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Summer 2002
Welcome!
We are pleased to present the Summer 2002 issue of The Apex, the quarterly newsletter
of Cambridge Consulting.
Cambridge Consulting is a leading provider of high-tech marketing and business development expertise
for Fortune 500 and top-tier technology clients. From initial strategy through tactical implementation,
Cambridge Consulting delivers customized solutions that help you expand existing markets and launch
new products and services — right now, in real time. By bringing together innovative companies
and high-performance professionals, we're building relationships that build success.
To find out how we can help build your success, visit us at www.cambridgeconsultant.com
or for immediate response please call us at 800-816-8006 and ask to speak with a client representative.
Effective Competitive Attack Programs
To get ahead and stay ahead in the ultra-competitive marketplace
of enterprise computing, an effective competitive analysis and attack program is essential. It's
wise to assume your competitors are already planning their own attack, so you need to be ready
with a program that puts you in position to win.
At Cambridge Consulting, we've been helping our clients win market share with competitive attack
programs that really work – and we've learned a few things along the way.
Be Clear About Value
Before initiating a competitive attack program, understand your product’s value proposition.
Without a clear understanding of your product's value and unique benefits, you won't be able to
effectively position that product against the competition. Of course, that seems obvious –
but in the rough and tumble of high tech marketing, the obvious is often overlooked. Invest the
time to clearly define the value of your product. In the case of a complex product suite, be sure
that your positioning has a consistent approach across the entire portfolio.
Developing the Pitch
Once the value proposition is clear, use it to position your product in contrast to the competition.
Your goal is to develop a pitch that can sway even the most hardened CIO – and that can be
a real challenge. By definition, the CIO is a well-informed and conservative buyer who is wary
of marketing messages from vendors.
Wherever possible, validate your positioning with objective evidence such as industry-standard
performance benchmarks, independent third party analysis, or certifications. This type of information
carries a great deal of weight with CIO’s who need objective verification of competitive
claims before allocating millions of dollars for IT infrastructure purchases.
May the Force Be With You
Your competitive positioning must be understood and confidently endorsed by those tasked with
making the customer pitch – so be sure to test your message with the field sales force. Loss
of credibility is a deal-killer in enterprise computing, and the place to start building credibility
is with the sales team on the front line. Give them a chance to thoroughly test, validate and
understand the message.
Additionally, arm your sales force with information about the strengths of the
competition and their tactics against your products. This knowledge gives your team a critical
edge and will help them fend off attacks by the competition. Your sales force will thank you for
this level of detail.
Market Share Metrics
To objectively measure the effectiveness of your competitive attack program, look at the growth
of market share. In enterprise computing, it's usually expressed as a share of market revenue,
though units shipped can also be used. As your program progresses, monitor your market
share trends at least quarterly.
Emerging companies can gauge effectiveness by measuring their revenue growth rate compared
to the overall market. Ideally, even though your market share is small, your rate of revenue growth
will show that you're gaining ground relative to the competition.
Keep It Fresh
In this market, the shelf life of a competitive message is about six months or less. Be ready
to change your positioning message as your competition reacts to your success. Competitors will
react quickly – or they'll perish. You need to be prepared to do the same.
Get ahead...
... and stay ahead – that's the name of the game. To win it, you need to gain market share
from your competition. Cambridge Consulting can help you achieve this goal. Give us a call, and
we'll start creating a competitive attack program that works for you.
Compaq and HP — Making One Company Greater than The
Sum of the Parts
Based on IDC's Calendar Year 2001 results, the merger of Compaq and HP would
create the largest server vendor in the world in both units and dollars. Now, the challenge is
to make the math work in calendar year 2002 through effective integration and coordination of
their marketing initiatives.
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Worldwide Server Factory Units by
Vendor
all operating systems: cy2001
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Worldwide Server Factory Revenue by Vendor
all operating systems: cy2001- total 49.8 b$
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Industry Conferences and Trade Shows: The Ultimate 1:1 Marketing
Tool
Your business depends on solid relationships with both partners and customers, so you need to
find ways to build new relationships and cultivate existing ones. Industry conferences and trade
shows are among your best opportunities to do so. Why? Because relationships are built through
face-to-face interactions — and no other venue facilitates interactions with so many partners
and customers in such a condensed period. Planned in advance and executed correctly, an industry
conference or trade show can be one of the most efficient customer and/or partner recruitment
platforms available.
Making the most of these opportunities takes planning, persistence and follow-up. This is especially
true for organizations that are in flux, i.e., a company that has recently been reorganized, acquired
or merged. It's always challenging to manage existing relationships with partners and customers
— it's an altogether new and different challenge to maintain and reinforce that relationship
once a major re-org or corporate "event" (merger/acquisition) has transpired.
ROI — The Driving Force
So, how do you make a conference or show worth the time, effort and expense? At Cambridge Consulting,
we've developed a process and methodology that includes the key elements of objective setting,
research, outbound communication, and a value-driven offering. Done correctly, you can transform
an otherwise perfunctory trade show into a veritable cornucopia of relationship-building opportunities
that maximizes your ROI.
First, regardless of whether you have a booth or not, you must develop an objective-driven agenda.
