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Dynamic
Marketing
How flexibility, adaptability and strong intelligence drive marketing for three
area firms
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Business New Haven
2/22/1999
By: Abigail White
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Today, marketing a company's products and services has gone beyond traditional strategies outlined in a company's business plan. Providing for clients' needs better, at a profit, than the competitor is still fundamental to today's marketing scheme.
However, in today's fast-paced, results-driven economy, marketing must be flexible and dynamic, no matter what the product is or the size of the company. The one key element in any marketing strategy is strong customer intelligence.
The Madison-based PowerPhone Inc. trains emergency and public-safety dispatchers. PowerPhone was founded in 1984 by Phil Salafia, its current CEO and president.
Since its inception, PowerPhone has conducted more than 2,500 crisis communications training programs for more than 60,000 police, fire and medical dispatchers.
PowerPhone product offerings combine providing published procedural manuals, computerized communications software and on-site training seminars to professional public-safety personnel. Each specialized aspect of PowerPhone training is a module in a larger matrix of general public safety training.
Explains Greg Sheehan, PowerPhone's marketing director: “It's a system that allows dispatchers to transfer skills they learned from other PowerPhone classes into different disciplines. A dispatcher might take a core law-enforcement training program and then combine it with another program, such as domestic violence training. This provides integrated training and informational resources for personnel handling a combination of emergency situations.”
How does PowerPhone market its offerings? Sheehan cites direct mail as PowerPhone's “biggest marketing tool” to reach potential customers.
“We schedule 250 seminars, roughly, each year, and the primary vehicle is mail,” he says. “So what we had to do was build our database from the ground up.”
With that database, PowerPhone recently began using broadcast faxing as another way to distribute the direct-mail information. Computer fax software, such as RightFax, enables PowerPhone to distribute its services and product information regularly and directly to existing and potential customers' personnel departments.
“We've been using it now for two months and it's been working extremely well,” Sheehan says. “If we're holding a training in Jupiter, Fla., we can take the ZIP codes from our database for Jupiter and the surrounding areas and send out customized faxes.”
Last August, PowerPhone profiled the company, professional backgrounds of its instructors, as well as specific training programs on its new Web site (www.powerphone.com), launching PowerPhone onto the World Wide Web.
“We receive a lot of registrations [for seminars] through our Web site,” Sheehan says, “and the more people that visit the site and utilize it, the more valuable it will be in our marketing effort. They can see the material we offer, like our latest edition of the manual 9-1-1 Liability: A Call for Answers, “Emergency Crime Scene Responder” (an evidence-preservation training module), or our newest product, Lighthouse, which is a software version of our law-enforcement, emergency medical and fire-service manuals, combined,” Sheehan says.
Lighthouse software features more than 150 standardized protocols for reference in a Web-based browser-hyperlink system, supplied by license from Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Today, emergency and public-safety departments in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia are relying on PowerPhone for dispatcher training. Because their training programs continue to be updated to keep pace with evolving technology and time-sensitive needs of emergency dispatch services, PowerPhone has been able to continue to provide its services to existing clients who require up-to-date training, as well as to attract new customers.
“What you do as far as developing a market is, you keep putting products in line and then bringing them back to those same people - build your market and develop a brand loyalty with the PowerPhone name,” says Sheehan.
PowerPhone's marketing department, he says, focuses on “getting the best message out to our customers, to get them to recognize the PowerPhone name and realize it's a source of excellence for communications training.”
Another Madison firm, Garrity Industries, has been designing, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of disposable, refillable and rechargeable flashlights and lanterns since 1967.
Its flashlights are sold through all the major merchandising channels: drugstores, chain stores such as K mart and Bradlees, hardware stores and home-improvement centers.
Research, direct mail to key buyers, cooperative advertising with merchants and in-person sales presentations are the marketing strategies on which Garrity relies to move its products. It also informs consumer about their products through its Web site (www.garritylites.com).
“Differentiating your product from your competitor's is key to a company's marketing effort,” says Garrity's marketing director, Mike Riley. “The basic principles of marketing haven't changed - just the tactics.”
Riley notes that the marketplace changes every day, and the need for creative execution is paramount. “How do you differentiate? In differentiating, the question is: Do you hit the hot buttons of your end user? Packaging, product design and ergonomics. These are the hot buttons,” Riley says.
For new products, Garrity relies on information gathered from annual focus groups, working with merchandising managers of key accounts, and from periodic trips to Asia.
“We have our partners in the Orient [whom] we work with and constantly see what's new in the market as far as trends,” Riley says. “That's where some of our development comes from.”
One recent trend Garrity learned about is the use of color in different products. “We differentiated ourselves by the use of color,” he explains. “We offer more choice of color than any of our competitors.
“We're just introducing a new line called our G-Tech Series with bright red, bright blue and bright yellow colors.”
Garrity's lead product line is rubber flashlights. Garrity was the first to put colored bands and colored straps on rubber flashlights.
