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NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY FROM A STRANGER!FROM A STRANGER!FROM A STRANGER!FROM A STRANGER!

30 examples of tech marketing challenges30 examples of tech marketing challenges30 examples of tech marketing challenges30 examples of tech marketing challenges and the solutions that were deployedand the solutions that were deployedand the solutions that were deployedand the solutions that were deployed

Brought to you by Keith Winfield Bates

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While struggling to survive in the business jungle keep this thought in mind. . .

NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY FROM A STRANGER! NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY FROM A STRANGER! NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY FROM A STRANGER! NOBODY BUYS TECHNOLOGY FROM A STRANGER!

For your marketing efforts to be successful your products, services and company must become familiar and understood.

Buyers and sellers need to be comfortable with one another before a sale happens.

Sometimes protective coloration works.

Case in point…

Does a zebra trust anyone near him not wearing stripes? Not likely. He was programmed to recognize that critters wearing long hair

and yellow hides could be the death of him.

The faster your marketing communications establish a level of comfort, the shorter your selling cycles will be.

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WAR STORIES WAR STORIES WAR STORIES WAR STORIES FROM THE FRONT LINES FROM THE FRONT LINES FROM THE FRONT LINES FROM THE FRONT LINES

This e-book was written to share stories about how advertising saved the day for businesses that were up to their (bleep) in alligators ...

as well as other tall tales of survival in the marketing jungle during the turbulent 70s, 80s, and 90s. While this may appear to be a history lesson, these tales and the lessons they teach

are just as valid today. As they say, history repeats itself. Only the names change.

That’s because marketing communications is largely about human nature and behavior.

I have hundreds of stories based on my many years in high tech advertising. These are just a few.

I’ve also included some lessons to learn about the newest darlings of marketing communications — social media. Whether you Tweet, post blogs, post videos on YouTube or keep your own Facebook status updated, you need to know about these tools and I haven’t left a thing out.

Read “And now a closing thought…” starting on page 96.

Exploring Social Media as a process for driving BtoB Lead Generation This PowerPoint is available at www.kbates.com.

By Keith Bates, who was there from the beginning and is still alive to tell about it.

©2010, Keith Bates & Associates, Inc. This book was composed in 2004, then edited slightly and published in 2011. 100% of the lessons are still relevant.

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AN INTRODUCTION ... AN INTRODUCTION ... AN INTRODUCTION ... AN INTRODUCTION ... designed to help you determine if you should read any further.

This book may save your life (businesswise). Or it could bore you to death. Between these two

extremes you’ll be able to have a laugh or two and sharpen your skills in advertising and marketing

whether you’re on the client side or the ad agency side. The entire book is designed on a single theme: “People don’t buy from strangers.” But I guess you’ve

already figured that out from the title. The challenge for those in marketing communication (or mar-

com) is to get out of the “stranger” mode as quickly, efficiently and inexpensively as possible.

And I’m here to show you how.

Why Zebras Only Trust Zebras

T he simple fact is, buyers and sellers have to feel comfortable in one another’s presence. Sometimes you can disguise yourself. That’s why we have “the wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Historically, there have been a lot of wolves out there. But humans, like all the other species, have a primal instinct in them that is buried deep inside. Our instinct is to trust those who are like us, to distrust anything that runs counter to our gut feelings and question the motives of others. It’s what kept us alive in our more primitive states and it’s what still guides us today. If you don’t believe me, just look at the animal kingdom. A zebra feels safest in the company of other zebras. They are programmed to quickly recognize those animals that aren’t striped like they are and take immediate evasive actions to save their lives. We have a lot in common with the zebras. We don’t automatically trust the endless ads that we are bombarded with or the salesman sitting in the lobby any more than the zebra trusts a member of the herd who suddenly shows up wearing a golden mane or a spotted coat claiming they’re a zebra, too.

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Advertising's Four Most Feared Words

All successful marcom initiatives must start by building trust.

It isn't easy. Bill Stein, former head of Campbell Mithun Advertising in Chicago,

had a sign hanging in his office.

It said, "What are the four most feared words in advertising?"

Answer, "I don't believe you."

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OFTEN, BUILDING TRUST ISN’T ENOUGH. Your messages have to be understood.

It’s easy to understand simple things: eat your toast, drink your juice, make your bed, pick up your clothes, etc.

However, only a handful of people understand artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics

or even Earl Wheeler's* SAA.

*(Earl was a very senior IBM executive and SAA, or System Application Architecture, was his idea of a protocol that

application developers would write to in order to achieve compatibility with all IBM products).

In the middle, between these two extremes, are the people this book is dedicated to.

T hey are the ones who have the uncanny ability to cut through the crap. They reside in small groups, either in the meeting rooms of advertising/marketing agencies or in the cubicles of the client. They are uniquely qualified to bridge the gap, reducing the complex world we live in and the products,

services, technologies and concepts we sell, into comprehendible, digestible nuggets that the person charged with buying not only understands, but understands well enough to spend the money.

“What do (ad) agencies do that's unique?

Let me suggest that the people in advertising are deliberately, joyfully, urgently different from our clients, not better, different. We do offer something to clients they can't get elsewhere. We are people you could never hire, for ideas you could never have.

Conversely, our clients have a kind of mastery we don't have. They take risks, have great drive, a thoroughness to make it happen, and ensure against failure. We match mastery with inspiration ... all the "I" words; ideas, imagination, insight and intuition.

If clients are in charge of the linear logical world of common sense, we are responsible for uncommon sense. In thousands of offices all over the country, clients are saying in meetings with their agency, “Well, I hadn't thought of it that way”.

Clients see people as consumers first, we "see" consumers as people first. The most successful clients, the most profitable clients have a profound appreciation of our differences. Companies organize people, product and profit. Agencies organize ideas. It is the duty of the former to protect the power of the latter. It does take a different culture to nourish idea people, we need a place where we can entertain visions, a place where we can keep fantasy, ridicule and doubt alive and well. It's passion that makes an ad agency.”

In a speech to the Women's

Advertising Club a few years

ago, Charlotte Beers, CEO of

Tatham, Laird & Kudner at

the time, summed up the

unique contribution of mar-

keting communicators to the

business world with the fol-

lowing excerpted statements:

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The K.I.S.S. Principle... Takes On New Meaning In The World Of

Today’s Marcom. It takes a unique level of imagination plus an awesome command of the King's

English to sit for hours listening to a client in today’s complex global marketplace

and then be able to go home and explain to your teenage daughter what was said

“in twenty-five words or less”.

This book is dedicated to the technology-focused marketing executives who buy this

unique skill set, and to the marketing and advertising people who sell it… so that there

might be peace and prosperity in the marketplace. There are only two ways to acquire knowledge in this world that I know of: the hard way, through your own experience, and the easy way, though the experience of others. The lessons I’m about to share with you in this book were mostly learned the hard way over the last 40 years of my career – 10 in consumer products and the other 30 in high tech. Perhaps some of the things I learned along the way will spare you the pain of learning them through years of trial and error, only to come to the same conclusions. Keith Winfield Bates

Keith Bates & Associates, Inc. (KBA) a full service, B2B ad agency, is an Illinois corporation founded in 1970. Over the next 34 years the agency served the sales and

marketing communications needs of more than 150 software and services company’s ranging in size from giants like Boeing, Computer Associates, IBM, J.D. Edwards

and Zenith Data Systems to many VC and angel funded startups. KBA was the nation’s first dedicated computer software ad agency but downsized to a consulting

organization in 2000, offering primarily creative and strategic planning.

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Lesson 1: Think about what you want your company to be when it grows up before it grows up.

Lesson 2: The odds of success improve in direct proportion to the intensity of pressure.

Lesson 3: When targeting your market don't forget your management.

Lesson 4: Go with the flow, or expire with the ebb. Communications flowcharting.

Lesson 5: Who ever heard of a battle plan to address prisoners of war?

Lesson 6: What the astute software vendor and the rock ptarmigan have in common.

Lesson 7: Positioning: either you control it or the market does; but like religion, everybody gets it, sooner or later.

Lesson 8: It's not how much you spend; it's where you spend it.

Lesson 9: In search of the elusive USP, or the fine art of differentiation.

Lesson 10: Outsourcing invades marketing because it's hard to see the frame when you're part of the picture.

Lesson 11: The CSP; assurance that your marcom flight isn't booked with Kamikaze Air.

Lesson 12: What to do with an ad agency that doesn't understand you—other than the obvious.

Lesson 13: Buyer receptivity profiles and the magic ten percent.

Lesson 14: How Ken Orr applied DSSD to understand the marcom process.

Lesson 15: The beauty of venture capital and the clean slate approach.

Lesson 16: My Ethiopian saddle and other vehicular misfits.

Lesson 17: Advertising versus public relations! Are you kidding?

Lesson 18: The strategy statement, center of your marcom universe.

Lesson 19: Adam and Eve, and other memorable ad photo sessions.

Lesson 20: "They are ready to run all risks and to spend money, undergo any sort of toil, even to die..."

Lesson 21: Paper benchmarking: why success is often reserved for the best dressed.

Lesson 22: Why it's important to build an ad, even if you never intend to use it.

Lesson 23: A simple little formula for determining if your sales ambitions are pure blue sky.

Lesson 24: Before you craft a marcom message walk a mile in your customer’s shoes.

Lesson 25: How a pair of sumo wrestlers wrestled Lawson into a winning position.

Lesson 26: Meet Frankenstein, and learn why it doesn’t pay to tamper with success.

Lesson 27: Can pigs fly? You bet! See how a warthog got sales soaring for CrossAccess.

Lesson 28: How a little Chicago-based Korean-managed violin shop became a big deal in the life of VIASOFT.

Lesson 29: How the quest for a unique photo took Napersoft to New Zealand and back only to discover treasure in their own back yard.

Lesson 30: When everything else fails you can fall back on seren- dipity. See how Eolas made some big bucks, accidentally AND NOW A CLOSING THOUGHT BECAUSE THE WORLD OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IS CHANGING RAPIDLY. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Learn from Learn from Learn from Learn from 30303030TalesTalesTalesTales of Tech Marketing challenges of Tech Marketing challenges of Tech Marketing challenges of Tech Marketing challenges

Appendix: • KBA client list from 1970 through 2010. • Success stories: The ultimate test of sales and marketing

communications

• Index of companies referenced in this book

• Bates’ Library for Technology Marketers 1970-2011

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THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT YOUR COMPANY TO BE THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT YOUR COMPANY TO BE THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT YOUR COMPANY TO BE THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT YOUR COMPANY TO BE WHEN IT GROWS UP… BEFORE IT GROWS UP. WHEN IT GROWS UP… BEFORE IT GROWS UP. WHEN IT GROWS UP… BEFORE IT GROWS UP. WHEN IT GROWS UP… BEFORE IT GROWS UP.

You’ve heard the following bits of advice before…

“A house divided cannot stand.”

“Don't change horses in the middle of the stream.” Our culture is sprinkled liberally with clichés and truisms that encourage us to pick a

direction and stick with it. Our competitors love to see us run off in many directions at once, because it creates a "divide and conquer” opportunity. However, if you’re unable to focus on what you do best, the result could be “divide and die” instead.

A very basic truth of business is that you can’t be all things to all people. If you want to become

the greatest systems software vendor, for instance, then master that category before you expand

into applications or systems integration. Lack of focus, failure to take an aggressive stance in all of your marketing, not having a unique selling proposition or point of differentiation and changing your messages constantly are signs of a weak commit-ment in the minds of your target audience. Your indecision sets off alarms in your customers’ minds. To them, you’re saying, “I’m not sure of myself,” and “Even I don’t really believe what I’m telling you.” And if you don’t believe it, they certainly won’t. Without the courage of conviction you will find firm resistance in the marketplace. People won’t buy from you.

Lesson 1

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A good example of this is Zenith Data Systems. They went from being a zero dollar to a billion-dollar business in very short order, all on the strength of their

innovation in portable computer design. Then they got confused. They decided to be all things to all people in the computer category. Instead of portables, they built desktops, laptops, notebooks, etc. New products were being launched almost daily. They should have stuck to what they did best. Instead of owning the portable computer market, they fell on hard times. Eventually, they were acquired by Groupe Bull, which then merged with Packard Bell and NEC to become Packard Bell NEC, Inc. in 1989. They never were able to figure out “What they wanted to be when they grew up” and they paid the ultimate price.

G eneral Binding Corporation (GBC) is another good

example. For nearly 40 years they were in the business of selling office equipment and document management solutions, i.e., binding, lamination, shredding and paper products. They were doing $200 million in annual sales, that is, until they became enamored with microcomputers in the 1970s. They thought they couldn’t go wrong; it was such a hot market. So they bought a piece of NorthStar, made a deal with Televideo, dreamed up sexy product names like System 9 and System 12 and went to market. On a national level no less. In hindsight, they probably should have done a bit of market research and tested the market before jumping in with both feet into a new product category. But the economy was hot and the promise of riding the coattails of a new industry to untold riches was too tempting.

“Why invest in a Marcom

Engine AUDIT MODULE?

Consider the following

scenario:

Zenith Data Systems had a

major internal communica-

tions problem. First; there

was lack of cohesiveness

among the many organiza-

tions, both internal and ex-

ternal, required to support

ZDS, arid second there was

evidence that the company

was no longer sufficiently

responsive to either their

distributor's or their cus-

tomer’s needs.

Bill Davidow, formerly with

HP, says in his book Market-

ing High Technology, "Until

every single employee under-

stands that the objective of

the company is to serve the

customer, the customer will

never get the best the com-

pany can offer." It took KBA

seven months to audit forty

two key employees, from the

CEO on down, and to visit

every sales office in the US,

Canada, and Australia to

analyze the problem and

prepare the recommenda-

tions.”

www.kbates.com/marcomaudit.htm

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GBC’s national sales force was trained at their corporate headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois. One week they learned what a computer was and the next week they learned how to sell them. They were then sent back into the field with microcomputer sales materials tucked among the other office and binding products collateral of GBC. Two years later, it became painfully obvious that the market didn’t need another microcomputer, especially one from a company that made its name in binding products. The day they folded that division there were cheers in the boardroom. It was a $2 million loss and a hard lesson in committing to communications.

P eat Marwick, which later became part of KPMG, learned a similar

lesson. They bought a company that made software engineering

tools just as computer aided software engineering was coming into its

own. The new endeavor was named Catalyst, so it could build its own

brand identity and stand on its own, even though it was wholly owned by

Peat Marwick.

Sales took off in the first year, thanks to some focused advertising strategies from KBA. Sales doubled quickly. With growth came ambitions to expand. Zero Time, a small Canadian company, was added to the mix. It had a strong willed manager that wanted to keep the company name. Catalyst wanted to keep theirs. So they compromised, and marched off into oblivion as a result. The new name was Peat Marwick Advanced Technology. This put them squarely back in the pre-Catalyst soup. It was the wrong identity. Peat Marwick owned a position at the time of being a “great accounting firm” in the Midwest. Peat Marwick Advanced Technology did nothing to reposition them as a “great software firm.” Today, PMAT is but a memory. It was dismembered and parts of it went to XA Systems who parsed it out further.

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G roup 1 is another shining example of what I am talking about. It was one of the leaders in mail management automation. But they had a problem with picking a look and sticking with it.

In a one-year period the company had tried a half dozen communication campaigns that were all different. In essence, they took their total ad budget and divided it by six, because they kept changing their direction. This was a recipe for failure, and they failed miserably in the end.

IBM has been guilty of this, too. At the time I was working with them, they had publicly stated that they were going to increase software revenue by 50% in 1992. I drafted a recommendation that had the working title, “What must IBM do to position themselves as a software company?” It contained some pretty strong advice; including using market research to better under-stand their customer’s needs in conjunction and engaging an ad agency that understood software marketing. But they didn’t listen. It’s questionable whether they ever achieved their much-publicized target. IBM didn’t get its arms around the idea of having consistent, integrated, seamless communications and they certainly didn’t have a feel for selling software at the time.

JD Edwards, a Denver based vendor of mid-

range (AS/400) applications I worked closely

with, offered an experience quite in contrast to the

previous tales. After years of relatively flat sales, they hired our agency to assist them, largely because KBA had a lot of experience in their software category. We launched a campaign for them that announced “user programmability,” a very desirable software feature. To their credit, JD Edwards ran with a consistent message and look. They were rewarded handsomely for it, too. Their sales quadrupled in the three years they ran that campaign, never changing the core messaging. And eventually they became a billion dollar company ending up in Oracle’s collection.

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S ystem 5 wasn’t so lucky. With 20 years under their belt as an information provider for the construc-tion industry, they decided to package their service and become a pure service bureau instead. Things

seemed to be going well initially, but then it became evident that the plan was overly ambitious – the shift into development tools stretched their resources too far. Trying to shore up their dwindling revenues, they sold off the cash cow along with their name. Today, they’re a footnote in the history of businesses that strayed from the path in an effort to be all things to all people and lost everything in the process. I leave you with one other tale. Wallace Computer Services was a giant in the Chicago area. Well respected and wealthy, the company was a $200 million printer behemoth. They eventually took a fancy to software systems for generat-ing labels. Thanks to an aggressive communications program, their new darling division climbed from 7th place to 2nd in terms of revenue, thanks in part to a well executed marketing communications program that grew from $50,000 to half a million in 24 months. The company even managed to force its biggest competitor to increase its advertising budget substantially to meet the challenge. Then came management apathy, changes in management, a new ad agency was brought in, there was a reorganization and the downward spiral began. What did customers glean from this? These actions said, “Our commit-ment is faltering as our enthusiasm wanes.” Wallace never truly recov-ered. Even though they had been in business since 1908, their miscues led to their acquisition by Moore Corporation, Ltd., which was then acquired by RR Donnelley. I think you get the idea by now. Try to think about what you want your company to look like when it grows up and dress for it accordingly right now. Marketing communications is the clothing often used to cover the nakedness of indecision – pick the right suit.

WHAT’S THE POINT? FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!

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THE ODDS OF SUCCESS VARY IN DIRECT PROPORTION THE ODDS OF SUCCESS VARY IN DIRECT PROPORTION THE ODDS OF SUCCESS VARY IN DIRECT PROPORTION THE ODDS OF SUCCESS VARY IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO THE INTENSITY OF PRESSURE. TO THE INTENSITY OF PRESSURE. TO THE INTENSITY OF PRESSURE. TO THE INTENSITY OF PRESSURE.

Harry S Truman, who wasn’t one of my favorite people, put it best: "If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen." He really should have let McArthur keep going in

Korea. But I’ll leave that to another time.

If you're in business to win, resistance by the competition will grow stronger as you approach your goal. We've all heard the lecture on perseverance, and the following

inspiring words:

Press OnPress OnPress OnPress On

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men

with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a

proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated

derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Most people agree that 1969 was the year that the software industry came into being. It was the year that the federal courts forced IBM to unbundle its software products

and hardware products so they would have to be sold separately.

