Case Study for Agency
03-1014863-739

SITUATION. Cornerstone makes the best large-screen monitors in the
world, but their name recognition was virtually nil because they had
focused all their attention on direct sales to a small market segment
(High volume document imaging). They came to us not quite two years ago
losing market share (and 300,000 a quarter). Morale at the company was
awful, the company was up for sale, and good people were leaving in
droves.

MARKETING CHALLENGE. Reverse decline in sales, determine the true value
of the brand and help the company get back on it’s feet. Rampant
channel conflict had caused relationships with the channel (both
distributors and resellers) to be strained at best. In short, the
company was either going to be sold (no buyers) or go under.

APPLICATION OF SOLUTIONS. We moved two people into their company full
time, developed and implemented a channel marketing program that
dramatically improved relationships out of the box, instituted our
proprietary B-MAP© Brand Mapping and Positioning research program that
told us what resellers, end-users and IT managers (corporate buyers)
thought about the whole big monitor category. Based upon that research,
we developed a creative approach that was eye-catching, memorable and
nailed the most important reasons for buying a big monitor (eye-strain
and productivity). As the high-performance leader in a crowded
category, we ran a joint promotion with Porsche, giving resellers a
chance to win (or earn) a 2-year lease on a Porsche Boxster by selling
Cornerstone monitors. We developed a distributor salesperson catalog of
high-performance products with points accumulated for sales of
monitors. A year-long direct mail campaign with telemarketing follow-up
to a targeted list of 40,000 purchasers of big-screen monitors has
increased brand regonition to this group from less than 1% to over 35%
today. And we are among the preferred vendors of the distributors we're
working with based upon our 180 degree turnaround.

RESULTS. The company was sold to the employees (with the agency
participating as the only outside investor), and we have a seat on
their Board of Directors. 1998 Q4 results (the first since ‘buying
ourselves’), were the best in 7 years, showing a profit large-enough to
cut 417,000 in quarterly profit-sharing checks for the employees! A
new Web site (www.BigMonitors.com) is gaining onesy-twosy sales with
small and medium businesses, while the direct sales force works with
resellers on gaining large deals. We were chosen recently as the
world-wide monitor supplier for American Express and CNA Insurance.

IN SHORT. . .
We've helped them become profitable.
The employee’s jobs were saved.
And along the way, we did some pretty cool advertising.