When marketing budgets are restricted often times a “green” communications plan makes the most of your budget and your assets. This client did not intend to green their new product launch campaign, but that’s exactly what happened. When we were engaged to take a client into a new arena with an evolving product line we chose tactics that made the most of their budget and ultimately, those solutions made the most of resources with minimal impact.

What’s so Green about it?
To make the most of a lean marketing budget and to allow for expansion of the product line we recommended using a dedicated microsite as our main marketing vehicle and use of all other materials as tools to drive people to the microsite. A further green tactic was to develop a small distinctively-shaped printed piece that was multi-functional. It was intentionally designed for use as a:

• sales meeting leave-behind
• direct mail piece
• tradeshow hand-out

• Reduced reliance on printed materials that would become outdated
• quickly as the product line grew
• One printed sales piece kept small but impactful to pique interest,
• designed to serve multiple purposes
• Minimal shipping delivery costs as the wealth of information was online,
• rather than traditional catalog-based information requiring mailing.

A well-respected national manufacturer asked us to help them launch a product line selling to a new audience on a very limited budget.

We named the product, created a logo and brand – based on our market research. We recommended and developed a comprehensive microsite as the main marketing tool which could be updated as the product line grew and proposed a minimal use of print.

All other collateral and advertising were used as driver tools to get people to the microsite where viewers could learn more about the product line, download documentation, contact a sales rep and delve as deeply as they were inclined.

The new product line is primarily an aesthetic product, different for this client, known in the industry for providing a strong and durable product, if somewhat “vanilla” in nature. Historically, this client’s marketing efforts could be most accurately described as “industrial”. To reach a new generation of visually oriented architects and interior designers, we convinced the client that this was a situation requiring beautifully designed marketing materials.

In a bold move, we placed the microsite homepage in front of the corporate website homepage so that a visitor to the corporate site immediately had to decide whether to view the new microsite or continue on into the corporate site. This short-term tactic helped raise awareness and generate traffic to the new site. E-mail launch announcements, pdf downloads, customizable sales presentation kits and tradeshow displays rounded out the program and allowed us to keep costs to a minimum. And materials are easy to update as the line continues to evolve.

Creative Services Group and our client have been honored with numerous awards for the campaign and individual components. We have since heard it said this was the most successful launch in the history of the company.

We enjoy helping clients enter new markets successfully.