Reinvigorating an entire fungicide portfolio
BAYER ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PORTFOLIO POSITIONING
After pioneering the plant health category more than 20 years ago with the invention of Stressgard fungicides, Bayer found itself in a crowded category marked by overused plant health claims. Simply put, the portfolio was underperforming compared to its potential. Met with marked confusion in the market about what Stressgard truly was, and no Stressgard product launches immediately on the horizon, Bayer needed to re-invent and grow this decades-old portfolio.
As marketing and communications agency of record, Global Prairie began by unearthing insights through a competitive analysis and qualitative and quantitative research conducted with current and prospective customers, distributors and Bayer's own sales team and technical specialists. The data revealed that while most golf course superintendents were familiar with Stressgard products, they largely misunderstood the technology, and many thought it was simply a pigment or dye.
Armed with these insights, Global Prairie developed a positioning strategy and relaunch campaign to create clear runway to reposition and relaunch Bayer’s entire portfolio of Stressgard products.
Leveraging audience and competitive insights, Global Prairie led the Bayer team through the creation of a new positioning statement for the Stressgard product portfolio, narrowing in on the point of difference that the Stressgard family of products ‘redefines normal’ for golf course superintendents. From that strategic foundation, we then developed a creative concept and campaign theme: “Extraordinary is Your New Ordinary.”
A relaunch campaign was designed to raise awareness of the refreshed portfolio brand positioning, while also allowing the individual product brands to shine within the portfolio. The fully integrated campaign featured actual customers and their families, revealing the campaign promise – “when you can count on your turf to be at its best, others can count on you to be at yours.”
The campaign included messaging strategy, creative ad executions (digital & print), earned and advertorial placements in trade media, social media content strategy, e-mail campaign content, tradeshow and experiential executions, and more.
The Stressgard campaign relaunch is credited with reinvigorating the entire portfolio, leading not only to the successful acquisition of new customers, but also the reacquisition of lapsed customers, who were reminded once again why they had loved Stressgard.