Lesson 2

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J OE PISCOPO, THE DATA PROCESSING GUY AT MONTGOMERY WARD, not the Saturday

Night Live comedian, had an idea, a vision if you will. So he launched Pansophic Systems, a little

software company that was funded by friends and relatives. Things were OK for the startup, growth

was steady but they didn’t really set the world on fire. They brought in an ad agency (KBA). The agency’s recommendation? Full page ads – everywhere – as much and as often as the budget would allow. Even though they were a small company, the strategy was to position it as a major contender by establishing a presence everywhere. Buying share of mind is never easy. Other people are struggling for share of market too. Often with equal skills, and sometimes better funded. It’s a measured risk, but Joe accepted it and the first Easytrieve skeleton ad showed up. An ad that was voted “best of the decade” some time later at a large technology conference.

Then things went from bad to worse. Expenses were far ahead of sales. The mar-ket hiccupped and Joe took a deep breath. His fledgling company was in trouble. He even had difficulty paying his ad agency. Did he stop the ads? No. He held a deep-seated conviction that he had a moral ob-ligation to the people who believed in him to continue to promote his company and his products. The pressure to back off became intense. But Joe persevered. He was determined to maintain his image of being a major player. The ads never stopped. Eventually, the dry spell passed. All the pressure that had built up propelled him ahead, right into a leadership position in the market. Eventually, Pansophic Systems became a $200 million seller of IBM utilities

and applications. Joe ended up doing extremely well. With the purchase of

Pansophic’s PanSort in the mid 1970s, Computer Associates (CA) gained its

first product. Years later Pansophic was sold to Computer Associates (1991) for

about $300 million.

If you remember the movie The Right Stuff, just before the sound barrier was broken, Col. Chuck Yeager, a long time friend of mine, experienced severe buffeting. The air pressure was building up all around the X-1 just before it went sonic and suddenly all the pressure was released in a loud sonic boom. In business, the intensifying pressure we feel – the pressure Joe felt – is a lot like that moment – it signals that a breakthrough is imminent.

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I am reminded of an adventure that a friend and I had several years ago. It had been our

ambition to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro for 20 years. If you don’t know much about the mountain,

it is a snow capped peak in Tanzania, East Africa that is about 20,000 feet high. We picked up our permits, porters and guide at park head-quarters. We were told that there would be more than 100 climbers going on this four or five day trip to the top and back. Most were in their 20s and 30s. We were in our mid 50s. The thought occurred to me that it might be pretty crowded at the top with a hundred people there. But then I remembered a lesson that is as true in the real world as it is in business – it’s never crowded at the top. Sure enough, half the group had quit the trek by the

third night. Half of the rest turned back at 17,000 feet. At 18,000, half of the remaining climbers quit. At 19,340 feet, as the wind howled at the summit, it wasn’t crowded at all. Only eight of us had made it to the top.

Sustaining marketing momentum generally pays bigger and bigger dividends as the going gets tougher and tougher. If you want to make it to the top, you need to weather the pressure and stick to your plan on the way there.

WHAT’S THE POINT? STOPPING YOUR ADVERTISING TO SAVE MONEY IS LIKE STOPPING YOUR WATCH TO SAVE TIME.

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WHEN TARGETING YOUR MARKETING, WHEN TARGETING YOUR MARKETING, WHEN TARGETING YOUR MARKETING, WHEN TARGETING YOUR MARKETING, DON'T FORGET YOUR MANAGEMENT. DON'T FORGET YOUR MANAGEMENT. DON'T FORGET YOUR MANAGEMENT. DON'T FORGET YOUR MANAGEMENT.

At ABC Systems, a PC-based plant maintenance company,

company president Verne hired Skip as his marketing guy to

help shore up sagging sales.

S kip looked at the company’s current marketing communications, a series of vertical third ads, with a little cartoon character, small type and a splash of red for a second color. The ads generated a few leads but the company wasn’t making much progress. There were lots of good sales opportunities that they were never asked to bid on; others they lost for a variety of reasons. Skip felt they weren’t being considered because they weren’t viewed as a serious entry in the market. He decided it was time to make some noise in the marketplace. He hired KBA as his ad agency and asked them to come up with something dramatic. A month later, a bunch of company executives gathered to hear our creative suggestions. We pitched eight concepts. All were solid approaches that were based on a strategy statement we had all agreed upon. There were glamorous photos of people in action, heart tugging user stories, no nonsense demands for attention and one totally off the

wall, flagrantly borrowed-interest approach.

Lesson 3

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I t was a huge shark’s mouth, gaping and bloody, with the simple,

to-the-point-headline that screamed: “Downtime kills profits –

ABC kills downtime.” Totally irrelevant, but very attention

getting. The shark attacked the marcom problem that ABC’s man-

agement collectively chorused – “Nobody knows we’re alive.” Every-

body except Verne agreed the shark was a smashing visual. Over

Verne’s objection the ad ran. Leads rolled in. Awareness grew. Sales

picked up…but Verne was not happy. The shark wasn’t “him.”

The marketing VP, based on the success of the ad, wanted more control. The president resisted and ultimately prevailed. The ad was stopped. Skip was terminated. It was another case of battling emotion with logic. The outcome is always the same. Logic said, “If the campaign is working, anything goes.” Emotion said, “It’s not my company, it’s not my image and I don’t like it.”

The moral of the story? Sales and marketing do not work in a vacuum. Get senior management to sign off on the marcom early. Without their emotional commitment and buy-in you’re skating on thin ice. And it’s guaranteed to

crack under the tiniest strain.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WITHOUT MANAGEMENT BUYWITHOUT MANAGEMENT BUYWITHOUT MANAGEMENT BUYWITHOUT MANAGEMENT BUY----IN IN IN IN

YOUR MARCOM’S GOING NOWHERE. YOUR MARCOM’S GOING NOWHERE. YOUR MARCOM’S GOING NOWHERE. YOUR MARCOM’S GOING NOWHERE.

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GO WITH THE FLOW OR EXPIRE WITH THE EBB. GO WITH THE FLOW OR EXPIRE WITH THE EBB. GO WITH THE FLOW OR EXPIRE WITH THE EBB. GO WITH THE FLOW OR EXPIRE WITH THE EBB. COMMUNICATIONS FLOWCHARTING SAVES LIVES.COMMUNICATIONS FLOWCHARTING SAVES LIVES.COMMUNICATIONS FLOWCHARTING SAVES LIVES.COMMUNICATIONS FLOWCHARTING SAVES LIVES. In the world of programming, flowcharts are nothing new. But in the world of communications, especially in the technology industry, flowcharts are encountered about as frequently as unicorns (the real thing). And that’s what this lesson is about – charts. Sure, Pert charts and Gant charts are used on occasion. For the typical marcom

manager, though, they seem a little esoteric. So I suggest you try a simple calendar

instead.

G et a big horizontal piece of paper. Put the 12 months across the top. Divide it into 52 vertical columns, one for each week of the year. Then create two dozen rows. Divide the number of rows by three… one for the marcom efforts required for locating prospects, one for contacting prospects and one for selling prospects. Under each broad heading list all the activities required such as research, list purchases, ads, mail, collat-eral, etc.

THAT ALL! NOW DO IT! SEE THE NEXT PAGE FOR A SUCCESS STORY.

Lesson 4

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PCR (Professional Computer Resources), which became the

application division of Pansophic Systems, developed

such a chart. They had so many promotional activities going on at the same time that there was no other way to keep track of the input, process-ing, and output of every marcom effort without this graphical representa-tion. Horizontal color bars measured the span of each effort. There is a fringe benefit to this approach. While reading horizontally gives you a clear picture of timelines, reading vertically provides superb cash flow projections. Communications flowcharts function as GUI's (graphical user interfaces) between you and corporate management.

Imagine gazing up at a mountain, gathering glimpses from time to time of the trail snaking ever upward. Unless you verify your milestones or checkpoints regularly, you can become so engrossed in the destination that you fail to anticipate the effort required to handle boulders on the trail, weak bridges, washouts, or the slowed pace caused by rarified air at high altitudes. All the rich resources found in the rainforest at the base of the mountain will be stretched, sometimes beyond limits, as you approach the ice cap on top. When plotting a path in marcom keep your eyes on the road ahead but don't forget to look both ways at crossings.

How did PCR benefit from this extraordinary effort? They doubled sales every year for four years, growing from $2 to $4 to $8 to $16 million, finally selling their little fledgling company to Pansophic Systems for $20 million. Pansophic was later acquired by Computer

Associates. PCR’s products allowed CA to enter the ERP market. PCR also trained Keith Bates

for a future client—JDEdwards!

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? MARCOM MOVES BETTER WITH A BLUEPRINT.MARCOM MOVES BETTER WITH A BLUEPRINT.MARCOM MOVES BETTER WITH A BLUEPRINT.MARCOM MOVES BETTER WITH A BLUEPRINT.

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WHOEVER HEARD OF A BATTLE PLAN TO ADDRESS WHOEVER HEARD OF A BATTLE PLAN TO ADDRESS WHOEVER HEARD OF A BATTLE PLAN TO ADDRESS WHOEVER HEARD OF A BATTLE PLAN TO ADDRESS PRISONERS OF WAR? PRISONERS OF WAR? PRISONERS OF WAR? PRISONERS OF WAR?

Once a prospect is captured, he's captured! Who needs a recapture plan? This was the basic marcom strategy promoted by the software industry before entering the zero growth phase of our economy. When there are no new custom-ers to be had, it may behoove you to sell more to existing customers. Common sense, right? Belaboring the obvious? Right again. So why don't marketers take recapture seriously?

I asked a client recently how sales broke down, new customers vs. exist-ing. He acknowledged that new sales were 35% of revenue. Existing cus-tomers 65%. This is based on a twelve month period. I then asked him to justify using 100% of his marketing dollars to target new customers — a third of his business. When was the last time you developed a marketing plan solely to ad-dress current customers? This topic is addressed thoroughly in a really powerful book by Stan Rapp and Tom Collins called MaxiMarketing. (McGraw Hill). The authors state, "We predict that by 1990 most service companies (read "formerly software") and many product manufacturers will be spending as much time and money maximizing their relationships with known customers as they now do on their brand image advertising to the world at large." For many of us this is news but it is just as true today as it was two decades ago. Some companies, including IBM, have known this truth for a long

Lesson 5

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time. The great ad agencies understand this very well. Leo Burnett, Ogilvy & Mather, and a few others understand that faster, less expensive growth often comes from within.

T otal Customer Service, the Ultimate Weapon, by William Davidow and Bro Uttal is simply an extension of the concept that says plucking

blueberries from your own berry patch is less taxing than competing for wild berries in the woods with the rest of the animals. Two quotes from that book are worth sharing. For Delta as for IBM, word of mouth and customers past ex-periences have created an invisible cocoon that keeps competition at bay. Try-ing to combat this advantage is like wrestling with the fog. And the other goes on to say, By far the largest costs that outstanding service save are those of replacing lost customers. There is no proven method for measuring these savings, but a common rule of thumb is that the marketing costs of landing a new customer run three to five times the marketing cost of

retaining an old one.

Next time you produce an ad or develop a mailing piece, think about the message, and its possible impact, not on prospective customers, but existing customers. Does it encourage them to buy more? Does it thank them for buying what they did? Or does it ignore them or alienate them in any way? Food for thought. And in a zero growth economy, marketing communications needs all the nourishment it can get. One interesting application of this philosophy in the technology sector is the pre-selling of three to five year maintenance contracts. In a sense you're selling futures, but one enterprising utility systems com-pany with a large installed base raised $7 million dollars in only a few months with an aggressive tele-marketing campaign built around this very idea.

WHAT’S THE POINT? REVENUE FROM OLD CUSTOMERS COST LESS TO ACQUIRE THAN FROM NEW.

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WHAT THE ASTUTE SOFTWARE VENDOR AND THE WHAT THE ASTUTE SOFTWARE VENDOR AND THE WHAT THE ASTUTE SOFTWARE VENDOR AND THE WHAT THE ASTUTE SOFTWARE VENDOR AND THE ROCK PTARMIGAN HAVE IN COMMON.ROCK PTARMIGAN HAVE IN COMMON.ROCK PTARMIGAN HAVE IN COMMON.ROCK PTARMIGAN HAVE IN COMMON.

The ptarmigan is a fat little bird of the Alaskan tundra. When he emerges in spring he is brown. In early fall he is half brown and half white. By winter he is all white. He adapts to conditions, much as we do in the marketplace. As technology products grow and mature they also often evolve into something that looks quite

different from that which left the nest.

G erry Wagner knew why he built IFPS. Decision Support Systems (DSS) was a hot new concept at the time, and people were buying. Execucom Systems was doing well. Businesses liked the powerful capabil-ity that was built into Execucom's software. Gerry's Interactive Financial Planning Systems (IFPS), a sort of 4th generation language, did a lot of wonderful things. So many, in fact, that their ad agency (KBA) had a diffi-cult time achieving the focus that was required to build an effective ad campaign. • The typical software system provides its users with dozens of benefits… but who ever heard of an ad with a dozen headlines. • The solution was obvious. Do research. Poll the user base and ask them why they bought the system and what they're using it for.

It turned out to be quite a surprise. Users weren't using it the way they were supposed to. They found all sorts of new applications. The bottom line… using management's perception of IFPS' major appeal instead of the user’s would have caused the ads to miss their mark by a mile. The moral: There's no way to know what's in a user’s head without getting in there. You may have built the system but you're not living in the user environment. There's almost always a disconnect between design, development and actual use. Unfortunately, the marketer often discovers it only after his budget has been consumed.

Lesson 6

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A nother classic case involved Napersoft, a technology company that spent years developing a mainframe word processing system. It was to be their first and only one on the market. Ads were developed, brochures produced and an ambitious campaign launched. Then came unforeseen problems. First, IBM launched a similar product a month later. Management's response to this was to launch a direct mail effort to DP Managers, mounting a much more aggressive sales campaign than IBM put out. Second, the company came to find out the DP manager was the wrong target. This was discovered after the ad agency’s (KBA) account manager personally called several dozen DP managers, made appoint-ments and took the client’s president around with him! It didn't take many visits to discover their system was perceived to be a marketing tool and generated no interest whatsoever with the technicians. After a struggle, including a period where the product was sold to another company, it became an accepted software tool for use as an automated text management system for companies managing mass mailings for customer support and large-scale direct marketing merchandisers. Today, Napersoft is doing well, but it took a while to find the right niche.

In marketing products and services in the technology industry the specific market is not always obvious. If sales are flagging, spend more time with users doing research. Only a few years ago beta testing involved hundreds of users and multiple test versions. Now I hear of products going to market after a single beta site exposure. It's no wonder communications become misdirected. Find out the differences between your perceptions of product benefits and the user’s

perceptions. Al Ries and Jack Trout address this issue to a degree in their book Bottom-Up

Marketing.

They write, “Traditional top-down marketing seems so logical. First you decide what you want to do (the strategy). Then you figure out how to do it (the tactics).” In this pioneering book, Ries and Trout explain why marketing should be practiced in the reverse. Find a tactic that will work. Then build the tactic into a strategy. Sort of like Tom Peters’ (of Search/Passion for Excellence fame) “Ready, Fire, Aim.”

WHAT’S THE POINT? THE REASON YOU BUILT IT MAY NOT BE THE REASON THEY COME.

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POSITIONING: POSITIONING: POSITIONING: POSITIONING: EITHER YOU CONTROL IT EITHER YOU CONTROL IT EITHER YOU CONTROL IT EITHER YOU CONTROL IT OR THE MARKET DOES; BUT LIKE RELIGION, OR THE MARKET DOES; BUT LIKE RELIGION, OR THE MARKET DOES; BUT LIKE RELIGION, OR THE MARKET DOES; BUT LIKE RELIGION,

EVERYBODY GETS IT, SOONER OR LATER. EVERYBODY GETS IT, SOONER OR LATER. EVERYBODY GETS IT, SOONER OR LATER. EVERYBODY GETS IT, SOONER OR LATER.

Al Ries and Jack Trout get the credit for launching the “positioning” concept. Their book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, has become a classic. Often mistaken for “product positioning,” communication positioning is not what you do to a product. It's what you do to the mind of the prospect.

All products, other than those that are totally obscure, pick up a set of traits over the years, much like a person's “personality” or “persona” as we say today. The analogy with human life is quite appropriate. Products are born, become entities separate from their parents; go through rapid growth, adolescence, maturity, old age and death. There are a few, very few that appear to be lingering forever, obviously offspring of Methuse-lah and Co. Inc. Through this aging process personalities emerge, created both by heredity (inherent strengths and weaknesses) and environment

(the marketing communications programs that guide their growth). As with man, the age-old question arises… which plays the greater role. And the answer remains as elusive as ever.

W hile it's common knowledge that communications can't save a weak product (often it even accelerates its demise), it is equally true that build-ing a better mousetrap is no assurance the world will beat a path to your door.

Lesson 7

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Back in the early 1980s a couple of Northwestern University profes-sors started a little software company in Evanston, IL called SIR DBMS.

E li Cohen was a brilliant technician. His R&D staff was continually growing and being refined. His products were selling well in Europe. Many major pharmaceutical companies swore by his system. His market-ing efforts didn't go so well though. Eli didn't understand marketing; he wasn't even really sure he needed it. His sales force and his marketing management turned over a couple of times a year. His technology was so new that the concept did not have a clear position, either in his mind or in the market. Feeling that sales should be better, he hired KBA because of its many years of experience in software marketing.

He described his system as a new way to manage data, but not in the common hierarchical fashion. His approach was something he called “relational technol-ogy.” He referred to his product as a Relational DBMS and explained that there really were no competitors, just a couple of small start-up companies in Califor-nia… one called Oracle, run by some ex-Chicagoan named Larry Ellison, and the other RTI, with a product called Ingres. Before a serious campaign could be launched, Eli moved the company to spacious new quarters near the Old Orchard shopping center outside of Skokie and expanded R&D even further. Serious market-ing communications were put on hold while Eli prepared for the world to beat a path to his door. It took about a year of heavy overhead and no marketing before Eli was forced to turn out the lights at SIR DBMS and go home, leaving the world of Relational DBMS to those little California companies. He also left his ad agency (KBA) holding the bag for $40,000. Positioning was just something he never got the hang of and it cost him his business.

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M any technology companies choose to ignore the impact of positioning, hoping that based on the quality of their product, the proper personality will emerge. They just figure that the character traits ascribed by their company will be the ones customers will buy. What these people fail to under-stand, however, is that lack of paid advertising forfeits their control over the message. All the news and opinion generated by competitors, ambitious editors, the public, industry gurus, analysts, regulatory agencies and others in the field of public opinion, some unfriendly and some simply misinformed, continues on with no balancing response.

The famous quote that everyone in marketing knows by heart is, “I know that half my advertising dollars are wasted, I just don’t know which half.”

Take a look at your current marketing communications effort.

Better still, have a consultant or ad agency perform a marcom audit.

