of the target market is the most effective way to get above the noise.  By definition, this means you are not attempting to deliver a broad message to capture anyone who might be interested in your offer.  It requires that you not target all potential customers – rather only those to whom your value proposition is most attractive. 

As with many things – with risk comes reward.  “Edgy” marketing targets a smaller set of potential customers in hopes of delivering a creative message that will clearly define the company’s positioning in the market.  

What are your thoughts?

Though the discussion around the death of B2B marketing due to the advances in the Internet is somewhat new, the perspective is not.  For years I have been hearing about "products that are so good they sell themselves" (btw - these are highly intelligent products designed by engineers that understand exactly what the market wants and they have the capability to identify a target customer, walk into visit with the customer, introduce themselves and their value, determine the needs of the customer, clearly articulate the benefits and competitive advantages they offer, and finally close the sale). 

This perspective has evolved to the notion that B2B marketing is dead because of the advances in the Internet.  The Internet now provides so much information, that customers have the power to get all the information they need to make purchase decisions.  This perspective seems to view the marketing function as simply communications.  It also seems to assume that companies have a limited interest in the information about their company or products that is on the Internet.

To begin with, let's understand that communications is one role of marketing, and if done in isolation from the other functions, it is bound to be ineffective.  Poorly implemented marketing functions may be a source of the challenges directed at the value of B2B marketing.  Even the most basic textbook definitions of marketing include the 5 P's (Positioning, Product, Pricing, Placement, and Promotion) or SIVA (Solution, Information, Value, and Access).  All of these elements of marketing must be coordinated and work together.

Before being able to legitimately communicate about any product or service, it is critical to understand the product's value proposition. 

-       Who wants this product?

-       What problem is it solving?

-       Why is it solving the problem better than the competitive alternatives? 

-       Does the solution provide all the elements necessary to adequately address the problem?

In other words, there is a very important need to identify a legitimate target market, define positioning for the product, and assure the product has the appropriate capabilities to meet customer needs and support the positioning.  There is also the need to apply limited development resources in a manner where choices must be made about what to build and more importantly, what not to build.  Successful companies grow because they are able to maintain focus to dominate a market, not just build and sell products.  Is this a function that is now dead?

How should products be priced? There is a need to understand the economics of addressing a problem, the cost of the competitive alternatives, and what other elements may need to be brought together to offer a "whole product".  Companies make economic decisions, not just about the price of a product, but also the total cost of addressing a problem.  These factors, along with the internal cost of delivering a solution to a customer, are critical in designing pricing.  Is this function dead?

How do your customers want to acquire solutions, and what types of services are required to implement it?  Customers may want to leverage relationships they have with value added resellers that know their networks and that they can count on to do any necessary integration.  Such a channel will need to be developed, trained, and supported to be successful. Is this function dead?

Now we are at perhaps the most controversial topic - promotions.  In all honesty, if the other aspects of marketing have not been done well, then the value of promotion is substantially compromised anyway.  But, if the other aspects have been done well, who better to convey the messaging and information about a product than the company that knows the most about it.  Are we to expect that companies should simply put all the information about their products on their web site and hope people find it and understand it?   Should sales teams simply work with the customers they already know, as opposed to leveraging new leads from marketing?  It is more important than ever to assure your message in product information is represented correctly, and consistently in all the places where there is a potential to educate potential customers.  Is this function dead?

The claims of the demise of marketing seem to often target an element of the marketing mix in isolation.  Even the evolution of marketing vehicles on the Internet cannot be viewed in isolation. New mechanisms for communication provide greater opportunities for both educating potential customers and collecting feedback. Continue Reading...

AT&T faced with imposing even more demands on their already strained network, created a pricing plan that will force the high bandwidth users to either pay for their share of network usage or look for an alternative elsewhere. AT&T chose to create a tiered pricing plan that lowered prices for most customers, but also makes users pay for bandwidth usage. They had to know that they risked creating a negative response from the market place.  In fact, you can bet the lower priced plans were offered to minimize the negative aspects of a tiered pricing plan.

AT&T claims that 10% of the users consume 50% of the bandwidth.  AT&T said 65% of its smartphone users use less than 200 MB and should save 50% of their data plan cost now. Continue Reading...

Recently, I had the opportunity to do a little research on some of the activity around Home Energy Management systems and the Home Area Network.  I was surprised to discover how much activity there is in pursuit of a market that is still in the incubation phase.  In the market research report "Smart Grid 2010" by GTM Research, it is recognized that today this technology is in the pilot stage.  The report goes on to project that by 2015 Consumer Energy Management Systems will be "gaining traction as 'set-it-and-forget' technologies make energy management simple to use and cost-effective," and by 2020 the technology will be "routine."  

