Slider and Associates: Winning Strategies

Winning Strategies
Cost-Effective Results

Goal - Create awareness and brand identity for start-up CenterBoard in a new technology space. Establish presence among data warehouse professionals within the enterprise as well as Systems Integrators and generate sales leads.

Challenges

Educate the market about the new Virtual ODS as a key component of a BI strategy
Demonstrate CenterBoard is viable even though it is a start-up with no customer references

Strategy

Stage integrated marketing campaigns to take advantage of short-term BI opportunities and promote long-term Virtual ODS education
Leverage well-known industry guru Bill Inmon to validate the Virtual ODS concept and CenterBoard as the leading provider

Cost-Effective Results

Started the Virtual ODS Buzz

Analyst and press briefings with leading analyst organizations and press

Launched company at key TDWI trade show with Corporate Information Factory poster, new trade show booth, successful influence dinner
Generated enterprise leads across wide numbers of industries through key Webcast and partnering with the B-EYE-Network and Inmon and Associates
Gained credibility within marketplace, including Systems Integrators
Launch press coverage included:

B-EYE-Network – CEO interview with well-known analyst Claudia Imhoff
B-EYE-Network – The CIF Evolution by Bill Inmon
Business Intelligence Pipeline - CenterBoard Debuts Network-Based Data Integration Tool – Ted Kemp
CRN – CEO interview with Editor-in-Chief Michael Vizard
CRN – CenterBoard Offering Will Virtualize Data
Data Warehouse – CenterBoard Launches CenterPoint Partner Program
DM Review – CenterBoard Unveils Network-Based Virtual ODS
The 451Group – CenterBoard emerges from stealth to offer integration package with a network slant by Krishna Roy

Goal - Establish credibility for the emerging Voice over DSL market and position CopperCom as one of its leaders.

Challenges

Voice over DSL was a new, unknown, technology
CopperCom needed to launch the company prior to having a product and customers because of the competitive landscape
The marketing budget was tight - typical start-up situation

Strategy - Focus on an integrated market education program

Cost-Effective Results - Initial company launch into new market: 6-month program

Analyst Briefings: 65
Press Briefings: 38
Press coverage: 131 combined print and online clips
Business press highlights: Business Week, Forbes, San Jose Mercury News, Upside, Wall Street Journal
Speaking engagements placed: 13
45% unaided awareness for CopperCom among key target audiences

"Susan Lider and her team were instrumental in the successful launch of CopperCom. Her team's strategic insights and implementation of a comprehensive PR program enabled CopperCom to establish a leadership position in a brand new market."
- Jennifer Stagnaro, Chief Marketing Officer at CopperCom

Goal - Create awareness of Norwood Systems, a United Kingdom based company, in the United States as the market leader in system connectivity software for short-range, wireless office networks for voice and data.

Challenges

Had only three weeks to do initial company/product launch at Comnet trade show
There were no beta customer references

Strategy - Create market awareness by meeting with key analysts and press prior to and at ComNet.

Cost-Effective Results - Initial company/product launch into new market

Analyst briefings: 12
Press briefings: 23
Press coverage: 15 combined print and online clips during week of Comnet and two in following weeks
Grand Prize Winner of the ComNet 2001 Most Innovative New Product Award and also recipient of the Most Innovative Product Achievement Award in the Wireless Category
Among the press coverage was an entire column by the editor-in-chief of Network World devoted to Norwood

Network World - February 12, 2001
Start-up wants to network Bluetooth wireless PANs

by John Dix, Editor-in-Chief

Although some skeptics question whether the Bluetooth movement will ever succeed, the company that took home the ComNet 2001 most innovative product award two weeks ago is banking on that success.

Norwood Systems is a U.K. start-up developing software that will do for Bluetooth personal-area networks (PAN) what Novell did for departmental LAN islands - stitch them together into cohesive enterprise networks.

Goal - Get visibility for the Network Processing Forum, a new technology consortium focusing on accelerating the development of next-generation networking and telecommunications products.

Challenges

Establish visibility with credibility for one amongst a plethora of technology forums
Work with a large group of companies, some of which are competitors, to achieve common goals
The marketing budget was tight - typical of a non-profit organization

Strategy - Focus on an integrated market education program.

Cost Effective Results - Initial launch and ongoing programs

Successfully bartered for free booth space at key industry conferences and managed all trade show involvement including contracts, signage, staffing and set-up.
Established relationships with key analysts and press
Garnered press coverage for all major announcements and placed contributed articles in key publications.

Highlights: Linley Group reports and newsletters, EE Times, EDN, Electronic Design, Netronics, ICD, EBN

Half-day tutorial at Communications Design Conference to educate electronic design engineers about network processing.