For an audit insight visit www.kbates.com/marcomaudit.htm

Do some research. Is the position you occupy in the mind of prospects and customers the one you want… is it the one that's best for you? Or are outside forces encountering no resistance from you, shap-ing your company’s perceptions and your future in the minds of your prospects and existing customers?

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? IT’S NOT IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE MARKET… BUT IT’S IT’S NOT IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE MARKET… BUT IT’S IT’S NOT IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE MARKET… BUT IT’S IT’S NOT IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE MARKET… BUT IT’S VERY IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE PROSPECT’S MIND.VERY IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE PROSPECT’S MIND.VERY IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE PROSPECT’S MIND.VERY IMPORTANT WHERE YOU FIT IN THE PROSPECT’S MIND.

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IT'S NOT HOW MUCH YOU SPEND, IT'S NOT HOW MUCH YOU SPEND, IT'S NOT HOW MUCH YOU SPEND, IT'S NOT HOW MUCH YOU SPEND, IT'S WHERE YOU SPEND IT.IT'S WHERE YOU SPEND IT.IT'S WHERE YOU SPEND IT.IT'S WHERE YOU SPEND IT.

TECHNOLOGY COMPANY A (to spare the guilty any further embarrassment) spent 75% of its marcom budget on PR. The PR firm did a fantastic job. The

clipping book must have weighed 10 pounds. But the patient died. The company's not belly up yet, but it’s definitely in its death throes. Why? Company A forgot one little detail in taking its product to market. At some point you have to ask for the order!

S ome wise old owl once said that marketing without advertising is like winking at a pretty girl in a totally dark room. You know you're doing it, but…

TECHNOLOGY COMPANY B, on the other hand, believed very strongly in traditional advertising. I use “advertising” throughout this book in

the very broad, generic sense that includes all controlled communications – ads, mail, sales, promotion and often PR because it too is a controlled communication media. Many companies define “advertising” more narrowly as simply magazine or broadcast transmitted messages. Technology Company B did very well, grew rapidly, and eventually made plans to go public. Plans for the IPO quickly hit a snag when research indicated a very low awareness of the company. Plans for the IPO were delayed while a new ad campaign was launched and a massive PR program was instituted. The initial heavy advertising with its product-centric focus, sustained over years, made the product names household words. But the corporate identity had always remained subordinate. Using 20/20 hindsight, a balanced marcom program would have used PR to keep the company in the limelight while its products were battling it out on the front lines.

SOFTWARE COMPANY C somehow got the hang of balanced marcom efforts early in the game and used the credibility of PR in conjunction with the control

offered by advertising to build the world's biggest software company.

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This parable has an uncanny likeness to the story of the three little pigs, which is fine if it helps you remember that a house strong enough to weather any storm uses advertising as the bricks and PR as the mortar. A study conducted by my ad agency of several dozen clients over the years resulted in a very interest-ing table regarding marcom budgeting. It seems that the average client, whether working with $100,000 or $1,000,000, spends about 26% of its total marcom budget on media advertising, usually print. This holds true no matter what the product or service. An exactly equal amount, another 26% is spent on direct marketing, or lead generating activities such as direct mail, card decks, postcard inserts and telemarketing. 10 to 15 % is spent on collateral, 10 to 15 % is spent on advertising/PR counsel and the balance in 5% increments for trade shows, seminars, user groups, etc.

O bviously there are exceptions, but these are averages. A couple of years after this study was done, Business Marketing magazine did a similar study, only theirs was broadly based on the whole business-to-business ad community and not limited to technology. However, the numbers were re-markably similar. Like everything else in life, moderation is the key to success. Equal parts of awareness building

ads and PR, mixed with lead generating activities, is the safest road to success.

“Flip” Filipowski, founder of DBMS Inc. (now a CA company) and head of fast growing Platinum Technologies, summed up the situation nicely in a short speech he gave at a Chicago High Tech Asso-ciation meeting several years ago. I've forgotten the title and the exact words but the gist of it was sim-ply that to be successful in business it's not enough to excel at one thing, you've got to be pretty profi-cient at everything. A single weakness can pull your company down like a house of cards. So balance your company with equal strengths in technology, marketing, operations, etc. just as you must balance your marcom with equal efforts put into ads, PR, direct response and sales promotion. (Flip, founder of Divine, should have taken his own advice).

WHAT’S THE POINT? IT’S NOT HOW MUCH YOU SPEND BUT WHERE YOU SPEND IT.

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IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE USP IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE USP IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE USP IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE USP orororor THE FINE ART OF THE FINE ART OF THE FINE ART OF THE FINE ART OF DIFFERENTIATIONDIFFERENTIATIONDIFFERENTIATIONDIFFERENTIATION

Neil McElwee, a former principal in several Silicon Valley ad shops, gets the credit for this innovative marcom tool. I modified it for my use. You may

modify it for yours, but the idea remains the same. Its purpose is to identify a “unique selling proposition” for you to use as a product differentiator.

Lesson 9

Start by analyzing your competitor’s messages to the market (claims); weigh them against the market's desires (demands) and produce a claims/demands

matrix that enables you to find the hole or “USP” (unique selling proposition). The hole is a cell in the matrix where a user demand is not being met by

a vendor claim. If you can fill this hole you have yourself a unique selling proposition or point of

differentiation. As we all know, this USP doesn't have to be real, it can be perceived: it also doesn't have to be unique but it must be a promise no one else is

using. The chart to the right is a VERY old chart but the process is still relevant.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Why doesn't

everybody do it and achieve instant

marketing success? Well, it's not nearly as

easy to execute as I've made it sound.

PRODUCT POSITIONING MATRIX:

COMPETITIVE CLAIMS VS. MARKET DEMANDS

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When it works, it works well. This approach was used in our development of a

copy platform for IBM as the result of the Communications Support Plan

KBA built for DB2. It opened some eyes. But IBM had done the necessary home-work to support this approach. Most companies don't.

If you don't have access to research that clearly states what the market desires in a product like yours, you have insufficient data to start the matrix. If you don't know which of the many benefits offered by your product are considered primary and which are secondary, you'll have a problem. If you haven't had a skilled communicator, intimately knowledgeable in your market, perform a marcom audit on all

your competitors, you'll have trouble assembling the claim portion.

And even after you've done all this there's still a chance you won't find a hole. Even if you do, you now have the added challenge of producing powerful, heart

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stopping, memorable advertising with the ability to reach people's emotional level and change attitudes, and behavior, in your favor. Finally, there's the be-lievability factor to consider. Just because your claim is true doesn't mean it will be accepted. If you'd like to try this approach start by producing a grid of 100 cells, 10 across and 10 down. Across the top list market demands or desires in terms of functions and attributes. Put those most desired at the left, least desired at the right. In effect you are creating column headings. Now down the left side, in any order, list your competitors. With a list of their primary claims on a piece of paper put an X at the intersection of each competitor’s name with the corresponding market-desired function or attribute. This will tell you if the competitor is offering what the market wants and hopefully, leave a position open or weakly covered for you to exploit.

F oote Cone & Belding, one of the nation's leading ad agencies, developed a variation on this

theme for their consumer product clients called Gridlogic and used it successfully for many

years with multi-million dollar advertisers.

Try it, you'll like it. At best it could revolutionize your creative strategy. At worst you'll have a better appreciation for the relationship between promises and desires.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? IF YOU CAN’T STAND OUT IN THE CROWD, SIT DOWN.IF YOU CAN’T STAND OUT IN THE CROWD, SIT DOWN.IF YOU CAN’T STAND OUT IN THE CROWD, SIT DOWN.IF YOU CAN’T STAND OUT IN THE CROWD, SIT DOWN.

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OUTSOURCING INVADES MARKETING ... BECAUSE IT'S HARD OUTSOURCING INVADES MARKETING ... BECAUSE IT'S HARD OUTSOURCING INVADES MARKETING ... BECAUSE IT'S HARD OUTSOURCING INVADES MARKETING ... BECAUSE IT'S HARD TO SEE THE FRAME WHEN YOU'RE PART OF THE PICTURE.TO SEE THE FRAME WHEN YOU'RE PART OF THE PICTURE.TO SEE THE FRAME WHEN YOU'RE PART OF THE PICTURE.TO SEE THE FRAME WHEN YOU'RE PART OF THE PICTURE. At the time, LPC (List Processing Company) was the fastest growing software division of Pitney Bowes, that granddaddy of equipment makers for dealing with the US Postal Service. LPC is not a new company. They've been around since the early 70's. LPC was founded by Jim Pehta,

intensely knowledgeable in the workings of the post office, who was once Chairman of the

Mailer's Technical Advisory Committee to the Postmaster General. Unfortunately, Jimmy's little company wasn't growing very fast. Then they got a break. They ran into Don Landgraf, recently resigned EVP of Pansophic and one of the key architects of that company's incredible success.

Jim recognized an opportunity and immediately outsourced his marketing management to Don. Don took that sleepy little company from about $500,000 in annual sales to $5 million in pretty short order. As a token of LPC's appreciation, he was invited on board as President. And there he stayed for many years until the entrepreneurial itch started again. He left to found AIRS, which also grew rapidly and became a real thorn in the side for one of PMS's (Policy Manage-ment System) markets. As you know, outsourcing has added a real twist in the area of data centers and it is beginning to impact some marketing management as well. I'm not talking about the original outsourcing concept, which says you get rid of hardware, people and the whole bit in favor of outside management.

Lesson 10

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I'm talking about the growing trend toward outsourcing the decision-making machinery through the use of consultants at increasingly higher management levels. The advantage? Typically a much broader experience base along with the hired gun mentality that says let’s get in there, get the job done and get out. It’s ideal for today's business climate which defines long range planning as next year's activities. There has been a lot of in-depth editorial on this topic over the years, but I don’t see it changing. Now we're seeing marketing managers considering the same approach. Senior communications execs the company couldn’t possibly afford to have on staff but possessing a huge experience database are being brought on board. An obvious caveat is to avoid representatives of IBJ (in-between-jobs) Consultants, Inc. A fast look at references and client lists usually resolves this potential problem.

KBA got a pleasant surprise when we decided to package our marcom audits in early 1990. Before the ink was even dry we had nibbles from Dun & Bradstreet Soft-

ware, IBM and Zenith Data Systems. Eventually ZDS signed up for a fairly extensive program requiring nearly six months to complete. A simple audit can be done in 60 days, while IBM, which

is working primarily in-house, had been at it for a year.

For KBA Marcom Audit details visit our site at: www.kbates.com/marcomaudit.htm

A pitfall to avoid is the cost of implementing recommendations down the road. Once you have this outsourced specialist's recommendations, do you have the budget, management's commitment, and the resources to implement? Another reason for considering the use of a communications consultant is the subjective bias of

disagreeing sales and marketing managers when it comes to strategy issues. This situation can force

you to use acceptable, arms length counsel to arbitrate the situation.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? THERE’S A DEFINITE MARKET FOR THE HIRED THERE’S A DEFINITE MARKET FOR THE HIRED THERE’S A DEFINITE MARKET FOR THE HIRED THERE’S A DEFINITE MARKET FOR THE HIRED GUN, BUT CHOOSE CAREFULLY.GUN, BUT CHOOSE CAREFULLY.GUN, BUT CHOOSE CAREFULLY.GUN, BUT CHOOSE CAREFULLY.

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THE CSP: ASSURANCE THAT YOUR MARCOM FLIGHT THE CSP: ASSURANCE THAT YOUR MARCOM FLIGHT THE CSP: ASSURANCE THAT YOUR MARCOM FLIGHT THE CSP: ASSURANCE THAT YOUR MARCOM FLIGHT ISN'T BOOKED WITH KAMIKAZI AIR.ISN'T BOOKED WITH KAMIKAZI AIR.ISN'T BOOKED WITH KAMIKAZI AIR.ISN'T BOOKED WITH KAMIKAZI AIR.

People in general tend to think of marketing executives as visionaries. People who

plan for the future. Strategic thinkers.

But all of them aren’t. Many have trouble keeping a dozen balls in the

air while retaining focus on the horizon.

Enter the Adplan, Communications Support Plan (CSP), or whatever

you call it (today it’s a subset of KBA’s Marcom Engine, a six-step process that drives all sales and marketing communications). A Communications Support Plan is a subset of the marketing plan, which is a subset of the business plan, which is a subset of vision and mission statements. But don't let this low tier po-sition lull you into thinking it's a down-the-road exercise.

One technology company that shall remain nameless put together an annual marcom budget so skimpy as to be ludicrous. But it was all they had, and they were de-termined to make some noise in the market with it. Without a thought for the future, a blitz approach was decided on. A $60,000 ad budget was deployed over a 90-day period; full page ads ran in all major DP publications supported with inserts. Sales within 60 days of the campaign’s end reached half a million dollars. Was a plan developed to build on this successful tactic, to leverage these earnings into even bigger better marcom efforts? Not exactly.

Lesson 11

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The president of the company, who worked with KBA in assembling the CSP, felt that its success was a fluke and that he’d better hire an experienced marketing manager. So he did. And the marketing manager hired a staff. Three people. And when the agency head called with a reminder that it was time to start the fall campaign guess what the response was? “We don't have any money. Our budget's been consumed by payroll. We'll develop a program in-house.” Well, they did. The marketing team stayed. They ran partial page ads off and on for a while. Ten years later the company is still less than a major force in their market.

What is the secret ingredient of an ADplan? Mainly perspiration. Heavy thinking. Homework. The table of contents of the plans we produce for our clients spans four pages. Survival planning is not for lazy people. Or lazy lions either. I'm reminded of a lazy lion I once met. King of the jungle, powerful and normally a pretty fair strategist. He knew all about protective coloration, getting upwind and waiting for his prey to put their heads down while grazing to obscure his every forward move. But on the day we met he was feeling lazy.

I was on safari, hunting southern Africa's vast Kalahari desert. It was June and it was cold. Seasons are reversed south of the equator. The radiator in our truck froze during the night. I had hunted lions before, unsuccessfully, in East Africa, and was informed that Kalahari lions were a lot sharper than Kenya lions at defensive strategies. Kenya lions are hunted from blinds. You hang a piece of meat in a tree and wait for a lion to come along. Sometimes they come in the back door of the blind. Sometimes they catch you hanging up the meat. And sometimes they get very mad and tear up both the blinds and the contents.

But Kalahari lions are different, I was told. They're planners.

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F irst of all, there are few bushes to hide behind in the Kalahari desert and there are fewer trees from which to hang bait. So standard operating procedure calls for the use of Bushman trackers. You simply find a big set of tracks in the sand, follow them to the lion and add him to your bag. Well, the lions figured this out a long time ago. And somehow they have passed the information down from one generation to the next. As such, they have developed their own strategy for coping. On this particular sunny morning I was trudging along behind my 4' high Bushman tracker. At 6' 4" I didn't have much trouble seeing what lay ahead. We'd been following the tracks of four males for several hours. I don't know how the Bushman knows they're males, but I was assured that was the case. Maybe big feet is a give away.

Our plan was to catch up to the lions, choose the desired one and dispatch him

promptly.

The lion's plan, based on years of successful experience, was to run ahead of the hunter, far enough so as to be out of view, then make a big circle back and lie alongside the trail. There he would wait until it was time to pounce. No more hunter. A full-grown male lion in the 400 to 500 pound class can easily flatten himself in two-foot high grass and disappear. Ninety percent of the lions taken in the Kalahari are done so at a full charge from very close range. Hard on the nervous system but great for people who live on adrenalin highs. However a fair number of hunters never returned.

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Finally, we spotted our lions. They all ran different directions but we kept an eye on the keeper, a big bushy headed fellow, but lazy. Instead of making a circle big enough for me to lose sight of him he made a small circle. And being able to see over small bushes I watched him as he made the circle, picked a bush adjoining

the track we were on, and settled in to wait for an easy meal.

Well, since I knew which bush he hid behind I chose not to approach too close… and today this magnifi-cent cat stands in my house to the constant delight of my daughter’s friends who run their fingers through his mane.

Laziness in strategic planning is not conducive to marketplace longevity. Do your homework and

do your planning carefully. THINK. It worked well for IBM.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? PLAN THE WORK, THEN WORK THE PLAN.PLAN THE WORK, THEN WORK THE PLAN.PLAN THE WORK, THEN WORK THE PLAN.PLAN THE WORK, THEN WORK THE PLAN.

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WHAT TO DO WITH AN AD AGENCY THAT WHAT TO DO WITH AN AD AGENCY THAT WHAT TO DO WITH AN AD AGENCY THAT WHAT TO DO WITH AN AD AGENCY THAT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU... OTHER THAN THEDOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU... OTHER THAN THEDOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU... OTHER THAN THEDOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU... OTHER THAN THE

OBVIOUS.OBVIOUS.OBVIOUS.OBVIOUS. And how IBM found a friend in KBAAnd how IBM found a friend in KBAAnd how IBM found a friend in KBAAnd how IBM found a friend in KBA

If you've chosen an ad agency because you like their work, the chemistry is right and the price is right but they're a little short on street smarts in high tech, give them a hand, not the boot. Not so many years ago it was hard to find marcom execs with any real depth of technology experience. Not any more. So there are a couple of options you can use to get your agency up to speed.

F irst, you can participate with the agency in the interviewing process to hire a backup account exec. Help them write the ad. Read the resumes and find one that's a good fit for both sides.

S econd, this approach is more of a short term solution, but then it also requires less of a commitment. Find a software marketing consultant and hire him or suggest the agency hire him to serve as liaison either on a per project basis or over some period of time (typically six months) to help the agency get up to speed.

Lesson 12

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IBM had this problem a few years ago. After an extensive agency review of the many giant agencies that wanted IBM’s business, they chose Wells Rich & Greene. A great agency with outstanding creative credentials, but a little short on software experience. This was at a time when the SAA (Systems Appli-cations Architecture) story needed shoring up and AD/Cycle (Application Development Cycle) was about to be launched. So IBM hired KBA on a six month contract to develop a Communications Support Plan, to sit in on agency meetings at Wells Rich & Greene where IBM execs were presenting new product concepts, and to edit strategy statements produced by the agency before turning them over to creative. Ultimately

they were asked to develop the re-launch plan for DB2. It's easy to hire and fire agencies. There are over 10,000 agen-cies in the U.S., 500 in the city of Chicago alone at last count. But it's a lot more productive to find a shop whose creative and strategic planning skills you like and help them fill the gaps in their knowledge of your business and industry.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? MENTORING IS TAKING ON A NEW ROLE TODAY.MENTORING IS TAKING ON A NEW ROLE TODAY.MENTORING IS TAKING ON A NEW ROLE TODAY.MENTORING IS TAKING ON A NEW ROLE TODAY.

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BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILES BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILES BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILES BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILES AND THE MAGIC TEN PERCENT.AND THE MAGIC TEN PERCENT.AND THE MAGIC TEN PERCENT.AND THE MAGIC TEN PERCENT.

Jeff Carr and Art Roldan were sitting in KBA’s conference room. The topic: More leads and better qualified leads. PCR, which later became the application software division of Pansophic Systems, was selling MRP on the System 38. They'd asked the agency to come up with some new approaches to lead generation.

