When and how to blend public relations into a successful marketing campaign Whether it's at a formal conference or over a beer after work, high-tech execs continually ask the same three kinds of questions about their marketing programs. Here's what they're wondering, and some insights on how to proceed. Should we invest in public relations or advertising? You should always fund your PR program to the point of diminishing returns -- that is, to the point where you've saturated the third-party press and associated PR channels. Only at that point should you invest in other marketing media. That's because all tech buyers are to some degree "techno-phobic," according to Orange County marketing pro Chip Shafer. Knowing that innovation implies risk, they yearn for reassurance that they've purchased a safe product or service. They get it from third-party validation of what to buy and when to buy it. The following graph shows the third parties that must believe in your offerings -- six distinct audiences that must be convinced of your product claims before you can hope to sell to customers effectively. To build this "infrastructure of credibility," a number of messages must be conveyed. (1) You have a robust, competitive product. (2) You have seasoned, expert management. (3) You have a sound business plan. (4) You are adequately funded to survive the vagaries of the market. (5) Your product line has a definable upgrade path. (6) You have the requisite partners and channels to succeed. When these positive messages begin to cross-pollinate between audiences, a beehive effect comes into play. A resonance of excitement rises. There is a distinct buzz on the street -- one that the final arbiters of good taste, the editors and analysts, are keenly attuned to. This only can be accomplished through PR. Now take a moment to turn the graph to the side, and you'll note that the inverted pyramid's very foundation is the company execs and employees. These people are your earliest product champions. They must truly believe in your offering. Take the time to educate and inspire your own people, and you can leverage that all the way to the bank. How should we brand? Have you ever noticed that, while most consumer brands come from a "house of brands" such as Seagram's, Proctor & Gamble, General Motors, the best tech brands come from strongly "branded houses" -- like Microsoft, IBM and Intel? That's because, again, the fundamental nature of technology is innovation and risk. To counter technophobic anxiety, you must build a brand that reassures and comforts, that is safe. Since tech buyers want to know who stands behind the products they purchase, they essentially buy the company as much or more than the product. The fact is, all successful tech brands are primarily about building safety and comfort. Consider the old mainframe truism that "No one ever got fired for buying IBM." The opposite, of course, is equally true. If the company's reputation is questionable, product sales will dwindle no matter how robust or wonderful the product is. Ask yourself: Would you feel safe standardizing your company on Apple today? One of the best ways to brand your company is to get your CEO into the public eye. Since a company's leader truly personifies the house, nothing can represent the brand better than a highly visible, highly credible and highly determined CEO. In the tech industry, this fact is embodied by Gates, Grove, McNeally and Ellison. In our own backyard, Irwin Jacobs personifies the hugely expansive Qualcomm culture. High-tech is about vision, and we seem to take great comfort in knowing the visionaries. (Can you name the CEO of DuPont or Volkswagen?) Are there any special pit-falls to watch out for in tech marketing? Yes, a rather huge one. And where you'd least expect it: right after your gratifying early successes. This is the infamous chasm that most high-tech companies fall into when attempting to leap from early success to broader, larger markets (known as the "early majority"). According to "Crossing the Chasm" author Geoffrey Moore, the chasm is actually a huge credibility gap that exists about a third of the way through the classic bell curve of buyer-type distribution. It's located smack dab between the "early adopter" buyers on the left, and the much larger number of "pragmatist" buyers on the right. And for good reason. In every other area of the bell curve, the buyers on the left can be used as reference accounts for the buyers just to the right of them. But not at the chasm. The fellows on the left, the visionaries, are a different sort than the pragmatists. Visionaries want discontinuity -- they want a product that provides a distinctly new way of doing something. The last thing the pragmatists on the right want, however, is to make a quantum leap forward. They'd prefer a percentage improvement, a refinement. Evolution, not revolution. Pragmatists don't listen to early adopters, whom they distrust. They look to other pragmatists as purchasing references. So to successfully leap the chasm, you must pick a highly focused beachhead, a niche "early majority" market segment that you can successfully penetrate and own. This assures you of a large number of solid reference accounts that you can then use to hopscotch your way into other niche markets. Another strategic move to help assure you traverse the chasm is called whole product marketing. It is not enough to ship your product. To succeed, you must ensure that the technology platform is sufficiently mature to offer standards and procedures; that third parties write supporting software; that still other vendors are standing by with training and support; that system integrators are available to debug and integrate your offering to interface with the larger picture. And you must put as much of this as you possibly can in your box. If you don't take whole product solutions into account -- if your customers can't easily plug-and-play your product -- you'll doubtless be shipping far less product very soon. To summarize: Invest heavily in PR to raise awareness and build goodwill. Brand your company, ideally through your CEO. Then focus tightly on providing whole solutions to niche markets. Done properly, these programs can springboard you over the abyss. Gregory McQuerter, CEO of the McQUERTER Group, has been providing marketing support to San Diego's top high-techs for more than a decade.