Inspiring Dialogue

PR Strategies for 2009

In this video I talk about what PR strategies could be good for start-ups in 2009.

You Can't Market a Product That Sucks

 

This is my first attempt to go from blogging to vlogging - video blogging. 

You can also find the full transcript below:

In my mind, and having watched many high tech start-ups become high tech giants, the product is number one. Whether you’re battling a bull or bear market, at the end of the day, if your product isn’t good, no one will want to adopt it, long-term.

And that’s the name of the game. Ask most entrepreneurs and they’ll tell you they’re ultimate goal is acquisition, not to build a lifestyle brand. Most also have VCs hanging over their heads expecting big returns on their money.

What’s a start-up to do? You know you’ve got a great product, but don’t know how to bring it to market. Then there’s the exalted companies we all want to be, the YouTubes, Googles, salesforce.coms, Facebooks, etc.

Are those company anomalies? I don’t think so. Those are 4 companies in your lifetime that “broke out” and there are many more that will break out over the next 25 years, maybe even over the next year. The difference between those companies and yours is that an event happened.

In 2006, YouTube announced 100 million videos were downloaded by users, then NBC sued. YouTube broke out. Salesforce.com announced profitability during the recession of 2001. Salesforce broke out. Yahoo walked away from search, and Google re-invented the category. Google broke out. Facebook opened its platform to businesses and anyone aside from just students at colleges and universities. Facebook broke out.

Don’t look outside your window right now for an event to take you out. And, don’t look inside your coffer for the next great publicity stunt. Neither is mutually exclusive. The internal opportunities within your Company need to match the external market conditions. Sometimes you can control them, and sometimes you just can’t.

The key is to lay out which opportunities you may be able to leverage in the coming year – profitability, new product, new service, new big hire, and to tie it with what you know may or will happen soon such as new policies from the presidential administration, an upcoming report from a major analyst firm, an event taking place at a major conference, etc.

Imagine that you’ve got a successful product that allows companies to attach an online suggestion box to any and every project in production. Aside from being caught up in the gloom and doom of being interviewed about recent company layoffs or the struggling economy, you could tell a reporter how your burgeoning company is helping corporations influence their employees to make positive change.

And, remember, you can’t market a product that sucks.

What are Start-Ups Doing Right Now, or Planning to Do in Q1 2009?

Aren't you wondering what other start-ups are doing right now, or planning to do in the first quarter of the year? They're not going to tell you. How can you find out? You're probably guessing nothing or something big, but the truth is, you just don't know. 

Speculation is dead. 

Creativity is waning.

Start-ups are going back to the basics. 

But, don't take my word for it. Listen to what I'm being told. Since the market collapse, we've pitched many start-ups, listened to their marketing ideas, read their draft plans, meet with their CEOS, and this is what they had to say:

1) Planning for Q1 - One start-up we met with said they're leveraging inexpensive resources such as surveymonkey to question potential customers, asking them pointed questions about how they are using social media. The start-up plans to announce the results of the study in Q1, post presidential inauguration.

2) Launching partnerships - Another start-up said they're planning to hold and "launch" the announcement of a newly formed partnership in early Q1 to attract a new audience, also running contests on those partner sites with content from their site as part of the promotions.

3) Product launch - Pushing a product launch out to late Q1 was what a start-up told us is a good idea because it gives them enough time to get past the holiday hangover and find out what's up in the new year. The product is nothing like they have ever announced before and it will enhance their overall offering.

4) Building social media programs - Hey, I'm not talking about hiring some wanna be social media PR guy or agency or just hitting Facebook looking for folks who have an interest in bacon, if you're selling bacon salt (great marketing BTW), but seriously engaging with a social media strategist like Adam Metz to build out a small or big social media program, which is what a former consumer heavy weight said he was doing in advance of his web site launch. Build the base, he told us, make it go viral, if there's such a thing, then turn on the PR.

5) Throwing an event - One of the teams we met with had a short roster of very influential staffers, and was convinced they could create a quick and dirty party around their offering, invite some very key players and put their company on display, with good food and drink, of course. After the party, the staffers would take who they met, and use the phone and Internet to build a relationship with each and every person. Smart marketing.

6) Taking it to the street - One of the prospects already had more than 70,000 users - with very little PR and no marketing. In Q1, they want to take that number to the street and tell their business story, using it as a tool to basically, well, tell their story. No other like solution can match that power, and once their prospects get wind, that company will win, and win, and win, and win...

So often we PR people chronicle our successes as case studies on web sites, or in the next great book, but I think it's as powerful to inspire and let start-ups know what others are thinking of doing now or in the future, minus their company names, to get your juices flowing.

Interdependent Marketing: Part 1

I've decided to go public with a bunch of ideas, the first being my thoughts on "Interdependent Marketing."  I typically hold these kinds of thoughts close to my chest, never write them down, forget and move on.  Sometimes I drop a hint to a client (if it applies), and they go all Mickey Mouse on me, wide eyed and joyful (assuming it can be put into practice).  But, this one, Interdependent Marketing, I couldn't let go. Interdependent Marketing, unlike Integrated Marketing, is not all of the rage, but you do it every day, even in your personal relationships.

Have you ever gone camping?  There's a bunch of stuff integrated in the mix: clothes, tools, tent(s), gear, food, and so on and so on, but unless the people understand and can effectively execute on the inter-dependence of their actions, the outcome will be short lived and no long-term gain will be achieved.

The bottom line is: we interact with people every day, and are inter-dependent upon them, as they are on us.  So, how would it be any different if a marketing organization, in parallel to communication in a family or circle of friends, not depend upon each other in similar ways?

In contrast, Integrated Marketing speaks to the mix of marketing disciplines being integrated into each other, but the mix doesn't also highlight the inter-related needs of a marketing organization.  For example, a company can have dozens of stand-alone communications vehicles using varied social media tools such as Twitter, FriendFeed, facebook, as well as email marketing, direct marketing, PR, etc., but unless those marketing vehicles are in support of one another, the consistency of messaging and visual branding will be lost.

As a marketing organization it is critical that it re-read its marketing goals; take inventory on budget, resources, human capital and chart how one activity will affect another and how an organized marketing team can take advantage of such an orchestration.

The best example in my book is film marketing.  The goal is to have a successful, high grossing film launch.  Nuff said.  Back up from there.  From day one when the film marketing is set to go the planning begins.  I've personally been in this process many times and it is very exciting to basically "storyboard" marketing to the point where a marketing team is leveraging its best assets, best people, budgeted resources and mapping out creative ideas timed to launch.  The marketing is inter-dependent, integrated and strategic.

As more social media tools are developed and marketing is handled by more people (even outside of marketing) and across distributed media will marketing teams need to take quarterly camping trips to remind themselves of how many people it actually takes to build a fire.