Stretching 4,000 miles and constructed over three centuries, the Great Wall of China is considered a marvel of engineering and determination. Yet, its mission was relatively mundane: it served as a barrier to entry that prevented the semi-nomadic people on the outside of the Wall from crossing with their horses or easily returning with stolen property.
Although your company doesn’t need to defend itself against hordes of raiding nomads, it is important to incorporate barriers to entry in your business and growth strategy, and then proactively communicate those barriers to the market. Fail to do so and you’ll possibly sacrifice sales, profitability, and corporate and/or product valuation.
We all exist in competitive environments. In fact, Strategic typically refrains from representing a client that believes it has no challengers. You can’t be a leader in a market of one, right?
An important goal we share is to rise above the competition and, when possible, block new entrants from staking a claim in our markets of focus. That’s where barriers to entry come into play. When effectively communicated through public relations, advertising and other promotional activities, they motivate someone to think twice before developing a competitive offering. The risk and prospects for failure outweigh the return.
Moreover, well-defined and validated barriers to entry positively contribute to valuation. When you make it more difficult for others to compete, your company will find an easier path to achieve its growth goals.
Here are a few common barriers to entry that Strategic has incorporated in PR/communications programs:
1. Intellectual property, and investments in technical and product development. Make sure key PR targets are familiar with your company’s patents. Even if you don’t have a patent on your technology, be sure to communicate how long (and how much money) your company invested in its development.
2. Distribution strategy that delivers tremendous reach. Strategic client Apptix has developed an innovative software platform. However, their barrier to entry is a series of teaming partnerships with HP, IBM, Bell Canada and others that extend Apptix’s ability to sell its product without the expense of building an international sales team.
3. Executive leadership. This is perhaps the toughest to validate as most companies promote the quality of their employees. Plus, you run the risk of losing the barrier because of turnover. But, if you have a true industry visionary you’ll want to factor their thought leadership into your communications. For instance, Rodney Joffe, UltraDNS Corporation’s Chairman and CTO, is a heavyweight in the managed DNS industry. Strategic would be foolish not to leverage his rock star standing in our promotional activities on UltraDNS’ behalf.
4. Deep industry affiliations. Access to Strategic’s Network of Relationships® provides measurable value for our clients and is an important differentiator from other PR consultancies. Is it a barrier though? When you consider that the foundation of the Network of Relationships are affiliations with influential trade groups like the AeA, Association for Corporate Growth, and Government Electronics & Information Technology Association it becomes an offering that is difficult for others to match.
October 10, 2005, 12:52 pm
Barriers to Entry
Posted by jeffM
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September 11, 2005, 8:10 pm
The Point of Interview
When Naveen Jain, CEO of a start-up data brokerage company called Intelius, Inc., wrapped up his interview with Leslie Walker of the Washington Post I suspect he felt pretty good. He most likely hit on all of company’s key messages. He was probably engaging and dynamic. And I suspect he told a big story that positioned Intelius as a leader in the growing identify theft protection market.
What went wrong? Intelius was burned in the article with Walker pointing out the company promised more than it could deliver and Jain himself lacked credibility.
Every step in the media relations process is critical to achieve the desired result – high impact editorial coverage that is accurate, timely and in-strategy. There are no short cuts. You have to read the publications, know the journalists and their coverage area, understand the market trends, and craft a compelling, timely pitch.
However, it’s at the point of interview that the media campaign either comes together, or falls flat. This is the time to convince the journalist that their readers would find value in an article which follows a specific editorial path. Quality journalists need lots of convincing.
Here are a few suggestions:
--Have a well defined and concise corporate positioning and set of key messages. Simplicity is the key. Clearly articulate what your company does, the market you compete in and your points of credibility.
--Identify “power statements” that bring life to your key messages. I recently met with a company that says it designs and manufactures state-of-the-art proprietary hardware solutions (DC to 40 GHz) to facilitate broadband RF signal management for complex cable networks. What’s their power statement? As it turns out, if you’re watching cable television in North America the signal is directed by this company’s product.
--Validate, validate, validate! Why is your company a proven player in the market? Is it your customer list and track record of performance? Your teaming partners and distribution strategy? You’ll need to provide specifics and, whenever possible, have customers, partners and/or analysts willing to talk on the record.
--Come prepared. Think through the tough questions a reporter may ask and define how you will answer those questions. Evaluate your company’s weaknesses and be prepared to explain how you’re addressing them as part of the growth strategy.
At Strategic, we conduct a call with our clients just prior to each interview, regardless of how much preparation and planning has been invested in the media campaign. It’s our job to ensure everything is set for success and that our client delivers at the point of interview.
What went wrong? Intelius was burned in the article with Walker pointing out the company promised more than it could deliver and Jain himself lacked credibility.
Every step in the media relations process is critical to achieve the desired result – high impact editorial coverage that is accurate, timely and in-strategy. There are no short cuts. You have to read the publications, know the journalists and their coverage area, understand the market trends, and craft a compelling, timely pitch.
However, it’s at the point of interview that the media campaign either comes together, or falls flat. This is the time to convince the journalist that their readers would find value in an article which follows a specific editorial path. Quality journalists need lots of convincing.
Here are a few suggestions:
--Have a well defined and concise corporate positioning and set of key messages. Simplicity is the key. Clearly articulate what your company does, the market you compete in and your points of credibility.
