Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the February 12, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Marketing Basics For Engineers
Investors are atheists, says David A. Breithaupt
of Princeton Strategic Management. “A typical five-year plan for
a new company marks year three with an Immaculate Reception in the
market. But investors are not believers. You need to have a solid
marketing plan that matches your financial objectives.”
Breithaupt is a speaker at “Launching and Financing a Business
in New Jersey,” on Wednesday, February 19, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.
at the POEM center in the Princeton University Engineering Quad on
Olden Avenue. Intended to help engineers and technical professionals
from Lucent and other telecommunications firms consider new careers
in entrepreneurship, the workshop is sponsored by the IEEE, Princeton
POEM, and NJSBDC.
Presenters also include Larry Chong of Princeton Strategic Management,
Debra Dorfman, Richard Mattessich, and Louis Sapirman
of Hale and Dorr; and Randy Harmon of NJSBDC Technology Commercialization
Center. Cost: $35 in advance, $50 at the door, and free to IEEE members.
Call 973-353-1923 or register online (www.NJSBDC.com/register).
Breithaupt went to Yale, Class of 1963, and has an MBA from Columbia.
At Colgate Palmolive, he launched Irish Spring soap, and he also worked
at Warner Lambert and came to Princeton to be marketing vice president
at Church & Dwight, where he launched Arm & Hammer Dental Care Toothpaste.
At Market Source’s technology division he outsourced sales for IBM
in the college market. He started his consulting company in 2001 (609-683-7706;
fax, 609-497-0107, www.princetonstrategic.com). He will explain
the basics:
Know how your product is unique. Ask whether your projectmeets a critical need. Venture capitalists like to ask “What paindoes your product relieve?”Know your product’s barriers to entry. For instance, isit expensive and time consuming to install? Have established competitors?Do a solid competitive analysis.Know the maximum market opportunity. A niche product witha potential market of $5 million may suit an angel but could be toosmall for a venture capitalist.Identify sources of revenue such as product sales, licenses,fee for services, or subscriptions.Know the scalability, how the line can be extended orwhat the next new product might be. If it is designed for one verticalmarket, can it go into a second, third, and fourth vertical market?Of his soap launch, Breithaupt remembers that Irish Spring hada much larger than usual sampling campaign (direct mail of free samples).More important, it had the “right” name and the “right”fragrance (a very expensive one, he remembers, devised by Dayton-basedInternational Flavors and Fragrances). Irish Spring was also the firstsoap to have a striated color and a saddle shape. But he resistedattempts to “scale it up.” He dragged his feet on introducingthe yellow version of Irish Spring, believing that it would neverbe as good as the green original. Yellow has little Irish appeal.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
