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Sept. 27, 2004 – Do you ever wonder what public relations folks really think about every tool or technology they have to promote? Well, they’ll never tell. But you may gain insights — if not a free tip or two — from the small tech PR veterans below. Most received behind-the-scenes help from colleagues.
They ponder questions posed by Small Times’ Jeff Karoub on the challenges of the job and their clients’ biggest needs. The experts even delve into PR’s dark side, including bizarre requests (we’re not spared) and dumb questions (despite what it says in the customer service manual, the latter category exists). Consider the information below on the record and for immediate release.
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Industry veterans interviewed include Tom Breunig, principal, Nova Marketing Communications; Linda Capcara, group manager, Brodeur Worldwide; Melody Haller, president, Antenna Group Inc.; and Vivian Kelly, president, Interprose PR.
What are the top challenges representing these types of companies?
Breunig: Avoiding the stigma of “disruptive” technology. Even if the technology offers great benefits and seems compatible with today’s infrastructure, many potential customers (especially given the current economy) will hold back until they see it’s proven, manufacturable and cost-effective in large volumes.
Clients need to pay close attention to their corporate story and product positioning in order to offer more of a roadmap for customers rather than scary statements about replacement of existing technology. The latter can create a “silent opposition” among engineers whose livelihoods are tied to current techniques.
Capcara: These fall into a few categories:
1. “So, what’s PR?” Some clients don’t always have an informed view about how PR works, especially scientists without business experience. Some assume major business stories can easily happen for companies that have no products and no customers.
2. Boiling it down. Scientists aren’t always the most savvy when it comes to media skills and can sometimes be too forthcoming with information in interviews.
3. The hype patrol. Finding a balance between capitalizing on nanotech “buzz” and not over-hyping the company. Building true credibility for clients within target audiences.
4. Drinking the Kool Aid. Companies sometimes start believing their own hype. See Category 3.
Haller: This is not dotcom PR. Doing PR for emerging technology companies is tremendously complex. To even choose good clients, you have to understand how technologies become integrated into markets. You need to know the technology, its competitors, the venture investment process and public finance markets, how startups make deals with partners and customers, product design, integration and manufacturing.
Oh, and you have to know which journalists are interested in which aspects of this process, this week. And you have to have earned enough respect to get past their bozo filters. Small tech is even more complex because a nanotech platform company can expand into multiple vertical markets.
It is important to properly tune the tension between what small tech companies are actually producing today and how important they could be tomorrow. There is a lot of ignorance and misinformation that has to be respectfully counter-acted. No matter what we say, the financial market may do a tulip-mania thing again because humans do that.
A huge amount of knowledge and skill is required to communicate effectively in the midst of all this. Ironically, startup companies usually don’t want to pay very well for PR because they underestimate what is involved. That can make it difficult for an agency to retain the smartest people.
Kelly: Transitioning nanotech from the laboratory to a business environment can be challenging. The kind of individual with both the technological savvy and the business skills to capably lead and run such companies is not common. And those leaders must become spokespeople who can convey the benefits of their product to, most often, their customer’s customer. A lot of trust must exist between the company executives and its PR agency.
Initially, it was creating awareness outside of the deep-tech communities, helping various industries understand what tiny tech can do for them, how it can make their product faster, better, cheaper. Breaking through the hype of nanotechnology, and making sure their potential customers and media/analyst community understand that it’s not hype, it’s reality.
Customers of nanotech companies sometimes don’t want to publicize what’s in their secret sauce. At a time when the rubber is meeting the road for nanotech, being able to show actual applications is important.
What do they say is their biggest need? What do you perceive as their biggest need?
Breunig: Typically the companies with emerging technology say their biggest need is large partners with whom they can validate their technology commercially, preferably with the partner contributing significant amounts of NRE (non-recurring engineering) money for specific application development.
From our perspective, in looking at the startups and mid-size companies that we work with, the most frequent challenge is getting together a first-rate commercialization team that can engage in customer-driven marketing and strategic account selling while methodically moving past prototyping into manufacturability and volume.
Many MEMS companies have learned this the hard way since the bubble of 2000-2002, but there are still startups out there who are heavy with Ph.D.’s with little commercial experience.
Capcara: What they say: funding, products/product reliability, customers. What we say: customers, products/product reliability, funding.
Haller: Their biggest need is always to gain the attention of potential industry partners/customers, the large, established corporations. PR uses all kinds of media to help the client open its customers’ doors and shorten the sales cycle by creating familiarity in the minds of multiple people in the buy-decision chain.
Secondarily, they may need investment at various points in the company’s life cycle.
Kelly: They say their biggest need is financial stability and customers! We think their biggest need is the same, so it’s critical to integrate their sales, marketing and PR efforts to raise visibility for the company among investors, customers and strategic partners.
All of the planets are coming into alignment for tiny tech — the global economy is good or improving, awareness and understanding is increasing, the early adopters are coming on board, but we’re still not over the hump yet.
Success stories of real, large-volume manufacture and deployments of nanotech into real products are what will set this house afire.
What’s the most bizarre request you’ve received from the media?
Breunig: This one. We tend to operate behind the scenes to keep the focus on the client.
Capcara: Some of our colleagues and clients have been asked (mainly by broadcast journalists) to exaggerate their nanotech angle/relevance to better fit the angle of the journalists’ story. Also, the “grey goo” and other nanotech paranoia questions can get interesting.
Haller: We once received a call from a journalist who, without any background knowledge or research, was just starting to write an article about one of our nanotech clients. His deadline was in three hours.
Kelly: An organization that will, of course, not be named suggested that a nanotech company do a product demo. There are so many things you just cannot say in a situation like that, including, “First, you get out your teeny, tiny tweezers…”
Of course there’s no such thing as a dumb question, but: What’s the dumbest question you’ve asked a client? What’s the dumbest question you’ve been asked by one (this could be a former client or one that never got past the interview stage)?
Breunig: This probably needs to be rephrased to “what dumb question haven’t I asked yet?” I try to ask all the questions I can in order to get a better sense of a company, its true strengths and weaknesses, its track record, and how it is perceived in the marketplace.
But if you want to nail me down, I’d say it’s when I was visiting a French client and asked for a decaf espresso. I’ve never received a more astounded look.
The strangest request we’ve received is from a client who had just received a significant infusion of venture funding but asked if they could “go dark” for several months to create more uncertainty among potential competitors.
Capcara: Not necessarily a “dumb question,” but I think there’s a slight misconception (across PR, media, and sometimes clients) of seeing nanotech as an industry, which can be deceptive. Nanotech companies are still working within traditional industries (biotech, manufacturing, etc.). On the PR side, while I’m sure there have been plenty of “dumb” questions (that’s part of the learning process, right?), nothing is coming to mind.
Haller: We’re supposed to ask our clients the dumb questions so they are prepared when the media asks them. As for the second part, I think client confidentiality applies!
Kelly: The “dumbest” question was perhaps the most wishful question we’ve received. It was something along the lines of “can you give me a fully faceted PR program for $3,000 a month?”
In a moment like that, you may either be dealing with a company that simply can’t afford a PR agency yet or perhaps one that doesn’t understand the value of PR. Either way, we stay friends because you never know.
Nanotech by default is a very technical subject and our customers are at ease talking at a technical level. We have to ask seemingly dumb questions when preparing our spokespeople for interviews with business reporters who are not interested in or don’t need to know the intricate details of the product, but instead want to explore how nanotechnology will impact their readers’ lives or its investment potential.