Innovation in packaging has likewise played a key role in helping to set Garrity products apart from the competition.
“We found that there are people who like to give flashlights as gifts,” Riley says. “We were the first to offer flashlights as
gift packs.”
That's not all. “We also found that kids love flashlights,” says Riley. With products that we already had in our line, we packaged them in children's gear and introduced a whole new line called the Fun Series. It is geared for back-to-school, stocking stuffers or party favors.”
In addition to differentiating, the company focuses on flexible strategies to capture consumers.
“I can go to Wal-Mart tomorrow and it will change my strategic plan,” Riley explains. “Instead of having a strategic plan, you have to have a broad-stroke plan.
“Changes in the market are so rampant today - and so rapid. When a salesman makes a call and gets information from his customer, and that information comes back, then that initiates a marketing initiative.”
The best marketing intelligence, Riley maintains, comes from salespeople. “A good marketing person will consider salespeople the eyes and ears of the company,” he says.
“There's constant sales intelligence and marketing intelligence going back and forth. When information flows in, we have to act very quickly on that. You can go out and do focus groups, but if you have your salespeople out there every day, knowing what the consumers want in the stores and what the competition is doing, that's your marketing intelligence.”
As a regional non-profit commuter transportation services company, Rideworks has helped to promote the use of alternatives in driving to and from work alone since its inception in 1984. Based in New Haven, Rideworks serves a 38-town region of south-central Connecticut.
The growth of Rideworks results from new developments in transportation options in the state, and from the impact of continuing developments in technology. In addition to car- and van-pooling, Rideworks has been involved with marketing and providing customer-service information for the Shoreline East commuter service inaugurated in 1990, connections with local bus services and, recently, a new pilot program for the state, a semi-flexible work time arrangement.
“Years ago, employers and employees used to say, 'We would like this to be an easy choice; we don't want this to be a struggle to do,'” Rideworks Executive Director Jean Stimolo says. “We've always thought of the customer as not necessarily caring about a particular mode of transportation, but what they really want is a reasonable ride at a reasonable cost.”
For Rideworks, the key to marketing is knowing what potential “customers” want - and providing it. Its marketing efforts include making presentations to area business associations, and on-site visits to a company's place of business.
A representative from Rideworks will visit a company and consult with it to develop a customized employee transportation-management program. It may include providing an analysis of an employee-transportation survey, corporate vanpool information and options, and training for employee transportation coordinators within the company.
Rideworks is working both ends of the same market to reach the commuter. “We target employers and follow up when they have some of their employees participating in one of our programs,” explains Stimolo, “and try to build on whatever success we have from the beginning.
“We have a general 'rollout' to those who might be interested, out in the public, and we have a specific 'rollout' to our network of employers.”
Besides going to businesses and other organizations to provide information and help to set up programs, Rideworks has a distribution network of materials on area bus routes, commuter train schedules and information on car-pooling and van-pooling at points such as town halls, public libraries, real estate agencies, corporate lobbies and employment placement services.
“I think it's good to have a baseline of information out there, the highway signs and the printed information,” Stimolo says. “You've got the occasional riders looking to connect to Metro North or with buses downtown, and then you have the everyday commuters, and they're all riding according to their own needs.”
To Stimolo, that means, “It's important for us to think strategically and creatively. There's a lot of work and a lot of deadlines. It all comes down to providing quality information so people can make decisions.”
To keep that information fresh and in front of commuters, Rideworks routinely promotes its array of programs and activities, from the “guaranteed ride home” program, to the latest telecommuting options, through press releases to the media, as well as making presentations to area business associations.
Rideworks has integrated all informational offerings into the Rideworks Web site (www.rideworks.com), which has additional features such as Disabled Commuter Handbook, up-to-date road construction information, as well as a commuter discussion forum.
“With all that's going on, our Monday meetings help us keep track of how we're doing,” says Stimolo. “The staff meetings are where we visit the issues and ask, 'Have we done this too many times? Is this necessary? Should we do something else?'
“It's an interesting process, and there are a lot of plates in the air. We try to be more creative and see what opportunities there are to try to help motivate people to move in the direction of trying an alternative. Over time, the more we build connectivity with all the available services, the less it's going to cost.”
Keeping information about a company's product current, fresh, and in front of the target consumer is the key to marketing strategies in today's marketplace. Yet satisfying the customer's personal considerations about that product is what keeps the product current and fresh.
Remaining flexible in these strategies, companies can respond quickly to consumers' needs and tailor what they provide to the individuals that ultimately will use them.
Despite the convenience of information technologies today, no product- or service-oriented company can be successful without the personal touch in communicating with clients. From the gathering of information from the market for a better product to providing that product to satisfy consumers, technology is a tool enabling businesses to do it better and in a timely manner. But no business can succeed without assuring its consumers of a strong awareness of the latter's needs as well.
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