Mike Fromer introduced them to the KBA’s A.I.M. program. A.I.M. simply stands for Accelerated Integral Marketing.

In its purest form it is a lengthy, complex process but to reach the point

quickly, Mike asked a few short questions.

“How do you define your market?”

• Manufacturers with sales in the $10 million to $100 million range.

“How many of these companies are there in the U.S.?”

• About 15,000.

“O.K., we're going to call them all up and ask them how soon they might

buy a product that looks like yours.”

• What are we trying to do… other than run up an enormous phone

bill?

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“Statistics say that at any given moment 10% of your market is in a buy mode. We're going to locate that 10%. A national sales force of 25 people can't handle 15,000 prospects efficiently. But they could manage 1,500.” The real goal of all marketing communications is to reduce the cost of sales. If salespeople could focus their efforts on selling and get out of prospecting, think how much more effective they would be.

• The first step was to develop a buyer receptivity profile. • Second was to start the phone calls. • The project was given to D&B's Salesnet because they had automated a portion of the process and calls to 15,000 companies began. This is not a project to be taken lightly or one for people who blow hot and cold over every new marketing gimmick. The A.I.M. program requires a serious time commitment of one to two years. As the answers came in an in-house database began to grow. Initially one woman was hired to manage it who eventually developed an in-house team.

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How well did it work? Lead flow eventually topped 1,000 a month. And as I recall, sales doubled almost every year, going from about $2 million to $4 million, to $8 million, to $16 million and was ap- proaching $20 million when the company was sold to Pansophic. So that you don’t think this is a panacea, a get rich quick scheme, keep in mind there's more to sales than simply finding qualified prospects. The PCR marcom effort was supported by a massive PR program, an ambitious print media program, powerful collateral and endless innovative tools to support the sales force. After you find 'em, you've still got to sell 'em.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? 20 YEARS LATER “BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILING” 20 YEARS LATER “BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILING” 20 YEARS LATER “BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILING” 20 YEARS LATER “BUYER RECEPTIVITY PROFILING” STILL WORKS.STILL WORKS.STILL WORKS.STILL WORKS.

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HOW KEN ORR APPLIED DSSD TO UNDERSTAND HOW KEN ORR APPLIED DSSD TO UNDERSTAND HOW KEN ORR APPLIED DSSD TO UNDERSTAND HOW KEN ORR APPLIED DSSD TO UNDERSTAND THE MARCOM PROCESS.THE MARCOM PROCESS.THE MARCOM PROCESS.THE MARCOM PROCESS.

As an early proponent of the structured methodology approach to systems building, Ken Orr was a pioneer in the basics upon which CASE (computer aided systems engineering) projects are now built. The Warnier/Orr methodology ranks up there with Yourdon/DeMarco, Ward/Mellor and Hatley and the rest, with his DSSD (Data Structured System Design) representing a powerful approach to building mainframe applications.

Ken was a familiar face on the lecture circuit and his library on structured method-ologies was in wide use across the land. Books and lectures represented his primary source of income. But business wasn't growing as fast as he felt it could. So he hired a marketing manager and assigned him the task of improving sales for Ken Orr & Associates.

KBA was called in at that point, and I was introduced to Ken. We had several visits, quickly agreeing that he needed a more focused approach to marketing his services, but failing to agree on the precise point at where to begin.

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Ken was uncomfortable with the approach I was using in those days. It consisted of a relatively long questionnaire regarding products, markets, sales history and procedures, and a variety of other bits and

pieces of knowledge that were needed before recommendations were prepared. From the answers to the questionnaire, several project proposals would evolve, priorities would be assigned, and work would commence.

Living in his tightly structured world built for the development of software, he had trouble with the looseness of my approach. To explain that marketing communications was not as rigid a discipline as computer science got me nowhere. Ken wanted to start work with us but was reluctant to give the green light until he could be shown that marcom development followed a process not unlike his own DSSD. And he wanted it charted. It had to be tangible. I think he felt I was selling vaporware, an accusation leveled regularly at the software industry.

I n anticipation of acquiring this new account, I read several of Ken's books. They were relatively easy to understand, given the complexity of the subject matter. To resolve our impasse I read them again. And suddenly a light bulb came on, a small one to be sure, but still a glimmer that offered hope for a solution to the problem of charting marketing communications in a way that Ken could relate to.

The light bulb came on as I studied one of his many charts. Ken was well known for his use of brackets. A series of them getting progressively bigger (or smaller depending on whether you read right to left or left to right) would carry the student through the entire evolutionary process.

What if I took one of Ken's charts, removed all the copy, leaving only the brackets and filled in the various steps in the marcom process?

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I started with one big bracket and labeled it the ADplan Development Cycle, next came four medium sized brackets. These I labeled Research, Planning, Production and Monitoring. As I looked at those four labels it occurred to me they fit a process Ken could relate to more easily, so I relabeled them Input, Processing, Output and Analysis. Next came roughly a dozen smaller brackets. I won't waste your time with several pages of detail, but all those little brackets contained the stages that a good marcom planner should go through, from secondary research to primary research to creative, production, printing, media placement and auditing.

It worked. Ken loved it. He understood it and work began. It began on the same series of projects as outlined earlier, but now their position could be plotted and a relationship established with all the other elements in the planning process.

Ken wasn't the only client we had over the years that wanted to understand the marcom process better. That chart, changed only in minor ways over the years, has been used in a hundred presentations, reaffirming what we all know is true… a picture is worth a thousand words. On that topic, let me share a humorous anecdote. I was in an Air Force training school to become a jet engine instructor. The teacher was trying to impress on us the importance of using charts and other visual aids. So he decided to give us a demonstration of the old “thousand words” routine. He gave all 25 students a large piece of drawing paper and a pencil. Then he proceeded to read very slowly and very carefully a 1,000 word description of an aardvark, encouraging us to sketch along as he read. When he was done, we put down our pencils and stood the drawings on a ledge around the room. He then uncovered a large photograph of an aardvark. It was incredible. Twenty-five totally different drawings and none of them resembled the real McCoy.

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Since the development of the KBA ADplan chart, now called a CSP, there has been only one modification. Recently the whole process was revisited to see if it could be done in such a way as to follow the “accountability” precepts established by Stan Rapp and Tom Collins in MaxiMarketing. That book made a big impres-sion on me because even though my career path has gone from art to copy to creative direction, I have a somewhat analytical mind that requires order in things. I like the idea of accountability. I like hard evidence that says the creative stuff

I do works and works well in terms of hard dollars, measurable dollars.

If the craft of advertising is to improve, it must subject it-self to accountability. I couldn't believe any stronger in the thought so simply put forth by Peter Drucker – “That which is measured improves.” I labeled my new chart A MaxiMarketing Approach to Measured Response Advertising and give Stan and Tom all the credit for its existence. The heavy thinking was theirs. The easy part was arranging the elements in a logical sequence, not unlike the letters in a game of Scrabble.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? TO SELL YOUR MARCOM MAKE IT FIT YOUR TO SELL YOUR MARCOM MAKE IT FIT YOUR TO SELL YOUR MARCOM MAKE IT FIT YOUR TO SELL YOUR MARCOM MAKE IT FIT YOUR MANAGEMENT’S FRAME OF REFERENCE.MANAGEMENT’S FRAME OF REFERENCE.MANAGEMENT’S FRAME OF REFERENCE.MANAGEMENT’S FRAME OF REFERENCE.

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THE BEAUTY OF VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE THE BEAUTY OF VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE THE BEAUTY OF VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE THE BEAUTY OF VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE CLEAN SLATE APPROACH.CLEAN SLATE APPROACH.CLEAN SLATE APPROACH.CLEAN SLATE APPROACH.

ThumbScan came to me through the efforts of Pete Dignan (a former senior exec at Deltak), Phil McKinney, and some pretty sharp minds at the University of Illinois. They were pioneers in biometric technology as applied to computer security systems. The concept was simple. The execution was not. Basically you put your thumb on a platen. The print was read, digitized and stored for reference for some time in the future when you might choose to log on. Comparisons would be made using a certain number of points in the pattern that had to match.

Pete called me up one day to ask if I'd like to participate in competition with some

other agencies for his business. I agreed. And I went to work on the presentation.

I have a checklist I use when invited to pitch a new account. It consists of a bunch of questions and has evolved from materials given me by Jack Mathews, an ad agency new business guru I hired once and have a great deal of respect for. He really opened my eyes and the eyes of my entire account management team as to what's important, from a buyer's point of view, in assessing ad agencies.

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Anyway, one of the first questions I always ask is what's the history of the company, what do your cur-rent marcom efforts look like, and where do you feel we should begin?

P ete's response was basically, “There is no history, there is no marcom material, and I don't know where to begin. I have access to venture capital but I don't know how much to budget.” Just between you and me this is my favorite scenario for getting started with a new client. No sins of the past to undo. No off target creative to try and overcome. No confused market image to try and correct. Just a clean slate. Of course, one of the problems is that these are not typically big budget affairs. Everyone recognizes that wells run dry and deep pockets do have bottoms. So spending is usually done cautiously. But the beauty from an ad man's point of view is the total control possible of the entire creative process. It's a chance to practice "integrated seamless communication" with no obstacles. Our presentation consisted of some spec creative and a mini ADplan. The mini ADplan is a three to six page overview of what becomes a 30 to 60 page Communications Support Plan eventually.

We got the account, came up with a photographic con-cept for using a pair of cat’s eyes to symbolize security and were able to include this graphic approach on all ads, brochures, postcards, trade show booths, direct mail, press re-leases, packaging and even the product itself. The little handheld key used with the Gordian systems

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had a little cat’s eye label on it.

O ur initial photo session, lasting one day, provided enough photographic mate-rial to satisfy all our needs for al-most three years and ensured a con-tinuity of appear-ance rarely seen in a world of restless, easily bored ad people who tend always to equate something new with something better.

If you find yourself in this kind of situation, be grateful. And use the clean slate to your advantage. Before accepting a clever ad concept or graphic symbol, ask your agency to show you (small sketches are OK) precisely how they intend to expand the approach across all the communications options open to you in pursuit of “integrated seamless communications.” WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? BEWARE OF CARRYING OLD BAGGAGE BEWARE OF CARRYING OLD BAGGAGE BEWARE OF CARRYING OLD BAGGAGE BEWARE OF CARRYING OLD BAGGAGE INTO YOUR NEW MARCOM EFFORTS.INTO YOUR NEW MARCOM EFFORTS.INTO YOUR NEW MARCOM EFFORTS.INTO YOUR NEW MARCOM EFFORTS.

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MY ETHIOPIAN SADDLE AND OTHER MY ETHIOPIAN SADDLE AND OTHER MY ETHIOPIAN SADDLE AND OTHER MY ETHIOPIAN SADDLE AND OTHER MARKETING VEHICULAR MISFITS.MARKETING VEHICULAR MISFITS.MARKETING VEHICULAR MISFITS.MARKETING VEHICULAR MISFITS.

In exchange for some advertising work a few years ago for their US cargo services, Ethiopian Airlines provided me with an all-expense paid safari into a remote region south of Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia. We headed for the Arsi mountains in search of the elusive mountain nyala, riding small Ethiopian horses with saddles like I'd never encountered before.

T hey looked like real saddles, but covered by colorful blankets it was hard to be sure what was underneath. I can assure you they sure were hard. To this day I am convinced they were constructed simply of crossed two-by-fours with a 4 x 4 center section. My guide, a former Ethiopian Army colonel and hero of one of the Somali wars, knew better. Each morning before climbing aboard his horse, several assistants placed colorful silk pillows on the saddle. The stirrups, however, represented the ultimate challenge. Each consisted simply of a slightly misshapen iron ring about three inches in diameter. These were woefully inadequate for my size 12 boots. By applying a great deal of downward pressure I could keep the toe of my boot just touching the stirrup. But the tiniest jarring would knock my feet out, leaving me suspended in air by a more sensitive part of my anatomy. With only two horses

Lesson 16

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in camp (although we had a dozen porters, trackers, cooks, etc.) and the colonel possessing small feet, it took me a painful week to figure out what was wrong. It seems the local people all go barefoot. Even at high altitude, over sharp rocks, stubble and even snow. Well, when an Ethiopian rides a horse he simply jumps on and hooks his big toe in the stirrup. If I had tougher big toes I might have tried this. But I didn't. So I struggled with this vehicular mismatch for seven days.

S oftware companies produce vehicular mismatches, too. And for some reason management fails to spot them. Two examples come to mind. One example is a midrange software vendor we worked for. His problem was not unique at all. We encounter it on a regular basis. The company was selling application software into a variety of vertical markets. So where did they run their ads? In computer publications with audiences of system software buyers. The second example is the company that uses an identity which positions itself as something other than what it is. We’re talking about Peat Marwick. They bought a small software company that took them into the market for reengineer-ing and CASE tools. But instead of hanging a new label on the company, they simply sent it to market under the Peat Marwick banner.

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Now, Peat Marwick has been around for a long time. And everybody knows they're a great accounting, tax, and audit firm. So it shouldn’t be surprising that no one responded to their advertising in this new market.

This foolishness is a carryover from the early days of software buying when the sole audience was comprised of DP technicians. Software marketers who did their homework discovered years ago that the emphasis on applications buying has moved from the hands of DP into the end user’s sphere of influence.

I t's that old business of fishing where there's fish. If you're not sure, put together a list of 50 prospects. Call them yourself and ask who's the best person to address your product's appeal to. It will take some probing. We've done it many times but it's a lot cheaper and faster than full-fledged market research for those who can't afford formal studies.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? MATCH YOUR PRODUCT TO THE MEDIA. MATCH YOUR PRODUCT TO THE MEDIA. MATCH YOUR PRODUCT TO THE MEDIA. MATCH YOUR PRODUCT TO THE MEDIA. OFTEN THE MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE.OFTEN THE MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE.OFTEN THE MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE.OFTEN THE MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE.

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ADVERTISING VERSUS PUBLIC RELATIONS! ADVERTISING VERSUS PUBLIC RELATIONS! ADVERTISING VERSUS PUBLIC RELATIONS! ADVERTISING VERSUS PUBLIC RELATIONS! ARE YOU KIDDING?ARE YOU KIDDING?ARE YOU KIDDING?ARE YOU KIDDING?

A request came to my office once from a major trade publication for an article on the advertising and PR needs of software vendors. The title was given to me: Advertising vs. PR. Can you believe it? As if they were adversaries! Seems crazy but after 40 years in this business I still run into people, and not all recent MBA's, who don't have a clear grasp of the basic differences. So for those few (whose numbers may be legion) here’s the difference:

PUBLIC RELATIONS PROVIDES CREDIBILITY,

BUT LITTLE CONTROL…

ADVERTISING PROVIDES CONTROL,

BUT LITTLE CREDIBILITY…

Like the old song “Love and Marriage, You Can't Have One (or shouldn't) Without the Other,” advertising and PR go together and go well. They complement one another and their proponents shouldn't be competing for budgets, but cooperating.

T o put the advertising vs. PR situation another way, PR seeks to “influence” while advertising aims to “persuade.”

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Public relations, because of its (mostly) editorial integrity, is typically much more believable than advertising. However, it appears at the whim of the editors so companies have very little control as to when and where their efforts will reach the public. There are those who think all that's required for successful marketing communications is a potent PR program. This approach is usually fatal, but there are rare exceptions.

Advertising, however, whether print, broadcast, mail or otherwise provides tremendous control, not only over the message and physical appearance, but audience placement and frequency of exposure as well. However its weakness is its believability. All ad messages are taken with a big grain of salt. Regarding PR planning, we often run into confusion as to who the target audience is, what the objective of the campaign should be, and what some of the tools and procedures of its practitioners are.

F or openers, consider the many choices you have for a PR program. It can be directed toward the financial community to help with an IPO or get stock value up; public affairs if the nature of your business is impacted by legislators either local or federal; your community, if the management of your business affects people living around you; employees if there are enough of them to form a community in itself; corporate, if it's important to influence the leaders of other major businesses; and lastly, the more common marketing option, needed to maintain news and goodwill in the marketplace. In reviewing a PR proposal we submitted to Peat Marwick's Catalyst division a few years ago, I came across a familiar cry, one that was paraphrased from a Catalyst letter to the agency: “We have an identity problem… we are perceived either as an insignificant entity in the software industry because of our parent company, Peat Marwick; or we are simply not perceived at all! The market doesn't know we exist.”

ADVERTISING ADVERTISING ADVERTISING ADVERTISING VERSUS PUBLIC VERSUS PUBLIC VERSUS PUBLIC VERSUS PUBLIC RELATIONS! RELATIONS! RELATIONS! RELATIONS! ARE YOU ARE YOU ARE YOU ARE YOU KIDDING?KIDDING?KIDDING?KIDDING?

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Has your company ever expressed similar sentiments? Have you ever felt that your company or product was suffering an identity crisis? This is a common problem. One of the most successful ad campaigns KBA launched for itself simply asked, "Is your software having an identity crisis?"

O ver the past 20 years we've run a lot of ads, always trying to keep in tune with the market's desires as well as finding new ways to make our services appealing. Another big winner was an ad labeled “Does Your Advertising Stink?” A lot of people called or wrote, and said, “Our ads don't really stink but they don't work well either.” When we tried to turn this into a direct mail campaign it failed. A message that was acceptable in the impersonal manner of print advertising became offensive when used in the personal aura created by direct mail. Angry people called asking why we held such a low opinion of their advertising. In preparing your own ads think about the shift in message required sometimes between impersonal ads and personal mail. For a fast checklist of PR tasks you can accomplish consider the following short list. There are many others.

• Editorial backgrounder kits • Visits and editorial mailings • Articles program • Case histories • News releases • Newsletters • User conferences • Press conferences • Social media

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? PAID MARCOM AND PR PAID MARCOM AND PR PAID MARCOM AND PR PAID MARCOM AND PR COMPLEMENT, NOT COMPETE.COMPLEMENT, NOT COMPETE.COMPLEMENT, NOT COMPETE.COMPLEMENT, NOT COMPETE.

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THE STRATEGY STATEMENT, THE STRATEGY STATEMENT, THE STRATEGY STATEMENT, THE STRATEGY STATEMENT, CENTER OF YOUR MARCOM UNIVERSE.CENTER OF YOUR MARCOM UNIVERSE.CENTER OF YOUR MARCOM UNIVERSE.CENTER OF YOUR MARCOM UNIVERSE.

A couple of quotes from Al Hampel, former EVP and Director of Creative Services - Worldwide for Benton & Bowles, Inc., one of the world's great ad agencies. Al's comments on the importance of copy strategies are taken from a small booklet he titled, It's Never Been Done Before… And Other Obstacles to Creativity.

He says, “If you want to panic creative people in an advertis-ing agency, give them an assignment without a copy strategy.” He also says, “No creative work should ever begin without a written strategy that's been approved up through the highest-ranking client who approves advertising.”

