1. Brand and brand promise

In today's environment of advertising and marketing message proliferation, brand is even more important than ever.  Gaining awareness requires repetition of a consistent message.   The goal is to not only build awareness of your brand in your industry, but also to create a positive impression, or brand promise, associated with the brand.   This can not be an idle promise.  The brand promise must be reinforced by the experience of your customers in interacting with your product and with your employees at all customer touch points.

It is therefore important to evaluate the brand and related promise.   What is the promise, or desired impression that the brand is to convey?   Does it provide sufficient differentiation from competition?  Are there multiple brands in the company, and are they all necessary?   Does the brand (name and logo design) itself convey a professional image?  Would a tag line be useful to supplement the brand name/logo?   Are there guidelines for brand usage to enforce consistency and maximize awareness?

Once you are satisfied with your brand, logo design, tag line and related brand promise, then you should be consistently using the brand in all marketing collateral, advertising, web site pages, direct mail, e-blasts, etc.   The message/promise of your brand should even be carried through in telemarketing, sales proposals and with all support people that deal directly with customers.  It is important that all employees are aware of the brand and brand promise, and understand how they can reinforce the message when dealing with customers.  Successful maintenance of the brand promise with existing customers will directly lead to stronger customer loyalty.

2.  Company web site

In today's world, people increasingly look to the internet for information.  Your company web site displays your brand, brand promise and important information about the company.  It is your company's face to the world, telling the company's story and promoting its products.  The web site is available 24x7 for prospects to visit in their own time - many of whom are not ready to engage with a sales rep.  

The web site serves as an entry point for leads coming into the company.  When properly search optimized, a web site can be a powerful magnet for attracting visitors who are searching for products or services such as yours.  Visitor information can be captured as leads through a registration form (required for access to additional information) or the "contact us" page.

Finally, the company web site fulfills a support role for many other marketing initiatives.  All marketing collaterals, direct mail, electronic newsletters, even stationary and business cards reference the company web site for more information.  The web site is the natural place to post information about upcoming events and seminars, with convenient online registration.  It is a repository for past newsletter editions and press releases. 

It is critical that objectives are defined for the web site during the design phase.  The brand promise should be prominent and clearly understood.  The quality and professional image of the web site should be consistent with the brand promise.   Depending on your objectives, there may also be a focus on online ordering, customer service, customer education, etc. 

3.  Customer/Prospect Database

It may come as a surprise that the company's customer and prospect database could be considered a marketing foundation element.  It is a fact that existing customers and prospects that have had previous contacts with your company will be the most receptive to your marketing messages.  There is already a relationship established, which could include being set up already as a vendor in the customer's purchasing system.  It makes sense to direct your marketing messages, direct mail, electronic newsletters, telemarketing, seminar invitations, etc. to this group.

The database should include both phone and email contact information, in addition to an industry designation to allow for more targeted messages.  The contact names may come from your company's enterprise system, or from a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system in use by your sales force.  It must be cautioned, however, to avoid e-blasts to prospects that have not provided opt-in permission for emailing. 

Your customer and prospect database is one of your company's most important assets.  By marketing consistently to this base, including providing useful information and offers, you can develop better brand recognition/product awareness, increase customer loyalty, and generate additional sales and cross selling opportunities.   The net result will be an increase in revenue per customer and increased sales productivity for the sales force.

In closing, most marketing initiatives will leverage at least two, if not all three, of these foundation elements.  With these core underpinnings in position, you are ready to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing programs. 

It is often said that there is nothing more risky than a company entering a new market with a new product.  In such a case, it significantly reduces risk by partnering with a company that already plays in that market.  By aligning with such a partner, it not only provides access to the partner's current customers, but the endorsement by the partner also provides additional credibility to the product within the market. 

Another related reason to strike a partnership is to build a "whole product solution" needed to break open the market.  There were many MP3 players in the market prior to Apple's entry, but it wasn't until Steve Jobs put together the deals with the major music companies to offer legal downloads for 99 cents, and the resultant iTunes site, that the whole solution came together.   The result was a dramatic "crossing of the chasm" and rapid growth in the mass market driven by the Apple Ipod. 

