– Milan Kundera
In this BLOG post, let’s consider the role of marketing, which is much more than a bridge between the sales force and the company. Marketing, in the sense that startups exploit, encompasses product marketing in concert with the company’s overall “go-to-market” strategy. This necessary outbound role includes, for example, the following six key tactical deliverables:
- Competitive differentiation
- Positioning and messaging
- Naming and branding
- Customer communication
- Product launches
- Press and analyst relations
But before we spend too much time on these tactical items, consider the big picture. I’ll take Cerent as an example. At this upstart startup, Carl Russo led the drive for what he called a “perception roadmap.” The perception roadmap is aligned with the product roadmap and its creation and management remain a delicate balancing act during the rollout of the product (or service) and its subsequent iterations. All great companies manage this high wire act closely.
The perception roadmap describes where you want to be. It’s all about messaging ahead of where you are and making the promise of what you’re ultimately going to deliver. Part of the balancing act is not to look too far ahead though. Milestones have to be met so progress can be demonstrated. This, in turn, establishes credibility that the next target on the roadmap will be hit. Only a great product with an engineering team that executes on the product roadmap is able to string a wire for the perception cartographers to walk.
Looking forward toward an ultimate goal is important. This shapes the vision. With a perception roadmap it is critical not to look downward at the ground, or to be caught navel gazing. Bill Peatman, my marketing communications manager at Cerent, recalls [1], “That changed my career. We didn’t have a perception roadmap at AFC.”
I agree. Carl was able to align the whole Cerent organization so that engineering was communicating with marketing about how they were executing on the product roadmap, and marketing was sharing with engineering about how they were messaging the implications of the next release of the product. Customer expectations had to be met in terms of what they were currently receiving and what they were going to receive in the near future.
“The first product gives you credibility, but it’s the next and the next that makes you money,” Jayshree Ullal, Cisco’s former executive (who replaced Carl Russo as the head of Cisco’s Optical Networking Group), told me in July 2013. “The follow-ons to the ‘454’ and going broader and deeper with the ‘454’ were just as important.”
Then the rest of the six key deliverables follow naturally. Competitive differentiation highlights both company and product strengths over competing solutions. Positioning and messaging ensures customers understand where the product fits and what it can be used for. Naming and branding allows a clear distinction about who and what you are. Customer communication supports clear deliverables through the relevant sales channel and trade press. Product launches reinvigorate the offering and build momentum for existing customers while generating interest in prospects. And finally, press and analyst relations are critical to “promote” the company and its products.
PR Drives the Brand
The other thing that Carl brought to the table regarding brand, was the idea that public relations (PR) drives the brand. Bill Peatman said, “Remember the book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (1994)? Carl gave that book to everybody. His whole mantra was that PR drives the brand, and advertising protects the brand.”
Bill noted, “You define and establish your identity and then you outspend everybody who claims to be in there [with you]. If you want airtime, you’re going to have to spend more than we are.”
Manage Your Own Destiny
Cerent’s methodology in managing its product evolution and catering to its target market – service providers – through focused marketing, as they did, positively helped to transform Cisco. As Jayshree told me, Cisco got their money back from the Cerent acquisition “both by entering a new market segment and gaining more relevance in the service provider segment. Today, Cisco is not just an enterprise company because of this acquisition.”
Startups, take note!
– Seth Godin
[1] “At AFC, that was marketing, your data sheets, ‘My specs are better than your specs.’ As the Internet took over,” Bill Peatman told me in 2013, “the marketing worlds began to blend, between the PC and the working world, which was much more differentiated. The IT guys purchased differently than the telecom guys. As those two worlds blended, you realized it went beyond ‘my specs are better than your specs,’ otherwise you’d always be in this war of numbers. You need to build perception of quality, innovation, reliability, of ‘the thing to have.’ It was the brand you wanted to be associated with.”