a top three mobile handset manufacturer :Business Strategy /Financial Advisors

De-risking a product launch
The mobile handset market is fiercely competitive, nowhere more so
than in the business sector. Phenomenally successful in the consumer
marketplace, a top three mobile handset manufacturer is fighting hard to
displace a competitor as the enterprise market leader. The firm had
developed an innovative device capable of defeating its rival in a features
battle. But perception is everything, and the firm had relatively weak
awareness amongst its target business customers.

Influencer50 was commissioned to identify those individuals most
influencing the enterprise sector in Germany, in readiness for the
firm’s forthcoming new product line. Influencer50 worked together
with the firm’s global marketing agency, which was responsible for all
aspects of the company’s WOM go-to-market strategy.

The research uncovered the huge influence and buying power
exerted by Germany’s government-housed Ministry for Economy
and Technology and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft research facility.
Corporates were shown to follow the buying advice of such groups
to a far higher degree than in the UK or US.With the growing trend for
large organisations to outsource their IT infrastructure, the systems
integrators were seen to be increasingly influencing the bulk purchasing
of smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). And not just the
major SIs, but many niche or ‘boutique’ firms. In contrast, infrastructure
giants such as IBM and HP, trade magazines and industry analysts
exerted less than expected influence.

Using this insight, the firm targeted the top 100 influencers on
business-orientated handsets in Germany. It sent each influencer a
pre-launch handset and supporting material. It also created an online
forum to gather influencers’ views on the product’s feature-set, pricepoints,
launch strategy and choice of resellers. Using the forum, influencers
could contribute their own experiences and suggestions, and see
the opinions and comments from other influencers.
The feedback was used to make last stage modifications to the device,
to the user documentation and to the launch strategy. Importantly, high
visibility of the handset was established within the influencer community.
Influencers had trialled the product, fed back on its capabilities and each
had read the inputs of the wider influencer group.

The firm was able to launch the new handset into a market whose
influencers were already aware of it and its features. These influencers
started influencing the market, and the handset sold quickly and in
volume.

As the firm’s spokesperson commented, ‘The addition of influencer
identification and marketing into our WOM rollout campaign for the
new handset has been invaluable. We could already target our expected
consumer-base through our ongoing marketing, but identifying and
working with the top-tier of market influencers was beyond our reach –
and we knew it’.

Importantly, identifying and targeting influencers had substantially
lowered the risk in launching the handset. Mobile devices are expensive
to develop and market launch is a critical point in the commercial
success, or otherwise, of each product. Pre-influencing a market prior
to launch minimised the risk to the firm and underpinned a successful
product release.