We’ve been involved in helping emerging technologies right out of the laboratory go from tech to successfully sold product or successful exit for over 20 years (we’re kind of bad a**es in that area.) So we’re confident in giving you this piece of early advice.
Your technology may be the neatest thing since sliced bread. But poor brand choices, not properly evaluating your customer or customer profile, implementing the wrong tactical marketing or, prior to that and most importantly–not validating your market potential prior to moving out of the lab–can be costly or even business-ending.
So here is our quick guide to marketing 101 for all you technologists creating the next big advancement in your field.
- The first step is validation. If you’re not familiar with Lean methodologies, there are hundreds of opportunities to find free (yes, FREE) resources who will help you learn how to “get out of the lab” and interact with potential users to validate your technology’s potential as a viable, profitable product or service. We work as mentors for one of them: I-Corps. We like to say the Lean programs are a “no-Segway” methodology (bless Dean Kamen’s heart, but 15 years later, there are no Segway lanes to speak of and the company has never attained the numbers Kamen projected).
- After you’ve determined you have a potential market, it’s then time to build your core customer profile. Now here is where things get tough, but the first rule of marketing is “If you market to everyone, you market to no-one!”. So as much as you want to say “but there are so many people who will buy our technology” you must define your core customer and one to two advocate profiles for that customer. THIS. IS. WHERE. YOU. START.
- And only after this customer is defined do you:
- Refine your value proposition and the benefits to that customer.
- Build a brand and content plan
- Set a strategy
- Develop a a launch plan.
- And, lastly, build a tactical plan of marketing activities like:
Ready for Marketing 102 (or learning even more about Marketing 101)?
Then call us at 1-407-760-7360 or email akendall@sparkrocketmarketing.com.