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Start-Ups Need a Marketing Strategy
Build a better technology, and they will come. That
is how many scientists heading up their first biotech think, says
Sandra Holtzman, a Manhattan-based marketing consultant with
a number of start-up clients. To this mindset, Holtzman says “no,
no, no.”
The new product can be 10 times better than that offered by an
established
competitor, but it will not matter. “They’ll crush you,”
Holtzman
says. Or they will if you haven’t prepared a well thought-out
marketing
plan. New biotech companies, often headed by a super-bright Ph.D.,
rarely want to hear how important marketing is to their future.
Holtzman,
unafraid to deliver the news, speaks on “Lies Start-Up Companies
Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing and Communications,” on
Wednesday,
January 16, at 11 a.m. at the Trenton Business and Technology
Incubator
on 36 South Broad Street. Call 609-396-8801.
Holtzman is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, the elite
New York City public school, and Lehman College, where she studied
English and film. She holds a master’s in film from New York
University.
After writing news for the New York Times and working on both feature
films and industrial films, she went into advertising, working at
first on consumer goods accounts.
Then, while doing work for pharmaceutical companies at a Philadelphia
ad agency in the early-’80s, “a biotech walked through the
door.”
Holtzman was hooked. She discovered a knack for “turning high
science into bottom line messages.” Her agency does work for
Fortune
500 companies, but has a specialty in working for biotechs and other
technology start-up companies. Typically, they don’t have a lot of
money to spend on marketing, but do have an urgent need to craft a
coherent marketing strategy, not only for potential customers, but
also for competitors, venture capitalists, the business press, and
Wall Street.
Every day, though, Holtzman hears start-up CEOs, sure that their
patents
are enough, argue against the need for marketing. Here are some of
the “lies” she says the start-ups tell themselves.
I have a business plan. I don’t need a marketing plan.Wrong, says Holtzman. A business plan contains an executive summary,a balanced scorecard, a competitive analysis, and management bios.It rarely contains information on target clients, sales approach,market definition, vision, and objectives. And it needs to. Firstand foremost in marketing is a detailed strategy, and it rarely isfound in the business plan.Anyone who has ever written a letter can write copy.”Anybodycan write, that’s true,” says Holtzman. But writing compellingad copy is different from penning a breezy E-mail to a friend. Forone thing, the writing needs a clear “call to action.” Italso needs to get to the right place. Ad professionals know how toplace stories with the media, when to place them, and how to touttheir importance. “You can’t overpromise,” she says.”There’sno point in promoting a product until it’s ready.”I have to show a profit before I can market. Holtzmanknows of one CEO who put off the launch of his website until hisproductwas on the market. It was too late. “He ran out of money,”she says.Marketing costs a lot of money. It can, but it doesn’thave to. Holtzman says there are agencies that will work with alimitedbudget, and will help start-ups set priorities and understand theimportance of basic steps, including getting a logo, and sending outa unified message.My cousin’s nephew just graduated. He can do my website.Yes, probably the nephew can put up a website, but it may not furthera start-up’s goals. The website is more than pictures and links. Ithas to quickly convey a start-up’s essence, its unique sellingproposition.And it has to be easy to find on search engines. This, says Holtzman,is a job for professionals.Fewer than half of all technology start-ups are taken publicby their founders, Holtzman says. The founders, accomplishedscientists,need to become savvy about business in general, and marketing inparticularif they want to be around for their company’s growth and IPO. Theyneed to invest time and money in marketing strategy and positioning.They need a unified message, an image, and a unique sellingproposition.Technology is not enough, says Holtzman. There is no point in buildinga company without crafting a strategy to make investors and customerswant to come.Top Of PageTaking Charge Of Your CareerWhen Don Andersson began his consulting business inthe late 1980s, white collar employees were getting a first tasteof mass lay-offs. The advice then — so bitter to many — wasthat employer loyalty was a thing of the past, that workers had toforget the idea of coasting into retirement at the firm where theytook their management training.”When I started,” says