EMERGING COMPANIES

Emerging companies are classic "works in progress". The staff of SMC has helped entrepreneurs and venture-funded companies gain traction and become credible, competitive players in a host of different industries, including food and beverage, healthcare, telecom, and software.

 

GAZELLE SYSTEMS
Setting the Table for Consensus

SUMMARY Rather than letting the initial negativity of IT professionals undermine the potential appeal of its data mining software for the restaurant and foodservice industries, Gazelle Systems opted to create a program that helped IT and marketing professionals work together toward a common goal – a better, more productive understanding of their customer base. To access the complete case study, click here

GAZELLE SYSTEMS
Setting the Table for Consensus

Business Model
A developer of data mining software for the restaurant and foodservice industries.

The Challenge
Gazelle Systems (www.gaz.com) realized that IT professionals had at least as strong an influence over final software purchasing decisions as the marketing professionals the company was used to working with. But while marketers understood the value of data mining software, IT professionals saw the technology as posing unnecessary risks. Gazelle needed to redirect its communications initiatives.

Strategy & Tactics
A Restaurant Data Exchange Consortium was developed and implemented. Its purpose: to enable IT and marketing professionals to work together toward common goals.

Gazelle partnered with companies like Microsoft to bring value to Consortium members. After adoption of Microsoft's technology consortium-wide, Gazelle’s story was developed as a case study for the company's "Dot Net" strategy. Gazelle also identified appropriate industry leaders, academics, and media to serve as the Consortium's founding members and were instrumental in developing the Consortium's organizational identity, including logos, letterhead, press kits, and more.

With the Consortium's membership and identity in place, a media relations campaign was implemented to launch the enterprise, targeting both business and trade outlets and developing a partnership for the Consortium with Hospitality Technology. The trade publication agreed to accept a byline every quarter from an IT professional, outlining how collaboration with a marketing professional to implement data mining technology helped the business reach its bottom line goals.

Media Coverage
An Inc. Magazine feature credited Gazelle's data mining software for restoring a bankrupt restaurant chain back to profitability. Other business stories appeared in Investor's Business Daily, on National Public Radio, and in The Boston Business Journal.

Nation's Restaurant News, the top trade media for the restaurant and foodservice industry, ran news of the launch in its print and online publications and weekly newsletter. Additional stories about the launch appeared in Restaurant Hospitality and Hospitality Technology.

The Bottom Line
The communications strategy succeeded in empowering marketers to educate IT professionals on the value of Gazelle's technology and allayed IT professionals' fears that data mining software would be difficult or risky to implement.

After the RDX Consortium launched, Gazelle signed a software development agreement with Sodexho Inc. and subsequently began to integrate its data mining software into major restaurant chains nationwide.

	Bell Ringer Award
	Clarion Award

This program, recognized by The Publicity Club of New England with a Bell Ringer Award and the Association for Women in Communications with a Clarion Award, was created by the principals and senior staff of Solomon McCown & Company while we were members of a prior agency co-founded and managed by Helene Solomon.

VANTAGE PARTNERS
Creating an Alliance between the Goals of a Company and the Interest of the Media

SUMMARY Due to the academic nature and complexity of its work around the issue of business alliances, Vantage Partners often did not attract the media attention it deserved. The consulting organization needed an approach that would give it real credibility among the media and ensure heightened coverage. To access the complete case study, click here

VANTAGE PARTNERS
Creating an Alliance between the Goals of a Company and the Interest of the Media

Business Model
Vantage Partners, a consultancy formed by individuals who helped create the Harvard Negotiation Project, is dedicated to ensuring that alliances forged by the top 1,000 U.S. corporations succeed in their ventures.

The Challenge
Although Vantage Partners enjoyed intermittent, short-term relationships with the media, its activities tended to escape media attention. Due to the complexity of its work, the company found it difficult to covey its theories in concise, understandable points that could be readily used by business media.

Strategy & Tactics
When the company completed an academic study explaining the reasons behind the high failure rate for alliance between Fortune 500 corporations, it wanted to ensure that the study garnered significant attention. A two-pronged media relations strategy was developed: a media blitz securing exclusive print and broadcast coverage of the study and a series of strategic news pitches to build the company’s credibility among a wide range of high-level business media. Once the strategy was implemented, feature stories could be developed focusing on the topic of alliance failure and the ways Vantage Partners helps companies achieve alliance success.

Media Coverage
The "tailored blitz" strategy attracted a business page cover story in The Boston Globe, as well as interviews with CNBC and CNN and feature stories on Dow Jones News Service and Bloomberg. This initial news coverage successfully built credibility for the company among longer-lead publications and generated features in targeted, national business publications, including Financial Executive, The Daily Deal and Global Finance News. The study remained in the news for six months, an unprecedented event for Vantage Partners.

The Bottom Line
The whirl of attention around the study helped raise Vantage Partners’ profile and effectively introduced the company to a wider audience.

Due to the extensive and high quality media coverage, the company received more than 60 requests for the study, with 50 percent of the requests coming from Fortune 500 companies. This provided Vantage Partners’ marketing team with solid prospects to add to its business development efforts.

This case history describes a program created by the principals and senior staff of Solomon McCown & Company while we were members of a prior agency co-founded and managed by Helene Solomon.

MOVECENTRAL, INC.
Helping a Business Move the Needle

SUMMARY Concerned the media would focus solely on revenue numbers, an Internet start-up needed to direct attention to the company’s fundamental value proposition – the fact that it created a unique environment where businesses could tap into the $2.1 billion annual market of people on the move. To access the complete case study, click here

MOVECENTRAL, INC.
Helping a Business Move the Needle

Business Model
MoveCentral, Inc., was a direct marketing service that specialized in targeting consumers on the verge of relocating.

The Challenge
During the height of the Internet boom, MoveCentral sought to create a web site where businesses could sell the goods and services that people needed when they were moving. With relocating families spending $21 billion annually to fund their moves, MoveCentral allowed businesses to target a lucrative market segment. But while stories of Internet businesses dominated the media, the inability of these start-ups to meet revenue projections was also making headlines. MoveCentral management was concerned that the media might focus on revenue projections rather than on the opportunity the company created for businesses to tap into a hard-to-reach market.

Strategy & Tactics
As a direct marketing company, MoveCentral had collected data on the spending patterns of relocating Americans. Packaging this data for consumer and business media could help generate coverage focused on the uses of the Internet to target lucrative market segments rather than on the launch of yet another dot.com.

A report was commissioned, the MoveCentral Relocation Study, to illustrate the mover market’s value and provide facts about how and when Americans spend money throughout the relocation process. A media relations plan was then built to support the study’s findings, targeting marketing trades and consumer media with a single, well-conceived news release.

Media Coverage
The strategy generated 137 print stories in daily and weekly media across 32 states, yielding an overwhelming 9,003,151 impressions. Articles ran in prominent publications such as The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Herald, The San Francisco Examiner, USA TODAY, The Boston Business Journal, and American Demographic.

The Bottom Line
MoveCentral successfully launched its web site, while also raising awareness about Americans’ participation in the relocation process, and in doing so, about the power of MoveCentral to reach businesses’ desired customers.
MoveCentral experienced overwhelmingly positive changes:

This case history describes a program created by the principals and senior staff of Solomon McCown & Company while we were members of a prior agency co-founded and managed by Helene Solomon.