Question

Topic: Branding

Effective Communication Of New Product Offerings

Posted by Anonymous on 1/19/2005 at 9:49 PM ET 250 Points
We market branded ready-to-cook dry mix products thru' supermarkets and groceries. Our Brand, say 'X', is currently has a strong #2 market share in our main product offering. During the past year we have introduced 3 new products, all under 'X', in the same general category, enabling the consumer to prepare 3 different kinds of home-cooked snacks. We advertised one of these products on TV.
We now plan to launch a few more products, same brand, same general category, enabling the cosumer to make more types of home-cooked snacks. Our dilemma is how to communicate to the consumers that these new products are now available in their trusted Brand 'X'. The additional sales potential of these products are not large enough to afford TV advertising.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 1/20/2005 at 12:00 PM Accepted
    I can relate to your situation because I was acting Chief Marketing Officer at a $100 million food processing company that also had one main product and 6-8 line extensions that couldn't justify their own advertising budgets.

    What we did was re-think the total brand positioning to include other items, so instead of having 6 or 7 sub-brands with total sales under $20 million, we had one big brand with sales of $100 million. On that basis, we advertised EVERYTHING on the total brand budget. In essence, the parent [main] brand subsidized the line extensions to some degree, though we were able to create advertising that was so effective for the parent brand (and the line extensions) that all of them grew.

    In fact, we increased sales/market share by more than 25% in just 6 months, and then continued the growth with some targeted trade promotion that added another 12-15 points to the growth rate. (The trade promotion didn't quite payout short-term, but it secured the distribution we might otherwise have lost on some of the smaller volume items.)

    Instead of looking at the sub-brands individually, look at the positioning of your total brand. That may get you out of the box.

    If you want to contact me directly, feel free to click on mgoodman above, and send email. This may be a case where my first-hand experience can really help you solve your problem.
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