Marketing: Marcom & Strategy

Strategy Not Working?
Try a Switcheroo

Lock the conference room door. It’s often a crap incubator for procrastinating prognosticators. Switch direction. Get out and find out what works. Then do more of it. Let tactics that work drive strategy.

A few years ago, I worked with a biotech company in the animal feed industry. It was founded by and staffed with brilliant scientists, long on technology and short on marketing skills. Yet, within a few years they were taking wheelbarrows of money to the bank They were so successful a long line of international suitors were soon knocking at the door, checkbooks in hand.

Now nobody in this start-up ever heard of the four “P’s” of marketing. But early on they discovered tactics that worked. They had the typical grandiose mission statement, wishful- thinking market projections, and a catchy slogan that most folks didn’t get unless it was explained to them.

But they also had a great product and a good story to tell. And they had no baggage about how things should be done. So they went out and discussed what they had to offer with the right people. They did the job with only three animal nutritionist who were also veterinarians. These PhD’s and DVM‘s had the credentials that opened doors. They knew how to tell their story and how to listen, how to ask the right questions, and how to offer solutions. In earning their papers they had been taught the art of discovery to diagnose and find the truth.

This talented cadre insisted they were not salesmen.
Perhaps. But they sure could sell!

They zeroed in on corporate animal nutritionists (most of them also PhD’s) who specified the products used in each company’s feed. They leveraged their manpower by staging nutritional seminars for both large and small groups of nutritionist. At the same time they were running research trials and publishing the results. With the buzz created, word of mouth helped pave the way to more and more receptive listeners.

Each time they tried a tactic that worked, it was added to their presentation-discussion-discovery program. When they decided to take the business to the next level, the tactics that worked became the bases of their communications program.

The implementation of the communications
program that evolved from tactics formed
the strategy that guided the company.

They never stopped selling at the top. But as they moved to the next level they reached out to the end-users through print advertising, trade shows, direct mail, newsletters, nutritional seminars and event marketing.

The business flourished. Then it was sold to the highest bidder. And the investors lived happily ever after.

The lesson learned: The switcheroo from strategy first
to tactics first, helped hone a living strategy that quickly
built a multi million dollar company.

For an excellent read on this approach, I recommend Bottom Up Marketing, by Al Ries and Jack Trout.