T here's no magic to preparing a strategy statement. The outline is straight- forward enough. The primary challenge is getting all key people in the marketing process, and this often includes the CEO and both marketing and sales VPs, to agree. Each will have his or her own perception of the audience, the problem and the best advertising strategy. It is not unusual to spend several days thrashing out answers acceptable to all. Without it your ad agency is simply playing guessing games. What are the key elements? They vary a little between ad agencies, more on semantics than any underlying difference in philosophy. The following originated with Wells Rich & Greene.

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1. Audience: Be sure you understand who you're talking to and their mindset relative to your product.

2. The Problem: as perceived by your target audience. What problem, from their perspective, are you offering to solve?

3. Advertising Objective: Remember, unless you're in the mail order business, ads are better at creating attitude changes than creating specific sales. Think about what it is that needs to be communicated.

4. Advertising Strategy: The answer to this often begins, “To posi-tion brand X…” or “To communicate that…” You need to under-stand your product's key differentiation to fill this in effectively.

5. Some agencies insert a point here labeled “Message” or “Key Message” and it represents an early attempt to put the USP into words that could conceivably become the ad headline.

6. Support: Sometimes referred to as copy points or reasons to believe

7. Desired Response: This can be a simple statement of the action desired as a result of an attitude change, or it can be couched in words or thoughts that the reader might have upon completing the ad message.

8. Required Mentions: These are often key elements that are important not to overlook, and often contain specifics regarding response incentives.

Contrary to what you might think, a world of unlimited possibilities is a frightening prospect to seasoned creative people. The disciplines of a written strategy are most welcome.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? DON’T LAUNCH CREATIVE DON’T LAUNCH CREATIVE DON’T LAUNCH CREATIVE DON’T LAUNCH CREATIVE WITHOUT A STRATEGY STATEMENT OR CREATIVE WITHOUT A STRATEGY STATEMENT OR CREATIVE WITHOUT A STRATEGY STATEMENT OR CREATIVE WITHOUT A STRATEGY STATEMENT OR CREATIVE BRIEF.BRIEF.BRIEF.BRIEF.

Ideally this completed document will require no more than two pages. There are

exceptions but watch out for them. As Al says, “A strategy that's overloaded with

selling points presents a terrible obstacle to creativity…" and one that simply says,

“Our product is best” or “Go with the leader” is no strategy at all.

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ADAM AND EVE ADAM AND EVE ADAM AND EVE ADAM AND EVE AND OTHER MEMORABLE AD PHOTO SESSIONS.AND OTHER MEMORABLE AD PHOTO SESSIONS.AND OTHER MEMORABLE AD PHOTO SESSIONS.AND OTHER MEMORABLE AD PHOTO SESSIONS.

Behind the scenes tales The assignment was to create a graphic parallel between the evolution of software and the evolution of man for an audiovisual presentation that was part of a sales pitch. The storyboard was simple enough. A lizard would depict the first creatures rising from the sea, a chimpanzee would suggest early man and then, mixing a little theology with evolution, we decided to introduce Adam and Eve.

W e lined up a photo studio, got everyone and everything on the set and started shooting. That's the precise moment everything started to go wrong. The iguana was big and ugly and frightened people. The chimpanzee made a puddle on the sweep. Eve was gor-geous, especially in her birthday suit, as you might expect from a Playboy model. So pretty in fact that she inspired part of Adam to stiffen up, causing a certain amount of embarrassment to all present. After a long day of trauma on top of trauma we finished shooting. The film was sent to an outside lab to make sure the processing was done professionally. Thousands of dollars of time, prop rentals, models, etc. went into the shooting. The film was returned the next day. Ruined. Apparently something went berserk in processing and all the film came out blue.

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These are the days that cause advertising executives to die 10 years sooner than the national average according to one study. If that study is accurate I have 60 days to finish this book.

The Python That Wouldn’t Hold Still

Another memorable incident involved a ball python, shot for HarrisData. The python wasn't bad but he wouldn't hold still. The original perpetual motion machine. I suggested putting him in the refrigerator to slow him down, a tactic often used on cold blooded animals. The handler refused. Sometimes their heart slows too much and they can't get it going again, she says. She does it with small snakes and lizards occasionally… and invariably forgets to remove them in time. The python, however, was too expensive.

W e were having trouble persuading the snake to wrap itself around an apple until we discov-ered he had a strong reaction to the strobe. Then it got easy. One flash of the strobe to make him recoil against the apple. And one flash for the photo.

The Case of the Salivating Malamute

For ABC we rented an Alaskan malamute to sit by the side of a little girl using a PC at her desk (see ad in Lesson 3). The day was hot, the studio was hotter and the malamute, with all his shaggy protection from the arctic cold, appeared he was about to die from heat prostration. He was perspiring, saliva was pouring from his mouth in a steady stream and there was no way to stop it. The photo session ended eventually, but some expensive, unanticipated retouching was required to minimize the saliva situation.

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Then there was the client who wanted a beautiful piece of crystal shot in such a way as to emit various esthetically pleasing light beams. A lengthy search produced a photographer who claimed he could probably do it. The cost of his experimenting, he estimated, would run $10,000 to $20,000. I found a talented lesser genius that did a very credible job for $500. Resurrecting Stone Age Tools

Bakco Data settled on an ad theme in which a comparison was drawn between stone age tools and Bakco's modern tools for warehouse management. The studio needed references for building the appropriate Stone Age tools to photograph. It seemed like an easy task. I loaded my Nikon with ASA 1600 Kodacolor and headed for the Field Museum. Chicago's Field Museum, by the way, is one of the world’s largest. They have everything there. Except the stone age tools I needed. They had just been removed from public display the day before and packed away into storage. It seems all the caveman dioramas were being disassembled and re-moved to make way for additional research offices. A call to the head taxidermist (a friend from my days of contributing hides and horns to their collection) helped lo-cate the man in charge of old bones. He was kind enough to get me a pass to visit the bowels of the museum where I was able to photograph actual tools, 250,000 years old, as they lay on his desk.

The Woman Body Builder with Way Too

Much Body

Then there was the assignment to photograph a woman body builder for a Catalyst ad. A pro was hired. Very friendly, cooperative and with an incredible body. Turns out she was a national champion. One look at the prints by the client and we had to start over. Problem was she didn't look feminine enough.

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The next model we hired was great, even understood all about soft-ware. When quizzed on her unusual store of software lore she confessed to being the daughter of a Cullinane executive. Small world. Building the Tree of Knowledge

For Consumer Systems we needed an ad graphic to symbolize miniature production databases for fast, no coding testing. It was decided to create a tree of knowledge. The actual trunk would consist of hundreds of cubes from the game of Boggle, all drilled, wired together, and then twisted to resemble the gnarled trunk of a tree. Real leaves were hung from the wire branches. I cautioned the photographers not to get cute and build bad words into my tree. It was weeks after the shooting before someone noticed the cleverly placed "sex" near the top of the trunk. They could have done much worse. Getting Four Dobermans to Smile Can be a Challenge

To illustrate a copy theme of "Discipline Your VAX" for ISA Solutions (they were selling system software) we chose to photograph four Dobermans, one for each product. Each big male Doberman must have weighed close to 100 pounds. The handler was a small woman. Needless to say things didn't go well.

S o I got on the set, wrapped the chains from 400 pounds of Dober-mans around my wrist and attempted to exert some control. To make a long story short, our photo lab did an incredible job of stripping a whole bunch of negatives together while our retoucher did an equally incredible job of making all the dogs appear docile. The ad was a smashing success. But the photo lab/retouching bills would choke a horse. Hard to build that kind of thing into an ad budget before concept is even settled on.

SEXSEXSEXSEX

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The Smoking Skeleton

F or Pansophic, the Easytrieve skeleton wasn't

too tricky. A medical supply house supplied the

skeleton, which was identified as a Philippine

woman. An assistant photographer working on the set stuck the smoking cigarette in her hand just for laughs; but we left if there. The major challenge was retouching to remove hundreds of little bolts, nuts, screws and wire that held it all together. This was long before digital tools such as Photoshop. The ad graphics were stolen years later and used by a group against smoking.

JD Edwards Second Little Girl Fizzled

F or JD Edwards we decided to create a new photograph of a little girl to complement the stock photo of the girl at a grand piano. An elaborate set was built, the photo taken and the ad completed. But no one felt the appeal was as strong as the girl at the piano so the new ad was quickly discontinued while the piano ad ran for years.

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Coaxing a Cat to Smile Was a Challenge -- Briefly

The Siamese cat we hired for the ThumbScan ad campaign refused to cooperate. She would never look at the camera, rolling her eyes constantly all around the stu-dio. Everywhere but into the lens. Then we hit on the idea of using our small white mouse, also scheduled for ad use, to get her attention. We started by holding the mouse up by its tail several feet in front of the cat. It didn't work until we actually bumped the cat's nose with the mouse. Apparently the whole affair was traumatic for the mouse. He died in his sleep that night.

Simple Concept, Murder to Execute A shot for Wallace's computer labeling system proved almost as much of a challenge. The headline read, “Any label you can conceive Wallace can achieve.” We got a mannequin head, created a 35mm slide full of bar codes, and put the slide in a projector we hung from the ceiling. A very dramatic ad resulted but no one anticipated two whole days of studio work to get it done. (See ad in Lesson 1)

Hoisting Freightliners Into the Air Can be Challenging To illustrate Roads, a system that would support truck dealers, we contacted a truck dealer. The local Freightliner facility was finally persuaded to let us jack up one of their trucks and slide a small computer underneath. But only at 3:30 in the morning. They said any other time would disrupt their business.

So we all showed up at 3:30, jacked the truck up as high as it would go, and discovered we were 2" short of getting the computer underneath. All that work for nothing. So we shot the truck, shot the computer, cut out the prints, retouched the whole thing ...and faked it. However, it was worth it. The first day the ad ran a major trucker called. Result - a big sale.

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T ry Getting a Librarian Into a Small Box Then there was our "librarian in a box," a text

retrieval PC system from Zylab. It took a lot of tricky shooting, double printing, etc. to get a scrunched up librarian to appear as though seated in the box. We even went so far as to lean a huge piece of plate glass to squash all her clothing on one side as it would appear if she were really squeezed into a transparent PC package.

T hen Try Getting a Zipper Onto the Spine of a 727

For AAR Corp. a photo was needed of a 727 on the ground shot from above. From the original photo we stripped in a zipper down its back to support Air Finance Interna-tional's contention that their leasing skills made it easy to switch aircraft. What wasn't easy was getting permission for our photographer's helicopter to hover over O'Hare airport to take the photos. We finally gave up and flew to Midway. What's the point of this long drawn out expose of photo sessions that went awry? To remind you that the creative process is almost always trial and error. Budgeting without room for the unexpected is either unfair to your agency or results in mediocre work. Be tolerant of budget overruns when creative is involved. A parting thought, and standard procedure at KBA. If you hire a photographer who still shoots film, shoot everything in color and black and white. If it isn't

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practical to do both, then shoot color and convert to black and white. Even though many ads originally appear in black and white, whether for esthetic or budget reasons, there will eventually be a need or desire for a color ver- sion; posters, brochures, trade show graphics, or simply next year's ad if this one turns out well.

F or the cost of photography these days it also makes a lot

of sense to shoot as many alternatives to the original con-cept as possible at the time of shooting. I have used back up photo files often for years without having to reshoot. Plus, location shots that are prohibitively expensive or difficult to reshoot. My files contain quality background photos that range from arctic regions near the north pole to mountain tops, to rain forests and architectural ruins across all of Africa, South America, Europe, Canada, the Pacific, and places I don't even remember. Digital photography is changing the way we shoot ads these days, but it’s still true that giving yourself the widest range of options when capturing the initial images – even if they are going to be heavily reworked in Photoshop – is always a good idea. And it will save you from a lot of headaches down the road when you can’t find just the right shot because you wanted to or needed to cut corners.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? YOU CAN’T BUDGET FOR THE YOU CAN’T BUDGET FOR THE YOU CAN’T BUDGET FOR THE YOU CAN’T BUDGET FOR THE UNEXPECTED. JUST DEAL WITH IT.UNEXPECTED. JUST DEAL WITH IT.UNEXPECTED. JUST DEAL WITH IT.UNEXPECTED. JUST DEAL WITH IT.

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“THEY ARE READY TO RUN ALL RISKS… “THEY ARE READY TO RUN ALL RISKS… “THEY ARE READY TO RUN ALL RISKS… “THEY ARE READY TO RUN ALL RISKS… AND TO SPEND MONEY… UNDERGO ANY AND TO SPEND MONEY… UNDERGO ANY AND TO SPEND MONEY… UNDERGO ANY AND TO SPEND MONEY… UNDERGO ANY

SORT OF TOIL… EVEN TO DIE… FOR THE SAKE OF… SORT OF TOIL… EVEN TO DIE… FOR THE SAKE OF… SORT OF TOIL… EVEN TO DIE… FOR THE SAKE OF… SORT OF TOIL… EVEN TO DIE… FOR THE SAKE OF… A NAME WHICH SHALL BE ETERNAL.” Plato.A NAME WHICH SHALL BE ETERNAL.” Plato.A NAME WHICH SHALL BE ETERNAL.” Plato.A NAME WHICH SHALL BE ETERNAL.” Plato.

The technology industry has a history of sucking up new names as quickly as an aardvark sucks up ants. Voraciously. Insatiably. If you've tried to clear a new name with the U.S. Trademark Register you'll know what I mean. Yet the quest goes on because of the readily acknowledged inherent strength of a good name.

Our experience with the naming process as a marcom tool goes back over 15 years. I had need for some professional help and had heard of a man doing some pioneering work in using computers to develop name candidates.

A fter some detective work Scotland Yard would envy, I located Will Doyle and his company, Brand Group. Over the 15 years that have passed since that first meeting we've become good friends and his collection of major American corporations for whom he has developed both product and corpo-rate names numbers in the hundreds. Technology companies in this lineup include such recognizable names as Ashton-Tate, AT&T, Catalyst, Entre Com-puters, Execucom, Ferox Microsystems, ICE Inc., J D Edwards, PCR, and Signa Corporation. Will and I were even invited to review IBM's naming strategy and make recommendations to strengthen it.

How important is a name? Read the lesson on Brand Equity. Martin Sorrell felt the name Ogilvy & Mather was worth $294 million and put it on his balance sheet, an acceptable practice under U.K. accounting rules.

Lesson 20

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The “importance” of a name is much more significant when a product is launched. This is the critical time to do it right. As years go by “importance” is replaced by “value,” that which accrues because of the product/corporation's suc-cess in the marketplace. Importance is given, value grows.

How do good names come to be? Critical characteristics of a winning name include its physical performance, psychological factors and promotional and performance characteristics. Marketers need to determine specifically what to communicate, how best to communicate it and how to evaluate that message.

W hen evaluating existing names, studies are conducted to determine attitudes, awareness, penetration and positioning of its client and competitors. This process can be useful in determining whether an existing name can be successfully extended to a new product. Brand name candidate research also involves screening to determine a name's psychological appeal. In working with an outside resource for naming its particularly important to involve your ad agency or graphic designers in order to efficiently integrate positioning and communication objectives. For the benefit of those new to this process, let me take you quickly through a series of step-by-step procedures and techniques that address every crucial aspect of brand naming, from planning, developing and screening name candidates through securing trademark protection, supporting tracking and managing brand names.

T he process is summed up as “marketing linguistics” and the approach is part scientific and part marketing. The staff to which a naming assignment may be given will range in expertise from the technical – linguistics, computer technology, trademark law and market research; to the creative – product and package design. Such a staff tests names through a variety of programs including evaluation of existing product identities, brand name candidate research, market language testing and systematic brand name development.

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A structured brand name development program typically includes the following key steps:

A briefing meeting is held to thoroughly analyze need and explore objectives. The briefing is followed by strategic creative and linguistic planning. Following the sometimes lengthy planning process is the actual development of brand name candidates. The initial pass through the computer can generate thousands of candidates, so next is a screening process. The screening consists of several phases. First, internal screenings and workshops are conducted to reduce the candidates to a manageable number. Then preliminary trademark screening is performed, followed by market research and finally, an international language review. After this sometimes drawn out process is completed, results are analyzed, conclusions reached and recommendations made. Typically at this point 5 to 10 candidates are submitted for full legal study.

F ringe benefits of this naming process can be company names, product names, generic and descriptive terms, themes and slogans, or keywords and phrases for use in advertising and informa-tional text. In addition to language components this process is also valuable in building company and product identity systems and brand name pools, which are pre-developed and screened collections of brand name candidates for possible line extensions in selected categories handling what many people feel is marketing's most valuable asset – a name.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? SHAKESPEARE SHAKESPEARE SHAKESPEARE SHAKESPEARE WON’T AGREE BUT A ROSE BY ANOTHER WON’T AGREE BUT A ROSE BY ANOTHER WON’T AGREE BUT A ROSE BY ANOTHER WON’T AGREE BUT A ROSE BY ANOTHER NAME OFTEN SMELLS SWEETER.NAME OFTEN SMELLS SWEETER.NAME OFTEN SMELLS SWEETER.NAME OFTEN SMELLS SWEETER.

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PAPER BENCHMARKETING: WHY SUCCESS PAPER BENCHMARKETING: WHY SUCCESS PAPER BENCHMARKETING: WHY SUCCESS PAPER BENCHMARKETING: WHY SUCCESS IS OFTEN RESERVED FOR THE BEST DRESSED.IS OFTEN RESERVED FOR THE BEST DRESSED.IS OFTEN RESERVED FOR THE BEST DRESSED.IS OFTEN RESERVED FOR THE BEST DRESSED.

A few years ago I felt the need for some in-depth research for one of my clients. I wanted the kind of one-on-one feedback you get from a focus group but without the distractions and time constraints. Specifically, I wanted to find out which of the many marcom tools my agency was applying on our clients’ behalf were having the biggest impact on closing a sale. Was I in for an eye opening experience! Our client was Professional Computer Resources (PCR), a major MRP vendor supporting the S/38, now AS/400 market. Even in the mid 80's there were a lot of people selling systems to help manufacturers.

W ith my client's blessing and armed with a list prepared by them of six recently signed up customers and six still-in-the-prospect stage, I climbed into my car for a two-day jaunt around Wisconsin, Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana. The appointments had all been made and my overnight planned for Green Bay.

I learned a lot about the impact of communications at the

grassroots level in those two days, but one interview in particular

sums up the whole trip...

Lesson 21

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S omewhere in central Wisconsin a DP manager shared his marcom culling proc-ess with me. It began about nine months earlier when the man I'll call Fred (my

apologies for forgetting his real name, and being unable to locate it in my aging files) decided that his distribution, manufacturing and accounting systems had all the patching they, and he, could stand. He'd been feeling that way for some time, bombarded on both sides by management needing a more sophisticated system and by vendors with some hard evidence that he was falling behind. One afternoon Fred called in his secretary, sent her to the ever-growing pile of trade magazines and asked her to pull out all those either supporting manufacturing or midrange computers.

