Question

Topic: Strategy

How To Promote A New Concept?

Posted by Anonymous on 11/17/2010 at 3:49 AM ET 50 Points
Dear all,

I am a first time user here, posting in hope that someone can help us out with a predicament our marketing effort has found itself in.

We are currently trying to promote a unique new concept in the field of offshore shelf companies. Long story short, the companies we are offering deliver a distinct range of benefits that a typical shelf company simply isn't capable of. Our market research studies indicate that these benefits are in high demand amongst our target audience.

Now, the problem - the head of the organization insists that we position our offerings as a unique concept (which, to some extent, it is), rather than as an advanced form of shelf company that conveys an extensive range of additional benefits. In his opinion, positioning our offering as an enhanced shelf company devalues the brand because, in his estimation, a shelf company is a low-credibility concept that reflects negatively on our offering.

Unfortunately, while our target customers know a lot about shelf companies, they don't even know that an offering such as ours exists. As a result, if we decide not to refer to the term "shelf company" in any way in our positioning strategy, we are basically looking at advancing a whole new concept (as opposed to simply using a classic differentiation strategy and piggybacking on the awareness of shelf companies).

In your opinion, how would you go about promoting a genuinely unique concept - something that people do not actively search Google for, simply because they don't even know that something like it exists? I should note that digital marketing is the primary focus of our operations due to its cost-effectiveness and ROI.

Looking forward to your expert opinions,
George
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 11/17/2010 at 4:59 AM Author
    Hi there,

    Thanks for the feedback. While tax management is certainly one of the benefits that our companies offer, it's not the only one (and definitely not the main one).

    In general, what our companies offer as compared to standard shelf entities are business credibility (associated with an aged company), power to act like a financial institution (including issuing bonds, accepting and managing deposits, and sending SWIFT interbank messages), anonymity of ownership (through unregistered bearer shares), preservation of assets (through stringent local legislation that prohibits any form of disclosure), and, yes, tax management (0% income and capital gains tax on offshore revenues).

    What this amounts to is a shelf entity that enables the owner to operate like a financial institution, without compromising their anonymity or exposing themselves or their assets to prosecution or litigation. So while the concept is, in essence, a shelf company (in that the company is already registered and ready to be used), it can really do a lot of things that a shelf company simply cannot.

    P.S. I am intentionally not using the name of concept here, because I don't want it showing up in Google for our competition to see :-)
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 11/17/2010 at 7:10 AM Accepted
    I don't think there is a short cut. In my experience the biggest value of a shelf company is if it can speed the process of an up and coming -- go public.

    I would work exclusively with venture guys-- they know who needs this kind of help.
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