Irvine-based Oinke.com plans to grow big as a pig.
It’s got a vision, the management, the know-how, a web site, partners,and $23 million for marketing.
Other dot-com companies, with abundant amounts of venture capital and angel funding, are investing anywhere from $1 million to $50 million apiece in marketing. That’s because in e-commerce, the last one to market is a rotten egg.
These dot-coms stuffed with marketing dollars have some quick decisions to make: How to spend it? Should marketing be handled in-house or through an agency? And if an agency, should it be a large or a small firm?
Oinke.com, which chose to use an agency, had a list of marketing requirements. Rick Tysdal, senior vice president of marketing, said the company wanted an agency to have “expertise in broad-ranging activities, both internationally and nationally.” More specifically, it wanted an agency that had B2B (business-to-business) experience, a background in handling financial institutions and “lastly and leastly” dot-com experience. Tysdal said marketing is still marketing, no matter the medium.
Choosing a Good Fit
The online loan auction house did its homework. Oinke talked to 10 agencies in Orange County, Tysdal said, and last week chose FCB Southern California, the county’s second-largest according to the Business Journal list.
A small agency tends to outsource a lot of its work, which wouldn’t be as fast and “wouldn’t work as well for us,” Tysdal said.
Through FCB, Oinke plans to use traditional means of advertising including newspapers and executive magazines, trade shows, direct marketing and radio. But it also plans to put 15% to 20% of its marketing budget online.
Tysdal’s analysis notwithstanding, not all dot-coms decide that a big agency is for them.
Mark Flanagan, founder of Laguna Hills-based eCharityCash.com, said it didn’t want to market in-house: “We know what we’re good at. We outsource the rest. That’s what the Internet business is all about.”
So it decided to enlist an advertising agency. ECharityCash wanted some of the same things as Oinke, namely national and international experience, but it wanted a smaller firm.
“We’re a small company,” Flanagan said. “With larger firms you become a number.”
So on a referral from a friend, the folks at ECharityCash and Irvine-based Nine Dots Corp. had a meeting of the minds.
“It’s nice to be able to sit down with the owner of the company,” Flanagan said.
ECharityCash, a five-person company, plans to expand to upwards of 28 employees by its site launch date in October. The site drives business to sponsor merchants,both local and national,by allowing customers to donate to their favorite charity while making a purchase.
Its web site is still under construction, and it doesn’t have any merchants signed up yet. “That’s why we we’re working with Nine Dots,” Flanagan said.
Playing Close to the Chest
A third faction of dot-coms prefers to keep their marketing in-house.
“I figure I know what I’m doing,” said Cathy Taylor, director of marketing for GoShip.com. However, she does outsource public relations.
The 20-person shipment rating service firm plans to launch its product in April and intends to staff up to 75 over the next two months. It also has plans for a future IPO.
Taylor said most of her $3 million marketing budget will be spent on traditional advertising media. It will target e-commerce magazines like Business2.0, Internet Retailer and Computer Reseller. The firm will do a lot of trade shows, as well, making an appearance at the upcoming Internet World in Los Angeles. n
