It's not easy being a baby. Raising the profile of a just-launched brand has always been a challenge.
But nowadays, as customers lean toward tried-and-true products, building buzz for a brand-new business takes real smarts, creativity and persistence.
What is a brand? It's the promise you make to customers. It's the "emotional connections that create feelings of loyalty to a product or a company," says Jim Bolton at Ridge Associates, a coaching firm in Minneapolis. It's how you distinguish yourself from competition and capture mind and market share.
To get customers to notice your infant brand quickly and affordably, you must stay focused. Don't chase after huge or unlikely prospects right away. Don't squander time and resources by broadcasting mixed messages. Keep it simple. Make sure your marketing material has a recognizable identity, with a consistent logo, palette and tag lines.
1. Get inside the customer's mind.
Most new business owners research their target buyers. So you likely know something about your customer demographics, such as income and age. That's good, but it's hardly enough.
You need a serious fix on what will propel people to buy so you can gear your messages accordingly. "What need will you fill for the customer?" asks Scott Gold, chief executive officer of The Brand Consultancy in Washington, D.C. Once you know that, he suggests, "it's easy to find the low-hanging fruit."
2. Get endorsements that ring the right bells.
Expert or third-party endorsements can mean a movie star, a banker or a tech wizard. If you have invested in characterizing target customers, coming up with personalities who will fuel buzz should be a snap. The hard part may be getting access. You might need special marketing to reach them.
For example, Los Angeles fashion designer Chrissy Azzaro launched My-Tee, a line of casual wear, a few years ago. She targeted the entertainment community. So Azzaro paid to join a special star-studded bazaar hosted by a Los Angeles company, Backstage Creations.
Backstage charges corporations $5,000 to $10,000 (depending on how exclusive the access) to attend behind-the-scenes gatherings at TV award shows and other celebrity events. Marketers get an opportunity to meet and chat with stars before or after the show. In turn, celebrities get free gift bags filled with sometimes very fancy and expensive samples. The idea is that stars will not only wear or try the products, but they'll be seen doing so — which will boost the company's image and sales.
Hooking up with Backstage allowed Azzaro to present her fashions one-on-one to various celebs. Soon, former "Friends" star Courteney Cox and pop singer Nelly Furtado were photographed wearing My-Tee tops. That viral marketing led to stories about My-Tee in media like InStyle.com, the Los Angeles Daily News, Essence and more. Azzaro got known, fast.
3. Get the attention of hot prospects.
Find the industry seminars or annual shows that attract your top-of-the-line customers. Then spend what it takes to design a snazzy booth. Or, sign up for media coaching and pay a speechwriter and design team to develop newsworthy presentations. Or, hire a marketing firm to create a memorable way to demonstrate your product. You want to make a standout impression at the high-profile show.
When New Yorker Robin Blum launched In My Book, which markets greeting cards that are also bookmarks, she found it a challenge because the combination was a new concept.
Since her target customers included the multiple markets of booksellers and stationers, Blum decided to exhibit at the two best-known trade shows in those fields: the National Stationery Show in New York that year, and BookExpo, held in Chicago. Blum also paid for ads that featured her logo in show publications and sent free samples and literature to every publishing, library and gift publication she could find.
That netted some terrific product reviews from trade media. In addition, Blum commissioned a big backdrop painting for her exhibition booth, which transformed it into the stoop of an antiquarian bookshop. That made her booth a must-stop destination on the show floor.
All of it, she says, led to "excellent results, though not volume, which takes time." As a result, she is mailing updated catalogs to a wider audience of booksellers, librarians and gift and card retailers that appear at the shows.
4. Get public relations pros to open markets.
Your products don't have to instantly make people attractive, guarantee weight loss or offer the promise of eternal youth to benefit from press attention.
Let's say, for example, you invented a clever improvement for a medical diagnostic imaging machine — clearly neither a killer app nor anything of broad public interest. But your PR agent garners reviews in the medical journals read by the imaging community. That generates sales calls from hospitals and medical centers. It also provokes interest from potential investors and partners.
In fact, there's a great range of small, local or industry press and media coverage that can boost business. But you could benefit from the expertise of a public relations agency to do the legwork and the pitching for media placement.
That's the lesson learned by Jamey Bennett, who was co-founder of LendingTree.com before selling out to partner Douglas Lebda in 2000. After a stint as an "entrepreneur-in-residence" at a venture capital firm, Bennett decided to start another company.
Bennett's latest enterprise, LightWedge, markets an innovative personal reading light, made from an optical-grade acrylic lens powered by AAA batteries. You hold the see-through light flat on the page and read through it. He began selling the $35 lights a few years ago and says he's grossed $1 million within six months.
"I've been using PR exclusively to get the word out," says Bennett, who credits his New York agency, Margeotes / Fertitta + Gordon, with "great placement."
In addition, he says, "I'm using PR to explore niche markets via trade publications." He makes a point of asking every customer how he uses the light and whether he knows other people interested in LightWedge. That's the way Bennett discovered the astronomy market. An astronomer bought a light so he could read charts without blocking night-sky stars. Likewise, the PR team places stories in sailing, boating and aviation trade press, all of which Bennett has opened as niche markets.
A good PR agency can come up with a hook or positioning that works for editors in that field. Bennett advises entrepreneurs to choose a small agency so you become a key client. Make sure you interview a few agencies before signing on. Retainers typically run $3,000 to $5,000 a month, but you might try a fee-for-project probationary period until you're sure of the fit.
Buzz and word-of-mouth marketing is a cheap and effective way to get out your message. Figure out what it will take to start customers talking about your brand. That way, every customer turns into a brand ambassador.
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