NC Marketing Firm Makes No Bones About What It Takes To Create Success For Its Clients

BY STEVE IVEY  — The Business Journal

GREENSBORO - Tom Dougherty paid more than he should have for a can of soup.

At a Philadelphia-area grocery store, Dougherty had the choice between a name brand can of tomato soup for 'his daughter, or a store brand can. He chose the name brand, even though it cost nearly twice as much and he knew they were exactly the same product.

That experience in checkout-line psychology - he concluded he overpaid to prove he provided nothing but the best for a sick child - eventually led to founding his own downtown Greensboro brand strategy firm in 2001, Stealing Share. He spun the firm out with help from his previous employer, Greensboro agency Bouvier Kelly, and bought the business outright in 2004.

"That was the light bulb for me," Dougherty says. "I was willing to do something stupid to prove I was a caring dad. That dynamic of buying based on what we choose to be is the arbiter between a product that's successful and one that isn't. That's a brand."

Stealing Share tries to take a different approach than other, more traditional marketing or advertising agencies. Dougherty refuses to use focus groups, and he'll only work with clients who are willing. to hear what they're doing wrong and who have a hunger to expand their market share.

Those who have worked with the firm say they have now come to appreciate Dougherty's message.

"(He) has a very inquisitive approach, and he's insightful with understanding trends and market segments," says Tim Scronce, president and CEO of Telworx Communications, which provides new and used telecommunications equipment and other support services, in Lexington. "It's to the point where it becomes very impressive with the end result."

Scronce credits Stealing Share with helping his company grow at a nearly 60 percent capitalization rate.

Rendering Consumers Powerless

Dougherty began his career about 25 years ago in London with Saatchi and Saatchi, an international advertising firm. But in his work there and in managing a firm in Philadelphia, he says he found it too "flavor of the day."

"An agency comes up with a clever little tag line, then six months later' that stops working and they have to come up with something else," he says. "But I knew there had to be something else going on with how people choose a product."

Overpaying for soup taught him the lessons he would take with him when he founded Stealing Share seven years ago. With every client, he focuses on what a consumer values, and what he or she believes to be true,

Dougherty's clients have included specialty beer producers, but he points to the giants in the industry - Budweiser, Miller, Coors - as to why he disdains traditional means of market research.

Focus groups, lie says, rely too heavily on open-ended questions that produce predictable answers.

"Those companies think it's a taste story," he says. "In blind taste tests, you can't tell the difference between those three. But they pay all this money to find out you buy the beer you think tastes the best. What a shock.

"I'll put it to you that beer is just a reflection of who you want to be. It's the same as the car you drive, the clothes you put on, and where you bank. If the brand can convince you that this is what people like you choose, you are powerless to choose anything else."

Speaking The Truth

Thus, Dougherty starts out with one-on-one interviews with consumers who prefer a brand in competition to his client. It’s a much more expensive process, but he says it provides the same insight to psychological triggers and language cues, and it answers the other questions about values and beliefs that focus groups can't provide.

Trotting out ideas that can run counter to what business owners have heard so often from other agencies has at times made it difficult to grow Dougherty's client list.

“We tell them what we do and why it works," he says. "Not everyone finds that refreshing. A lot of times companies want you to come in and tell them everything's perfect, wouldn't change a thing; in my opinion, that's the worst news you could get."

An avid col1ege basketball fan, Dougherty points them to a quote often employed by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten."

Dougherty says because of the nature of their work - helping companies steal share from competitor’s he has confidentiality agreements with all of the firm's current clients.

But Stealing Share just wrapped up a huge project for St. Jude Medical, a medical equipment supply company based in Minneapolis.

The two-year project included research with more than 1,000 doctors in 10 countries, finding out why they purchase equipment and what would convince them to buy from St. Jude. Dougherty and his staff trained another 12,000 employees on the new strategies for talking about the company.

"Actually, I was originally looking for them to just come in and talk to my marketing team about branding in general," says Amy Boyle, Vice President for corporate brand and marketing at St. Jude Medical. "But they had what I found to be a pretty unique approach. We ended up working with them on our re-branding project. I'm sure we will work with them in the future."

Dougherty says he and his staff helped St. Jude Medical's sales force learn how to pitch their products. Rather than rely on hyping the level of technical advancement, they now talk to doctors all over the world about why their colleagues have chosen St. Jude and they should, too.

"Certainly, they have all the newest and best technology," Dougherty says. "But, now they talk about what's really important to doctors - caring for patients. They, tell them, "If you're someone who wants to ' be in control and limit your risk, we're the company people like you choose.''

Now's The Time

Dougherty says he worries about a looming recession just like any business I owner would. Still, he finds business continues to boom.

"I wonder if because of the state of' the economy, companies understand they can't keep doing what they've always done," says Mike Vanausdeln, a senior' brand strategist with the firm. "Now is the time to steal market share. The time when they could be healthy doing what they did in the past is over."

Since January alone, Dougherty says he's traveled more than 500,000 miles. Talking with companies across the country and internationally about his work.

He chose to stay in Greensboro because of the high quality of life - "At this point if I moved I'd probably have to get a new family," he says, - but it hasn't hindered him from competing with larger firms in places like New York.

In fact, Stealing Share has a branch office in the Big Apple, and several of the firm's 25 employees live elsewhere and telecommute.

''In the world today, I'm not sure it really matters where you are," Dougherty says. Why else would a brand development firm in NC be doing market research for global companies in Europe and Asia?"

Stealing Share has worked with some local companies, including Telworx, Blue Rhino, and New Breed. Still, the majority of the firm's work has come from across the country.

I think there are companies here in this market that could use what we do," he says. "But we're living proof that if you build a better mousetrap, the world beats a path to your door."

If you would like more information on how Stealing Share can help your brand Click Here

Click Here for Site Map