E145 - Session 6

Session 6: October 6, 2008

Taking Your Opportunity to Market

(AKA Entrepreneurial Marketing)

Quote of the Day

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Summary

In this class we explore the “Dirty Dozen” Marketing Models used by entrepreneurial marketers in Silicon Valley and around the world.

We have an embarrassment of riches for this session. First, Steve Blank, Tom Kosnik and Tom Byers all focused on sales and marketing for a significant part of their careers. Second, marketing practices have changed more from 1995 to the present than in the 100 years before 1995. The Internet and broadband mobile communications have given customers tremendous power in dealing with marketers. It as also allowed marketers to unobtrusively follow customers as they surf the web, to discover latent needs, and to measure the impact of marketing investments on customer behavior.

All we can do in one day is: 1) introduce the “Dirty Dozen” Marketing Models, 2) Ask you to use them with your cases and your OAP, and 3) encourage you to invest time elsewhere to deepen your sales and marketing skills. The “Dirty Dozen” marketing models we will cover in this session include:

Technology Adoption Life Cycle
The Customer Development model
The “Chasm” and Crossing the Chasm.
Total Available Market, Served Available Market, and Target Market.
The Whole Product
The “Five C’s” of Marketing: your Company, Competitors, Channel Partners, Customers, and Customers’ Customers.
Differentiation and the Compelling Reason to Buy
Positioning and Dynamic Positioning
The “Four P’s” of marketing: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place (distribution)
Demand Creation (And the marketing media portfolio)
The Sales Funnel
Marketing Metrics.

Your team will soon submit your positioning statement for your opportunity analysis idea. In this session, we will also learn how to create a positioning statement using Geoff Moore's positioning template:

For (target customer)
who (statement of the need or opportunity),
the (product/service name) is a (product/service category)
that (statement of benefit).
Unlike (primary competitive alternative),
our product (statement of primary differentiation).

Required Readings (Policy on Required Readings.)

Readings from the Textbooks:

Technology Ventures (Dorf and Byers): Ch 11 The Marketing and Sales Plan; Ch 15 Acquisitions, Mergers, and Global Business (Highlights: 11.1-11.4, 11.8, 11.9, 15.3)

Watch the following short videos:

Study Questions (Policy on Study Questions.)

What makes marketing so difficult and important in a start-up? How does marketing relate to the product development and sales functions?
What is a discontinuous innovation? What is a disruptive technology? What are their implications for entrepreneurs?
For your OAP, ask these questions about any opportunities you explore:

Who are your target customers?
Who are your customers’ customers?
How will you do customer development?
What is your product category?
Where is it along the technology adoption life cycle?
How will you validate customers’ compelling reason to buy your product?
Who are your leading competitors?
How will you differentiate your “whole product” from theirs?
Who will be your key channel partners during the first year of operation?
How will you create demand?
How will you move potential customers through the sales funnel?
What marketing metrics will you use to measure your impact?