"Slider & Associates has done a great job getting visibility for the Network Processing Forum, which has helped us grow our membership significantly. The Slider team drove the development of relationships with all key analysts and press in our industry, resulting in broad, positive coverage of the NP Forum."
- Chuck Sannipoli, Chairman of the Network Processing Forum

Goal - Create awareness of Power X Networks as a leader in providing intelligent switch fabrics for data and telecom network equipment.

Challenges

UK - based company needed strong visibility in the US
Garner press/analyst coverage with sporadic news and no customers
The marketing budget was tight - typical start-up situation

Strategy - Establish relationships with the most influential press and analysts in this segment of the semiconductor industry.

Cost-Effective Results - Ongoing press/analyst and speaker programs

Won Communication Systems Design prestigious Comet award
Established relationships with key analysts and press
Garnered press coverage for all major announcements and placed contributed articles in key publications.

Highlights: Linley Group reports and newsletters, EE Times, EDN, Electronic Design, EBN

Speaking engagements at important industry conferences including Communications Design Conference and Network Processors Conference.

"When seeking a communications firm, we were looking for a group that had in-depth experience in the semiconductor industry. We found what we were looking for with the Slider team. The outstanding exposure that Slider & Associates has been able to generate for us with key analysts and industry press has proven to be our most powerful marketing tool."
- Dan Holden, Director of Marketing at Power X Networks

Goal - Leverage Remedy's stellar reputation in the help desk arena and become known as a leader in automating the workplace with superior software for non-production purchasing and new employee setup.

Challenges

Expand beyond Remedy's current strong branding as the "Help Desk" company.
Although Remedy help desk software was in the majority of Fortune 500 companies, the new employee workplace automation products had different purchasers and users than the help desk products.
Support overall Remedy corporate communications objectives in relation to analysts, press, customers, investors, partners and employees.

Strategy - Begin awareness campaign with the most influential analysts in the employee workplace automation arena as well as with Remedy's investment community.

Cost-Effective Results - Initial analyst tour and IR events

Successful analyst tour paved way for getting story out to industry
Investors pleased with addition to Remedy's software offerings

"Slider & Associates is a team of seasoned marketing and PR professionals who provide a level of expertise and quality of service that supersedes any PR firm I've worked with before."
- Elaine Therrien, Product Line Manager at Remedy Corporation

Goal – Re-Brand Shoreline as ShoreTel and create awareness of its newly updated VoIP system with new, sophisticated family of IP phones

Challenges

Compete with large, established companies: Cisco, Avaya, Nortel
Demonstrate ShoreTel is viable even though it is a small company with a small market share

Strategy

Reach target audiences through press and analysts - communicate directly with these influencers via a press/analyst tour
Educate channel partners about announcement prior to launch
Establish buzz at N+I by exhibiting in partner’s booth, two speaking engagements and evening hospitality suite with demo of new phones

Cost-Effective Results

ShoreTel talked to more than 33 industry influencers

19 press
14 analyst firms

“ShoreTel” brand was very well accepted by both the press and analyst communities
New phones and company image created enthusiasm for ShoreTel in the market
Major online news coverage in Communications Convergence, CommWeb, CRN, Current Analysis, eWeek, Network World, Network World on Convergence newsletter (2 consecutive issues), Telecom Tactics, The 451, VAR Business, VoIP News
Print coverage included: CRN, Communications Convergence, eWeek, Network World, Telecom Tactics, VAR Business

Network World, April 26, 2004
Shoreline Becomes ShoreTel, Pumps Up VoIP

On the product front, Elizabeth Herrell, an analyst with Forrester Research, says the ShoreTel equipment offers a good alternative to the big name VoIP players – 3Com, Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco, Nortel and Siemens…Their stuff is easy to deploy and manage, and doesn’t have a single point of failure because of its distributed model, she says. “They’ve built a small but loyal following with these products.

Goal

Create awareness and brand identity as the company Extending the Possibilities in the semiconductor industry
Position Stretch as an emerging and credible leader in the processor marketplace that is delivering a new and flexible way to design semiconductor applications with higher performance and reduced time-to-market

Challenges

Differentiate its products from those offered by its competition while not being defined as part of the reconfigurable market
Garner press/analyst coverage with no customer references

Strategy – Establish relationships with the most influential press and analysts in this segment of the semiconductor industry

Cost-Effective Results

Established relationships with key analysts and press
Garnered press coverage for launch news and placed contributed articles in key publications
Stretch Selected Hot Start-Up of the Quarter by Semiconductor Times
Additional Highlights: Linley Group & In-Stat MDR reports and newsletters, EE Times, EDN, Electronic Design, Electronic Business, ECN,C/NET, Semiconductor Times, The Mercury News

“Sometimes the best inventions come from taking two familiar things and combining them in a new way. Stretch has done just that with its new software-configurable processor chip. It takes FPGAs and user-configurable processors, both of which have been around for years, and combines them in a truly new product. It's as simple or as powerful as customers want it to be.”
- Jim Turley, Editor & Principal Analyst, Silicon Insider

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