Learn customer identification and positioning strategies from real world case studies. Whether you’re a startup looking for angel money, or a mature company trying to grow, you will find value in the concepts and stories discussed during the hour-long presentation. Find out how to use customer personas to make better marketing decisions that deliver bottom-line results. Leave with a clearer understanding of who your customer is, who your customer isn’t.

1. Marketing Roundtable:
Who is your Customer?
March 12th, 2013
© Ann Arbor SPARK

2. Today’s panelists
• Jeff Mason, Director of Sales & Marketing
Chelsea Rhone, LLC
• John Eaton, Principal
PinPoint Planning, LLC
• Linda Fingerle, Principal & CFO
EDF Ventures
• James Gutierrez, Principal
Red Eyed Moose Technologies

3. The story of Joe
Jeff Mason, Director of Sales & Marketing
Chelsea Rhone, LLC

4. Meet Joe:
• Joe runs ABC a small business that provides
claim adjusting services to the insurance
industry
• Joe is a hard worker and always thinking
about his business
• Joe had a good idea about a decade ago &
turned it into a business
• His revenues are shrinking
• What will Joe do?

5. Joe has a problem:
Revenue is shrinking, and ABC is projected to lose lots of money
over the next few years unless something changes
Pro forma income statement, in $1,000s
Actual Actual Forecast Forecast Forecast
Fiscal Year End 2011/12/31 2012/12/31 2013/12/31 2014/12/31 2015/12/31
Sales (Net) $ 2,203 $ 1,998 $ 1,798 $ 1,708 $ 1,623
Cost of Goods Sold (606) (548) (486) (461) (438)
Gross Profit 1,597 1,450 1,313 1,247 1,185
R&D Expense 0 0 0 0 0
SG&A Expense (1,553) (1,434) (1,409) (1,346) (1,346)
EBITDA 44 16 (96) (99) (162)
Depreciation & Amortization (19) 0 (13) (11) (10)
EBIT 25 16 (109) (110) (172)
Net Interest Expense (42) (45) (11) (31) (30)
Non-Operating Income (Loss) 31 41 0 0 0
EBT 14 12 (119) (141) (201)
Net Income Before Ext. Items 14 12 (119) (141) (201)
Net Income (available to common) $ 14 $ 12 $ (119) $ (141) $ (201)

6. Joe likes social media a lot
• Social media “gets his message out”
• Social media is “cheap”
• Social media is “innovative”
• He likes to call social media “new media”

7. Joe has an idea: he redeploys customer
service staff to focus on new media
Recent email announcement from Joe:
“I am pleased to announce that Gizelle Montcalm will
step into a new role with ABC effective immediately
as our Director of New Media. Gizelle will promote
ABC services via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.”

8. Joe isn’t thinking about his customer
Joe is thinking about Joe

9. Who Joe thinks his customer is:
Name: Fiona Facebook
Description: Loves all things social
Needs: Photos, comments, Farmville

10. Who Joe’s customer really is:
Oh
I love
insurance
Name: Ingmar Insuranz
Description: Insurance company middle manager
Needs: Reliable service, reporting tools, expertise

11. When you don’t think about your
customer, bad things happen:
Copyright Roger J. Best, 2012

12. Don’t be Joe

13. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
John Eaton, Principal
PinPoint Planning LLC

14. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
1. DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT

15. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT
 go big, then go “home”
 informed intuition
 We never do what we say

16. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
1. DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT
2. PIVOT vs. ITERATE

17. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
PIVOT vs. ITERATE
 market surveillance
 managing sunk costs
 lean ethos

18. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
1. DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT
2. PIVOT vs. ITERATE
3. BIG DATA, SMALL SOLUTIONS

19. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
BIG DATA, SMALL SOLUTIONS
 demographics are broad strokes
 assumptions often suck
 profiles & personas

20. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
1. DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT
2. PIVOT vs. ITERATE
3. BIG DATA, SMALL SOLUTIONS
4. CUSTOMERS-R-US

21. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
CUSTOMERS-R-US
 common gripes
 share the experience (within
reason)
 be authentic (brand)

22. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
1. DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT
2. PIVOT vs. ITERATE
3. BIG DATA, SMALL SOLUTIONS
4. CUSTOMERS-R-US
5. AUTOMATION vs. INTIMACY

23. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
AUTOMATION vs. INTIMACY
 change is constant
 context is king
 value social over media

24. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
1. DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT
2. PIVOT vs. ITERATE
3. BIG DATA, SMALL SOLUTIONS
4. CUSTOMERS-R-US
5. AUTOMATION vs. INTIMACY
6. CALLING ALL CUSTOMERS

25. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
CALLING ALL CUSTOMERS
 It’s the ecosystem, stupid
 Illustrative insights
 Share the solution…cautiously

26. 6° OF SEGMENTATION
1. DON’T GUESS IF YOU CAN HELP IT
2. PIVOT vs. ITERATE
3. BIG DATA, SMALL SOLUTIONS
4. CUSTOMERS-R-US
5. AUTOMATION vs. INTIMACY
6. CALLING ALL CUSTOMERS

27. Venture Capital Investing
Targeting the Right Customer
Linda Fingerle, Principal & CFO
EDF Ventures

28. VC Investment Characteristics
• Innovative ideas
• Intellectual Property Protection
• Large Market Potential
• Strong Management Team and Advisors
• Serial Entrepreneur as CEO

29. Example VC Investment:
• Orthopedic Medical Device
• Minimally Invasive Procedure
• Repair Broken Bones – Clavicle, Wrist

30. Segmenting – Targeting – Positioning
• Segmentation is the process of classifying customers
into groups which share some common characteristic
• Targeting involves the process of evaluating each
segments attractiveness and selecting one or more
segments to enter
• Positioning is arranging for a product to occupy a
clear, distinctive and desirable place relative to
competing products in the mind of the consumer

31. Marketing Analysis - STP
• Segmentation:
Orthopedic Bone Repair Market
• Targeting:
Broken bones of the Clavicle and Wrist
• Positioning:
Hospitals & Private Practice Orthopedic Surgeons

32. Positioning Considerations
• Replacing standard of care - plates and screws
• Specialized insertion of the repair device
• Orthopedic Surgeons generally not early
adopters

33. Initial Positioning:
1. Reach the most orthopedic surgeons
2. Establish a direct sales force
3. Sell throughout the US
Results:
 Not specific enough
 Many Doctors using a few devices
 Expensive to maintain a sale force

34. Lessons Learned
• Company is more valuable with more repeat users, leading to
higher multiples
• Specialized product is more expensive to sell
• Be more specific identifying early adopters
 Orthopedic surgeons practicing trauma bone repair vs.
general orthopedic bone repair
 Accept fewer, most robust early adopters
 Select more targeted geographies
 Burn less cash when sales force is more directed

35. The money
is also your customer
James Gutierrez, Principal
Red Eyed Moose Technologies

36. VistaLink Medical Communications
1996
• Designed to help international patients get referrals
to US medical centers
• Existing method was primarily ad-hoc referral
• Started in Houston
– MD Anderson Cancer Center
– Methodist Hospital System
– Univ. of Texas Health Science Center

37. 1998
• 12 US Medical Centers on board including:
Cedars Sinai, Ochsner, Fox Chase Cancer Center
• Functioning telemedicine system: video/voice
chat, shared whiteboard, secure image
storage/transmission, secure medical
database, physician database
• Presence in:
 Mexico City
 Dubai
 Abu Dhabi
 Buenos Aires
 Santiago

38. Looking for funding
• Proven technology, proven market
• Some revenue
• Needed to market and scale
• Lots of funding opportunities that didn't
progress
• They all were stuck on one question

39. How many hits do you get??

40. Vision
Reality Narrative

41. Homework
We provide the crayons

42. Customer Name Ingmar Insuranz
Description Middle manager at an insurance company
Joe’s
Customer This customer’s needs:
Reliability
How we (can) meet these needs:
24-hour customer service hotline
Detailed Reporting Industry -leading database
Expertise Leading claim adjusters in biz

43. Next Marketing Roundtable:
Advertising Isn’t Dead
April 9th, 2013
© Ann Arbor SPARK