Mercer Island Group

CASE STUDY #1 - Cyberprise

The Situation:

It was December 11, and Jeri Goldberg of Wall Data and Steve Boehler of the Mercer Island Group were discussing the Wall Data “Cyberprise” re-launch planned for early 1998. The Cyberprise was intended to be a total corporate re-launch of this successful $140 million company. The challenge: re-position a connectivity company to become an internet company.

“We’re buried getting this thing off the ground on crazy timing, and need help,” noted Ms. Goldberg. “We need a team that can come in, hit the ground running, and basically manage development of a messaging strategy, strategic messaging brief, a visioning paper (like a “white paper” but more vision oriented) and a high level CEO targeted brochure in only 3-4 weeks.”

Mercer Island Group took on the challenge. The assignment formally kicked off on December 18.

The Solution:

1. Interviewed a score of key Wall Data players
2. Attended Cyberprise product briefings
3. Conducted a competitive analysis
4. Interviewed analysts
5. Researched hundreds of pages of Wall Data memorandum
6. Read hundreds of pages of industry materials and reports

The Results:

Less than 3 weeks later, Mercer Island Group delivered a messaging strategy and brief that became the cornerstone to the re-launch, and was highly acclaimed by key Wall Data personnel.

A Good Day at the Office:

Kris Kelsay’s words say it all, "Mercer Island Group is the best strategic messaging agency I’ve ever worked with”

-Kris Kelsay, VP Marketing, Wall Data

CASE STUDY #2 - Atrieva

The Situation:
Atrieva, a young, Seattle-based technology company, had developed an online backup service unlike any other. The Atrieva Service provided the security of file protection and the convenience of access to files from any Internet-enabled PC – any time of day, anywhere in the world. The company had brilliant engineering, superior technology and dynamic leadership. It lacked only one thing – customers.

The Solution:
Change Direction
In early focus groups, Mercer Island Group determined that the target audience Atrieva had used, the classic technology early adapters, was off-base. Early Mercer Island Group research identified “Fringe Influential End Users” as showing more interest. A revised target audience was clearly what Atrieva needed.

Sell the Product
The next challenge was to identify the selling concept that would drive consumers to purchase the service. Early focus group work indicated that, while the new target audience was more interested in the Atrieva Service, overall purchase intent was below our expectations and needs. We discovered that only when consumers understood the service did they become interested in its purchase. The challenge was to discover a short-hand approach to convey the service’s attributes and benefits.

QuickLearn
Mercer Island Group explained Atrieva’s service to focus groups using the QuickLearn technique. This new products positioning technique organizes products into groups, giving the consumer quick and useful information, and then improves the product concept, all while receiving constant, immediate feedback. Before QuickLearn, only 2 or 3 out of every 10 participants showed interest in using the Atrieva service. After QuickLearn, that number bumped up to 7 or 8.

Our efforts lead Atrieva to its brand personality:

Successful, Confident, Professional, Trustworthy, Authoritative

Its brand promise:

Atrieva gives you confidence working on your computer

Its brand support:

Atrieva is the easy, secure and convenient way to safeguard your files

Its brand news:

Finally it can be done online

And its price and offer:

$14.95/month, unlimited storage with a free month trial offer, emergency CD and password escrow

The Results:
Our research efforts on behalf of Atrieva turned up a unique insight: consumers feared losing their files to a hard drive crash. This breakthrough began to drive all marketing efforts at the company, including banner advertising that brought amazing response rates. This also lead to our creation of a uniquely compelling new tagline for Atrieva: The Atrieva Service. Safe and Easy Online Backup

With a solid foundation of positioning, MIG began implementing a highly targeted marketing plan that included a partnership program, online response advertising, direct mail, targeted response-oriented print advertising, and public relations. Cleverly designed banner ads featuring the “hard drive crash” insight appeared on targeted Web sites such as C/Net, WSJ Interactive and Quote.com. Also, the Atrieva Web affiliate program was created to lower acquisition costs by linking the Atrieva Service from its partners’ Web sites.

A Good Day At The Office:
In the words of Carol Shade, the work done by MIG “saved the company…we were at a point where we needed strategic marketing direction and execution immediately. Bringing MIG on board was the most important investment we made this year.”

-Carol Shade, Atrieva Director of Marketing

CASE STUDY #3 - WebAnswers

The Situation:
WebAnswers is an e-commerce add-on service that delivers real-time, personalized answers to online customers’ questions with a mouse click.

Mercer Island Group began working with WebAnswers in late November of 1997. At that time, the service was ready for sale, but there was no awareness of the service, and it wasn’t clear what messages would appeal to the target audience.

The Solution:

1. 1. Target audience research

2. 2. Positioning development

3. 3. Key messaging

4. 4. Creative salesmanship

5. 5. Analyst and Media Tour

The Results:

1Uncovered Compelling Insights:

By conducting our target audience research, we were able to better understand the needs and challenges of the target group of Marketing VP’s. They felt that better, timelier information would increase sales, i.e. “instant information increases sales.”

2.Developed Compelling Tagline:

“WebAnswers. Fast Answers. Faster Sales.”

3.Refocused PR efforts away from the company name and towards the service name:

The parent company name is “Internet Information Sciences,” or IISciences. We learned through our target audience contacts that this was hard to say, hard to read, and basically a “mouthful.” WebAnswers, on the other hand, is an excellent service name that happened to deliver well on our new positioning and tagline.

4.Conducted Successful Analyst and Media Tour:

We arranged meetings with Yankee Group, Aberdeen, Forrester, Cahners, IDC, PC Week, and Internet World, just to name a few.

5.Brought Analyst Coverage, Press Coverage, and…Customers!

We were able to get this small startup company, with basically no track record, covered favorably in analyst reports and in the press, as well as ramping up consumer interest in their product.

A Good Day at the Office:

In the words of Karl Schafer-Junger, the work done by the Mercer Island Group “launched the company… We could not have done it without them. They focused us and got us in front of the right people. Bringing MIG on board was the most important investment we made this year.”

-Karl Schafer-Junger, VP of Sales & Marketing, WebAnswers