Is your main intent generating sales leads? Establishing partners? Introducing new solutions?
Messaging the impact of a recent merger or acquisition? Whatever the objective is, formalize it
— and make sure everyone on the show team knows it.
Secondly, identify the companies you wish to target that will be attending the show. More importantly,
identify the individuals from those companies who will be attending. This is especially true in
the case of companies that have merged. Your potential partners and customers are likely to be
confused about who they should talk to, what they should expect, and how they can possibly do
business with you when the situation appears to be so dynamic. There are various methods for accomplishing
this task, and we've developed several different techniques that have proven extremely successful.
A "Slice of Time"
Once identified, the targeted individual must be presented with a compelling message — one
that will make them accept your invitation to meet with them in person at some point over the
course of the event. This doesn't need to be an expensive proposition. In fact, most companies
already have something of significant value that can drive a meeting — you just need to understand
what your prospect would appreciate in exchange for a "slice of time."
Of course, the meeting doesn't occur automatically after extending the invitation. You need to
proactively follow-up with your prospect, recognizing it can take three or more attempts to actually
earn a meeting. Importantly, the meeting logistics must be simple and solid. This means you must
be ready to provide a meeting time and appropriate location at or near the venue. A local contact
number while at the show — cell phone or hotel extension — can help to smooth the inevitable
schedule changes that occur over a two to four day event.
The Payoff
Lastly, make the meeting count — for you and the prospective customer or partner. If it counts
for the prospect, it will likely count for you in the form of a new relationship that brings additional
revenue opportunities to your company.
Cambridge Makes it Work
Cambridge Consulting can help you make the most of your trade show and industry conference participation,
improving your efficiency and ROI. To find out more, call us at 800-816-8006 and speak with a
Client Representative.
The
Five-Stage Model of Business Evolution:
A Foundation for Marketing Resource Investments
People and programs – these are two of the most valuable marketing resources behind every
organization. As your company evolves from the startup stage to the mature market leadership stage,
your marketing resources must also evolve. Unfortunately, many high tech companies mistakenly
believe that all they need to succeed is an innovative engineering organization and a strong sales
force. These companies ultimately succumb to the competitive pressure to hire and increase marketing
program dollars – but when they do so, they often act without any clear plan or set of priorities.
That's exactly when Cambridge Consulting can help.
A Unique Tool for Decision Makers
We've used our product marketing and management expertise to develop a unique software-based solution
called the Real-Time Marketing Evaluator™ (RTME). Designed specifically for senior marketing
executives and business owners, RTME can help you make the right marketing investment decisions
at the right time.
A key foundation of the RTME tool is our proprietary Five-Stage Model of Business Evolution.
The RTME tool works because the Five-Stage Model effectively addresses the varying marketing resource
investments required at every step — from a startup business unit to a mature, market-leading
organization. The table below summarizes the business and product focus in each stage.
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Stages of Evolution
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Stage
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Description
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First Stage Start-Up
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Company (or product line) is in start-up mode and focusing on product development
and early seeding through alpha/beta.
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Second Stage Product Launch
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Company (or product line) is focusing on revenue generation amd product
promotion.
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Third Stage
Sales/Product Development
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Company (or product line) is focusing on next generatioon product development
and new sales channel development.
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Fourth Stage Market Builder
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Company (or product line) is focusing on market leadership programs and
product expansion, both organic and through M&A.
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Fifth Stage Market Leader
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Company (or product line) is focusing on gaining top market position or
maintaining the top 2 or 3 position with emphasis on competitive programs, research, and on
expanding M&A activities.
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Using the Cambridge Five-Stage Model, a company may be simultaneously
classified in multiple stages. For example, HP is a Fifth Stage leader in enterprise UNIX servers
and print and imaging systems, but still a Fourth Stage market builder in its e-business infrastructure
software and enterprise storage businesses. However, once the Compaq merger is complete, HP will
quickly become a Fifth Stage market leader in enterprise storage. Accordingly, HP's enterprise
storage organization must evolve its marketing resources to those appropriate for a market leader,
not a market builder.
Making Smart Marketing Investments
Growing a product business and building the right marketing resources are tough challenges. No
one has a blank check to throw at the task, and we can't all be spending 40+ percent of our revenue
on marketing related activities as Microsoft did only a short time ago. Many senior marketing
executives and business owners make marketing investment decisions that are unsuccessful in moving
a product business to the next stage. So, even though these investments may begin conservatively,
they often spin out of control and the expected results never materialize.
Recognizing this problem with our clients, we used our unique Five-Stage Model to develop the
Real-Time Marketing Evaluator™ solution. By combining Cambridge best practice methodology
with primary market research, the RTME solution is the ideal marketing decision support and audit
tool. It identifies your marketing requirements, then prioritizes those needs based on the business
and/or product stage of development.
With the RTME, a company as massive as HP or an emerging leader like BMC Software can discover
— in real-time — their marketing resource gaps and take corrective action that is competitive,
cost-effective and, most importantly, helps drive them to the next stage of development.
The days of dot-com startups spending millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads are over, and intelligent
decision-making about your product marketing and management resources is more important than ever.
With the Real-Time Marketing Evaluator™, Cambridge Consulting can help you make these intelligent
decisions.
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