Underdog marketing can trump the big dogs

October 1, 2004

BY MICHAEL KRAUSS

Ever have one of those days? Your computer crashes? No access to e-mail? You can't connect to the network?

At my house, the network administrator went off to college. I hope he's studying and not playing online computer games. Trouble is, he's the only one who understands the gear that connects my computer to the Internet. Why can't networking equipment be plug-and-play? Why doesn't it all work seamlessly?

If Christine Heckart, vice president of marketing at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper Networks Inc. has her way, someday all the routers, hubs and network connectivity devices--the behind-the-scenes equipment that moves digital information--will use a common set of open standards.

The result will be lower operating costs and reduced complexity in managing tomorrow's global communications infrastructure. It will make that infrastructure more secure and reliable while opening doors for new applications. It might even make Heckart famous.

Juniper sells equipment to all 25 of the world's 25 largest communications service providers, companies such as British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Orange, Korea Telecom, Verizon, and SBC. Their customers reside in 47 countries, and they support more than 600 networks.

Those companies are investing in what might be called the communications triple play--an ambitious integration of telephone, television and Internet traffic delivered over a single home broadband connection. They're spending big bucks to enhance their communications networks. After a long dry spell, it's a good time to be a marketer in the telecom equipment business.

At Supercomm, an annual conference for communications service providers and private network managers, SBC Communications Inc. CEO, Ed Whitacre Jr., announced $6 billion in network investments. British Telecom described up to $5 billion in upgrades. Time Warner media group Chairman Don Logan said the cable TV industry is finishing an $85 billion spending program. Microsoft touted new software to support Internet TV.

That's great news for Juniper's Heckart. With big dollars at stake, she and CEO Scott Kriens are constantly on the go. Heckart counts on Kriens to motivate the sales force. She was nervous when he made a last-minute decision to participate by videoconference in a recent Hong Kong sales meeting. There was a lot at stake.

Heckart had three concerns: The connection needed to be secure, it had to be high quality, and it had to be reliable. She took a deep breath and arranged for a video link over the public network--the same network over which your e-mail travels.

"We were saving three days of Scott's time and a $5,000 business-class ticket. We would have been willing to pay for the 30-minute (private) link. The truth is you can't," Heckart says, "so we did it over the Internet."

Heckart says the link went down three minutes into Kriens' presentation. Two minutes later it mysteriously returned. Things went well most of the time. Kriens' face would freeze once in a while. "There would be a little blip on his face. He grew a black pimple because a pixel didn't come through," she says. The meeting succeeded, but it gave Heckart a practical example of what's possible through IP technology and the potential flaws.

Juniper wants to take the best attributes of private networking--security, quality and reliability--and marry them with the best aspects of public networking, its ubiquity and positive economics.

The answer is a set of open standards among the equipment and service providers. Last October, Juniper asked for industry collaboration to create those standards at Telecom Geneva, a quadrennial industry conclave. Juniper calls it the Infranet initiative.

While Heckart says Juniper's Infranet initiative is about industry leadership and customer service, it's also smart marketing. Juniper is playing Avis to the category's Hertz--San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems Inc.

"We are No. 2," Heckart says. "We knew that No. 1 (Cisco) didn't have the same belief in open standards and cooperation. If we didn't do it, we didn't think anyone would."

Call me crazy, but I like the underdog role. Marketing a No. 2 brand is a challenge. Guiding the category leader is like steering an aircraft carrier.

Consider Juniper's advertising effort. On Tuesdays in The Wall Street Journal, you'll find a small, 4-½-inch-by-7-inch cartoon that's a cross between Far Side and Dilbert. Heckart launched the campaign in April 2003. The program is a model of creativity, efficiency and impact.

When Juniper's campaign kicked off, category leader Cisco announced a $150 million branding campaign. Heckart simply can't match Cisco's cash. "I had $1.5 million. They were outspending us 100 to one," Heckart says. "We could either be in a couple of small publications or put everything against the Journal. We decided, 'location, location, location,' " she says. "We'd get the best available space in the Journal and lock it down. Every Tuesday we run a fresh cartoon."

During one of the first weeks of the campaign, Cisco ran a two-page spread the same day Juniper ran its cartoon. Heckart estimates Cisco's ad cost $170,000. Her cartoon ad cost $17,000.

The Wall Street Journal conducted a Roper Starch readership study in that edition. The results were impressive. "Cisco ended up 17th overall in the readership survey, which is not bad. It's hard to get in the top 10," Heckart says. "Juniper's ad ended up third on a tenth of the spend." That's powerful underdog marketing.

Heckart told me one more secret imperfection of the Internet: If you're an online computer game player, your proximity to the server may be an advantage.

"Korea Telecom is one of our top customers," Heckart says. "They're the biggest in real-time online gaming. They use our network to do that. Gamers from all around the world play, and there is no consistent quality. If I shoot first, I might not win the game if you are closer to the server."

Don't tell my collegiate network administrator. He might decide to switch dorms to get closer to the server.

Michael Krauss is a partner with Marion Consulting Partners based in Highland Park, Ill., and can be reached at Michael.Krauss@Marionpartners.com or news@ama.org.