Pike Research forecasts that 14.4 million units of home energy management display devices will be shipped by 2015. Web-based dashboards will also be a major category with 11.1 million users, followed by mobile phone energy applications with 2.6 million users.  This could explain the interest in this area by start-ups and brand name players alike.

Beyond some of the interesting start-ups such as Tendril (www.tendrilinc.com), Gridpoint (www.gridpoint.com), Gainspan (www.gainspan.com) and Powerhouse Dynamics (www.powerhousedynamics.com), Google has launched its Google Powermeter (http://bit.ly/cGs6Kn) and Microsoft has announced its "Hohm" Home Energy Management System (http://bit.ly/wSFxx).

Two additional players whose activities demonstrate their interest in this market are Intel and Apple. 

Intel has published its Intelligent Home Energy Management Proof of Concept - http://bit.ly/93lTut.  The system is compatible with the ZigBee Smart Energy standard. Continue Reading...

As the VoIP market continues to grow and mature, something interesting is happening.  Below the radar from the large carrier services, the SIP trunking providers, and the Cable triple play - the Small Medium Business (SMB) market for hosted VoIP services is heating up!  In fact, it is growing faster than all other VoIP based services.  The SMB market is opening up an excellent growth opportunity for competitive service providers of all types.

That's right  - small and medium businesses are seeing the benefits of VoIP services.  They want the productivity improvements and find the cost benefits attractive in this uncertain economy.  VoIP based services for businesses are the fastest growing part of the VoIP market with hosted VoIP services growing at a rate of over 28% a year according to Frost and Sullivan.  Not only is this a fast growing market, it consists almost entirely of SMBs.  In 2009 over 90% of hosted deployments were less than 500 seats. 

What makes this good news for competitive service providers?  This is a fragmented market without substantial competition from the large dominant players.  The large carriers and service providers are focused on their profitable large enterprise accounts and the healthy margins they are making on Centrex services.  The established incumbent players poorly serve SMBs because they do not fit into their existing business model, but SMBs can be well served by competitive providers dedicated to this market and its unique needs. 

Also, as the economy recovers, it will recover for SMBs first - they will be the engine of future growth.  These are the companies who best adapt and find new opportunity after a downturn.  This is where we can expect to see both new companies and the early new growth.

What companies are best positioned to take advantage of this opportunity?  Because of the fragmented nature of the market, different companies can approach the opportunity from different angles, but three types of companies seem best positioned to quickly address the market.  The first would be existing service providers that are finding their margins being squeezed in more mature markets such as calling cards or residential services.  Next, would be ISPs and service providers of other hosted services, like e-mail or CRM, who would like to add a high margin service offering to their existing customer base.  And finally, entrepreneurs who are looking to establish a profitable business in a growing market.

Though the opportunity is growing, these customers have greater requirements than a calling card service or even a residential VoIP service.  This is a sophisticated service for demanding businesses whose communications system is a key component of their day-to-day operations.  To take advantage of this market requires service providers to address some critical operational and marketing issues:

1)   Deployment of a rich application platform that is simple to use, providing a streamlined solution designed for competitive providers.  Solutions that require significant development or integration can compromise margins and time to market.

2)   Ability to support a reseller and agent channel.  There are a lot of SMBs, so the ability for a service provider to extend their reach will better position them for success.

3)   Ability to support a high reliability service.  SMBs are accustomed to the reliability of traditional carriers, and though they want the benefits of new VoIP capabilities, these businesses are also dependent upon their communications systems to generate revenue - they are business critical.

Even the equipment providers are reacting to this opportunity as can be seen by the recent announcement of a platform designed specifically to address the SMB market: 'IPsmarx Introduces MarketReady IP-PBX And SIP Trunking To Its All In One Softswitch Solution' http://bit.ly/9JspNV.

For competitive service providers of all types, the best opportunity for success in this economy is focusing on the needs of the SMB market now, and ride their growth as the economy recovers.

For B2B marketers, the challenge of being the topic of conversation is a bit greater.  You want to be the topic of conversation in places where buyers go to look to make decisions about products like yours.  Like other elements of the marketing mix, it is critical to view social media as part of an overall communications plan directed by a marketing strategy.  But, as is too often the case - organizations move right to tactics that are implemented without a strategy or cohesive plan.  Social Media is no different than other elements of your communications plan.  "We need to get on LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter" is not a plan.

As with the entire marketing mix, it starts with your target customers.  How are they making their decisions, what information do they need, who influences them?  You want them to have all the information they need at the time they are looking to make a decision.  The ability to do this will be based on your ability to be viewed as a reliable authority.  Being knowledgeable and acknowledged as such by the relevant community provides that credibility.  This requires not just providing valuable relevant content, but being active in the conversation.

Delivering a consistent message in the right places, at the right times, with valuable content and active participation will all add up to success.  This requires having a supporting theme and a coordinated approach in all communications including: the company website, e-mail, blogs and social media, in such a way that they work together, complement each other and support one another. 

