At TREW Marketing, each of us on the Crew brings professional experience, specific areas of expertise, and plenty of character. As the resident newbie, I’ve been asked to share a little bit about myself, my background, passions, and marketing knowledge. I’m proud to be part of the growing, collaborative, and talented group of marketing professionals here at TREW.

Lee Chapman, Senior Account Manager

Where are you from originally?

The short version is that I’m from Austin, TX, but I was born in Port Arthur, TX. My father’s job with Texaco moved us around quite a bit: four times in fact. For most of my childhood we were in Houston, TX, but we lived in Westport, CT, Port Neches, TX, and Fairfax, VA. I graduated high school in Houston, and then finally settled in Austin for college and my career. My family hails from Mississippi on both sides for six generations, so I do make a mean gumbo!

What university did you go to?

I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in Public Relations. The hills, lakes, and Longhorn football, have kept me in Austin ever since! Hook ‘Em Horns!

What are your passions?

My biggest passion is my family. My husband John and I have two children, Emily 13, and Noah 9. Together we enjoy sporting and community events and we all love to float the Comal River in New Braunfels, Texas. Additionally, I am passionate about giving back to the Austin community that has given me so much. This year I’m serving as board chair of Green Doors, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to end homelessness by providing affordable housing and services in the Central Texas area.  I also enjoy volunteering as a robotics mentor at my son’s elementary school.

What is your proudest accomplishment thus far?

In my personal life, it’s of course my two children. I learn something new from them everyday and I hope I teach them something in return.

In my professional life, I would have to say it was managing a team that designed and developed a new global home page for ni.com in nine languages. The team had challenging design constraints to consider including how dual-byte characters in Asian languages would render on localized versions of the page; how to integrate with other web systems that published content to the site, which then totaled hundred of thousands of pages; and to present multiple concepts, and gain consensus across the global marketing organization. The project exceeded expectations, and improved the customer experience of users in other countries by providing home page content in nine local languages.

What strengths do you bring to TREW Marketing?

Besides my mean gumbo? I bring a diverse marketing background, spanning 20 years across the technology, government, and nonprofit sectors with deep focus in the areas of project and marketing management, content and collateral, web, and brand consistency. Additionally, I’m a word-nerd and love editing projects, creating taglines, and product naming.

In your opinion, what was the most successful marketing campaign you have worked on and why?

The most successful campaign I worked on was leading a cross-functional marketing team that drove the transition of National Instruments’ 800-page, printed catalog, to a 48-page product guide saving over $600K in annual cost savings and funding investments to improve the online eCommerce experience. Streamlining the overall content process and focusing on the web for product information ultimately lead to an improved customer experience with real-time product updates, pricing, and specifications in eight languages.

What advice do you have for future marketers?

My best advice is to listen to your clients more than you speak, and to hone your storytelling skills. Also, go old school and use a whiteboard instead of PowerPoint, you’ll have more impact on your audience.

Describe yourself in three words…

Organized, Creative, Efficient

To learn more about our TREW Crewers visit our team page.

Looking for additional insight? Check out our guide: Smart Marketing for Engineers

Q4 Technical Trade Shows & Conferences:

• Aero Engineering 2011, Nov. 9-10
• Automotive Testing Expo 2011, Oct. 25-27
• IP Expo 2011, Oct. 19-20
• International Time & Synchronisation in Telecoms (ITSF) 2011, Nov. 1-3
• Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) Minneapolis 2011, Nov. 1-3
• NI Technical Symposium (NITS) 2011, Oct. 18-Dec. 8
• Productronica 2011, Nov. 15-18

Face-to-face marketing such as trade shows and seminars are a powerful way to personify your brand, capture leads, and grow customer excitement and loyalty. With that said, they can be expensive, so it is critical to have a clear strategy and well-defined objectives to measure your return on investment.

