Case Study: Product Launch
Client: EIM Controls
How an established manufacturer of industrial products
made a late arrival into a new field of technology—without
having their product dismissed as a “me-too” entry.
The Situation
Valve actuators are devices that control the flow of fluids through
installations such as pipelines, refineries, and ships. A few years
ago, a new wave of so-called “intelligent” actuators
entered the marketplace. The new devices were equipped with microprocessors,
enabling them to control fluids much more precisely. EIM, one of
the industry’s biggest names, chose not to immediately join
in this new technology. Instead, they continued to make their tried
and- true actuators and watched the mistakes their competitors
made in this emerging field. Finally, EIM decided to introduce
an “intelligent” actuator of their own…but by
this time, of course, the newness of these products had faded,
and the competitors’ earlier entries had already stolen the
thunder of “innovation.” So how could EIM become the
third or fourth entry in this new arena, without being perceived
as a latecomer just catching up?
The Solution
Blair Marketing decided that EIM had no need to apologize for
not being trailblazers in this field of intelligent actuators,
and established the theme “Others got it first, we
got it right.” Indeed, EIM had taken the opportunity
to evaluate all their competitors’ product shortcomings,
and trumped them all with the introduction of the new TEC2000 actuator.
EIM also recognized the fact that many buyers in the marketplace
were fond of the old, solid iron & steel actuators, and were
a little wary of this new circuit-board technology (some even perceived
it as potentially fragile). EIM assuaged their concerns by using
their established, 50-year-old warhorse product as a basis for
the new technology…simply enhancing it with electronic controls.
Other manufacturers had abandoned their traditional models in favor
of all-new aluminum designs for the new generation of actuators.
In addition to forsaking traditional construction methods on their
new models, EIM’s competitors had also failed to factor in
some of the realities their products would have to face in the
field—things like inaccessible installations, burned-out
motors, and untrained operators. As a result, to some cynics in
the marketplace, it appeared that EIM’s competitors had introduced
shiny, high-tech gadgets that were perhaps better suited for use
in a test lab rather than on an offshore oil rig.
Blair helped EIM capitalize on these suspicions with the headline, “First
came intelligent actuators…now comes one with common sense.” In
all our ads and literature, we pointed out the many common-sense
ways EIM had prepared its product for life in the “real world” of
harsh industrial installations.
The Results
The marketplace has been reassured that unlike the competitors’ actuators,
the new EIM TEC2000 is no fancy piece of fickle computer equipment.
It is essentially the same robust product they had relied upon
for a half-century—just equipped with modern control capabilities
that don’t require an engineering degree to operate. Although
full-scale production of this new product has yet to begin, EIM’s
sales force is already generating orders using Blair’s literature,
which provides them with all their key talking points. |
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