How do I market my product? Part II

OK, so as we discussed in Part I you have built a web site and that is serving as the kernel for your brand identity. So now you have to decide what to do next? You basically have two choices, the first being to continue working under the radar and develop your product further or begin the public aspect of your organization by ramping up the public relations aspect of your program. At this point, you are not truly ready to go public since you will need to have stronger sense of who you are and be ready for what may come your way so the best course to follow is to continue defining your brand and image by developing marketing materials.

The development of marketing materials is often given short thrift and more often then not suffers from dual and conflicted roles. On the one hand, they are eagerly desired by sales people who seek them because it is something they can leave or send to a customer that clearly spells out the market advantages of their organization's products and services. The other side of that coin is that marketing materials are often prepared by very creative types who see themselves as the sellers of the brand and focus nearly exclusively on the creative aspects of how best to sell the product.

If you are familiar with the AMC television show Mad Men you know what I am talking about. Sales people offer a value proposition and believe that they can sell it to the target audience as a rational, fact based formula. Creative people are nearly the exact opposite. They believe that the sales decision is made based on emotional stimuli and as such we need to appeal to a person's emotional side and need to have a creative approach to sell the product.

It then becomes the difficult task of a marketing manager to not only balance these two, often conflicting viewpoints out, but to find a middle point. As we all know the definition of a compromise is when everyone walks away from the table feeling cheated. But that is exactly what a marketing manager needs to do, balance the competing desires of both groups.

Successful organizations know how to balance the ideals of sales and creative types and work together to develop a strong brand message which clearly sells their product. A perfect example of a company that marries both very well is Coca-Cola. Coke has an exceptionally strong brand and this is done by advertising which most companies can only hope to achieve. But the strong creative is enhanced by a global distribution system that is second to none. Without this strong sales and support system, Coca-Cola would have none of the global command that it does today.

So you are starting your own company, can you learn anything from what Coke or any other brands do. I believe the answer to be yes! First of all, as I said earlier you need to use the step after your web site to continue building your brand identity within the organization. This is also the time when you should bring your nascent sales organization to the table. Ideally this person will have some knowledge of your markets and sure as heckfire should know how to sell. You will also want them to give you some feedback on the tools you plan to give them to sell the product and service.

It is not uncommon for sales people to try and pull back and say they are not comfortable or that is marketing's job etc. But the fact remains at the end of the day it is up to sales to connect with the customer and convince them to buy. They need to be present for at least the first stages of development. The worst thing that can happen is for you to be six months to a year in, wondering why your product isn't moving and have sales shrug their shoulders and blame marketing.

So part II of the marketing development program is the development of marketing tools to further help build your brand. This is also the time to begin to engage sales and bring them into the loop and see what they can contribute. Marketing will help you increase awareness of your product but it is sales who sells it. Therefore their contributions must not be excluded.