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New Product, New Brand?
The introduction of a new product may or may not dictate a new brand. Often, a new product or service is an extension of an existing brand. Just as often, and a growing trend, is the
corporate brand subordinates products under that megabrand. In these cases,
only a product designation, possibly determined by an in-place set of nomenclature and hierarchies might be all that’s needed.
Branding new products requires a strategic decision.
If you think a new product or service needs to become a brand that can stand alone, Signature Strategies can help. We’ve helped launch a multitude of new products - from software and
peripherals to health insurance and health care services. We can do the same for you. We can help you design a branding and positioning program that will help to differentiate your new offering from your
competitors, determine your best market targets, and create the elements necessary to penetrate and make a positive impression on those markets.
Though we normally tailor our services to the exact needs of our clients, we have packaged a set
of activities most needed to brand and launch a new B2B product or service. And we deliver those elements for a lower combined price, coupled with a convenient payment plan.
Basic Package: This is a set of eight elements and
activities normally required to introduce a new brand successfully. If you have already determined a name, or if you believe you don’t need all components of this package, you can go back to List of Services to select the activities you do need our help with.
- Consultation pertaining to target market segmenting and to differentiating your product to compete
effectively. (7 to 10 hours by phone and email, including a written plan and recommendations for positioning and branding the new offering.)
- Creating a name that reflects your product strategy, brands your product
and positions it in the collective minds of your prospects and customers.
- Creating a logo to reinforce the name and provide a visual signature for the product in keeping with your
positioning strategy.
- Creating a positioning statement that states the major way your offering differs from competitive products or
services, while voicing a unique benefit.
- Developing a graphic standards document to help you and your suppliers use the product name, logo and promotional materials in a consistent and professional manner, and to designate how the product identity should align with the corporate identity and the identities of other products.
- Developing a computer-based presentation about the product for use in announcement meetings and sales presentations. (Normally, this will contain up to 20 type and chart slides plus product photos, supplied by you).
- Developing a press kit you can sent to trade press announcing the offering. It will contain press release, product
photos, product fact sheet and Q&A.
- Writing an announcement sales letter to your customers and prospects.
Options: There are five options that can be incorporated
in this package at additional but discounted prices. They are:
- Performing positioning research which provides basic information about what attributes are most important to customers about the kind of product you will offer, and how present competitors of yours are thought of in fulfilling those attributes.
- Performing name preference research to determine target market members associations, interpretations and reactions
of the top three or four names you are considering for your business.
- Create promotional literature specific to the new offering. This might be a four-color brochure, a set of data
sheets, a folder and slip sheets, whatever is most appropriate for the product or service.
- Writing a competitive comparison manual to help sales personnel distinguish and present product strengths relative to competitive products.
- Create and host a 5-to-10 page website. This is a basic informational site for the purpose of promoting the
product, its features and benefits. A site with ecommerce capability can also be designed, but is not part of a startup package.
Pricing: The basic package, all eight elements, if purchased separately from
our List of Services, comes to about $4,500. That assumes eight generous hours of consultation.
But with the B2B Brand Introduction Package, the total cost for these elements, including up to ten hours of consultation, is just $4,000. You save $500! That’s like getting the
presentation and your press release for free!
In addition, we don’t demand full payment upon completing the work. With a $1000 upfront payment, we’ll divide up the remaining $3,000 into ten monthly credit card payments. Yes, we’ll
automatically bill the credit card of your choice every month in the amount of $300 for just ten months. It’s no more than most car payments, but unlike car payments, it only lasts for ten months. This
initially frees up over $3,000 cash to help you with other introduction expenses.
Pricing the options: Because of the out-of-pocket expenses associated with
research projects, we’re not able to bill you monthly for research.
Nor can we set a price without knowing the scope and method of research we will need to use. However, we will discount the price of completed questionnaires from $25 to $20. That’s a 20% discount off the single largest cost component of research. If we determine we need 100 completed interviews, the discounted price for completed questionnaires will be $2,000, not the normal $2,500.
We will discount a website design
by 20% as well. Design includes establishing a site style and then placement of elements page by page. Normally there’s a $200 charge for style development plus $100 for designing and populating each page. Thus, our regular design price for a 5-page website is $700. If ordered and implemented as part of the Professional Service Startup Package, those design costs will be slashed by 20% - to just $560. If a 10-page site, you pay $960 instead of $1,200. In addition, these costs will be divided into 10 payments and billed to your credit card monthly along with the Basic Package charges. Remember though, for a website, only the design costs, not hosting, maintenance or initiation charges, will be discounted and billed in this way.
Both promotional literature and the competitive comparison manual are normally priced at $75 an hour. In this package, you receive a 20% discount - only $60 an hour for
writing and designing these materials. What is more, these costs can also be apportioned over 10 months and billed monthly to a credit card. The additional expenses involved in producing these materials
- printing, binders, photography, etc. - are not discounted and need to be paid for upon delivery of an invoice.
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