Communicate your Message – Alphameric
With over 25 years of experience, this UK public company achieved roughly $120 million in revenue in 2003. Currently, they are seeking growth by expanding their market geography to include the US. In support of that effort, they are using a variety of means to communicate their message.
Alphameric provides hardware and software solutions for Point of Sale systems. They are a Certified Microsoft solution provider and have an IBM distribution agreement. Although they are the dominant market player in the UK, their US target market is tier two and tier three retailers with less than 1000 retail outlets.
Melissa de la Rama, Manager of Sales & Marketing at Alphameric, predicts it will require two years of investment prior to achieving critical visibility in the US market. To achieve that visibility, Alphameric is using a broad marketing mix. At the budgetary level, their expenditures are distributed with 30% on Events, 25% on Public Relations, 20% on Advertising, 20% on Direct Mail and Email Newsletters, and 5% on their Web presence.
- The event marketing aspect focuses on positioning Alphameric as experts in the field. They focus on getting their experts in front of senior decision makers through panel discussions and speaking engagements. (As a side note, their booth at the Retail Systems conference also included an Austin Powers look-a-like to pose for photograph with prospects and collect their business cards.)
- The public relations dimension of Alphameric marketing creates case studies and articles concerning the strength of their solutions and depth of their expertise.
- Advertising is done to create general awareness. Ms. de la Rama stated “[We] have to do it because people don’t know us well in the US.” They advertise in targeted trade publications focused on retailers and retail technology.
- Direct mail is usually conducted in relation to a campaign. For instance, when Alphameric has an upcoming event, they mail prospects to announce the event, host the event, then follow up with a sales call.
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