W ith the pile on his desk, Fred proceeded to flip through them looking for familiar faces. There were many as Fred worked for a big company and his name appeared on every major software vendor’s hit list. Every MRP vendor in the country, big and little, had called Fred, or mailed him something, or visited him over the previous couple of years. Finally it was time to take a close look at their offerings. But he was a little intimidated at the prospect of interviewing several dozen vendors. Instead, he tore out the ads of about a dozen and a half that he knew to be offering full systems and that were familiar to him. He had his secretary call those companies and request the literature they offered but refused all advances for demos at this point. It took a few weeks for all the brochures to come trickling in. Believe it or not, some never responded. But eventually a huge pile of literature was accumulated. It was a pretty impressive pile and Fred was a little daunted at the prospect of reading it all.

So he decided to indulge in what I call “paper benchmarking” (works

with websites, too).

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He picked up the large pile, carried them into a conference room, and laid them out side-by-side from one end of the table to the other. Then going on the assumption that there was a commodity-like aura around all the leading packages, he picked up a wastebasket, walked the length of the table, and pushed in those that weren't physically attractive or failed to communicate instantly some message of value.

The pile of 18 shrank instantly to about a half dozen.

The half dozen he read very carefully and then tossed three of these. The remaining three were invited in for presentations. And eventually one was selected.

I t's not fair to say that this selection process was based solely on the cover design of the brochures. The company's reputation and ad continuity played a key role or the brochure would never have gotten onto the table in the first place. But think for a moment of the burden this places on your communication skills, on the im-portance of graphic design and of the importance of saying something, in either words or pictures on the cover that has a powerful, relevant impact on potential customers.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHO SAYS APPEARANCES AREN’T EVERYTHING?WHO SAYS APPEARANCES AREN’T EVERYTHING?WHO SAYS APPEARANCES AREN’T EVERYTHING?WHO SAYS APPEARANCES AREN’T EVERYTHING?

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WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO BUILD AN AD EVEN WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO BUILD AN AD EVEN WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO BUILD AN AD EVEN WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO BUILD AN AD EVEN IF YOU NEVER INTEND TO USE IT.IF YOU NEVER INTEND TO USE IT.IF YOU NEVER INTEND TO USE IT.IF YOU NEVER INTEND TO USE IT.

In attempting to define the concept of focus during a client strategy presentation one day I picked up a hammer, a block of wood and a big 16 penny nail.

The issue we were trying to resolve was which of the many marcom tasks to be performed for an upcoming product launch should be put into work first. Budget restrictions prohibited simultaneous development of all the tools required. This was to be a major campaign, employing a variety of communications vehicles but with heavy emphasis on direct marketing: mail, inserts, package stuffers, collateral, telemarketing, trade shows, seminars, print media and perhaps some broadcast. All were being considered. And there was plenty of time. This was summer and the rollout was scheduled for the beginning of the new year. Some of the marketing teams insisted that collateral be done first. Their argument was that the fulfillment object or response incentive should be completed and on hand before any lead generating activities were put in

place. Another opted to begin writing the direct mail program, claiming that there were many elements to be developed and the refining process would be very time consuming.

T here were two problems on the table before us. Both focus oriented. One, we

couldn't agree on a start up priority. And two, while a strategy statement had

been written and approved, a focus on concept, words and pictures had yet to

evolve.

Lesson 22

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My recommendation, which prevailed this time but doesn't always, was to begin with an ad. My logic? Only an ad is a sufficiently simple enough vehicle to achieve the focus required to act as a beacon for the more complex creative required of all the other marcom tools. And to make my point I picked up the hammer and nail. Placing the point against the wood I easily drove it deeply in the block with a single blow. Then, using the claw to extract the nail, I turned it around, placed the broad, flat head against the wood, and gave it another hard blow. It barely made a dent. The concept of focus was clearly demonstrated. A common problem in developing marcom programs is the tendency to build from the complex to the simple. It doesn't work. You've got to build from the simple to the complex. Only the restrictions imposed by a 7" X 10" rectangle over your entire communications concept can provide the discipline necessary to achieve the focus that drives your message home.

A nyone can describe product attributes in the 5,000 words of a typical brochure or the 2,000 words of a mailing kit. But where's the focus? Now take an ad headline of 7 to 10 words. That's a challenge. That's where you learn to cut the fat from your message. That's when you learn to get to the point. Once you've achieved the focus a single ad forces on you, it's easy to expand on it without losing that focus. Now you're on your way to achieving “integrated seamless communications”… the concept and buzzwords that are sweeping the ad industry today. John O'Toole, outgoing president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), described this concept in a spring 1990 speech as “The New Advertising.”

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WITHOUT A CREATIVE REPOSITORY YOU’LL WITHOUT A CREATIVE REPOSITORY YOU’LL WITHOUT A CREATIVE REPOSITORY YOU’LL WITHOUT A CREATIVE REPOSITORY YOU’LL NEVER ACHIEVE INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS.NEVER ACHIEVE INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS.NEVER ACHIEVE INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS.NEVER ACHIEVE INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS.

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A SIMPLE LITTLE FORMULA FOR A SIMPLE LITTLE FORMULA FOR A SIMPLE LITTLE FORMULA FOR A SIMPLE LITTLE FORMULA FOR DETERMINING IF YOUR SALES AMBITIONS DETERMINING IF YOUR SALES AMBITIONS DETERMINING IF YOUR SALES AMBITIONS DETERMINING IF YOUR SALES AMBITIONS

ARE PURE BLUE SKY.ARE PURE BLUE SKY.ARE PURE BLUE SKY.ARE PURE BLUE SKY.

In the course of a planning session the topic of advertising objectives is inevitably raised. Sometimes the quest is for objectives “in general,” other times for “specific, measurable objectives.” From this we move quickly into management ambitions. In choosing a direction some managers have their feet on the ground, others their heads in the clouds.

PMS (Policy Management Systems) a major insurance software company, wanted to double sales over the next 12 months back in the 1980s. Not an unreasonable ambition… until you discover sales are already at $60 million and the total marcom ad budget they offered me was something less than $100,000.

Leads cost money. Sales cost money. Exceptions to these rules offer worse odds than winning the lottery.

In order to maintain a realistic perspective when starting out to set

the world on fire we developed a two-part answer to the question of

“What might we get from our marcom efforts?”

The answer usually fits on a single piece of paper and seems so simplistic I'm a little reluctant to include it in a book designed to appeal to practicing marketing professionals. But I'm doing so because I continue to get an enthusiastic response whenever I include it in a plan.

Lesson 23

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To start out are the three very basic benefits “in general” of adver-tising (in the broad sense). 1. First, we seek to strengthen the client's identity in the marketplace, establish them as a major contender. In other words, build awareness. 2. Next, we provide direct support of the selling effort by providing a continuous flow of quality leads, which in turn are supported by strong sales materials. Lead generation and collateral. 3. Finally, under "generalized" benefits we seek to generate advertising that will influence beliefs and attitudes in favor of our client's products over the competitor’s.

N ow we get to the “easy, measurable” stuff.

The foregoing is not easy to measure.

Awareness and attitude changes are usually

measured by pre-and post-campaign surveys,

typically separated by 6 to 12 months. Our "measurable" objectives are usually detailed as

follows: (Note: Rather than deal in the abstract we are providing an actual example from a recent client whose average sale price was $83,000 and whose annual sales ambition was $18 million.)

Here it is:

• Increase raw lead flow.

• Increase conversion percentage of qualified leads to sales from

2.5:1 (40%) fiscal year “X” to 2:1 (50%) in fiscal year “Y”,

which represents a 25 % increase.

• To achieve sales of $18 million, 216 orders (averaging $83,000)

must be filled.

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Based on a raw lead to pipeline ratio of 10 to 1 and a pipeline to sale ratio of

2.5 to 1 (.40) yield, we have an overall raw lead to sale ratio of 25 to 1.

Therefore, 216 sales will require 5,400 raw leads (216 X 25). 5,400 leads divided by 12 months indicates a monthly average requirement of 450.

If we succeed in improving the pipeline to sale ratio by 25% (to 2.0:1,

a .50 yield), the overall raw lead to sale ratio becomes 20 to 1, which

offers two possibilities:

1. The number of leads required to reach the sales target of $18 million drops from 5,400 to 4,320… or…

2. Sales increase (by holding to the 5,400 leads) to 270 orders worth $22.4 million.

Based on 18 salespeople and 5,400 leads annually, we will provide

25 leads per man per month.

The improved pipeline to sale ratio could drop this to 20. It is our

hope that the pipeline (qualified lead) to sale ratio will be favorably

impacted by:

• Improving the qualification process through the Buyer Receptivity Profile (telemarketing) resulting in faster location of A leads, and fewer B, C and D leads.

• Improving sales tools (brochures, AV material, etc.) to shorten the selling cycle, speed up the selling process and free salespeople to work on new prospects.

• Increasing awareness in the marketplace which will produce more opportunities to participate in "A" lead discussions.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? IT MAY BE OLD MATH BUT IT IT MAY BE OLD MATH BUT IT IT MAY BE OLD MATH BUT IT IT MAY BE OLD MATH BUT IT STILL ADDS UP IN TODAY’S MARKETPLACE.STILL ADDS UP IN TODAY’S MARKETPLACE.STILL ADDS UP IN TODAY’S MARKETPLACE.STILL ADDS UP IN TODAY’S MARKETPLACE.

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BEFORE YOU CRAFT A MARCOM BEFORE YOU CRAFT A MARCOM BEFORE YOU CRAFT A MARCOM BEFORE YOU CRAFT A MARCOM MESSAGE, WALK A MILE IN YOUR MESSAGE, WALK A MILE IN YOUR MESSAGE, WALK A MILE IN YOUR MESSAGE, WALK A MILE IN YOUR CUSTOMER’S SHOES.CUSTOMER’S SHOES.CUSTOMER’S SHOES.CUSTOMER’S SHOES.

The transition had already been made in database management systems (DBMS) from hierarchical to relational some years earlier. Two companies pretty much owned that market –Oracle and RTI with their product Ingres. And they were doing well. The efficiency of relational over hierarchical was awesome and very popular. Oracle and RTI were growing rapidly, so rapidly in fact that they caught the attention of IBM, who pioneered the original database concept with their mainframe product IMS.

R elational, however, was stealing IBM’s thunder. So they decided to respond to an obvious oppor-tunity and they joined the fray by building DB2.

DB2 in fact, was perceived in a sort of ho-hum manner by a market that seemed satisfied with the existing products from Oracle and Ingres. You could even say that Oracle was on its way to

becoming the proverbial 800

pound gorilla in the market. So IBM launched and nothing

much happened.

Lesson 24

DB2 did not set the world on fire.

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Several months after the introduction of DB2 I was talking to Bob Berland, a VP from IBM, following one of his many speeches before ADAPSO. ADAPSO, which stands for Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, was the original software industry’s trade association, (today it’s ITAA) and Berland was a regular speaker on behalf of IBM.

H aving attended many of these meetings, Bob and I were fairly well acquainted and on this occasion we got into a discussion of DB2. I asked how the launch was going. He responded, “Not well.” I suggested that IBM’s copy pitch was totally misdirected and he listened. I explained that someone at IBM’s ad agency didn’t really grasp the significance of hierarchical vs. relational and simply took the attitude that this was heavy technical stuff which should be directed to propeller heads and wrote the copy accordingly. This was in the days when technology product stories were directed to DP managers on the theory that only technicians would understand them. Hard to believe when measured against today’s marketing efforts, but it took many years to understand that end users who buy technology don’t care how it works, only what it does for them.

But this was the early 1980s. ENTER... Bob listened closely and took my story back to Armonk. Before long a group of IBM execs showed up in my small office in Chicago. We spent the afternoon talking about the communications aspects of launching complex software. At the end they thanked me for my time and went home.

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Before long I got a letter stating that IBM would like to hire my little agency to re-launch DB2 but they were concerned that I just didn’t have the resources to handle an account the size of IBM. So they suggested an alternative. Would I consider working with their marketing department in a consulting role? Would I? Does a cat like catnip? You bet I would. And did.

S o for the next two years I flew into White Plains almost every Friday, spending the day with Byron Quann and his marketing group to develop a new strategy for DB2 as well as helping with SAA and AD/Cycle. I also spent time in New York City with their agency Wells Rich & Greene, helping their creative people understand how to reach DB2 end users.

And the rest, as they say is history. DB2 is alive and doing well

today and regularly challenges Oracle for dominance in that

market. In hopes that this effort on my part for IBM would generate a great case study or reference for my agency I asked for DB2 sales data. I was reminded of the 16-page contract I signed with a five-year span that prohibited me from publishing the fact that I had done this work for IBM. Nor would they release any sales figures.

H owever, because they sympathized with my need for PR they said I could tell people, not publish, just tell people, that my communications support plan and strategy had a positive impact on $8 billion of software sales. Which isn’t bad, I guess. At least they said my stuff worked. WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT COUNTS IS WHAT IT DOES, WHAT COUNTS IS WHAT IT DOES, WHAT COUNTS IS WHAT IT DOES, WHAT COUNTS IS WHAT IT DOES, NOT HOW IT WORKS.NOT HOW IT WORKS.NOT HOW IT WORKS.NOT HOW IT WORKS.

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HOW A PAIR OF SUMO WRESTLERS WRESTLED HOW A PAIR OF SUMO WRESTLERS WRESTLED HOW A PAIR OF SUMO WRESTLERS WRESTLED HOW A PAIR OF SUMO WRESTLERS WRESTLED LAWSON INTO A WINNING POSITION.LAWSON INTO A WINNING POSITION.LAWSON INTO A WINNING POSITION.LAWSON INTO A WINNING POSITION.

The Lawson brothers had a nice little software company in Minneapolis that provided accounting, distribution and HR services to IBM and Burroughs mainframe users as well as owners of the relatively new midrange S/38. But they were not setting the world on fire. They somehow knew their marketing communications was not communicating, but attempts to fix it failed, even after several tries. So Ken Holec, the company’s president at the time, called me up. I had just completed three years of work getting JD Edwards up to speed, which was preceded by four years of work with PCR (acquired by Pansophic which was subsequently acquired by Computer Associates). And I was familiar with the S/38-AS/400 market. Lawson’s prob-lem was a com-mon one. Heavy text-oriented ads with a heavy technical bent directed toward DP managers. Long on features, short on benefits. I guess they had never encountered that old bromide that says a picture is worth a thousand words. This old saying has been substantiated by studies of brain chemistry, incidentally. But that’s a story for another day.

Lesson 25

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Taking a clue from the highly successful JD Edwards campaign that acknowledged the need for user-customizing software capability, we put together a headline that recognized the failure of most accounting software to function as a perfect fit to the user’s needs.

A fter many, many headlines and many, many graphic approaches we settled on a two-page spread that was 80% pictorial and 20% simple user-friendly copy. The picture we settled on? A close up of two struggling sumo wrestlers! In the 1980s this was a radical departure from the typical technology ad. Just as JD Edwards’ little girl at a grand piano had been. In the process we redesigned Lawson’s logo and gave them a tagline that stated simply: “Whatever it takes.” Lawson found the tag so appropriate they used it many years before finally giving in to some new ad agency’s suggestions. After limping along for many years, Lawson’s sales took off under the new campaign and they op-erate today as a very healthy organization. It took a pair of sumo wrestlers to change their luck.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? A FRESH LOOK THAT’S RELEVANT COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE.A FRESH LOOK THAT’S RELEVANT COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE.A FRESH LOOK THAT’S RELEVANT COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE.A FRESH LOOK THAT’S RELEVANT COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

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MEET FRANKENSTEIN, AND LEARN WHY IT MEET FRANKENSTEIN, AND LEARN WHY IT MEET FRANKENSTEIN, AND LEARN WHY IT MEET FRANKENSTEIN, AND LEARN WHY IT DOESN’T PAY TO TAMPER WITH SUCCESS.DOESN’T PAY TO TAMPER WITH SUCCESS.DOESN’T PAY TO TAMPER WITH SUCCESS.DOESN’T PAY TO TAMPER WITH SUCCESS.

In 1991, during the final days of flying under its own flag, Pansophic Systems launched a product called PAN/LCM (for life cycle manager). Using the words of Computer Language magazine in August 1991, PAN/LCM was described as “representing a comprehensive solution to version control and configuration management with special emphasis on security and data integrity.” PC WEEK named the product their “Analyst’s Choice” and wrote, “For large networked programming shops, Pansophic Systems, Inc.’s PAN/LCM was judged best… on the basis of its multiuse security, ease of operation and integration…” As great as the product was, it wasn’t selling well. KBA, having been Pansophic’s ad agency from 1974 to 1979, I was invited to come in and talk to Tony Paoni. Tony said he needed a powerful, attention-getting presence and was receptive to powerful graphics. After writing perhaps 50 headline candidates two were chosen, one as the headline and the other as a subhead. The head said, “Without change management your programs may take on a life of their own!” And the subhead, “Application developers need configuration management to avoid creating monsters.” After toying with a few graphic concepts a light bulb came on. This ad called for a

Lesson 26

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prominent display of the likeness of Frankenstein. After shopping at a few of the local costume houses I found a very realistic rubber mask, photographed it against a dark background and stripped it into a stock photo of a lightning filled sky. We added a touch to this ad that was uncommon in those days and turned the ad into a direct marketing vehicle showing the package, prominent pricing and an 800 number to call to place an order.

T he campaign was a smashing success – for about two months – and then was stopped when Pansophic was sold to Computer Associates. The ad

disappeared. About a month after the acquisition was completed I called CA’s VP of Marketing Larry Meyers, who I was acquainted with, and asked about the PAN/LCM ad, wanting to know why such a successful campaign had been stopped.

Larry’s response was an admonition. “Keith, you of all people should know how important it is for a company to maintain a consistent look across all their marketing communications materials.” My plea of “but this one’s a proven winner” fell on deaf ears. In parting I suggested that Larry do his homework before killing the goose that was laying golden eggs.

I magine my surprise when two weeks later I get a frantic call from some other VP at CA wanting all the art, film and

other assorted materials from the Frankenstein ad FedEx’d overnight to his attention. Apparently Larry had done his homework.

Within another two weeks my Frankenstein ad appeared in all the major trade publications again with only a relatively minor change...PAN/LCM was now CA-PAN/LCM. And the ad ran untouched for a full year.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? DON’T TAMPER WITH SUCCESS, DON’T TAMPER WITH SUCCESS, DON’T TAMPER WITH SUCCESS, DON’T TAMPER WITH SUCCESS, REGARDLESS OF PRECEDENT.REGARDLESS OF PRECEDENT.REGARDLESS OF PRECEDENT.REGARDLESS OF PRECEDENT.