The building of a "whole product solution" could require alliances with providers of content, technology, software, or services such as contract manufacturing, installation or repair services.  Often outsourcing part of the solution to a partner will be a faster and more cost effective way to get to market, while maintaining ownership over the core or higher value activities.  There are few decisions more strategic than determining what part of the value chain should be maintained as core and what should be outsourced.  This is an important exercise which will require an assessment of long range scenarios and an understanding of the future source of value/profit.

Many companies can not afford to build a portfolio of patents.  The initial cost of obtaining a utility patent is typically $10,000 or more.  Even filing for a single patent can be a financial burden for a small company.  With most studies showing that 90% or more of all U.S. patents have no commercial value, the decision to pursue a patent should be made carefully. 

I offer these four criteria in evaluating the decision to pursue a patent.

1.  Economic Value

The product or feature concept must have the potential of generating profit margins several times over the cost of the patent application and lifetime maintenance.  If you are not sure whether a market will develop for the product or if enough of the product can be sold to generate sufficient returns, then you may want to apply for a provisional patent.  This application can be done for a small cost, and effectively "holds your place" for a year, giving you additional time to study the market before filing the full non-provisional patent.

2.  It is Core (Can't Compete in the Future without it)

The goal is to cover an entirely new concept, so that no one can participate in the new market/product category without infringing the patent.  If the patent is for a new feature or modification to an existing product concept, then the feature must have a strong possibility of becoming a requirement in the market.  In other words, future versions of the product are expected to be non-saleable without the new feature.

3.  No Viable Alternatives 

Will your patent represent the only viable alternative to implement the concept or feature?  It is no use pursuing a patent if there are several other ways to achieve the same thing - unless, of course, you are planning to patent all of them. Make sure that you have a competent patent attorney help you with your claims - covering both apparatus and methods.  You want to leave no viable alternative which will allow a competitor to participate in the market/product category without infringing the patent.

4.  Infringement should be Easily Detectable

Even it you meet the first three criteria, you may still decide not to pursue the patent if you will not be able to tell if a competitor is infringing the patent.  This is especially the case with software or firmware.  Will you be able to determine  infringement from simply observing the product in operation?  If not, will you have a workable plan to obtain competitive products and determine infringement?  Will you need to examine a competitor's source code to determine infringement?  If so, how will this be done and at what cost? 

I typically want to see all four criteria being met to justify a patent application, especially in a small company setting where a patent application represents a major financial investment.  Using these four criteria, you can increase the probability that your company will achieve a financial return on the patent.  

So how do you identify and understand problems or unfilled customer needs?

First, you need to get out to see the target customers - in their environment.  This could be an informal visit or tour, or it could be part of a more structured market research project.  While on site, it is advantageous to talk to as many people as possible, in a variety of roles.  It is possible that the higher level people may not be aware of all the problems in their organization. 

It is important that you are open to listening and observing.  Now is not the time to be selling.  You are asking about problems and looking for opportunities.  Some problems may exist but are never identified as a problem because "it has always been done that way."  If the customer is not aware of a better solution, they may not consider their current method to be a problem.  They may also have a need that is being filled, but not to the extent that a newer, enabling technology will allow.

This brings us to the next point - perspective.  You bring a different perspective to the scene, which will also be different from other people within your own company. So it is beneficial to have a variety of people from your company visit customers to observe and listen.  And by all means, solicit thoughts and ideas from those individuals (salespeople, technical support, customer service) that interact with customers on a regular basis.

Many companies today focus on a vertical niche.  This gives them the advantage of focusing their time and attention so that they can more completely understand the customer's environment.  This will yield solutions that fit better into the environment and have features that may solve multiple problems or fulfill critical needs.

If your company is trying to play in too many markets, you may find that you are getting beat by competitors with more focus on the vertical, and a as a result, are implementing better ideas at a faster rate. 

I am encouraging comments on the first two scanner related case studies, both originating from my time at NCR Corporation. Please post your comments about these cases.  If you have some familiarity with the cases, I would like to understand your perspective as well. 

If you have experience with product strategy, and have an interesting story that should be told, please initiate contact with me via the contact me page.    We can discuss publishing your story as a case study on the site.