Movers and Shakers: Maria McLaughlin, Marketing Director at Appro

By: Bailey McCann

Recently, Glass Hammer spoke with Maria McLaughlin, the Director of Marketing for Appro International, a technology firm in Milpitas, California. Appro specializes in high performance computing for the oil and gas and financial services industries; government labs, energy and defense departments; electronic design automation; digital content creation; education and manufacturing sectors.

According to the company website, Maria McLaughlin joined Appro in 2002 and has responsibility for all Appro’s marketing, which includes branding, market analysis, perception improvement, marketing communications, and demand creation. She is also responsible for coordinating the product-definition and Go-to-Market Plan activities across Appro. Prior to her role at Appro, Ms. McLaughlin worked at Hewlett-Packard and 3M Corporation.

Ms. McLaughlin is the only woman on the 8-member executive team. When she started at Appro, there was no marketing department, a deficiency that relegated the company to serving a niche market. But before she could help take the company’s message to a larger consumer base, she had to prove her own value, as well as the value of marketing, to the company. During our interview, she offered insights on how she successfully created a now-thriving department and overcame any negative preconceptions of a woman in technology marketing.

Ms. McLaughlin first advises women facing similar situations to “be patient.” She went on to say that women should take care to blend in with the existing style and dynamic of the group. “You can’t just sound like you know it all and they know nothing because you really don’t know it all.”
Ms. McLaughlin advises planning and diplomacy when bringing in new ideas to an established group so others won’t dismiss those ideas outright. She points out that men and women understand and adopt things in different ways, “Men are more patient. They’re calmer. They take it slow. Women need to learn to think before jumping right in, and to have a slower pace to track with how men are thinking.” With this in mind, Ms. McLaughlin started by building a solid foundation for the department. She worked with a market intelligence firm to determine trends and to best use available market research. Using product announcements and customer success stories, and by building strategic partnerships with companies including Raytheon and Uniwide Technologies, she helped increase the value of the company, enriching its customers’ end-user experience and establishing a market presence for Appro.

Now, the company is gaining ground by providing cluster solutions required for high intensive applications. “After I was able to demonstrate the brand value achieved through a strategy of company messaging, integrated marketing activities and press announcements, the company started to understand the value [of marketing],” says Ms. McLaughlin.

By finding unique ways to increase the bottom line as well as develop strong relationships, she was able to make marketing something meaningful and overcome the skeptics. “Every company is looking for ways to prove value over their competitors,” she says, “If you can show effective ways to do that consistently the leadership will take notice regardless of preconceptions about gender.”