Effective Investor Relations must ultimately address the full spectrum of investors, from the small retail day trader to the large institutional fund manager. On the small retail side, IR efforts are very tactical and near-term. On the institutional side, a company must have a carefully crafted strategic message platform, and an integrated series of tactics to support it. As companies scale, in order to generate the capitalization they need to grow, they must address an ever-increasing segment of this spectrum of investors.
In order to make effective IR services more accessible—and affordable—to smaller companies, Hawk first identified four primary stages of growth that a client company experiences. In the IPO stage, young companies are faced with a myriad of challenges as they begin to communicate effectively with investors, while simultaneously complying with SEC regulations, not to mention Sarbanes Oxley. For these firms, in some cases even years after the IPO, investor relations consumes a tremendous amount of time if it’s addressed at all, and is often not very effective. Hawk’s Virtual Investor Kit helps management to save time and money while deploying a fundamental IR program.
In the Growth phase, when a company is settling in and beginning to build market share, budgets are still tight and increased valuation is necessary to fuel growth. Hawk’s Emerging Growth Program ramps up the IR efforts by generating buzz within the investment community and by providing enhanced visibility on Wall Street.
As a company settles down into its Stability phase, most operational kinks have been worked out, budgets are still tight, but growth is still paramount. Hawk has matched its Full Retail Exposure Program to these companies, which builds on the functionality of the Virtual Investors Kit and Emerging Growth Programs by assigning an experienced Investor Relations professional to each client.
Finally, as a company settles into the Maturity phase, solid market capitalization is still necessary to fund growth, as well as to provide a return to loyal investors. By this stage, successful companies begin attracting the attention of institutional investors, so Hawk developed its Spectrum Program to address investors across the spectrum from retail to institutional.
