Wyeth — Fort Dodge Animal Health
Fort Dodge Animal Health approached Two West to introduce Promeris, a challenger product, into a mature flea and tick control market that was dominated by Frontline/Frontline Plus and Advantage/K9 Advantix. The challenge was significant: How could Fort Dodge Animal Health orchestrate its largest product launch to date to capture 15% of an established market with a parity product battling fierce competitors?
The Two West Solution:
We leveraged the Two West WaveMaking process, which is our methodology for winning shoppers through emotion.
- Ripple: Scanning the waters for opportunity.
- Swell: Forming an unstoppable idea.
- Surf: Turning momentum into action.
Ripple: Scanning the waters for opportunity
Two West immediately went to work to better understand the marketplace, what triggers influence animal health shoppers and how to best reach and impact key influencers. Using ethnography, primary research, and secondary research, we worked with Fort Dodge Animal Health to uncover key insights that would provide Promeris with a competitive advantage:
- Ethnography Research unveiled a wealth of key insights, including:
- Veterinary Technicians, not the Veterinarians, are often more accessible and spend the most time with customers in conversations.
- Customers would often rely on the advice of Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians when selecting a flea and tick preventive.
- A market assessment showed that the established brands had created a homogenous, parity driven marketplace with almost identical claims, pricing, promotions and sales channels.
- Our assessment of news and data from the companion animal healthcare field highlighted a growing problem: an increasing concern from consumers and veterinarians that parasites could become resistant to certain treatments after prolonged use.
Swell: Forming an unstoppable idea
Utilizing the key insights gained from our strategic process, our account planning and creative teams worked to form an unstoppable idea to ensure a successful launch of Promeris. First, Two West was able to turn a disadvantage, a new product in an established marketplace, into a strategic advantage. Two West leveraged the “new chemistry” of Promeris as being optimal at targeting “survivor” ticks and fleas that other products may leave behind. Not only did this provide a unique advantage for Promeris, it would create a “shadow of doubt” about customers' current products.
Second, we recommended a change in target audience focus—moving the emphasis away from Veterinarians, who were already being bombarded by messages from competitors. Instead, communication was directed at the often neglected, yet more customer—engaged, Veterinary Technicians. To ensure strong engagement, Two West rolled out an innovative incentive program targeting Veterinary Technicians.
Surf: Turning momentum into action
Now that we had identified key insights, the most impactful influencers, and had an unstoppable idea, our creative team went to work to turn it all into action and momentum that drove results. The creative team came up with several engaging concepts. We tested these creative approaches with Veterinarians, Veterinary Technicians, and Customers. The “Flea Circus” concept delivered the most promising results in preference and recall. We then translated this creative concept into an integrated campaign including print, radio, television, online microsites, interactive banner ads, in-clinic signage and displays, collateral, direct mail, couponing, sample kits, trade advertising, trade show marketing, guerilla marketing and channel partner incentive programs.
The Results
Fort Dodge Animal Health achieved its goals for the product launch and the work caught the attention of Ad Age.