ABB.
Global product strategy for a B2B brand.
Identifying the gap.
In the fast-paced world of global energy management, ABB faced a multifaceted challenge. They were equipped with a robust, multi-site energy asset and management platform. However, launching a coherent, global go-to-market strategy that simultaneously catered to individual local markets proved to be a significant hurdle.
This gap hindered their connection with energy managers, consultants and partners at a local level, resulting in minimal account penetration and a significant lack of market awareness.
Tomorrow People was engaged to help identify the gaps in order to understand the opportunities.
ABB aimed to disrupt energy management with a digital experience designed for energy and facilities managers. They engaged Tomorrow People to generate deep insight into the target audience’s pain points and identify areas of opportunities for ABB.
Together, we were able to bring a knowledge-based campaign to life in a matter of weeks, not only educating the target audience on the art of the possible, but creating a sustainable stream of pipeline opportunities for ABB.
A push/pull model created engagement at all stages of the buyer journey, via personalized messaging triggered from buyer-intent signals. The data points generated provided the sales teams with key insights to support ongoing pipeline development.
Discovery workshops, stakeholder interviews and market analysis were performed to truly understand the buyer, their journey and how the product would be of benefit to them.
Just as importantly, we were able to align features and capabilities to the audience’s challenges, enabling a clear product messaging strategy that differentiated from the competition.
Being able to articulate the value of a product is one thing; being visible to the right audience at the right time while being able to cut through the noise is another.
Channel analysis, competitive analysis, customer interviews and market research were all undertaken to understand how the audience was consuming information, the format they wanted this information in, and how and where they would go to seek it.
Informed by these insights, we identified and prioritized desirable and viable value propositions and enabled incremental next-phase investment decisions.
This process had the added benefit of serving as a training ground for the wider ABB group, showcasing how the approach could be rolled out to other local markets.
The culmination of all of the research and positioning work was to create and execute a bold, multi-channel marketing strategy to help ABB cement its position in existing markets, and in turn facilitate its launch in new markets.
The strategy focussed on three core areas:
– Powerful and value-driven product messaging
– Clearly defined global and local objectives
– Automation and analytics
The impact.
The refined strategy saw ABB effectively engage local markets, resulting in a remarkable surge in account activity. Carefully crafted messaging allowed ABB to communicate with different stakeholders in ways that were relevant to them, providing crucial traction with multiple prospects.