Marketing your Project

Author : Michael Wood [sourced by Kuttan]

Why do some projects need a marketing campaign and what’s involved in the effort?

To answer this question we first need to understand some basics about what marketing is all about, what a marketing campaign is designed to accomplish--and what role marketing can play in contributing to project success.

First, not all projects warrant a full-blown marketing campaign effort. Projects that have sweeping organizational impact, require large capital investments, tend to be politically sensitive and span more than a year are typical candidates for a formal marketing approach.

As Wikipedia puts it: Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others.

Some projects may even benefit from a branding effort that captures the essence of the project in its name or slogan. Again, turning to Wikipedia, the following definition of a brand can be found: A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes products and services from competitive offerings. A brand represents the consumers’ experience with an organization, product or service. A brand is more than a name, design or symbol. Brand reflects personality of the company which is organizational culture.

Although the benefits of correctly marketing a project can be many, applying these concepts to projects is not always easy. The following concepts are intended to help you in your project marketing efforts.

There are two basic phases to marketing a project. The first phase (pre-approval) deals with promoting the project with the goal of gaining stakeholder support and management’s approval. The second phase (post-approval) focuses on maintaining momentum, keeping the project positioned in a pro-active and positive light and conditioning stakeholders toward the changes the project’s implementation will deliver. This article will focus on the pre-approval aspects of marketing your projects.

During the pre-approval phase there are a few specific goals that your plan needs to achieve. First, it should stimulate thinking on ways to make optimal use of organizational resources. This requires a compelling business case stated in very simple business terms that identify the outcome to be achieved along with the associated investment. For example, consider the following case for improving the effectiveness of direct marketing adapted from a real project:

Streamlining the Direct Marketing system at Acme Widgets will save over $3 million a year in promotional costs while enhancing sales by 15 percent. This can be achieved by the end of 2010 with a dedicated team of 12 and an investment of $750,000.

This example is simple, easy to understand and draws the reader into asking “How?”--and allows for further promotion of the project to interested parties and hopefully garnering support.

In addition to stimulating thinking, the pre-approval marketing effort needs to be clear as to the roles and responsibilities of those conducting the marketing effort. Here, more often than not, less equals more. Communications need to be controlled and deliberate, thus idle chatter among would-be team members to outsiders needs to be managed. Think press releases, not water cooler gossip.

Just as in political campaigns, talking points need to be well thought out and consistent without seeming rehearsed or appearing to be mindless regurgitations of the “party line”. Thus, there should only be one or two project spokespersons that are intimate with the project’s details as well as proficient speakers and presenters. These spokespersons must also have a firm grasp of the obstacles that will need to be overcome in order to sell the project--including lack of credibility, political opponents, scarcity of capital funds and overall economic conditions. For every obstacle identified, specific responses need to be crafted and shaped that bring the focus of the issue back to the benefits to be gained through the project’s implementation.

For example, it is reasonable to expect that both time needed to achieve, the investment identified and outcome promised will draw critics’ eyes. Here, facts--not sound bites--will win the day. By delving deeper into the assumptions supporting the costs and benefits of the project, attention is moved from the end numbers and toward the framework that was used to support those numbers. Thus, those objecting to the project must invest time in understanding the assumptions and how they were used in order to be credible opponents. Using our direct marketing example, the following objection handling talking points might be used:

Objection: How is it possible to save $3 million a year in direct marketing costs via a streamlining effort?

Response: Currently, our direct marketing campaigns average 150,000 items per mailing and are based on a “shotgun” approach resulting in less than a 1 percent response rate (1,500). Using a more scientific approach, based on customer preferences, buying habits and other demographic and psychographic data, our tests have indicated we can sponsor campaigns of 5,000 to 30,000 mailings and yield over 20 percent response rates (avg. 6,000). This alone will save us an average of 75 percent on direct mailing costs while increasing responses fourfold.

Notice how the facts are quite granular, compelling and authoritative. If the person posing the objection is not intimate with the details, they are hard-pressed to challenge. In addition, assuming the facts are correct, additional inspection only serves to strengthen the business case for the initiative. Thus the marketing effort achieves yet another major goal of the plan--progressively advancing the project toward approval.

In their book Innovation Happens Elsewhere: Open Source as Business Strategy, authors Ron Goldman and Richard P. Garbiel share these thoughts related to the story behind your project--your marketing plan:

“A compelling story that describes what your project is aiming at--something to get people excited about it. This is the message that will attract people to your project both as users and potential developers.The story needs to express the shared purpose behind your project. It will attract people who share this vision and are willing to work to make it real.”

In preparing the pre-approval marketing plan, consider the following steps:

1. Develop a business case based on solid facts and research including stakeholders; economic realities; soft and hard investments; time and effort needed for success; and, most of all, what success looks like in terms of improved revenues, reduced costs, larger market shares, new customer capture, increased customer loyalty, etc.

2. Identify the challenges and obstacles that would lead to management not approving the project

3. Craft a benefit statement that draws the reader into asking hard and challenging questions that are easily answered by the facts and effectively disarm challenges and obstacles.

4. Identify the core talking points and spokespersons for marketing the project

5. Define the campaign in terms of media blitzes, campaign presentations, print and electronic media (brochures, websites, video, data sheets, etc.).

6. Define the campaign’s reach, milestones and timetable for completion

7. Test the campaign where possible on prospective sponsors.

8. Develop a detailed proposal and executive level presentation for pitching the project to management and key stakeholders

9. Launch the campaign leaving room for recalibration every week or two.

10. Culminate the campaign with the pitch to management, being sure to have as many supporting stakeholders present at the presentation.

Marketing a project is like marketing any product launch: It requires a deliberate and well-thought-out plan that is geared to achieve one and only one outcome--a “yes” from management. The more grassroots support you have for the project—and the better researched your facts are--the more likely you will be to achieve a resounding “yes” from management.

Good luck with your efforts. Let us know what approaches have worked on marketing your projects and any lessons learned from unsuccessful efforts.