New Category Creates “Best of Both Worlds” Advantage for an Animal Feed Additive Manufacturer

A “eureka!” moment leads to the realization that a new product category – based on science – was just what our client needed to reach #1 in the marketplace.

Services | Strategy, Branding, Public Relations, Creative Communications

Situation

Nearly seven hours into a day-long differentiation workshop we had been facilitating for a client, one of the participants (the inventor of the technology some 20 years earlier) abruptly jolted from his chair. Wheeling toward the front of the room, he blurted out loudly, “That’s it.” Then, with right arm outstretched, he pointed and jabbed back and forth in the direction of the whiteboard. Half laughing, he bellowed, “That’s it right there…right there…right there…right therrrrrrre!” And sure enough, it was. Decades after creating it, the father of the product had himself – under our relentless prodding – unveiled the answer to the vexing riddle of what made his creation different from all others. Ever the scientist, he continued, “I’ll be honest…I never have trusted you marketing guys. Well…maybe I’ve been wrong about that. But not about the science…thank you!”

The inventor’s diagram on the whiteboard showed the foundation for a new scientific category – and a way to catapult sales to the top of their market.

The Work

The 5MetaCom team created a name for the new category based on the inventor’s diagram – and a new brand name for the product. The category name we created employed a science-based root word. The brand name we devised hooked easily to the category and hinted at how the product behaved to deliver “best of both worlds” cost and performance values. Then we developed a cornerstone presentation and brochure to help the sales force deliver the newly developed brand story to the marketplace.

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Results

Great effort went into proving the new category we created was scientifically valid and accepted across the industry and in academia. Our client worked with leading institutions to publish peer-reviewed technical papers that backed up the science.

Our PR efforts focused on the newly identified category. Our branded marketing centered on the product and its utility. In the end, boosted by a differentiation strategy centered on a new category, our client’s product became #1 across all competitors – a fruitful ending to 20+ years of toil in what turned out to be an ill-fitted category.