Case Studies: Global Manufacturer

Challenge

This global manufacturer of fiber optic test and measurement equipment and network management solutions needed to launch a new network monitoring system designed for Wireless providers that cost $10,000,000 per unit.

They needed a strategy to penetrate the Wireless provider market in the U.S., a new market space in the U.S. in which they had not previously competed in.

External challenges included a lack of brand awareness, brand equity, and customer share-of-mind in this market space and competition with well known and entrenched competitors. In addition the Dotcom and Tech bubbles had burst worldwide and companies were no longer spending on new technology. As a result industry consolidation was also occurring rapidly with fewer customers to sell to.

Internal challenges included a high turnover in senior management leading to a lack of leadership and key decisions being left to second-tier management. There was a lack of relationships with key decision makers within the Wireless providers and sales staff were unable to obtain appointments. Lastly there was minimal budget to launch a major new product.

Trainor was asked to develop a strategy to launch the product dramatically, break through to the Wireless provider market, build brand awareness, and generate sales appointments.

Challenge:
Launch a new $10,000,000 system in a new market space, with zero brand awareness and equity, during a recession and rapidly consolidating industry, despite a lack of client senior management, with an inadequate budget.
Approach:
Create a "product metaphor" that quickly explained the complexity of the system with a consumer product that was also complex but was used easily every day.
Recommendations:
Create a marketing database that included the client-side CEO, CFO, and Network Manager. Create a customer package featuring a branded, portable GPS unit that served as a metaphor for the system that “could locate a problem instantly” allowing for finding the problem (in this case network voice & data congestion) and fixing it before it became a crisis. FedEx deliver each package personally to the target recipient.
Results:
A 100% response rate and a $10 million software order from a customer they had never done business with before, the largest initial order the client had received. In the time it took to close an order this large, the customer purchased $15,000,000 in new hardware testing equipment and to date the amount stands at $35,000,000 in hardware alone.