WHO’S THE “BOSS” (OR CUSTOMER)

For years, I’ve been giving presentations on marketing in general, and specifically the characteristics of Homeland Security systems which are very unique and complex.  I just heard a presentation on international marketing by Mr. Lova Drori, using the same example I usually use – so I’d like to share it with you.

The example I usually used was of an old TV sitcom called “Who’s the Boss” with Tony Danza, Judith Light, Alyssa Milano and others. The story was about Angela, a single mother, an advertising executive who gave seminars on advertising. Tony was her housekeeper and took the advertising seminar which she gave. He was asked to make a commercial about washing powder, and did a scene of two women mud-wrestling. All the man in the group loved it – but after he got “F”, only than did he understood that he had forgotten who the real customer/buyer/”decision maker” of the product was – the house wives, which appreciate mud-wrestling less than their husbands ….

In HLS marketing we have different customers, depends where we are in the “food chain”, but rarely the stake-holder is the end-user (!!!).

In the defense market the distinction is more clear-cut – the real budgets and stake-holders are usually the government officials and politicians in office.

In the HLS market it’s less obvious – but many times it’s similar to the defense markets – with verticals like cyber, border security, Crisis management systems, national control centers, public transportation security and more.

After we identify the stake-holders (“Constructive”), we have to identify the people that have the power to damage our sale from objective reasons (“Destructive”) – technical people, procurement, end-users and more. We have to give these people full respect and attention, while focusing on the real stake-holders we had identified.
Good Luck

Avi Yariv, CEO

Bungee Int’l Projects (BIP) Ltd.