The service providers certainly are in the position to collect and mine lots of information about their customers.  Can this be packaged and provide to content providers allowing them to better target and access their target markets?  Are they able to use the information to enable the creation of unique services and applications that could generate additional revenue?

Service providers have always been key partners for enterprise and business customers that have complex communications needs.  As advanced communications is providing improved productivity tools, is there an opportunity for the role of the service provider to become an even more important partner - with more systems integration to bring together voice, data, mobile, and existing internal networks?  Will the complexity of the new communications networks with capabilities such as Unified Communication provide a greater opportunity for hosting solutions for businesses that do not want to manage the internal networks required?

Will they be able to leverage the ability to bundle communications services together - creating offers for video based services, internet and phone - both fixed and mobile?  Perhaps the value is in the customer experience rather than the content or applications?  Can the service providers create an ability to manage and interface with the variety of communications services in such a way that makes the experience easier and even fun - thus creating a unified experience that adds value that consumers and businesses are willing to pay for?      

Perhaps the most likely outcome is that we will see some of all of the above.  What scenarios do you think will dominate? 

What areas do you see as an opportunity for the service provider to generate additional revenue?                                                    

The recession has had executives running for cover until the economic storm has passed.  They make short-term business decisions that manifest themselves in extensive cost cutting measures such as layoffs, furloughs, and typically near the top of the list - the marketing budget.  The uncertainty of the times strikes at the hearts of individuals' insecurities, so holding on to what you have becomes the behavior of both consumers and businesses.

However, economic growth will return, and the recession offers a potentially excellent opportunity for companies to significantly improve their market position.  This may also be a great time to pick up ground on the competition.  They may be hiding from the storm like so many other companies led by fair weathered captains of industry.  What if you were to continue to invest in your business?  Get more aggressive with development plans to build additional differentiation against the competition that has cut its R&D.  Avoid layoffs of the people needed to operate the business so that you don't find yourself hiring new untrained individuals who need to learn your business at the same time the economy is recovering.

Marketing may appear to be a sensible place to reduce expenses since fewer people are buying and those who are typically are spending less.  Everyone else is cutting back on marketing, why not do the same?  The problem is that your partners, customers and prospects may also notice this, and the message it sends is not one of reassurance. 

This economy provides an opportunity for those who have some financial strength to improve their market position.  The opportunity is actually twofold for marketing: the noise level is lower and the cost of delivering your message louder is greater.

This is a great time to deliver your message while the overall advertising noise level is substantially lower.  Advertising is reduced everywhere, as are the publication of whitepapers, etc.  Any company delivering its message in this environment will have a lot less noise to compete with and thus are more likely to be heard.

The cost of reaching the customer is also lower.  Like in many industries, advertising revenues have been reduced for all media outlets, making it a great time to negotiate deals.   Advertising costs are lower.  The ability to negotiate packages and lower long-term rates is greater.  The competition for on-line ad words is lower, thus the cost per-click through is lower. 

For those who have the financial strength to maintain their marketing programs, it is to their advantage, as they are able to get their message out more often and in more places at a time when the competitive noise is reduced.

What if you were to be so BOLD as to INCREASE the marketing budget during the recession?  Buy more advertising and more opportunities to deliver your message when the noise is the lowest.  How might this impact the position of your business as compared to the competition?  How might this impact the revenue of your business as compared to the competition - particularly during the recovery when projects that have been on hold are restarted?

Instead of focusing on what your business looks like during the recession, imagine how you would like your business to look as the economy improves.  It might be the best time to think about how to take advantage of your competitors' short-term behavior to gain long-term market share.

Now, Market It - what does this mean?  As a high tech marketing person, I am always interested in how high tech companies utilize marketing.  Though much has been written about marketing in high tech companies, I have found the spectrum of views on high tech marketing remarkably vast.  In some companies marketing is core to its strategy - and in others it is the organization that manages the website and trade shows.

In high tech industries there is so much focus on the technology that I don't think marketing is always an integral part of the strategic planning process.  Often marketing is thought about when it is time to bring a solution to market.  The technology has been transformed into a product or service - "Now, Market It".

As with so many things in high tech businesses, marketing has unique challenges.  Marketing is both a science and an art - it requires an understanding of the analytical and the creative.  It is complicated by the fact that different marketing strategies are required based on a variety of factors including where the technology is in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle.  Marketing is dynamic and multi-dimensional.  It requires continual adaptation and an understanding that markets are both global and local. 

Marketing is appropriately a key component to strategic planning and for supporting innovation in any high tech company.

Convergence technology has developed into a very dynamic industry that covers a wide variety of applications being pursued by both established players and start-ups.  I am interested in generating an ongoing discussion about how marketing is practiced and how it differs from marketing theory.  

How is marketing viewed at your company?