--Identify “power statements” that bring life to your key messages. I recently met with a company that says it designs and manufactures state-of-the-art proprietary hardware solutions (DC to 40 GHz) to facilitate broadband RF signal management for complex cable networks. What’s their power statement? As it turns out, if you’re watching cable television in North America the signal is directed by this company’s product.
--Validate, validate, validate! Why is your company a proven player in the market? Is it your customer list and track record of performance? Your teaming partners and distribution strategy? You’ll need to provide specifics and, whenever possible, have customers, partners and/or analysts willing to talk on the record.
--Come prepared. Think through the tough questions a reporter may ask and define how you will answer those questions. Evaluate your company’s weaknesses and be prepared to explain how you’re addressing them as part of the growth strategy.
At Strategic, we conduct a call with our clients just prior to each interview, regardless of how much preparation and planning has been invested in the media campaign. It’s our job to ensure everything is set for success and that our client delivers at the point of interview.
Posted by jeffM
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August 1, 2005, 2:47 pm
Creativity in Communications
The late 1990s were about the two Bs – buzz and branding. Post market correction, our clients talked about sales-focused public relations.
The PR pendulum is swinging back as companies recognize that public relations more effectively increases awareness, establishes positioning and confers credibility than other marketing tactics. To invest in a public relations campaign, corporate leadership buys into the notion that people do business with companies they know and trust.
The good news is there are a lot of management teams now funding investments in public relations to drive their corporate growth strategy. Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) clients have allocated larger budgets. There are a myriad of new business opportunities in our pipeline. And we have received more RFPs in the past few weeks than in the previous two quarters.
However, rarely do we hear the “two Bs” bantered around in a client or prospect meeting. Rather, companies are challenging their PR agency to deliver a higher level of creativity in communications. To achieve its objectives, a company can no longer wait for its next product launch, contract win or customer success story. There’s a real demand to proactively drive on-target visibility in unique and unexpected ways.
Let’s first briefly explore what is not creative in tactical public relations execution. In a business-to-business or business-to-government environment, creativity is not outlandish promotions, cutesy give-aways, or brash and unsubstantiated statements. Journalists, industry analysts and market influencers have all been burned by companies with plenty of hype, but little substance.
In today’s market, PR targets demand credibility in their information sources, and look for companies to deliver on their promise to the market through performance and professionalism. As such, creativity is about providing information of value that supports and validates a company’s positioning, while helping the journalist or analyst more effectively fulfill their mission.
Thought leadership is an ideal means of delivering creativity in communications. It can be driven by views on technology, trends shaping the market and/or policy issues. What is most important to ensure public relations success is the willingness to share an opinion – even if it is somewhat controversial.
In the case of AMERICOM GOVERNMENT SERVICES (AGS) , it was imperative for the company to have a voice in the debate of how military organizations can most effectively procure satellite bandwidth. As their public relations agency of record, we launched a media campaign that leveraged a presentation AGS’ president had given at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event.
The results included feature editorial coverage in influential trade publications such as Federal Computer Week , Military Information Technology , Space News and Defense News.
As a creatively-focused public relations firm, Strategic’s challenge now is how to best extend the momentum generated by this thought leadership campaign to deliver continued measurable results.
The PR pendulum is swinging back as companies recognize that public relations more effectively increases awareness, establishes positioning and confers credibility than other marketing tactics. To invest in a public relations campaign, corporate leadership buys into the notion that people do business with companies they know and trust.
The good news is there are a lot of management teams now funding investments in public relations to drive their corporate growth strategy. Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) clients have allocated larger budgets. There are a myriad of new business opportunities in our pipeline. And we have received more RFPs in the past few weeks than in the previous two quarters.
However, rarely do we hear the “two Bs” bantered around in a client or prospect meeting. Rather, companies are challenging their PR agency to deliver a higher level of creativity in communications. To achieve its objectives, a company can no longer wait for its next product launch, contract win or customer success story. There’s a real demand to proactively drive on-target visibility in unique and unexpected ways.
Let’s first briefly explore what is not creative in tactical public relations execution. In a business-to-business or business-to-government environment, creativity is not outlandish promotions, cutesy give-aways, or brash and unsubstantiated statements. Journalists, industry analysts and market influencers have all been burned by companies with plenty of hype, but little substance.
In today’s market, PR targets demand credibility in their information sources, and look for companies to deliver on their promise to the market through performance and professionalism. As such, creativity is about providing information of value that supports and validates a company’s positioning, while helping the journalist or analyst more effectively fulfill their mission.
Thought leadership is an ideal means of delivering creativity in communications. It can be driven by views on technology, trends shaping the market and/or policy issues. What is most important to ensure public relations success is the willingness to share an opinion – even if it is somewhat controversial.
In the case of AMERICOM GOVERNMENT SERVICES (AGS) , it was imperative for the company to have a voice in the debate of how military organizations can most effectively procure satellite bandwidth. As their public relations agency of record, we launched a media campaign that leveraged a presentation AGS’ president had given at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event.
The results included feature editorial coverage in influential trade publications such as Federal Computer Week , Military Information Technology , Space News and Defense News.
As a creatively-focused public relations firm, Strategic’s challenge now is how to best extend the momentum generated by this thought leadership campaign to deliver continued measurable results.
