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The United States is the most attractive market in the world for many innovation-centric businesses.
Investment is plentiful and opportunity is everywhere. Folklore of the ‘American Dream’, zero-to-hero success stories and a common language fuse together to give many companies the (wrong) impression that it’s an easy target. Low hanging fruit ready to be swooped up by the modern equivalent of an innovator-laden Mayflower.
Whether you’re in life sciences, clean energy, robotics, tech or another advanced industry, the US is undoubtedly attractive and is – as the phrase suggests – a place where dreams can come true.
But it is also extremely (by European standards) expensive and competitive. Neither of these factors are added to the sausage grinder of assumptions being baked into business plans and pitch decks across the continent.
From London to Warsaw, a shallow understanding of what it takes to be successful in the US leads to many of these companies failing to crack the nut that they thought would be prised open ready for their arrival. Perhaps less Mayflower and more Titanic.
The US is described by many as the graveyard of British [but you could insert European here] startups. This isn’t because they don’t have great technology - they do. It’s because the mindset, appetite for risk and commitment are, well… European.
The companies that do succeed are varied, but they also have lots in common. They build strong teams and put professional service providers around them who are competent, knowledgeable and share their values.
From our industry’s point of view, this transition involves moving from a mindset of ‘We just need a limited amount of PR so we look active and exciting’ to ‘Our reputation and brand are critical to growing, so we need to get in the A-team to help us influence audiences that are really valuable to us’.
You need to speculate to accumulate.
So, what does this look like?
1. You need to move away from a mindset of PR agencies being about writing press releases and towards seeing them as the people who protect and enhance your reputation (in every sense of the word). If you’re investing properly, your agency should be developing new connections for you across your ecosystem. In Europe this kind of activity is seen more as BD/sales, but public relations is about building relationships with an organisation’s ‘publics’. Seems obvious but needs pointing out!
2. You need to move away from seeing it as a cost to be minimised and towards an investment that is essential to reach and influence people who are bombarded by all of your competitors. US companies see spending more as a way of achieving results faster, whereas European companies tend to try to spend as little as possible. This is a major barrier to succeeding when they are pitted against domestic (US) competitors.
3. You need to move away from giving instructions and towards taking advice. You should be seeking your agency’s guidance on how you should communicate and grow because marketing is a fundamental driver of demand and shareholder value. If you’re just instructing your agency to write news pieces and you don’t rate their advice, then you should probably just fire them.
A Gen-Z might say this is about manifesting. I wouldn’t go that far, but others you interact with feel and feed off the energy you and your company have. If you look and sound like you’re going to succeed, then maybe you actually will.