Creating an Original Start-up
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by: William Dupree
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When I was working as a senior marketing manager I was able to secure a contract to assist a start-up African American Book Publishing company with developing a marketing and branding plan for their firm. The 3 partners wanted to create a publishing company that would bring quality African American books and educational materials to schools, organizations, faculty members, and all homes. In this current situation there was no one company that was solely providing this type of service to the African American Community.
I met with the principals owners of the firm to discuss there new venture. The partners wanted to publish books first and distribute second. I did not feel that this would be a good business strategy for wanted they wanted to accomplish. It would be more beneficial to them to put the company emphasis on being a book distributor first and a publisher second. I was able to persuade the group of owners by showing how this would make it easier to fulfill the orders of the client base that they were looking to pursue.
I created a plan that would have the company distribute to book stores, schools, and faculty members. The company would be branded for its books on the African American way of life. The company would have an information system online and an 800 phone number to give information and support to organizations and individuals in many different categories of the African American experience. The company would sell its books in selected bookstores, online, and through a mail order catalogue and distribute other African American books to target markets.
Direct mail and sales representatives would be used to sell to book stores, schools, organization and faculty members. The company would provide special pricing to them for bulk order purchases. The sales representatives would also gather information from their clients and potential clients to be used as a source of information on what books the company should look to purchase and package. They would also use this information to determine what books to publish.
The company will provide a collaborative support system with the development of all of the books that they will publish. This support system will also be used for their acquisition program that they will use to attract authors, organizations, and other institutions to have the company produce and publish their work. I created a plan that would allow the firm to accomplish these tasks in less time and financial expenditures that the principal’s owners had originally thought.
I also developed an integrated marketing system so the firm would present a consistent face to their customers. This also allowed all the different divisions to work as one creating a smooth, efficient, and cost-effective marketing system that the firm could follow with confidence.
The start-up marketing plan turned out to be a huge success creating gross revenues 40% higher than what was expected in its first year of business. The company also gained more contracts with schools, organizations, and faculty members than what was expected. Today the successful publishing company is providing a very positive service to the community.
About the Author
William F Dupree was the owner of IMPS (Interactive Marketing & Promotional Solutions Inc.) a sole proprietorship marketing firm located in New York City that specialized in developing interactive marketing, promotional and branding strategies for primarily publishing and publishing related businesses. Prior to founding IMPS in 2005 Mr. Dupree was a senior marketing manager at EDL Business Development Group for seven years. Before joining EDL he worked for Diamond Marketing Group where he developing sales strategies, branding, product planning, event planning, and created interactive marketing strategies for an assortment of businesses. William Dupree can be contacted at http://www.linkedin.com/in/wlliamdupree
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