Using The Power of Marketing To Build A
Successful Business
Paul Seed, President and CEO
StarTech.com
Professor Ajay K. Sirsi, PhD
Schulich School of Business
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Why Is Marketing So Powerful?
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Marketing Is A Discipline That
Shows You How To…
Build a brand
– Decommoditize your business
Attract new customers
Satisfy your customers
Retain your customers
At a lower cost
Generate higher revenues
Build a more profitable business
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While nearly 80% of senior managers of
well-known professional services firms
ranked branding, marketing, and sales as
important success factors for their firm,
only 50% gave their own firm high marks in
those disciplines
Recent study by Broderick & Co.
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Research Shows That Successful
Businesses Earn Their Success By…
Understanding customer needs
Standing out from the competition
– Building a brand
– What is your brand’s promise?
Developing and implementing a strong
marketing (go-to-market) plan
Using strategies to satisfy and keep
customers
– Deliver on the brand promise
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Market Research Techniques To
Understand Customer Needs
Quantitative studies
– Surveys
Qualitative studies
– Focus Groups
– Depth Interviews
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Paul
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StarTech.com: Using Voice Of
Customer In Decision Making
I noticed we were making decisions based on
– Gut feel
– “This is what I think”
I wanted to build a customer-focused business
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What Is A Customer Focused
Business?
 All decisions start with the customer
 Captures and distributes what a customer thinks
about the company
 Building long lasting customer relations is the key
 How many products can we sell to this customer?
 Profitability through customer loyalty
 All employees are customer relationship builders
 Every customer touch point is an opportunity to
reinforce brand
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Voice Of Customer In Decision
Making
In early 2009 we surveyed 200 customers
– Customer perceptions of StarTech.com versus
competitors
 Quality
 Satisfaction
 Brand
– Customer buying behaviors
– What is important to customers in purchases?
– Demographic information
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We Received Great Information,
But …
We assumed certain things
– We told customer what “Hard to Find” means
 Hard to find in regular channels
 Discontinued parts
 Etc.
– We gave customers dimensions of product quality
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We Went Back To Customers
We did a qualitative study
– Depth interviews
 30 – 60 minutes with each customer
– We assumed nothing, we simply listened to
customers telling us about
 Their business
 How they serve their customers
 How they make buying decisions
 Frustrations, bottlenecks
This approach has changed our business
– I will share more in the branding section
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Customer Focus Is A Journey
Our understanding of customer needs will only get
deeper
In 2011 we did another qualitative study
– This time we included customers from the UK and
Netherlands
In 2010 we established a customer panel
– Excellent way to conduct real time market research
– Panel members act as our eyes and ears in the
marketplace
– They help us validate actions (e.g., website redesign)
We have conducted two customer symposiums
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Ajay
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Research Shows That Successful
Businesses Earn Their Success By
Understanding customer needs
Standing out from the competition
– Building a brand
– What is your brand’s promise?
Developing and implementing a strong
marketing (go-to-market) plan
Using strategies to satisfy and keep
customers
– Deliver on the brand promise
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The Wrong Way To Build A Brand
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To Build A Strong Brand
Ask “What business are we in?”
Build brand identity
Communicate your brand
Measure brand image
Refresh the brand
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Why is it important to ask: “What
business are we in?”
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Defining what business you are in
enables you to build a strong brand,
decommoditize your business, and beat
the competition
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To define what business you are in,
you must distinguish between what
you are selling and what the
customer is buying
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Creating Value For The Customer
Potential Product
Augmented Product
Functional Product
Core Product
Source: Marketing: A Roadmap to Success by Ajay Sirsi
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To Build A Strong Brand
Ask “What business are we in?”
Build brand identity
Communicate your brand
Measure ROI (brand equity)
Refresh the brand
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A brand’s identity is the set of brand
associations we want to communicate to our
clients and other stakeholders. These
associations represent the brand’s promise.
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Paul
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Core Versus Potential Product At
StarTech.com
At StarTech.com we initially defined our brand’s
identity in terms of the core product
– “We are a manufacturer of connectivity parts”
– There is no competitive advantage in this definition
Customer research showed us that connectivity
parts enable technology solutions
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StarTech.com’s potential product
Enable technology solutions
Website, etc.
Responsiveness, etc.
Connectivity parts
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With This Understanding We Have Changed
Our Brand’s Identity, Logo And Tagline
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We Have Made Changes To Our
Website To Reflect Our Brand Promise
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Ajay
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Common Pitfalls To Avoid
 Using marketing communications tools indiscriminately without a
strategic plan
– “I want to be in social media because my competitors are there”
 Forgetting to measure ROI
– Tracking media exposure, website traffic, webinar attendance, email
click-through rates, awards for civic participation, social media
“Likes” and “Followers” not good enough (Andrew 2011)
– Tangible business outcomes
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Customer satisfaction
Brand equity
Lead generation
Conversion rates
Acceptance of new offerings
Revenue per employee
 Being afraid to throw a tool out
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Research Shows That Successful
Businesses Earn Their Success By
Understanding customer needs
Standing out from the competition
– Building a brand
– What is your brand’s promise?
Developing and implementing a strong
marketing (go-to-market) plan
Using strategies to satisfy and keep
customers
– Deliver on the brand promise
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The Marketing Plan
 External analysis
– Market trends
– Customer needs and segments
– Competitor profiles
 Internal analysis
– Opportunities, Threats, Strengths, Weaknesses analysis
– Key issues to be addressed next year
 Key objectives to be achieved
 Key strategies
 Key tactics
 Key outcomes
 Control of marketing plan
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Paul
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Developing A Go-To-Market Plan
I called it our go-to-market plan, not the marketing
plan
– I wanted to send a clear message: every employee
should be implementing strategy
I realized not all managers are strategic thinkers
I kept the group small
– Myself, our CMO, and Ajay
We use the larger group to challenge our thinking
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Ajay
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Research Shows That Successful
Businesses Earn Their Success By
Understanding customer needs
Standing out from the competition
– Building a brand
– What is your brand’s promise?
Developing and implementing a strong
marketing (go-to-market) plan
Using strategies to satisfy and keep
customers
 Deliver on the brand promise
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An organization’s members do best
when there is a clear connection
between the strategy for delivering
superior customer value and the
members’ individual contributions
G. Day
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Make marketing strategy the glue that
binds your organization together to
create customer focus
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Source: Marketing: A Roadmap to Success by Ajay Sirsi
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Paul
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To Help Our Employees Deliver On
The Brand Promise We Have
 Outlined our corporate business definition
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Who are we?
Why do we exist? What do we do?
What markets do we compete in?
What segments do we serve?
How do we create value for our customers?
What sets us apart from our competitors?
Why should our key stakeholders build relationships with us?
 We have developed our go-to-market plan
 We are now in the process of aligning corporate
strategy with implementation at the departmental level
– To develop a common view of the business
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Key Takeaways
Dedicate resources to understanding
customer needs
Define and communicate your brand
– Differentiate yourself from your competitors
Develop a yearly marketing plan
– Review it periodically
Develop functional plans and build a
customer focused business
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“Firms of any size can start thinking more
strategically about marketing and can define
tangible steps to realize their goals. A
comprehensive marketing program does not occur
overnight, so focus, collaboration, and
perseverance are the keys to success.”
René Stranghoner
Director of Practice Growth
Weaver and Tidwell
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Theory based on Ajay’s book
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