Before anything else, set your trade show objectives prior to creating marketing activities. Example objectives to discuss with your team are:

• Number, profile of leads
• Speaking engagements
• Press meetings
• Key prospect/customer meetings
• Competitive analysis
• Partner co-marketing

1. Create one page flyers detailing your product features, key applications, and benefits. An example product flyer TREW designed for Cyth Systems Circaflex can be seen here.
2. Create presentation slides to succinctly introduce your product to customers, partners, and press. Start with your core slide deck, and customize it for the specific audience attending the trade show.
3. Develop compelling customer testimonials for use in booth, online, and in partner sales and marketing meetings.
4. Use a well-timed PR launch to spread your message. To see a recent example of a hugely successful launch for TREW client, Wineman Technology, that received coverage in print, in video, in the conference keynote, and across the web, click here.
5. Follow up with leads after the event, as soon as possible after their interaction with you while your company, product or service is still fresh in their minds. The more timely they hear from you following an action they took with your company (visiting a booth, downloading a white paper or watching a video on your website, etc), the better chance they will further engage, and thus move closer to a sale.

For more helpful tips on how to make every dollar of your marketing investment count, download our free guide, “Smart Marketing for Engineers” a practical guide to grow awareness and generate demand in technical markets.

Looking for additional insight? Check out our guide: Smart Marketing for Engineers

Your brand is your company’s control center, or what we like at TREW to call “the brain”. It is the collective set of experiences over many years that shape who your company is and its unique value proposition. In marketing terms, your brand is personified both visually – through your company logo and branding styleguide – and contextually – through words, such as your mission, vision, and positioning statements; core company and product-level messaging; and company and campaign taglines.

With a smart, creative approach, TREW Marketing brings years of experience helping companies shape their brand and identity with a service we call the Branding Brain. Below are elements illustrating our approach and Branding Brain success with three client examples – The Hogg Foundation, Starmount Systems, and Alfamation.

To Develop the Brain, First Know the Heart

To position a company, both visually and contextually, it’s important to first know about the company’s heart. What is the company and its team uniquely passionate about and capable of delivering that no other company can? This requires a lot of listening – in person, via research, and persistent studying.

For The Hogg Foundation, TREW conducted an in-depth market research project, focused on internal leadership and staff, as well as external groups of stakeholders and consumers.

Market research included:

• 21 hours of qualitative in-person interviews with all staff
• Over 800 external quantitative online surveys
• Research analysis and findings

Following this market research, TREW Marketing gained honest stakeholder insights that led to recommendations for branding, messaging, and communications.

Starmount, a retail software solutions provider was undergoing an entire brand redesign, and partnered with TREW to develop core branding elements, including mission, vision and positioning statements; tagline concepts; and company and product-level core messaging. The TREW team worked closely with company business, technical and marketing leadership and conducted qualitative competitive analysis over several months to understand Starmount’s unique value proposition in a highly competitive retail software marketplace.

Alfamation, a test and measurement solutions provider, selected TREW to manage their rebranding efforts by crafting their “brain,” including company logo and brand guidelines; product logo creation; creative guidance for software, hardware packaging; core company and product level positioning and messaging; and mission statement and tagline. TREW began this process by interviewing company business and sales leaders and key partners as well as studying the competitive landscape and market opportunities.

Listen Actively and Patiently

Choosing words in branding statements is a slow, methodical, creative and patient process. For the Hogg Foundation, through our deliberate process, a key vision crystallized – to move from speaking about mental illness or recovery, to the more progressive, all-encompassing term, mental wellness. It was also important to emphasize their mission’s focus in the state of Texas, while being mindful of their strong awareness and influence nationally.

Through much research and group discussions, TREW developed the following mission and vision statements for the foundation:

Mission: The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health advances mental wellness of the people of Texas as an impactful grantmaker and catalyst for change

Vision: The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health will invest our knowledge and resources to move Texas forward in achieving mental wellness

Although Starmount serves a completely different market place of retail Chief Information Officers (CIO) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) at large retailers such as Urban Outfitters or Home Depot, getting to their unique value proposition and company positioning followed a similar process: rolling up our sleeves, listening and asking many, many questions, to ultimately get to the Starmount heart.