Andersson, principal in Cranford-basedAndersson Group (www.anderssongroup.com), “we said there wouldbe three to five jobs in a career. Now it’s 10 to 12 jobs.”Workersnow know it is not a good idea not to get too comfortable with oneemployer. But, says Andersson, they know only with their heads.Emotionally,many still believe they will be the exception. “They’re stillliving under the impression that there is job security,” saysAndersson, “but there really isn’t.”Andersson consults to companies looking for executives that will bea good fit with their organization and he consults to executives intransition. A 1957 graduate of St. Bonaventure University, Anderssonhas a good 10 to 12 jobs under his own belt. He has worked for aninsurance company, and for several non-profits, was on former GovernorTom Kean’s staff, and served as the manager of Union County. OnWednesday,January 16, at 11:30 a.m. he speaks on “Wanted: Career SurvivalSkills” at the Meeting Professionals International at the RadissonHotel in Fairfield. Cost: $40. Call 732-536-5135.The first job for all workers with career advancement on their minds,Andersson says, is to realize no company is going to take care ofthem: “You’ve got to take care of yourself.” Here are someof his suggestions for doing that.You are your career. “You’ve got to make yourselfprofessionally secure,” says Andersson. Loyalty to a company willnot do it. Spending a lot of energy on digging in and hoping to fallbelow the radar when lay-offs occur is not a ticket to the top.Realizingthat you are a company of one is “much more difficult” thangoing along for a ride with one corporation, says Andersson, but alsois “much more invigorating.” In making that shift, he says,”you accept that if it is to be, it is up to me.”Focus on results. You have to understand what you haveto offer in terms of results. What skills do you have that will boostthe bottom line for your customers? The customers can be externalclients or they can be internal. The important thing is to think aboutwhat they need, and to present yourself as the person who can deliverit. “You are a resource,” says Andersson. “You will onlybe as successful as the people you serve are successful.”Prepare for the next opportunity. You need to keep youreyes open, continually scanning the horizon for the next opportunity.The mindset, says Andersson, is “I can be a resource for thistype of customer in that kind of arena.”Invest in yourself. “How many companies are you awareof that succeed without R&D?” Andersson asks. What works forcompaniesalso works for individuals. Identifying skills necessary foradvancementand acquiring them is essential. Read management books, attendconferences,and take part in workshops. “Don’t think of yourself as a personwho holds a job,” he says. “You’re in the resourcebusiness.”Continually develop yourself as a resource. “How many people haveinvested as much as $5,000 in themselves?” Andersson asks.He often pre-screens candidates for executive positions, and alwaysasks: “What were your learning objectives over the past year?”The answer often is silence, but, he says, “you have to investin continual development, or you won’t get to the top.”Hire a good coach — or two. Andersson, a Yankees fan,says top baseball players have a plethora of coaches. “They havea coach for base stealing, running, conditioning, position specificfielding, hitting, sacrificing. They use coaches for everything tostay on top of the game.” So should you, he insists. The tendencyin business, he finds, is to say “`I’m too busy. I’ll learn asI go.’” It’s not enough, in his opinion.Money invested in coaching, Andersson says, is money well spent. Itwas for him. He found a coach when he was starting his business, andit made all the difference. The coach told him that just being busywas not enough to secure the success of his business. He urged himto develop unique expertise that would separate him from thecompetition.”I got just wonderful insights,” says Andersson. “I wouldnever be where I am today without him.”About to move his business to his hometown — Olean, NewYork — Andersson urges the same kind of autonomy on others.”Ifyou don’t take charge of your career,” he says, “it’s follyto think anyone else will.”Top Of PageDisaster PlanningHow do you spell disaster? Fire, flood, or terrorismmay be the first thought of many, but companies are discovering thatsome of the more prosaic forms of disaster — such as power outagesor the old oak tree in the yard that suddenly topples over and takesthe phone lines with it — also can wreak havoc on theirbusinesses.”Contingency planning is a hard sell,” says MarvinParker,general manager of DocuSafe Records Management in Robbinsville.”There’sa mentality that a disaster is something that happens to somebodyelse.” But it’s a dangerous gamble. A recent study at theUniversityof