As a former English teacher and department chair for nearly three decades with East Lansing Public Schools, Merilee Griffin is accustomed to teaching others how to achieve their learning goals and market themselves as future professionals.

Now, as the founder of a new health service technology start-up company, Griffin finds herself back in the classroom—not in her familiar role as an educator but as a student learning how entrepreneurs can best market their business on a limited budget.

“When you are teaching, you’re always trying to figure out how to make things work better to ensure success. I’m just taking my skills from the classroom and utilizing them in the conference room,” she laughs.

Griffin is the president of East Lansing-based Memo Touch, which has produced a touch-screen device that can be programmed remotely by family caregivers from anywhere they have Internet access to help elders remember important information.

The integrated software/hardware system will be on the market in early 2011 and will cost about $299 each. Memo is designed to serve those suffering from dementia resulting from Alzheimer’s and other diseases, stroke, injury, or just normal forgetfulness that commonly develops with age. The monitor can sit on a table next to the person’s favorite chair or the kitchen table, wherever it will be seen frequently, and has a sturdy base to prevent it from tipping over. The LCD screen resolution displays excellent viewing. It can connect to the Internet either wirelessly or by cable.

The device has audio and photo capabilities and is crafted for easy use by older adults who have not used computers. Memo’s most important feature, however, is the “message line”—a moving marquee that repeats messages over and over, or fades in and fades out.

While healthy people would get annoyed by signs that repeat the same message constantly, the repetition of each viewing is likely to be new to a dementia patient for a while, and the continual repetition may help the information “stick,” Griffin says.

“This product is perfect for family caregivers, most of whom work and are raising families of their own, while also trying to manage the many problems of daily life caused by their loved ones’ chronic loss of short-term memory,” Griffin says.

“The genesis for Memo was our experience in dealing with dementia in our loved ones, so we know how stressful it is for families and caregivers. We’re heavily invested in making life easier for people, and we believe Memo can help accomplish that.”

The demand for an innovative device like Memo has immense potential as increasing numbers of baby boomers grow older, says Miche Suboski of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (Leap).

But the danger for entrepreneurs like Griffin is relying too heavily on what Suboski calls “faith-based” marketing to build their company’s brand identity.

“Too many entrepreneurs adopt the ‘build it and they will come’ mentality and hope that in the end whatever they are doing to reach customers will work,” says Suboski. “Unfortunately, that’s an ineffective approach that usually results in failure.”

Suboski, who serves as Leap’s champion of entrepreneurship and innovation, after having operated her own start-up businesses since the mid-1990s and whose previous corporate consulting clients include EDS and Chevrolet, describes effective marketing “as the communications bridge to the customer, and that goes beyond advertising.”

Under the old small business start-up model, entrepreneurs typically would allocate as much as 60 percent of their firm’s marketing budget to advertising through traditional media outlets. Today, Suboski recommends that clients devote about 10 percent to their net income on marketing and invest most of their resources to “bootstrapping” with other firms willing to share promotion efforts. Understanding the value of public relation activities that come at little or no cost is critical to the survival of start-up businesses, she says.

“Advertising is certainly not dead but it is very expensive, especially for a start-up,” Suboski says. “It’s more important to focus their marketing efforts on how to reach customers in inexpensive ways through publicity and promotion. Position yourself so people see you. Get somebody to write a story about you or your company.

“Sponsor a walk for breast cancer. Form partnerships—I’ll sell your stuff if you sell my stuff—the key is to keep the sales process as lean as possible.”

Social media efforts are free and can be an important tool, but Sudoski warns her Leap clients against devoting too much of their energies to Facebook page launches and YouTube video productions.

“Social media makes entrepreneurs feel more like they are doing the right thing but that can become a very consuming activity which takes them away from what they should be doing—and that’s talking to their customers and building good, solid relationships with people,” Suboski explains.

“Business is about conversation, not connection. Social media can give you an ‘in,’ but it doesn’t build the relationships that turn out sales in the future.”

Suboski’s savvy counsel has helped shape Griffin’s 2011 marketing plans for Memo Touch.

Her firm has no money directed at paid advertising in the current annual budget, Griffin says. Instead, most of Memo Touch’s budget is targeted toward partnering with geriatric professionals, including nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers and therapists who work with geriatric patients and their families.

Plans on tap for this year include displaying Memo at geriatric healthcare exhibits and conferences, conducting informal field trials with academic researchers, and generating free earned media coverage by distributing news releases and media kits to journalists.

“We do not see marketing as a way to sell our product,” Griffin says. “We see marketing as a way to bring our product to the people who need it.”

		Mike Nowlin is the senior public relations and policy manager at Pace & Partners in Lansing.