Out of this process and a collective understanding of Starmount’s unique software products and services and very talented and experienced team of retail software developers, we were then able to develop the brain, including the following mission and vision statements:

Mission: “Starmount software brings the power of online retail to create relevant, engaging in-store shopping experiences”

Vision: “To transform the in-person shopping experience and make retail stores relevant”

For Alfamation, the TREW team sought to capture their passion and scientific knowledge for creating out-of-the-box products and services for design, test, and manufacturing engineers and managers in the automotive, consumer electronics, telecom, and medical industries. It was important for the mission, tagline, and logo to convey their innovative culture and present the company’s broad family of software and hardware products to customers globally. Through our same deliberative process, we developed their brain, including these elements:

Mission: “We leverage our scientific passion and knowledge to imagine and create new ways to engineer functional test systems”

Tagline: “Imagine a better test solution”

Live Your Brand – Everyday. Everyway.

Building off the core ”brain” elements, The Hogg Foundation and TREW created and prioritized organizational goals, core values, and made their branding elements visible at all touch points in the organization through activities that included:

• 4 organizational goals and detailed recommendations
• Re-designed website with robust content management system and clear navigation
• E-newsletter template extending the web design brand experience
• Established core values embraced by The Hogg Foundation’s internal and external audiences

Starmount’s “brain” came to life with a custom, integrated 12 –month marketing strategy and activity plan, resulting in:

• Communications Brain used as messaging guide for primary company and product communication
• Consistency and efficiency gains by using Brain vs. reinventing messaging with each new activity
• Scalable and integrated mix of low- and high-cost media investments to generate demand

Once Alfamation’s core elements of the “brain” were developed, TREW integrated their branding across all marketing disciplines with a 12-month marketing plan, including:

• Website re-design which resulted in 100% increase of pages viewed from previous site

• Leveraging the company and product level positioning and messaging “brain” with the design and production of Alfamation’s booth at NI Week; developing their promotional strategy; and creating technical product brochures

• Compelling email marketing campaign that extended their trade show success, and generated a response rate 2.6 times greater than the industry average

At TREW Marketing, each of our Crew members bring professional experience, areas of expertise, and plenty of character. Here we spotlight two Crewers – Irene Bearly, Technical Marketing Manager; and Morgan Norris, Senior Communications Specialist – in an interview about their background, passions, and professional knowledge. They were both also featured in local Austin business publications – ABJ and the Statesman.

Irene Bearly, Technical Marketing Manager

Where are you from originally?

I’m from Houston, TX. My grandparents are from China, and parents are from Taiwan

What university did you go to?

Georgia Institute of Technology – I learned to not procrastinate, never give up, and enjoy sweet tea. GO Yellow Jackets!

What are your passions?

Jesus Christ, my family, reading, trying out new hobbies, which so far include video games, knitting, crocheting, photography, blogging, drawing, kayaking, and training my cat to perform dog tricks

What is your proudest achievement you’ve accomplished thus far?

Supporting my husband through thick and thin

What strengths do you bring to TREW Marketing?

I bring strong project management and multi-tasking skills, and the ability to research and pick up almost any technical topic and create marketable content out of it

In your opinion, what was the most successful marketing campaign you have worked on and why?

I suppose with would have to be the EtherCAT product launch I did with National Instruments because of several reasons:

1. The sheer scale of the launch. It was a global launch – where web content and press releases had to be created way in advance and translated into multiple languages simultaneously – and it involved many press meetings and customer meetings. Plus, it was featured in the keynote of NIWeek in a flashy demo that played the Superman theme with chimes and an accompanying LED light show.
2. Brand new technology: all the content and landing pages were brand new. I had to start from the ground up and actually explain what the technology was and how it worked. And I had to ensure we positioned NI as a leading technical expert in EtherCAT technology.
3. Delicate messaging: the NI EtherCAT product could potentially be seen as a red ocean product with a direct, entrenched competitor. So it was essential to get across its major differentiators and clearly communicate the NI value proposition compared with other EtherCAT products (like comparing apples and oranges)

What advice do you have for future marketers?

My best advice is to always know your client and your client’s audience.

Describe yourself in three words…

Adaptable, Organized, Joyful

Morgan Norris, Senior Communications Specialist

Where are you from originally?

I grew up in Houston, TX and London, England. Consequently, if you and I were to watch a film full of the usually-enigmatic British humor, I could explain the jokes to you. I consider this one of my strengths.

What university did you go to?

I attended the University of Texas with a BS in Public Relations, a BA in Spanish Language, and a Business minor

What are your passions?

