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Babson Business: Incentive Targeting, Inc.

                

Name of business:  Incentive Targeting, Inc.; www.incentivetargeting.com

Mission:  Incentive Targeting, with its proprietary technologies, allows brand managers and marketing executives to perform true behavioral marketing at low cost and with minimal overhead, transforming retail marketing and fulfilling the promise of retail loyalty programs.

Began:  2007

Revenues: Incentive Targeting won the Douglass Foundation Graduate Business Plan Competition at Babson College worth more than $20,000 in funding and services.

Where:  Still working out of the Babson Hatchery, but was granted office space by Cummings Properties.

Founders:  Joshua Herzig-Marx M'08; Benjamin Sprecher; info@incentivetargeting.com; 617-869-7061; Babson  MBAs.

Employees:  Five, plus two founders

Founder's Past Life/Business:  Both Ben and Josh have served in project/ program/ product, and account-management roles as they built and sold software solutions to complex business problems in the health insurance and financial services industries.

How The Idea Began:  Ben and I grew up learning about the grocery industry—it was a family business. We realized that an industry with so much revenue (over $500 billion) but such low margins (1-2% for grocery chains) there had to be an opportunity to change the game.

Initial Preparation to Germinate Idea:  We have been trying out different ideas, discussing them with industry insiders for years. It was clear when we began discussing the plan for Incentive Targeting that we were finally on to something.

Favorite Thing about the Business:  We like that it scales—it requires minimal capital investment.

Biggest Challenge:  Neither Ben nor I have a marketing or grocery background. We need to work hard and sell ourselves as knowledgeable in this industry.

Lesson Learned:  It's not enough just to talk to people and ask advice—you need to listen. Our idea has evolved so much and if it's at all good, that's due to the considerable time and attention we received from so many industry and business leaders.