Good Stuff that happened for others

Brand Breakthrough
Great Marketing Through Great Processes
Technology Business Plan and Positioning
Product Positioning
Platform Value Proposition
Technology Planning
Entering a New Consumer Market
Translating Positioning into Action
New Sales Push
Member Retention
Media Strategy for Corporate Technology Alliance


Brand Breakthrough

Situation: Membership was polarized about the benefits of participation and the charter of this group of companies from all types of industries. Working under a conflicted name, charter and agenda, many companies—members and prospective members—thought its agenda was HR issues rather than the cutting-edge business ideas discussed during its Dialogues.

Solution: We conducted a market audit and positioning workshop to work through their identity issues. Differentiation and customer benefits were identified. We identified their core value to members and put programs together to roll out the "new", harmonized association to members.

	>	Stabilization of membership
	>	Launch of new membership drive
	>	Unification of members

  

Great Marketing Through Great Processes

Situation: After a number of acquisitions and anticipating the change in economic climate, the company had lost its self and its identity. It was off the market radar screen. There was little to no return from their PR investment and a large customer base was not being leveraged for renewed visibility and to help the market understand who this "new" company was after the acquisitions.

Solution: First, we aligned and integrated the business units with the PR plan to support a more cohesive visibility initiative. The agency’s performance was evaluated and changes made to the team. We secured key customer references to boost media credibility and secure key industry coverage. Then we established a PR infrastructure by hiring new PR Manager.

	>	Increased PR results by 300% after four months
	>	Reduced PR expenditures by 50% and reallocated dollars to new high-visibility programs
	>	Generated more than 30 new customer references for PR and sales programs

 

Technology Business Plan and Positioning

Situation: A large technology infrastructure company developed a collaboration platform with the hope of selling it through existing channels, expanding their marketing and creating competitive advantage over their biggest rival. Sales were virtually non- existent, customers were not responding positively and the sales force was not actively "pushing" the product. Marketing messages and positioning were not clearly articulated (internally or externally) and were inconsistent. Product features and benefits were inconsistent with customers' perceived need.

Solution: We conducted a market, customer, competitive and internal audit. With the results, we repositioned the product within the market, defined key marketing messages, and wrote a complete business plan; including PR plan, marketing plan, internal communication plan, 3 year product plan, staffing plan and sales plan and forecast.

	>	Sales force (a key success factor) adopted and started actively pushing the product
	>	Forecasted sales were met
	>	key customer wins and references were established.

  

Product Positioning

Situation: A large telecommunications company developed a security product aimed at securing email systems. The product was developed internally by the IT department. The customer requested that we develop an analyst presentation to get feedback on the concept. It was difficult to ascertain how to describe the product within security and/or messaging marketplace, both of which were changing rapidly.

Solution: We determined that before talking to the analyst community it was important to "productize" the technology. We conducted primary research, did a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), described the current market, competition and customer situation. We then constructed a "marchitecture" model which showed how the market was evolving, where the competition fit in and the value proposition of the client's technology.

	>	Developed first level market and product requirements concepts to obtain feedback from the analyst community and prospective customers
	>	Developed the basis for sales materials and tools that demonstrated the ROI for the product.

  

Platform Value Proposition

Situation: A large hardware manufacturer developed an enterprise storage platform aimed at providing shared access to email and messaging data. They needed help defining, articulating and communicating the value proposition.

Solution: We conducted primary research to determine the "hot buttons" for customers in email and message management, then developed a white paper and ROI tool that demonstrated how the platform turned email into a corporate asset. We also developed an ROI tool that demonstrated the value it terms that customers needed to present their cost justification at the CFO level.

	>	Method to present their solution in terms of business value that was meaningful to their potential customers
	>	cost/benefit tools to demonstrate that value worldwide through the sales force

  

Technology Planning

Situation: The client had 10 key business processes that were supported by the IT infrastructure. It was difficult to demonstrate how infrastructure supported these processes, to prioritize investments and to construct a meaningful and acceptable (by the business units) chargeback system. The client asked us to build ROI models that would articulate the value of the infrastructure in business terms.

Solution: We interviewed business and technology staff to understand what would be of value to the business, how they measured their success and what priority they gave to key success factors. We constructed ROI models which allowed them to see how investing in infrastructure affected their business. We developed models for the infrastructure that supported Call Center, Directory and Collaboration systems, which affected a variety of core business systems.

	>	Created decision-making tools for IT for technology investments
	>	Gained support for new budgets from the business units
	>	Models instrumental in building cost/benefit analysis and budgeting for the CFO.

  

Entering a New Consumer Market

Situation: At the time, the company was known for its "business-class" DSL service but was entering the consumer broadband market amidst competitors including the Regional Bells and cable companies. The company was struggling with how to garner notice for the benefits of its DSL service.

Solution: We coordinated a consumer education campaign using "DSL For Dummies" author, David Angell. With the author, we developed a free consumer broadband handbook and conducted a 10-city media tour to promote the benefits of broadband for consumers and teleworkers.

	>	Media attention from the Dallas Morning News, San Jose Mercury News, Newark Star Ledger; radio interviews in New York, Cleveland, Boston, San Francisco; broadcast appearances on ZDTV and Dallas local stations, and more
	>	Raised the company’s visibility in the consumer market.

  

Translating Positioning into Action

Situation: A company, considered a small and traditional business intelligence (BI) software company, wanted to break out of the BI mold and revise its corporate position to better reflect its market differentiators.

Solution: We conducted an in-depth positioning campaign to identify the true company strengths and differences and focused on how the company was helping its customers with profitability issues, a timely topic. The company executives achieved consensus on the new marketing and corporate messages around business analytics and profit optimization, and we developed an in-depth corporate communications plan with specific strategies for altering the perceptions of the company and driving sales momentum.

	>	Put the company on the radar with analysts and trade media from outside BI space
	>	Alter perceptions with traditional BI analysts/media about the company’s unique position in the market
	>	Created relationships between company executives and key influencers and business press including Rafe Needleman (while writing for the Red Herring), Don Clark of The Wall Street Journal, and Jim Kerstetter of BusinessWeek
	>	Delivered an opinion piece through CNET

	>	Increase in VAR sales pitches
	>	Increase in VAR sales
	>	Reduced time from training to first sale

  

Member Retention

Situation: A not-for-profit needed to raise its profile and benefits to keep its members. With corporate budget cutting rampant due to the economic turndown, the company needed to prove its value now more than ever before.

Solution: We developed a program it show members how their participation advanced important corporate issues. Communications targeted key customers and shared results on a regular, monthly basis.

	>	Membership stabilized, then expanded
	>	Customer satisfaction surveys improved
	>	Escalation issues subsided

  

Media Strategy for Corporate Technology Alliance

Situation: Two companies formed an alliance (1997) to distribute multimedia content over the company’s Internet network to provide "Internet broadcasting" to the masses for the first time. MCI wanted to utilize the news to increase its leadership in Internet technology.

Solution: We developed a launch communications strategy that included solidifying alliance messaging; developing briefing materials, press release, fact sheet and FAQ; pre-briefings to key industry analysts. The media strategy included an advance to the New York Times, an audio news conference with company executives and aggressive media outreach. Targeted pitches were developed for each type of outlets.

	>	Delivered the first step toward Internet and television convergence and to making the Internet a mass broadcast medium in the minds of many reporters and analysts.
	>	Garnered favorable media coverage across all outlets with articles in all major national dailies, major broadcast outlets, trade and online resulting in more than 32 million impressions.
	>	Captured favorable analyst quotes in 17 stories in key business and trade publications, translating to nearly 6 million impressions.