I enjoy running and baking/eating baked goods – in which the former allows for the latter in my own life – and I love being able to cook and provide meals for families who need them

What is your proudest achievement you’ve accomplished thus far?

Professionally, in 2009, I managed the logistics and planning for a public relations press room at a large trade show. My team had upwards of 50 journalists flying in for the event and I had the privilege of informing, serving, and assisting those journalists along with our corporate executives for four days. In the end, the event resulted in record coverage and rave reviews from the press.

Personally, in 2010 I became the mother of a beautiful baby girl. She keeps my husband and me on our toes and I am honored to strive to raise her well. Each day is sort of an ongoing achievement.

What strengths do you bring to TREW Marketing?

Besides decoding British humor? I have an eye for copy editing and actually a love for consistency and creating corporate style guides that provide companies the opportunity for cohesive content. I have worked for many years with journalists in the science and engineering industries, and I’ve also continued to climb the steep and seemingly eternal learning curve of social media.

In your opinion, what was the most successful marketing campaign you have worked on and why?

The most successful campaign I have worked on was for Cyth Systems. The campaign was around their Circaflex product, and we were able to humanize the story by pitching to journalists the idea of how real lives and jobs had been changed by Cyth’s product. Taking a step back from technical specs and starting with the big-picture story of human life-change, we were able to secure press meetings at a large 2010 trade show.

What advice do you have for future marketers?

Seek to understand your audience. If you know who you’re talking to, it’s much easier to craft messages that can make an impact.

Also, the rules have changed – only one space should go after each period in your copy. Use two spaces and you’ll immediately date yourself!

Describe yourself in three words…

Learner, Catalyzer, Achiever

You can learn more about the TREW Crew, by visiting the About Us Section

Today, engineers and scientists in robotics, medical device design and test, and industrial control can begin adding vision capabilities to their National Instruments CompactRIO systems thanks in part to the new MoviMED AF-1501 analog frame grabber module.

MoviMED's AF-1501 module pictured at right next to the NI CompactRIO controller.

Key to this launch has been the partnership with National Instruments, a leader in PC-based control and maker of innovative programmable automation controllers, like CompactRIO. The launch of Vision for CompactRIO is a win-win for both companies as NI continues to further expand the capabilities of its strong and growing control platform, and MoviMED strengthens its industry position as a knowledgeable leader in machine vision with the first-ever, innovative frame grabber module for CompactRIO.

Below you can see a simple setup with an analog video camera pointing to a shiny and reflective Christmas decoration bulb. Video was recorded using the new AF-1501 framegrabber module for through an NI cRIO-9073 controller. The software was coded in LabVIEW and took less than 5 minutes to put it together.

Through ongoing coordination with MoviMED leadership and the NI marketing team, TREW co-developed the launch strategy and plan, including messaging; news and web content development; customer testimonials; and the key tactics, owners, and project timeline for the announcement.

“TREW’s experience marketing technical products to engineers and scientists made them a great partner for us,” said Markus Tarin, CEO of MoviMED. “Their strong relationship with National Instruments and knowledge of the robotics and control markets helped us be an effective product partner and deliver an innovative solution to our customers.”

The announcement is featured on both the MoviMED and NI websites and is the top story in NI e-newsletter, NI News. In addition, check out some of the coverage already coming in below.

Advanced Imaging magazine features NI and MoviMED announcement.

Congratulations to MoviMED and National Instruments. If your company has a new product to bring to market and would like help developing the product launch strategy and plan, give TREW a call.

Last week on 60 Minutes, a popular TV news magazine program, they featured the new DEKA Arm, a innovative new robotic arm for victims of amputation. They showed the behind-the-scenes engineering and creativity required to overcome extremely difficult design obstacles, including the amputee’s control, comfort and precision of movement (think of the precise movement and control needed to pick up a grape and put it in your mouth, as demonstrated in the video). It is a moving story, and one that once again illustrates the incredible impact engineers and scientists have on society.

So what really inspires someone to become an engineer or scientist? In my experience, those I’ve had the honor of working with and for through the years were inspired by an adult or a real hands-on project that ignited their interest. What if there was a program that offered both for kids – inspiring professional engineers and scientists working with them and hands-on, real-world projects like the DEKA arm to solve.

