IP Marketing Is an Iterative Process: Developing the Marketing Plan

An effective, iterative IP marketing process should include a well-conceived plan that focuses on delivering an acceptable return on your resource investments. Your plan should be more of a “living,” outline-level guide than a voluminous document that you rarely revisit. An effective marketing plan can be developed with the following steps:

1. Meet with the inventor to ensure that you have a solid understanding of the current state of the technology and to confirm the inventor’s willingness and availability to support the marketing effort.
2. Write an “elevator pitch” or clear, concise, and compelling technology marketing description that will capture the attention and interest of your target audience.
3. Determine the optimal approach to showcase your technology in a cost-effective manner.
4. Develop a technical specifications sheet consistent with industry standards for the technology based on the market research in the technology assessment and when you validated your “go” decision.
5. Identify the suitable promotional materials and methods to support your marketing plan. Refining your specific promotional plan to the norms of your target market can be considerably more effective than a “one size fits all” approach.
6. Establish a method to package and distribute the technology to licensees. It is typically less resource intensive to define your approach early in the marketing process as opposed to being reactive after you have executed your first licensing agreement.
7. Schedule checkpoints with the key stakeholders to confirm and validate your plans along with your resource and schedule estimates.

Developing a thoughtful marketing plan will save your organization considerable time and money and should produce a greater number of successful outcomes in the form of licenses per resources invested.

Are there additional steps you take in developing a marketing plan?