President's perspective

Product launch
Nearly every day I read a new article about product launches or talk with someone about the topic. Just last week I met with executives from a publicly-held company to discuss next year’s marketing plan. Their goal is that 20 percent or more of their products will always be less than two years old. So what is driving all this new product talk?

Top-line growth focus
Companies are placing a greater emphasis on top-line growth strategies. If you are like most companies, you’ve already cut as many expenses as possible, so top-line growth is essential to reach your financial goals. There are only three fundamental ways to do this:

Expand into new markets

Acquire other companies

Develop new products in order to have more to sell

Unlike the first two options, new products provide you a way to satisfy and penetrate your existing customer base, as well as pursue new customers.

Shorter lifecycles
This growing focus on new products could also be caused by shorter product lifecycles. Although this occurs in all product categories, it happens more frequently with technology-related products. Whether driven by competition, customer requirements or internal pressures, more companies are launching new products more frequently. Some are even redefining themselves by the breadth and depth of new products. Just look at Apple—hardly the company it was only five years ago.

Ready for take-off!
Since new products are becoming increasingly important, launching them successfully becomes even more critical. With so much at stake, companies can ill-afford to have a failed or underperforming launch.

Helping clients successfully launch products is one of our key areas of expertise. We would be delighted to discuss your situation and show you how we can make a difference. Just ask NASA—it takes tremendous planning and expertise for a successful launch. Launching your new product is no different.

Craig O'Neal
President/CEO
VantagePoint

Who is behind the wheel in your organization?

Take a close look at your product and service portfolio. Does your portfolio accurately reflect your business strategy, or is it instead laden with a mismatch of single customer products with little potential for growth?

New products and services set the direction of your company.
If your portfolio does not directly support your business strategy, then perhaps you are not the one driving your organization. A company without a new product/service strategy can be easily driven by its sales team or even its largest customers. Sure, we all have occasions when we have to add a token program to satisfy our most important customers. But if you do not have an innovation charter, these incremental projects could drain your development resources.

An innovation charter directs your development team to the specific markets and types of projects that align with your business strategy. It succinctly states the focus, goals and guidelines for your company’s product/service development efforts.

Focus: Defines the markets and types of projects that align with your business strategy.

Market: Some may be hesitant to state a market focus for fear of limiting the number of opportunities. However, it’s “easier to catch a fish in a smaller pond.” A market focus allows your development team to gain a deeper understanding of the market’s unmet needs, in turn becoming market specialists. This deeper knowledge helps your team to deliver products and services that truly resonate with customers.
Types of projects: This section identifies the types of projects that support your company’s strategy and value proposition. For example, if your company’s strategy is “to deliver low-maintenance products that are easy to use,” your development team should focus their efforts on projects that directly support this value proposition.

Goals: States the goals for your company’s innovation team (profits, growth and/or market status). Some goal examples include:

Percentage of profits or revenue growth generated from products/services introduced in the last three years
First or second in a product category
First to market or quick second
Specific market share goals

Operating guidelines: Outlines how your development team will select and prioritize projects and any special guidelines about how your innovation team should allocate their time. Some examples of operating guidelines include:

Criteria for ranking projects
Percentage of development time dedicated to cost improvement projects, platform projects, or “pet projects” (special projects chosen by a team member at his/her discretion)
Frequency for evaluating development projects to ensure that the projects are still aligned with your business goals and are balanced between cost improvement projects and platform projects
Percentage of products/services with copyright, patent or trade secret protection

Ultimately, new products/services drive your company’s growth. An innovation charter aligns your development team’s efforts with your business strategy, putting you back in the driver’s seat.

Kim Gillis
Senior Marketing Strategist
VantagePoint

Ad ratios and budgets grow

Ad spending is growing at a healthy rate this year and is expected to continue its strong growth in 2007, according to Schonfeld & Associates’ Advertising Ratios & Budgets report, issued in June.

Total ad spending projected to increase 8.6% this year to $333.60 billion
Additional 8.6% increase expected in 2007 to $364.28 billion
Last year total ad spending was up 7.7% over 2004

Greatest challenges of e-mail marketing, according to U.S. e-mail marketers, 2006
(% of respondents)

Type of content that motivates U.S. b-to-b e-mail users to read or open email, 2005
(% of respondents)

Blogs gain b-to-b influence

The impact of Weblogs in the b-to-b sector is growing. What’s important is that blogs are not only being read but are beginning to influence b-to-b purchase decisions. According to a survey by KnowledgeStorm and ad agency Universal McCann, 53% of respondents said blogs influence their purchase decisions. That number soared to 69% for respondents who said they read blogs daily.

What's new at VantagePoint

VantagePoint hires Interactive Project Manager:

Brian Harmon has joined VantagePoint as the new Interactive Project Manager. Harmon has extensive experience in both interactive programming and project management in Web design, Internet payment systems, application and database programming. He has worked with companies in SC, GA, TN and TX and will now lead the development of all interactive projects for key clients.

VantagePoint named 2006 Agency of the Year by BMA of the Carolinas:

VantagePoint was named “2006 Agency of the Year” by the Business Marketing Association (BMA) of the Carolinas, announced at their annual ProAd awards ceremony held in Charlotte, NC. The annual business-to-business communications contest honors outstanding marketing and communications projects in North and South Carolina.

VantagePoint also earned the “Best of South Carolina" award for the fourth time in five years and earned a total of 26 awards, including three first place gold awards!

“We’re very pleased and honored to have earned the title of Agency of the Year for the Carolinas,” stated Craig O’Neal, VantagePoint’s president and CEO. “While we work hard to produce a highly creative product, our primary objective remains in producing results that impact and build our clients’ businesses. It is ultimately rewarding to know that we are accomplishing this all-important goal for VantagePoint and for our partner clients.”

The annually bestowed honors were awarded for a variety of projects produced for our clients, including Agfa, BKI, Capsugel, CommScope, RiverStone, Saia, Systimax and T&S Brass, as well as two self-promotion projects.

About BMA: Initiated in 1922 as the National Industrial Advertising Association, today’s Business Marketing Association represents a lifetime of expertise in business-to-business marketing and communications. For more than 80 years, BMA has been the preeminent service organization for marketing professionals. For more information on BMA of the Carolinas, visit www.bmacarolinas.com.