Texas found that only six percent of companies experiencingcatastrophicdata loss survived.Parker will be one of the presenters at a seminar entitled”PreparingFor Anything, Contingency and Business Recovery Plans,” sponsoredby the Princeton Chamber on Wednesday, January 16, at 7:30 a.m. atthe Nassau Club. Cost: $21. Call 609-520-1776.While preparing for possible disaster makes sense to most people,companies, like many people, tend to learn things the hard way. “Iknow of a company in Texas that moved into a facility near a smallcreek that hadn’t flooded in over 50 years,” says Parker.”Sureenough, it rained two days straight, the little creek flooded andcaused a fire in one of the upper floors of their building. The waterthat the firefighters sprayed soaked all the desks, files, computers,and fax machines. The building was closed for three days, and moldand bacteria formed all over their file cabinets and computers. Ittook them weeks to get everything restored.”But, according to Parker, a little pre-planning could have made thiscompany’s difficulties much less problematic. “They didn’t evenhave something as basic as an off-site list of company employees.Imagine that, they couldn’t even contact their own employees,”he says. “The president wound up standing in the parking lot onhis cell phone, trying to scrounge up home phone numbers.”Common sense is sometimes in short supply, even in the corporateworld.Parker says that he has visited companies whose entire computer backupsystems are stored in the trunk of a car or, even worse, on an officetabletop. “These companies don’t realize that their backup systemis useless, because it’s not off-site,” says Parker. “If theyhave a disaster, everything is going to get wiped out.”DocuSafe, at 3 Applegate Drive, Robbinsville, provides secure storageand indexing of paper records, digital media, and otherbusiness-criticalinformation (www.docusafe.com). It is a division of BohrensMoving & Storage, a family-owned business founded in Princeton in1924. Parker has been with DocuSafe Records Management for six years.He earned a degree in English in 1975 from the University ofWashington.While contingency planning is not on the top of many companies’prioritylists, recent events have prompted some business people to begintakingit a bit more seriously. “Y2K got people’s attention,” saysParker. “The prospect of walking into the office on January 1and having none of their computers work raised the consciousness ofa lot of business people.”Likewise, the terrorist attacks of September 11 have forced somecompaniesto begin taking measures to ensure their continued operation in timesof emergency. “I’m still getting calls from companies in New Yorkthat are looking to transfer records to us,” says Parker.Disasters, by their very nature, come in all shapes and sizes. Buta little careful pre-planning can help prevent a minor inconveniencefrom becoming a major catastrophe. Parker offers these tips.Lists are a beautiful thing. It is important to createoff-site lists of the names, addresses, and phone numbers of allcompanyemployees and customers. “It’s essential to be able to keepemployeesand clients informed of the company’s status if you’re forced outof your building for awhile,” says Parker. “Remember, if youlose contact with your clients, you lose contact with yourbusiness.”Have an alternate work-site available. Some hotels willmake banks of rooms available for companies in need of temporaryrelocation.”It is a good idea to have a place where employees can reportto in an emergency,” says Parker. “Some hotels will guaranteea certain number of rooms for companies during a disaster. There arealso firms that you can arrange in advance to supply computers. Youcan also have your phone lines transferred to your new location.”Prevention is the best medicine. One important way thatcompanies can prevent far-reaching effects of a disaster is by havingan off-site storage of critical backup data and information, suchas documents, letters, and contracts. “It’s good to have analternatework area available, with phones and computers ” says Parker.”But if you don’t have access to your important data, you’re introuble.”As Freud said, denial is a psychological defense mechanism thatgets in the way of true health. The prospect of facing an unknowndisaster is more than a bit daunting to most people. It is thisanxietythat often prevents individuals and companies from taking appropriatesteps that could minimize the impact of a disaster, big or small.Of course, seeing the future would be ideal. But in lieu of a crystalball, it is important to have a well-conceived plan in place.”Often,you see companies having to shut their doors forever after being hitby disaster,” says Parker. “There is an alternative.”— Jack FlorekPrevious StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