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CAN PIGS FLY? YOU BET! CAN PIGS FLY? YOU BET! CAN PIGS FLY? YOU BET! CAN PIGS FLY? YOU BET! SEE HOW A WARTHOG GOT SALES SEE HOW A WARTHOG GOT SALES SEE HOW A WARTHOG GOT SALES SEE HOW A WARTHOG GOT SALES

SOARING FOR CROSSACCESS. SOARING FOR CROSSACCESS. SOARING FOR CROSSACCESS. SOARING FOR CROSSACCESS.

I had met Ray Navarra years earlier. He and Andrew “Flip” Filipowski had recently left John Cullinane’s giant Cullinet Corporation to come to Chicago and found DBMS Inc. for whom my agency had done some work. But eventually Flip and Ray had a falling out and Flip left rather unceremoniously (through a window I believe) and went on to form Platinum Technology from which Divine Interventures evolved. But we’ll save that horror story for another day. Ray got involved with a company called CrossAccess and invited me in to work with my old friend Tony Paoni from Pansophic to get their product launched against a well entrenched competing product from Information Builders called EDA/SQL.

T ony and I had assembled Frankenstein to launch PAN/LCM

so he wanted to know if I

could apply the same creativity for

CrossAccess. I could, and did! CrossAccess was brought into the market-place at about the time the concept of client/server was introduced to the com-puting world. Very simply, the problem was portability of diverse data from both relational and non-relational databases.

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The CrossAccess product provided a proven SQL interface for seamless, integrated enterprise-wide data delivery from either environment. The challenge posed for the marcom company was whether a complex product could be presented simply enough to generate a meaningful lead flow.

R ather than beat around the bush relative to competing products, we decided to call a spade a spade and launched a head-on attack against EDA/SQL. Our headline read “Embedded SQL vs. proprietary API… like comparing the good, with the bad and the ugly”. The subhead read, CrossAccess… the only known alternative to EDA/SQL!” And the photo was a close-up of a really ugly African warthog’s face, spread across two pages in all the leading tech magazines.

T hen we added a little chart comparing side by side features. To make a long story short, within a few weeks the campaign drew more than 700

leads and this was for a $250,000 product.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? TO GET PEOPLE TO READ YOUR AD, FIRST YOU’VE TO GET PEOPLE TO READ YOUR AD, FIRST YOU’VE TO GET PEOPLE TO READ YOUR AD, FIRST YOU’VE TO GET PEOPLE TO READ YOUR AD, FIRST YOU’VE GOT TO STOP THEM DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS.GOT TO STOP THEM DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS.GOT TO STOP THEM DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS.GOT TO STOP THEM DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS.

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HOW A LITTLE CHICAGOHOW A LITTLE CHICAGOHOW A LITTLE CHICAGOHOW A LITTLE CHICAGO----BASED, KOREANBASED, KOREANBASED, KOREANBASED, KOREAN----MANAGED, VIOLIN SHOP BECAME A BIG MANAGED, VIOLIN SHOP BECAME A BIG MANAGED, VIOLIN SHOP BECAME A BIG MANAGED, VIOLIN SHOP BECAME A BIG DEAL IN THE LIFE OF VIASOFT.DEAL IN THE LIFE OF VIASOFT.DEAL IN THE LIFE OF VIASOFT.DEAL IN THE LIFE OF VIASOFT.

Mike Lyons was a prominent figure in the software industry at one time and one of the companies he managed was Asyst Technologies in Naperville, IL. His company employed Gary Rippen as its VP of Marketing and Gary, knowing of the work my agency had done for Pansophic, invited me in to discuss their advertising needs. After coordinating some nice work but frustrated with management, Gary left the company and joined a small software vendor in Phoenix called VIASOFT. VIASOFT had a unique prod-uct, a product whose time had definitely come with the advent of CASE (computer aided systems engineering). Business applications built in the early 70s and 80s were now getting a little long in tooth and needed updating. Definitely candidates for CASE.

V IASOFT’s Existing Systems Workbench (ESW) consisted of a powerful set of software tools that created a re-engineering framework for restoring youth to aging business systems. It consisted of both tools and consulting services to enhance, maintain, redevelop or re-engineer existing business apps and included tools for COBOL analysis, editing, testing, documentation and re-engineering for extraction and reuse of existing code – all critical to the redeployment of programming resources for application development or migration to CASE. The products supported SAA and AD/Cycle, both IBM products.

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This was pretty heavy, technical stuff. What sort of powerful graphics and simple copy could sum up all of that?

A fter exploring many options, Gary was attracted to one of the concepts that he then sold to management. Now came the challenge. Our copy started with the line, “Time takes its toll on all things. From violins to viable systems for managing your business.”

So we needed a photo of a violin shop. First place to start were the stock photo houses. None of them had a photo that was acceptable.

S o we decided to create our own. Now

all we had to do was find

a violin shop, one that

repaired or restored

aging violins. The

Chicago Yellow Pages

produced one possibility

we could explore. And it

turned out to be ideal. It was situated on an upper floor in a grubby old building

on State Street in downtown Chicago and it was run by a bunch of skilled Korean artisans who were most grateful for a little extra revenue for renting out their shop for a two-hour photo shoot. We hired an old man and had him explaining the intricacies of violin repair to a

little curly headed blond boy. The ad ran as a 4/C spread for a year and grew

VIASOFT’s sales 150%, from $12 million to $18 million.

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From Viasoft Gary joined Transform Logic, an-other Phoenix-based software company, and again invited KBA to help with their advertising.

A fter working with Transform Logic for

several years Gary was in-

vited to join Intersolv Corporation

in Rockville, Maryland. Struggling for a while to get their marcom up to speed, he eventually invited my agency to help him again and we produced a four-ad series that boosted their sales from $80 million

to $150 million over the next two years. Intersolv later merged with Micro Focus to form the giant Merant Corporation, which was ac-quired by Serena Software in 2004.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS ONE STEP AT A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS ONE STEP AT A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS ONE STEP AT A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS ONE STEP AT A TIME. CREATIVITY OFTEN TAKES ONE DOWN A PATH A TIME. CREATIVITY OFTEN TAKES ONE DOWN A PATH A TIME. CREATIVITY OFTEN TAKES ONE DOWN A PATH A TIME. CREATIVITY OFTEN TAKES ONE DOWN A PATH WITH NO CLEARLY DEFINED ENDING.WITH NO CLEARLY DEFINED ENDING.WITH NO CLEARLY DEFINED ENDING.WITH NO CLEARLY DEFINED ENDING.

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HOW THE QUEST FOR A UNIQUE HOW THE QUEST FOR A UNIQUE HOW THE QUEST FOR A UNIQUE HOW THE QUEST FOR A UNIQUE PHOTO TOOK NAPERSOFT TO NEW PHOTO TOOK NAPERSOFT TO NEW PHOTO TOOK NAPERSOFT TO NEW PHOTO TOOK NAPERSOFT TO NEW

ZEALAND AND BACK ZEALAND AND BACK ZEALAND AND BACK ZEALAND AND BACK ONLY TO ONLY TO ONLY TO ONLY TO DISCOVER TREASURE IN THEIR OWN DISCOVER TREASURE IN THEIR OWN DISCOVER TREASURE IN THEIR OWN DISCOVER TREASURE IN THEIR OWN

BACK YARD.BACK YARD.BACK YARD.BACK YARD.

B art Carlson is a long time friend and many-time employer of my little boutique software industry-

focused ad shop. This time he invited me to help with the development of booth graphics for Napersoft’s Outbound Document Management software. Our strategy was to position the client/server system as the most versatile document distribution process available.

The objective of the promotion was to generate leads by using a poster as an incentive to visit the Napersoft booth at various trade shows. Postcard invitations were mailed to an audience of customer service managers. Along the way we decided that the Napersoft logo needed a new look so that became part of the creative assignment as well.

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A fter exploring a great many theme/image con-cepts, which is typical of the approach KBA uses, we settled on a decision to use a series of unique baby photos as only the famed baby photogra-pher Anne Geddes could do.

I found several photos of hers that we thought fit our layouts being offered by a stock photo company and inquired about the cost of usage. Normally this is a simple request and is answered promptly. In this case, we were told we would have to get permission and costs directly from Anne who lived in Auckland, New Zealand.

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After a flurry of discussions between her agent (her husband I believe) and Larry Turner, a west coast attorney, our request was rejected. Their argument? They felt our use would breach other relationships! There was no further explanation.

N ot one to give up a good idea easily I decided to locate local talent and duplicate Anne’s work. Which we did, but not without some challenges. The job went from a simple challenge to a nightmare of logistics and involved dozens of babies, two pho-tographers and some very expensive computer retouching. Lucky Curtis, one of the finest “people” photographers I have ever worked with, managed to turn several dozen screaming babies into five beautiful photographs. Then Jeff Schewe put his genius to work in photographing the hands the babies were to lay on and assembled babies, hands, flowers and other assorted props into a single photo. Jeff’s skills at computer imaging are nothing short of awesome. The photos were assembled into ads, postcards and a 40’ booth that stood out

from everything else at the shows they attended. Requests for posters of the little

babies were overwhelming and leads continued to roll in for months after each

show.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? THE BEST SOLUTIONS ARE OFTEN THOSE RIGHT THE BEST SOLUTIONS ARE OFTEN THOSE RIGHT THE BEST SOLUTIONS ARE OFTEN THOSE RIGHT THE BEST SOLUTIONS ARE OFTEN THOSE RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES.UNDER OUR NOSES.UNDER OUR NOSES.UNDER OUR NOSES.

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WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE FAILS YOU CAN WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE FAILS YOU CAN WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE FAILS YOU CAN WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE FAILS YOU CAN FALL BACK ON SERENDIPITY. FALL BACK ON SERENDIPITY. FALL BACK ON SERENDIPITY. FALL BACK ON SERENDIPITY.

SEE HOW EOLAS MADE SOME BIG BUCKS SEE HOW EOLAS MADE SOME BIG BUCKS SEE HOW EOLAS MADE SOME BIG BUCKS SEE HOW EOLAS MADE SOME BIG BUCKS ACCIDENTALLY.ACCIDENTALLY.ACCIDENTALLY.ACCIDENTALLY.

E olas Technologies was in the newspapers and magazines regularly in 2003 and 2004. What got them fame, and possibly fortune, is the fact that Mike Doyle invented a critical portion of the technology that

powers Microsoft’s Internet Explorer… technology on which Eolas holds the patent and which Microsoft helped themselves to in their battle to dominate Netscape for control of the browser market a few years ago. Eolas filed suit. Almost 10 years of patent proceedings and trial delays culminated in the trial held in Federal Court in Chicago during the summer of 2003. After five weeks of arguments Microsoft lost the case and the jury awarded Eolas $520 million in damages. Needless to say, Microsoft appealed and the case was settled between the two companies in 2007. Eolas then turned around and sued 23 other com-panies for infringement, including Apple, Google, YouTube and eBay. Those suits are pending.

W here’s the serendipity? I met Mike almost 10 years ago when he was a

professor at the University of Illinois’

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Chicago campus. I was introduced by his cousin Will Doyle, founder of Brand Group, with whom I’d been working for many years in the development of brand names, both for corporate and product use within the software industry.

E ventually Mike was wooed away by the University of California at San Fran-cisco and went out there to teach. That’s where he and a couple of his buddies created the browser technology that powered Netscape originally and later Internet Explorer. Once the patent was filed, Mike came back to Chicago to start up Eolas

(www.eolas.com) but

finances were tight. Because of our friendship, KBA helped with the launch of several products but the company was under-capitalized so nothing set the world on fire. In the process of getting Eolas up to speed Mike suggested that I explore a new logo design. In short order the popular @ was turned into the initial “e” in Eolas, and with a little tweak-ing was finished and put to work. This ad never ran. It was put on hold indefinitely.

Now comes the good part.

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IBM , always on the lookout for contemporary graphics and design, stumbled upon the Eolas design one day and decided that the elegant, Internet-inspired “e” was just the prefix that was needed to append all their “e” products.

So Mike was contacted, negotiations entered into, and a large sum of

money changed hands. However, Eolas retained the right to use its

own “e” so that only IBM and Eolas have the right today to use this

unique, contemporary design. And Mike’s Eolas came into a nice little

windfall, very serendipitously.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHEN IN AN INVENTIVE MODE, WATCH FOR WHEN IN AN INVENTIVE MODE, WATCH FOR WHEN IN AN INVENTIVE MODE, WATCH FOR WHEN IN AN INVENTIVE MODE, WATCH FOR PERIPHERAL OPPORTUNITIES.PERIPHERAL OPPORTUNITIES.PERIPHERAL OPPORTUNITIES.PERIPHERAL OPPORTUNITIES.

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AND NOW A CLOSING THOUGHT AND NOW A CLOSING THOUGHT AND NOW A CLOSING THOUGHT AND NOW A CLOSING THOUGHT BECAUSE THE WORLD OF MARKETING BECAUSE THE WORLD OF MARKETING BECAUSE THE WORLD OF MARKETING BECAUSE THE WORLD OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IS CHANGING RAPDILY.COMMUNICATIONS IS CHANGING RAPDILY.COMMUNICATIONS IS CHANGING RAPDILY.COMMUNICATIONS IS CHANGING RAPDILY.

WHEN DIVING INTO THE SOCIAL WHEN DIVING INTO THE SOCIAL WHEN DIVING INTO THE SOCIAL WHEN DIVING INTO THE SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD TODAY, REMEMBER IT’S MEDIA WORLD TODAY, REMEMBER IT’S MEDIA WORLD TODAY, REMEMBER IT’S MEDIA WORLD TODAY, REMEMBER IT’S OFTEN AS MUCH ABOUT THE MESSAGE OFTEN AS MUCH ABOUT THE MESSAGE OFTEN AS MUCH ABOUT THE MESSAGE OFTEN AS MUCH ABOUT THE MESSAGE AS THE MEDIUM.AS THE MEDIUM.AS THE MEDIUM.AS THE MEDIUM.

Social media – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in particular – seem to be getting all the press these days. Businesses are flocking to the Internet in droves to Tweet, post Facebook status updates and upload videos to YouTube with all the frenzy of a Justin Beiber Fanclub member. Unfortunately, many of these businesses have no idea how to use social media to generate BtoB leads. Worse, many don’t even have a clue what social media is.

S o let’s start with the basics. Social media is any medium that provides

users with the chance to interact, respond or supplement the marketer’s

message. Think of it as a dialogue, not a monologue.

While the Big Three listed above get all the media attention, social media channels have been around for about five years. They include blogs, LinkedIn,

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online newsletters, podcasts, surveys, virtual conferences and tradeshows, webcasts and webinars – anything where people can contribute to the dialogue and join in the conversation. Social media isn’t always digital either. Bylined articles, direct mail and focused print media with contact data, Customer Visitor Centers, experiential marketing, telemarketing, road shows – the list goes on – can also be considered social media. Twenty-nine percent of word of mouth discussions about you and your product

happen online. The rest, 71%, occurs offline.

B efore you develop a social media presence, you really need to develop a social media strategy. So this lesson is about managing both media and messages within your Marcom Engine process.

The responsibility for social media in business falls squarely into two laps. The media is often controlled by the Director of Consumer-Generated Media or the CMO. The message, on the other hand, could be the responsibility of the client’s VP of Marketing, the creative director at the ad agency, your creative consultant… or even the market.

So, where do we begin? With the messages, of course.

These come in two flavors: client-driven messaging and consumer-

driven messaging. Client-driven messages evolve from the Communications module of the six-module Marcom Engine we developed here at KBA. The first three modules are Audit, Strat-egy and Communications. These represent the Planning Phase. The second three modules, Arsenal, Deployment and Measurement, represent the Execution Phase.

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In the Communications module itself, we assemble a creative repository, which is populated with core intelligence that we extracted from the Audit and Strategy modules. This is blended with the “big idea”… the theme and image standards developed by your art director, ad agency or creative consultant. The success of this effort is based heavily on your value proposition, which should have evolved during the core intelligence process. Now, consumer-driven messages also evolve from our revised Marcom Engine. But it doesn’t occur at the same point in the process as client-driven messages. It comes during Deployment in the Execution Phase, not the Planning Phase.

N ote that I said “revised.” That’s because at this stage in the process, marcom (for marketing communications) becomes “marcon” (for mar-

keting conversation). We no longer control the message but monitor it and

participate in it instead.

It’s an important difference and entire books have been written on the subject, including Joseph Jaffe’s Join the Conversation.

The success of marcon is heavily dependent on the quality of our responses as we participate. Paul Dunay, Global Managing Director-Services and Social Marketing at Avaya, said that social media has the power to transform the role of the CMO as execu-tives who understand social media can evangelize its benefits organization-wide.

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Says Dunay, “If you have someone who really knows the social media landscape, they can galvanize the company around the customer. Social media is not just a marketing thing; it is a finance thing, a product thing, a customer-support thing. Social media has the ability to integrate all of these functions and get them to work in a more fluid

manner.”

As I noted earlier, word of mouth marketing accounts for a large part

of social media, both online and offline. So let’s clear up some common

misconceptions about word of mouth marketing before we move on.

These misconceptions include:

“It spreads like wildfire.” WRONG. Rarely does it do so without accelerated contagion.

“All you need is a good product.”

WRONG. Products need to have inherent interest to inspire a conversation and activities are required to accelerate the process.

“With good PR you don’t need marketing.”

WRONG. Traditional marcom tools are needed to convert enthusiasts into buyers. The focus needs to be on making sales, not generating contacts.

“All you really need are early adopters.”

WRONG. Visionaries only start the process. You have to think pragmatists to get rich!

“Do it all online. No need to do offline.”

WRONG again! Using just one is suicide. You need them both.

So, what are all the tools and processes employed by word of mouth designed to accomplish anyway?

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According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), there are five major activities involved:

Identifying people who are most likely to share their opinions. Educating people about your products and services. Providing tools that make it easier to share information. Studying opinions as to how, where and when they are being shared. Listening and responding to supporters, detractors and neutrals.

Now, there are a lot of tools in the arsenal to influence relations with your audiences.

F or example, in initiating the relationship you may utilize personalized or email correspondence, care packages (a product trial, for example), information pack-

ages, forwarded articles that may be of interest, direct response or event interception. Contact opportunities include recognition awards, company conferences, influencer spotlights, briefings, webinars, road shows or lunches/dinners. You can also use involvement strategies such as influencer brainstorming, a product review board, speaker’s bureau, testimonials, CEO summit or a day at the company. Each of these can influence relations by promoting ongoing opportunities for dialogue, which is central to effective social media strategies. The good news is that the Marcom Engine that KBA developed embraces the framework set forth by WOMMA. It also offers marcom professionals something that has in the past been missing from many programs – clear accountability. I know what you’re saying. Accountability has been an important part of measuring marketing performance for some time now. While proving the ROI of marketing isn’t

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new, the recession has really put a lot of pressure on those in marcom to make their case. Even as the economy recovers, this pressure will remain and tools will need to be em-ployed to analyze, measure and justify activities at all levels. John Seifert, Chairman-CEO of Ogilvy & Mather North America, New York, put it well when he said, “More [businesses] are demanding the math behind the creativity.”