Well, there is such a program, and it was coincidentally invented by the same person who showed off his team’s engineering talent – Dean Kamen. When Kamen and his team at DEKA Research and Development are not inventing the next robotic arm that brings movement to victims of horrific war battles and tragic life accidents, he is working to inspire the next generation through is non-profit, FIRST. One program, FIRST LEGO League, geared toward kids ages 9 to 14 is part of a pipeline of programs for kids ages 6 to 18 that combines both mentorship by professional engineers and scientists with a hands-on approach to solving real-world problems.

So let’s hear from some kids what they like about FLL:

Hows that for some deep thoughts on engineering and science? What’s so great about FLL is just that – kids can be kids, have fun, and do engineering. They love playing with LEGOs, of course, all the while studying topics like transportation (ie, this year’s theme – they are studying jetpack travel as their focus) and designing and programming robots to solve various missions.

I am a proud robotics FLL mentor, going on my 5th year working with Austin-area students to help them solve their FLL challenges. And we are so fortunate to have professional engineers and scientists like Siddharth from National Instruments and Paul from IBM, who were inspired to follow their education and career paths from the hands-on, real-world experiences they had as kids.

Here is what Paul and Siddharth think about spending their time with kids (slightly cut off at the top after the YouTube upload – sorry about that!):

Thanks to Paul and Siddharth, IBM and National Instruments, and all the other engineers and scientists and their employers who allow these talented professionals to spend time with our kids.

You can check out FLL online to learn more about this inredible program and find out how you can become a mentor or start a team.

We have some great news to share at TREW Marketing. We have been selected as the marketing agency of choice by Markus Tarin, President and CEO of MoviMED of Irvine, California, a leading supplier of integration services for the machine vision market. Our primary focus will be the launch of the first-ever analog frame grabber module for National Instruments CompactRIO platform. The MoviMED AF-1501 analog frame grabber module was previewed at NIWeek and will be formally announced later this fall.

“The AF-1501 analog frame grabber module for NI CompactRIO is the first of many new machine vision products to come from MoviMED” said Tarin. “TREW Marketing was a natural choice to serve as our marketing partner in this launch given their deep experience and relationships in the machine vision space and with National Instruments.”

TREW Marketing will provide a range of marketing services, from initial product launch strategy and goal-setting with partner National Instruments, to content development, media relations, and e-marketing management.

“We are honored and excited to work with MoviMED on their launch of this first-ever machine vision module for the highly successful NI CompactRIO platform,” said Rebecca Geier, principal and co-founder of TREW Marketing in Austin, Texas. “With our long-standing knowledge and relationships in the test, machine vision, robotics and industrial control markets, we look forward to applying our broad set of marketing services to this important launch for MoviMED.”

For more information about the MoviMED AF-1501 analog frame grabber module for NI CompactRIO, contact Markus Tarin at m.tarin@movimed.com.

For more information about TREW Marketing, contact Rebecca Geier at rebecca.geier@trewmarketing.com.

Read TREW Marketing’s past blog post, Top 9 List To Increase Your Product Launch Coverage here.

Last weekend, we were very honored to accept two PR awards for our work in K-12 education at the annual Texas Public Relations Association conference, the Best of the Southwest Communicators Conference. The awards recognized our marketing work for  The Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas, a non-profit organization founded in 2004 by U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and two of Texas’ Nobel Laureates.

TAMEST is comprised of Texas’ 10 Nobel Laureates and 200+ Texas members of the National Academies. These leading scientists and engineers issued a report, The Next Frontier: Worldclass Math and Science Education for Texas, that outlined four findings and recommendations to improve K-12 math and science education in Texas.

As Dr. Mary Ann Rankin, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin and Committee Co-Chair, stated, “If we, as Texans, don’t roll up our sleeves and work together to begin providing our children with the science and math knowledge they need today – starting with training, supporting and paying great teachers – then our kids and our state will not succeed tomorrow.”

We couldn’t say it better ourselves.

We also appreciated the kudos from TAMEST members, including from Dr. James Truchard, President and CEO of National Instruments, who said, “TREW Marketing’s work on the marketing program for TAMEST’s education initiative was outstanding.”

A team effort indeed! Congrats to TAMEST and TREW for a job well-done, and more importantly, for a critical effort for K-12 students in Texas.