MarketLive – Brand Turnaround & Re-Focused Storytelling Lead to Category Leadership
Challenge:
MarketLive is an enterprise-grade e-commerce software platform serving DTC brands and catalogue retailers. Notable customers include Armani Exchange, Party City, John Deere, Helzberg Diamonds, and many others. The company was VC-backed, founder-led, and growing predictably but not exponentially. The Board had recently inserted a new “star” CEO to increase revenues and position the company for acquisition, however the plan backfired as sales rep’s became over-extended with time-consuming bake-offs, win rate percentages plummeted, and competing vendors used rumors and chatter of the potential company sale to create FUD and steal away customers.
Turn-Around Strategy:
When the board re-instated the original founder as CEO, Rocket Science was brought in to help turn around brand trust and market perceptions about the stability of the company, and to use PR earned media to position the company as a category leader. We were guided by the insights of a brilliant CMO who created a Customer Advisory Board and quickly determined that the company’s core strength was serving mid-market brands. Data showed that almost all of the lost sales opportunities were to either very small retailers who went with Magento (as open-source solution with a $0 free tier), or to very large retailers who ultimately went with Demandware (a publicly-traded ecommerce giant, subsequently acquired by Salesforce).
With that insight, our PR strategy for the brand turn-around was to double-down on mid-market customers, re-focus all brand messaging and sales efforts, and position the company and its CEO as the de facto leaders of the mid-market sector.
Execution:
• Worked directly with the CEO and CMO to implement the strategy to repair marketplace uncertainty
• Created new sales messaging & marketing processes to focus exclusively on mid-market retail and manufacturer brands
• Developed a quarterly ‘MarketLive E-Commerce Index’ report which benchmarked key online sales metrics over time (i.e. a longitudinal index number that characterized the health of the e-commerce sector), which became a timely and trusted data point for journalists to cite
• Saturated technology press and top-tier business media with data-backed market insights and trends
• Secured monthly by-lined columns for the CEO in the trade press, and produced regular contributed content
• Secured tradeshow speaking opportunities for the CEO for executive visibility & leadership
Results:
• Media coverage of MarketLive increased more than 400% as sector analysts and journalists came to anticipate and rely upon our quarterly Index report
• Visibility in top-tier business press, which was driven by our data-backed findings, led to significantly increased brand visibility and trust
• MarketLive was acquired by Vista Equity Partners, at a valuation +350% higher than an offer just 24 months earlier
Impact for CEOs & CMOs:
This case demonstrates how focused positioning can directly improve enterprise value. By narrowing the company’s storytelling around the mid-market segment where it had the strongest right to win, Rocket Science helped restore marketplace confidence, reduce competitive FUD, and give journalists, analysts, customers, and acquirers a clearer reason to see MarketLive as a category leader.
The result was not just more visibility, but a stronger strategic narrative that helped support a successful acquisition by Vista Equity Partners at a 350% higher valuation.