Situation: A small company serves a specialized, targeted group of customers. The founder/CEO seeks advice from the group on whether it is time for the company to create and staff a formal marketing function or can this be outsourced. Do you need a formal marketing function?

Advice from the CEOs:

• The company services a specialized and targeted group of customers. However, they target the high end of this market, so the target market is smaller.
  • A highly targeted promotional and marketing strategy will work best.
• There are two principal functions within marketing: providing direction to guide product development efforts and creating awareness of the company’s products through promotions and advertisements.
  • To serve a narrow market, the information and insight gathered from trade shows, technical meetings, the company’s sales and design engineers may be sufficient to drive product development efforts.
  • It may not be necessary to do more than this unless the company is planning for substantial growth and wishes to diversify the product offering in a short period of time.
• To handle promotions and advertising there are two options: hire an individual to do this or utilize the resources of an outside agency.
  • The marketing plan should be refreshed and updated on a regular basis – at least annually.
  • A good task for the company’s marketing committee is to become aware of local resources that could help.
  • Identify marketing themes to guide advertising in specialty magazines, supported by trade shows, technical conferences, and on-site training session for key customers.
  • Create and maintain a calendar of marketing activities and assure that that messaging is consistent across promotional events.
• If the strategic plan calls for substantially increasing the revenue base or broadening the product offering, consider a merger with a competitor that already has the ability and resources to meet these needs.
  • Just the planning exercise for a merger will help the company to evaluate the issues involved in market expansion.

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