Going to market with a new product or service is expensive and can have a significant effect on the overall well being of the company.
The success of your company depends on knowing how the market is going to respond to your new offering.
In most cases companies rely on what they know already – rather than viewing their perceived market with fresh eyes.
One company that we worked with understood the need to revisit their market. This is the story of we helped them achieve a 10% takeup for new trial and over $1 million in new sales with a marketing cost that was a mere 3.5% of new revenue.
Background Our client was a mid-sized Canadian data information provider that was seeking to introduce a new web-based application.
The application was designed to be more affordable for both the client and for the company. This meant that there was a larger potential audience that went beyond the cream of corporate Canada that the company usually worked with.
For this new product the average sale price would drop from $35,000 a year down to $3,500
a year. They didn’t know how their sales staff, who were used to several face-to-face meetings, meetings, could possibly sell at such a low price and earn decent commissions.
Our Deliverables We provided an integrated approach that managed the entire marketing and sales process to create success.
Market Analysis We did analysis of companies that had dedicated marketing and media departments.
These companies would be seeking ongoing sources of market intelligence. That determined the following:
q Size of market q Who the potential opinion leaders and decision makers were in each company including titles.
Our market analysis included reviewing the competition and pricing to ensure that the product had clearly definable attributes that separated it from the competition. This analysis fed nicely into a benefits analysis the sales staff used when dealing with potential clients. It also provided the product development team with a set of improvement objectives for future versions of the software.
Trends Positioning Statement Based on the above research, we developed a positioning statement that clearly outlined the Brand Contract or offering. This became the basis for the product’s slogan and became the benchmark for all marketing and sales materials that we produced.
Market Strategy After reviewing their target audience we developed a marketing program that would create a significant amount of exposure in a short period of time. This ensured that the target audience would see something on the new service in several places and generate interest. The plan included:
· Print Ads in selected newspapers · Media Releases for trade publications · Direct Mail piece to opinion makers in target companies Test Before Launch Normally, we recommend that our clients do some form of market testing such as focus groups or surveys, however the company felt it had enough feedback from its sales staff that it didn’t want to spend any funds in this area.
Business Objectives Because we had done a detailed market analysis we were able to determine the potential size of the market and develop a sales estimate.
Artwork Based on Positioning Our communication concepts focused on a new product logo and a web site design that was used on their existing application. The designs were based on promoting the Positioning of the Brand.
Marketing & Communicatio ns Budget This was a significant step for a company that hadn’t needed to market itself too significantly.
We developed a complete budget that would cover the cost of:
q Strategic Planning q Logo & Web Development q Advertising & Direct Mail q Media Release writing, distribution and follow-up calls q Training This complete approach gave them confidence in the total cost of the product launch.
Sales Strategy The strategy was to have the inside customer service team contact the direct mail recipients and sign them up for a two week free trial. At the end of the two weeks, the customer service team called a second time to gauge the usefulness of the application and to potentially sign them up.
This process worked well as it brought focus to the target audience’s mind about using the product. It assisted them by having knowledgeable staff helping them to set up the trial period. This worked so well that 10% of the direct mail recipients signed up. At the end of the two-week period, the target audience was able to get questions answered about some of the features they were having difficulty in using.
The result was enough signed up for annual subscriptions to generate over $1 million in annual sales
Integrated Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Jim Adams's Website.
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Jim Adams
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Mr. Adams provides a wealth of experience
in marketing, journalism, finance,
government and general business. This
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insight to develop clear and effective
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