In the fight for Texas independence from Mexico in 1836, Mexican President and General Antonio Santa Anna (no relation) and 1,500 of his well-trained troops were defeated by a rag-tag band of 910 rebellious settlers led by Sam Houston. Santa Anna was captured and agreed to order all Mexican troops out of Texas. Texas became a free republic.

Strategy is the art of knowing what to do to meet the enemy in combat under advantageous conditions.

Houston’s strategy was to wait for the Mexicans to take their customary siesta, sneak up on them, and launch a noisy attack to terrify them into panic, confusion, and surrender, not unlike an episode out of Zorro.

As the battle commenced, Houston ordered a bridge destroyed, preventing any further Mexican reinforcements from joining the fray. That was strategic. To terrify the enemy, Houston waited until his troops could sneak to the enemy ramparts before ordering the firing of two small cannons at close range. That, too, was a strategic move. Finally he gave the order to attack with whooping by his wild and wooly settlers who must have looked half crazed firing their rifles as they broke out from the trees yelling, “Remember the Alamo!” The discovery of the destruction of the bridge, preventing any escape, panicked the Mexican troops further. The actual battle was won in 18 minutes, thanks to strategy.

When you face a marketing challenge, do you first think ‘strategy?’ It’s very tempting to jump into the fray with a catchy idea and your ad budget. A strategy demands that you analyze the field, preposition your communications vehicles, and minimize your risks before pulling the trigger on a campaign.

The bridge Houston blew also prevented his own troops from escaping the battle. We don’t think about the courage and commitment it takes to pull off a successful marketing communications campaign, but, believe me, it’s needed, especially from product managers. If we want victory, we may have to take risks and burn some bridges.

Have you had enough metaphor? Good. Marketing’s lexicon is enough: campaigns, objectives, launches, guerilla tactics, target markets — it’s all about war. So be smart. Think of the strategy that will position you for victory. Almost always it will mean planning, some probing, and bravery.

At MKTX we start by asking, “How much of what do you want to sell to whom by when?” Don’t be fooled by the simplicity. Most executives do not have this information on the tip of their tongue. This is the data we need to scope the effort realistically. If the resources aren’t available to be successful, the best strategy is to scale back early on.

Audience segmentation. Start by making a list of every audience that can affect your company’s success. The short list includes internal and external audiences, an audience being real people with a common interest addressable as a group: employees, vendors/partners, customers, influencers (editors, officials), associated communities (professional and lay), and everyone who is a potential member of one of these groups, like a sales prospect or someone with a need you can satisfy who has never heard of your company.

The idea is to turn them all, including ones that can impede progress such as certification agencies, into resources for success. Ask yourself, “What do we want from this audience? How can we expect them to help us?” Of course, you want some of them to buy your product or service, so segment potential purchasers into audiences first. Another group may help by granting a certification, a stamp of approval; or providing sales referrals. You want employees to give the company good value for their pay. To that end, you want their families and surrounding community to reinforce a loyal employee relationship. You want editors to solicit your abstracts and run favorable articles about your products. You get the point. It’s the stealth work, the crawling on your belly in order to position yourself favorably. What you don’t do will come back to bite you.

A strategy for media. Where are the watering holes of each audience? Where do they learn about the products and services they need? Where in common do they live, work, and play? This generates a list that extends beyond places your competitors are using to places where you can communicate with an audience without competition.

Remember the Alamo. Seize the moment.

When we developed plans for Serveron, a company we named and branded (http:// www.mktx.com/m_serveron-brand.htm and http://www.mktx.com/m_serveron.htm), the hot button for most utility management was reliable power. Serveron’s technology could make transformers a lot more reliable. At their first trade show conference we had votive candles attached to a card slipped under the door of all attendees suggesting that if they didn’t stop by Serveron’s booth, they might need to use a candle when the power goes out again. That month there were rolling black-outs in Southern California where the conference was held. That little tactic created so much buzz, it was picked up by Fox News who was covering the show. "We got a lot of booth traffic and the quality of the booth and the product literature made Serveron look bigger that it was at the time”, says Jim Moon, former CEO.  “This made our first impression as that of a well financed, quality company. It gave our Board and investors a big boost that had to have 'rubbed off' on the people they talked with."

You know what you want from them. Now ask, “What does each audience want?”

What are their criteria in selecting the means to satisfy a need? In other words, “What are their hot buttons?”

Electronics for military and medical markets must not only pass government certification as new products, but every time the core of the product changes. So, if the manufacturer of the PC-board at the heart of their system decides to discontinue a design or change the design of this key component, it can take months to be re-certified.

That piece of information surfaced as a result of our work for Versalogic, a manufacturer of high-end PC boards. Since its beginning, Versalogic maintained a long-term commitment to customers to make a particular board and not to change. The ad we produced, which ran for several years, went right for the throat of customer concerns selling to military and medical markets. (http://www.mktx.com/t_versalogic.htm) 

Now you have enough information to develop your strategy, plus the tactics to pull it off. Next month we’ll explore the three strategic objectives behind every communications tactic in your marketing communications plan: Entice, engage, and exchange.

Read Part 2

Questions? Give us a call at 503-646-6589 or send an email to answers@mktx.com.