M easuring has never been more important and tools like the Marcom Engine

can help you make the case for keeping your existing budget while campaign-

ing for an increase to handle your rapidly expanding social media responsibilities.

To visit Keith’s POV on Social Media for B2B lead generation see his PowerPoint at: http://www.kbates.com/images/Social_Media_for_Lead_Generation.pdf Or to see a white paper on Social Media Marketing you could look at: http://www.kbates.com/images/SocialMediaWhitePaper.pdf

Plus, if you’re new to the concept of Word of Mouth Marketing visit his white paper at: http://www.kbates.com/images/Word-of-Mouth-White-Paper-042005-v1.pdf

If you’d like to see more ad examples check out my 50+ pages Ad Portfolio at: http://www.kbates.com/images/THE_AD_PORTFOLIO.pdf

Worried that half your ad dollars are wasted? Wanna know which half? http://www.kbates.com/MarcomAuditeBook.pdf

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? WHAT’S THE POINT? IT’S NO LONGER ENOUGH TO CREATE THE MESSAGE, IT’S NO LONGER ENOUGH TO CREATE THE MESSAGE, IT’S NO LONGER ENOUGH TO CREATE THE MESSAGE, IT’S NO LONGER ENOUGH TO CREATE THE MESSAGE, YOU HAVE TO JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION.YOU HAVE TO JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION.YOU HAVE TO JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION.YOU HAVE TO JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORABOUT THE AUTHORABOUT THE AUTHORABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keith Winfield Bates is an online/offline technology companies-focused creative strategist. Operating as CEO/Creative Director of the nation’s leading high tech ad agency from 1970 to 2000 the agency has recently downsized and evolved into a consulting firm with a focus on creative strategy and lead generation. The Marcom Engine, developed by Keith in the ‘90s, is the backbone of the firm’s efforts.

His agency’s work is responsible for sales exceeding $20 billion of technology products and

services worldwide. He is also a serial entrepreneur having launched six corporations.

Keith is a well known professional in the field of high tech marketing communications, contributing author to numerous industry publications, and communications consultant to Boeing, Computer Associates, JD Edwards (now Oracle) IBM, KPMG, SPSS and over 100 others. His ad career began over 30 years ago with Foote, Cone & Belding, then the world’s leading consumer ad agency. He is a Charter Member of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Assn), active in the BMA, and for many years performed as a judge for the CDMA design events. He is also a 35 year member of

the Chicago Adventurers Club and recently completed a three year effort to develop and

launch a social network for adventurers. You can visit the site at: www.MyAdventures.com. Keith’s competitive advantage stems from his creative skills, planning expertise, and an ability to translate complex ideas and technologies into easily understood product attributes. The company has won dozens of Advertising Achievement Awards, given for achieving specific sales levels, not for simple esthetics. He is available for consulting on the development of Marcom Audits, Creative Strategies, and Communications Support Plans, all of which can be reviewed on his website at www.kbates.com.

Check out his PPT on Social Media for B2B lead generation:

http://www.kbates.com/images/Social_Media_for_Lead_Generation.pdf

Or view a white paper on Social Media Marketing:

http://www.kbates.com/images/SocialMediaWhitePaper.pdf

New to the concept of Word of Mouth Marketing?

http://www.kbates.com/images/Word-of-Mouth-White-Paper-042005-v1.pdf

For more ads check out Keith’s 50+ pages Ad Portfolio at:

http://www.kbates.com/images/THE_AD_PORTFOLIO.pdf

Wanna know which half of your marcom dollars are wasted?

http://www.kbates.com/MarcomAuditeBook.pdf

THE AD PORTFOLIO

IN THE WORKS

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APPENDIX

Client List: 1970 to 2010 This is just a partial list of accounts, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer,

served by Keith Bates & Associates Inc.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACCOUNTS ABC Technologies Access Computer Co. ADAPSO Advanced Systems Concepts Airplan Systems (System One) Aladdin Antares Alliance Grp. Applied Learning Corp. Asyst Technologies Authentify Automation Design AIRS (INSTEC) Bakco Data BCR Enterprises BGIS BlackInk Software Boeing Computer Business Modeling Caelus Inc. Cambar Software Capsco Software Catalyst (Peat Marwick) cfSoftware Charter Data Services Chasm Institute Cimlinc Inc. Cimnet Systems Coe-Truman Tech. Coherent Networks, Inc. Com-Co-Tec CrossAccess Corp. Cullinane, John Cynosure DBMS Inc.

Delphi Information Sys. Design Data Systems Deltak/Applied Learning DH Dial Digital Systems House Discrete Time Systems Distribution Sciences Diversified Technologies Electec Corporation Emphasys Software Endeavor Info Sys. Eolas Technologies Empower Geographics Equal Employment Opportunity Consultants Exceed Corporation Excalibur Tech. Gateway Systems Inc. GBC/ General Binding Corp Gemma International Group 1 Software HarrisData HyperSecur IBM ICE, Inc. Information Management.Tech. Innovous Multimedia Inc. Inn-Room Systems InterAccess Co. Intersolv Inc. ISA Solutions IsoQuest (SRA) Jason Software J. Baker & Associates JD Edwards & Co KDM Associates Ken Orr & Assoc. Inc Kirchman Corp. KPMG

Lakeview Technology Lansa Lawson Associates LPC/Pitney Bowes Marketing Info Sys. Meta Systems Metrix Inc. McCabe & Associates Midwest Visual Equip. Mobius Mgmnt. Sys. Mutare Inc. mVerify Napersoft Inc. NETG Neal Nelson Assoc. Northwest General Data NOVARRA Olympic amis Output Reporting Pansophic Systems Planned Maintainance Sys. Price Waterhouse Prime Computer PCR Proxy Message Center PSC, Inc. Rand McNally - TDM Retail Target Marketing Rexnord Ricardo North America RN Act Robert Routman Salare Security Sam Albert Assoc. Sam Albert Assoc. Scientific Info Retrieval Sentry Publishing Co. Shaker Computer Silvon Software

SKK, Inc. SmartForce Software AG Software Corp. Amer. Software Design Ass. Software Plus Software Systems Co. SPSS (IBM) Standard Software System 5 Inc. Systems Mgmt. Inc. SRI Systems & Software Teleconsultants, Inc. Talentology (People Filter) Telcorp Inc. Teledata Titan Technologies ThumbScan Inc. Thomson Software Timeworks, Inc. Transform Logic Trimark Technologies 2Confer Ultra Corporation Uniq Computer Co. University Commun. Value Group VASCO Data Security Viasoft Inc. Wallace Computer Wheels Inc. Xpress Software, Inc. Zink & Katich, Inc. ZyLAB Corporation Zenith Data Systems

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INDUSTRIAL, CONSUMER and U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTS AAR Corp. Adventurers Club Air Finance International Air Namibia Airplan Systems Airponents All America Plastics Allen Aircraft Allen Airmotive International Allied Electronics Allied Mills Canada North Outfitters Casa Bella CCH Condominiums Corp. Chamberlain Manufacturing Colt Industries Constitution Life Ins. Consumer Guide Magazine Continental Bank

Continental Casualty Crown Marketing Svstems Detectronic Corp. Digital Pix Dormeyer Industries Edens Plaza Bank Enesco Imports Erik A. Lindgren Assoc Ethiopian Airlines Explorers World Travel Falcon International Girl Scouts of America Gravity Investments Hinckley & Schmitt Humes & Berg Mfg. Inter/Agriculture

Trout & Grouse, LLC U.S. Action Agency U.S. Air Force Recruiting U.S. Army Recruiting U.S. Army Corp of Engineers U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ViaDIRECT Travel Wildlife World, Inc. Zenith Electronics

Intermountain Invest. Jeffrey Elevator Co. Kitchens of Sara Lee La Costa of Arizona Lane Banks Mongerson Gallery MyAdventures.com North Community Bank Peace Corp (U.S.) Pert Products Quick-Set Tripods Ramco International Safari Club International Safari Magazine Inc. Safari Outfitters Sears South African Airways Standard Elsmere Systema, Inc. The John Volk Co.

Client List: 1970 to 2010 (continued)

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A FEW OF OUR SUCCESS STORIES:

The ultimate test of marketing communications. Here's how a few of our clients fared.

IBM Positive impact on $8 billion in software sales. (percentage of increase proprietary).

Re-launch of DB2. Today $20 billion plus.

JD EDWARDS $15 million to $60 million: 3 years. Grew to $1 billion. Now owned by Oracle.

LAWSON ASSOCIATES

$15 million to $20 million: 1 year. Today $500 million+.

LPC (PITNEY BOWES SOFTWARE) $500,000 to $5 million in 3 years.

PANSOPHIC SYSTEMS

(Now Computer Associates) $3 million to $30 million: 5 years, Sold to CA for $280 million.

PEAT MARWICK ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (KPMG) $3 million to $6 million in 1 year.

PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER RESOURCES

(Now Computer Associates product CA/PRMS) $2 million to $16 million: doubled sales every year for 4 years.

UNIQ COMPUTER (Launched UNIX)

$0 TO $500,000 in 4 months.

VIASOFT $12 million to $18 million: 1 year.

INTERSOLV

(Merged with Micro Focus to form the giant Merant Corporation) $80 million to $150 million:

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INDEX OF COMPANIES REFERENCED AND LESSONS WHERE THEY CAN BE LOCATED

AAR Corp. Lesson 19

ABC Technologies, Lesson 3, 19

ADAPSO, Lesson 24

AIRS, Lesson 10

Ashton-Tate, Lesson 20

Asyst Technologies, Lesson 28

AT&T, Lesson 20

Bakco Data, Lesson 19

Benton & Bowles, Lesson 18

Burroughs, Lesson 25

Catalyst, Lesson 1, 17, 19, 20

Computer Associates, Lesson 2, 4, 25, 26

Consumer Systems, Lesson 19

CrossAccess, Lesson 27

Cullinane, Lesson 19, 27

D&B Salesnet, Lesson 13

D&B Software, Lesson 10

DBMS Inc., Lesson 8, 27

DEC, Lesson 1

Deltak, Lesson 15

Divine, Lesson 8, 27

Entre Computers, Lesson 20

Eolas, Lesson 30

Execucom Systems, Lesson 6, 20

Ferox Microsystems, Lesson 20

GBC, Lesson 1

Group1, Lesson 1

Groupe Bull, Lesson 1

Harris Data, Lesson 19

IBM, Lesson 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 20, 24, 25

ICE, Inc., Lesson 20

Information Builders, Lesson 27

INSTEC, Lesson 10

Intersolv, Lesson 28

ITAA, Lesson 24

Intersolv, Lesson 28

ITAA, Lesson 24

J.D. Edwards, Lesson 1, 19, 20, 25

Ken Orr & Associates, Lesson 14

Lawson, Lesson 25

Leo Burnett, Lesson 5

LPC, Lesson 10

Merant, Lesson 28

Micro Focus, Lesson 28

Microsoft, Lesson 30

Montgomery Wards, Lesson 2

Napersoft, Lesson 6, 29

Northstar, Lesson 1

Ogilvy & Mather, Lesson 5, 20

Oracle, Lesson 7, 24

Pansophic, Lesson 2, 10, 13, 19, 25, 26, 28

PCR., Lesson 4, 20, 25

Peat Marwick, Lesson 1, 16, 17

P M Advanced Technologies, Lesson 1

Pitney Bowes, Lesson 10

Platinum Technologies, Lesson 8, 27

PMS, Lesson 10, 23

Rome Reports, Lesson 1

RTI (Ingres), Lesson 7, 24

Signa Corp., Lesson 20

SIR DBMS, Lesson 7

SMI, Lesson 19

System 5, Lesson 1

Televideo, Lesson 1

Thumbscan, Lesson 15, 19

VIASOFT, Lesson 28

Wallace Computing, Lesson 1, 19

XA Systems, Lesson 1

Zenith Data Systems, Lesson 1, 10

Zylab, Lesson 19

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Keith Bates Library for Technology Marketers (partial) 1970 to 2010

Word of Mouth Marketing

1. All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin 2. Beyond Buzz by Lois Kelly 3. Buzz by Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia, Ann O’Reilly 4. Buzz Marketing by Mark Hughes 5. Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba 6. Connected Marketing by Justin Kirby and Paul Marsden 7. Creating Customer Evangelists by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba 8. Grapevine by Dave Balter and John Butman 9. Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing by Idil Cakim 10. Measuring Word of Mouth, Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, by WOMMA 11. Pyro Marketing by Greg Stielstra 12. Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customer Tell 3,000

by Pete Blackshaw 13. Secret and Mysterious Order of Word of Mouth 14. The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen 15. The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited by Emanuel Rosen 16. The Influentials by Ed Keller and Jon Berry 17. The Listening Playbook by Steve Rappaport 18. The New Influencers by Paul Gillin 19. The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing by George Silverman 20. Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin 21. Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz

Social Media

1. Click by Bill Tancer 2. Facebook Marketing for Dummies by Paul Dunay and Richard

Krueger 3. Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe 4. Marketing to the Social Web by Larry Weber 5. Social Media 101 by Chris Brogan 6. Social Media Marketing for Dummies by Shiv Singh 7. Social Media Metrics by Jim Sterne 8. The AdSense Code by Joel Comm 9. The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen 10. The Little Black Book of Online Business by Paul Galloway 11. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith 12. Twitter Power by Joel Comm with Ken Burge

13. Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg 14. YouTube for Business by Michael Miller

Technology

1. ASP.NET 3.5 for Dummies by Ken Cox 2. Behind the Cloud by Marc Benioff 3. Designing for the Social Web by Joshua Porter 4. Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug 5. Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good by Sarah Lacy 6. QuestionPro for Dummies by Jennifer LeClaire and Vivek Bhaskaran 7. Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug 8. Search Engine Marketing, Inc. by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt 9. Starting an iPhone App Business for Dummies by Aaron Nicholson,

Joel Elad, Damien Stolarz 10. The CSS Anthology by Rachel Andrew 11. Web 2.0, A Strategy Guide by Amy Shuen 12. WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson

Branding

1. A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury 2. Beyond the Brand by John Winsor 3. Emotional Branding by Daryl Travis 4. Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe

Contemporary Marketing

1. Accelerated Disruption by Eric Lefkofsky 2. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell 3. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

4. Dealing with Darwin by Geoffrey Moore 5. Email Marketing by the Num8bers by Chris Baggott 6. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner 7. FutureShop by Daniel NIssanoff 8. Guerilla Marketing for Consultants by Jay Conrad Levinson

and Michael McLaughin 9. How Customers Think by Gerald Zaltman

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10. I Love You More Than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss 11. Networlding by Melissa Giovagnoli and Jocelyn Carter-Miller 12. On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee 13. Open Brand by Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins 14. Passionate & Profitable by Lior Arussy 15. Permission Marketing by Seth Godin 16. Purple Cow by Seth Godin 17. Rocket Branding by Ian Miller 18. Selling to the Old Brain by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin 19. StrADegy, Advertising in the Digital Age by Steven Fredericks 20. Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath 21. The Big Moo by Seth Godin 22. The Mirror Test by Jeffrey Hayzlett 23. The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott 24. The Power of Nice by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval 25. The Ultimate Question by Fred Reichheld 26. Trust or Consequences by Al Golin 27. Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie 28. World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott 29. Your Gut Is Still Not Smarter Than Your Head by Kevin Clancy and

Peter Krieg

Business Management

1. Business Without Borders by Donald DePalma 2. Cultivating Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger, Richard

McDermott, William Snyder 3. Diffusion of Innovations (5

th Edition) by Everett Rogers

4. Guerilla P.R. Wired by Michael Levine 5. How They Did It by Robert Jordan 6. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath 7. Mastering the VC Game by Jeffrey Bussgang 8. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson 9. Smart Startups by David Silver 10. Success Built to Last by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, Mark Thomp-

son 11. The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc

Searls, David Weinberger 12. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Creativity, The Deciding Factor

1. A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech 2. Attitudes and Persuasion by Phil Erwin

3. Casting for Big Ideas by Andrew Jaffe 4. Corporate Identity Design by Veronica Napoles 5. Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain 6. Hare Brain Tortoise Mind by Guy Claxton 7. Mindworks by Charlene Swansea 8. Mysteries of the Mind by Richard Restak 9. The Art of Animation by Bob Thomas and Walt Disney staff 10. The Art Spirit by Robert Henri 11. The Creative Age by Gene Cohen 12. The Creative Vision by Jacob Getzels, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 13. The Intelligence Edge by George Friedman, Meredith Friedman, Colin

Chapman, John S. Baker Jr 14. The Pursuit of WOW by Tom Peters 15. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins 16. Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie 17. Visual Explanations by Edward R. Tufte

My Heroes—Words of Wisdom from Yesterday 1. Confessions of an Advertising Man 2. Creative Management by Wm. A. Marstellar 3. Essentials of Advertising Strategy by Don Schultz 4. From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor by Jerry Della

Femina 5. How to Make Advertising Make Money by John Caples 6. J.Walter Takeover by Richard Morgan 7. Law and the Writer edited by Kirk Polking and Leonard Meranus 8. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy 9. Radio Advertising by Pete Schulberg 10. Real Time by Regis McKenna 11. Reality in Advertising by Rosser Reeves 12. Relationship Marketing by Regis McKenna 13. Saatchi & Saatchi by Philip Kleinman 14. Tale of the Blue Horse by Stanley Arnold 15. Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples 16. The Art of Writing Advertising…Bernbach, Burnett, Gribben, Ogilvy, Reeves 17. The Benevolent Dictators by Bart Cummings 18. The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard 19. The Regis Touch by Regis McKenna 20. The Trouble with Advertising by John O’Toole 21. The Unpublished David Ogilvy by David Ogilvy

Sales—Ask for the Order!

1. 7 Steps to Fearless Speaking by Lilyan Wilder 2. Anatomy of a Successful Salesman 3. Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt by Harvey Mackay 4. Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie 5. For Those Who Sell by J.S. Crockett

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6. Going For It! By Victor Kiam 7. Guerrilla Teleselling by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark Smith, Orvel Ray Wilson 8. How to Sell Yourself by Joe Girard 9. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie 10. I Can See You Naked by Ron Hoff 11. Let’s Get Real by Mahan Khalsa 12. Mastering the Complex Sale by Jeff Thull 13. Samurai Selling by Chuck Laughlin, Karen Sage 14. Say It With Confidence by Margo Krasne 15. Solution Selling by Michael Bosworth 16. Spin Selling by Neil Rackham 17. Straight Talk for Monday Morning by Allan Cox 18. Strategic Selling by Robert Miller, Stephen Heiman 19. Successful Large Account Management by Robert Miller, Stephen Heiman 20. Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey Mackay 21. The 5 Great Rules of Selling by Percy Whiting 22. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino 23. The Mentor by Jack Carew 24. The Power to Get In by Michael Boylan 25. Total Customer Service by William Davidow and Bro Uttal 26. What’s Your Point by Bob Boylan

27.