March (PDF) - GN Store Nord

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No More Quiet Launches Following up on last year’s successful launch of the ReSound Metrix, GN ReSound is now expanding its portfolio by introducing two new products targeting the hearing instrument mid-market. The campaigns to promote the new devices pick up where the different and attention-grabbing approach used to launch the ReSound Metrix left off. 6 MARKETING ReSound Pixel GN Magazine 1 l 06 The Spring 2005 launch of the ReSound Metrix, the most advanced high-end hearing instrument on the market, was the start of a whole new marketing strategy for the GN ReSound brand. The core of the strategy is to create an independent profi le for each new product and attract a lot of attention. This means spotlighting every aspect of each individual product. In practice, this strategy requires extensive and rigorous training of sales staff, product managers and production and marketing staff. Everyone involved gets a thorough introduction to the actual product, and everyone learns how the product should be “handled” right from production to presentation, sales and other marketing aspects. This hearing aid addresses users in the upper half of the mid-market. The ReSound Pixel stands out by offering the best sound quality in this segment, regardless of user surroundings. The ReSound Pixel uses a 17-band WARP technology, which provides a high sound resolution. It features very fast processing time, maximizing the benefi ts from the other functionalities such as the noise reduction system and the anti-feedback system. The device was launched on the North American market in February 2006, and will be introduced on most other markets in May. ReSound Plus5 ”The orange color is a recurrent theme in the campaign for the new ReSound Plus5 hearing instrument,” says Alice Amund Nielsen, vice president of marketing at GN ReSound. No More Product Family Launches “Another important aspect of the new strategy is that we focus more on not comparing our new products with existing GN ReSound products. Instead, we will be more likely to compare them with the competition’s products,” says Alice Amund Nielsen, vice president of marketing at GN ReSound. In other words, GN ReSound has moved away from the “Product Family Marketing” approach. Instead, new products will be promoted under their individual names from now on. Previously, the standard approach was to name products using numbers, such as “Canta4” or “Canta7,” and you would refer to the “Canta family of products.” This “family tradition” made it diffi cult to promote a new product or a new version, because it would not be seen as a unique product. Furthermore, it was necessary to compare with other GN hearing aids, and the idea was to get away from that. In addition, it was more diffi cult for both dispensers and users to differentiate between a new product and an existing GN ReSound product. Name and Color Characterize the Product GN ReSound’s two new hearing instruments, the ReSound Plus5 and the ReSound Pixel, both appeal to users in the very wide mid-market segment, so the two devices do not compete against each other. The ReSound Plus5 targets the lower end of the segment, while the ReSound Pixel is for users at the upper end. “Our products should be easier to recognize than they have been before. We achieve that by giving them easily recognizable names, names that mean something,” explains Nielsen. This product features the sophisticated anti-feedback system that amplifi es sound better than competing products in the same segment without causing high-pitched noise. In addition to the ordinary closed fi tting solution, the device is also available in an open-fi tting version. In open-fi tting solutions, the user’s voice sounds much more natural, and users don’t get the feeling their ears are clogged. The device was launched on most markets in February 2006.
The ReSound Pixel name and the campaign suggest a comparison with photographs. “On top of the features a GN ReSound hearing instrument has, the name ReSound Plus5 also refers to an additional fi ve good reasons why the user will get an outstanding experience out of wearing the product. The ReSound Plus5 features excellent sound quality. It has the exceptional open-fi tting design with a new thin sound tube; it amplifi es sounds without feedback; and it measures the user’s sound environment to optimize the fi t. And in many cases, users will be able to take a hearing aid home after their fi rst visit to the audiologist,” says Nielsen. She emphasizes that the ReSound Plus5 campaign highlights exactly these fi ve aspects. The campaign is dominated by a deep orange color. The idea is to link a given color to a specifi c product so it stands out from the competition’s products and marketing strategies. The ReSound Metrix marketing took the same approach, consistently using a green color. “The ReSound Metrix was green, real green. We practically ‘own’ that green color now,” Nielsen states, and smiles. “We’ll also end up owning that orange color used for the ReSound Plus5, just wait and see.” The ReSound Pixel campaign uses a deep blue color. The product name suggests a comparison with photographs, since the number of pixels in a picture determines how sharp the image is. By transferring the pixel notion to hearing and the marketing of a hearing aid, the recipient understands from the pictures that not all hearing aids are the same, nor is their ability to give users optimum results. The ReSound Pixel campaign uses two images of a roaring lion. They differ in their pixel count, so one is blurred while the other with a higher pixel count is sharp, symbolizing the fantastic sound quality of the ReSound Pixel. GN ReSound expects the two new products and the attention-grabbing campaigns to help build a strong position in the mid-price segment, which accounts for more than half of the overall hearing instrument market. GN needs to capture a larger share of this crucial market, and the new products will help create organic and profi table growth for GN on the international market in 2006. IP Has Gone Mainstream Not too long ago, the business community was still talking about IP telephony as if it were a phenomenon akin to a manned space trip to the most distant stars of our galaxy, but in just a few years, IP telephony has become the standard. Some 50% of the business community’s speech traffi c today is based on IP telephony, and the global use of IP is growing at decent double-digit rates every year. The people at US-based Synergy Research Group have studied their crystal ball and project that the total market for IP telephony will be worth almost USD 11 billion by 2009. Most of that value will represent equipment, because traffi c charges will be next to nothing. Some 80-90% of speech traffi c will be IP-based by then. How, Not Why At GN Netcom, the IP telephony approach targets the business community: i.e. solutions for businesses moving to IP telephony. This is not something the ordinary employee can do on his own simply by downloading Skype so the company can make free phone calls. This is a change that must involve the entire company; it requires both hardware and software that can handle IP-based telephony for everyone throughout the organization. In practice, a lot of companies will set up an IP telephony solution that includes hardphones (ordinary IP-enabled telephones) and softphones (telephony software). A hardphone offers the advantage that it works exactly like a conventional telephone: it can be used without the computer being switched on. On the other hand, you always have a softphone with you on your laptop. It can be used when working at home, at the offi ce or on a business trip. The phone number is the same anywhere in the world. In order to get the actual system, the company must consult its IT supplier or telecoms operator, and typically the project will be managed by the IT department. In this process, the corporate management will no longer be asking, “Why IP?”, but “How IP?” Complete Portfolio GN has seen IP telephony coming for quite some time. GN offi ce headsets are ready for IP, so our customers can move easily from traditional telephony to IP with GN as their supplier. In practice, IP telephony will not be a major revolution for users, provided the transition is handled professionally. “Regardless of whether our customers have a softphone or a hardphone, they can fi nd a GN headset for their communication needs. Several of our headset solutions today can be connected to a PC using a USB cable. The vast majority of GN Netcom products that don’t have USB built in can be connected using an adaptor like the GN 8110,” explains GN Netcom Product Business Manager Morten Saabye. The latest additions are the GN 9350, which can be connected by USB cable or to a fi xed-line telephone, and the GN 4800, which can be connected to a traditional corded headset and switch between a hardphone and a softphone, so users need only one headset for all their telephony needs. GN’s comprehensive portfolio comprises both corded and wireless headsets, giving businesses all the known benefi ts of using a headset. “Our headsets provide our customers with the freedom and the advantages of both IP telephony and conventional telephony. In addition, we have IP products offering better sound quality that makes them ideal with the PC for ‘sound-intensive’ jobs such as e-learning, video conferences and webcasts,” says Saabye. % �� BUSINESS TELEPHONY �� Year ■ �� ■ �� Source: Synergy Research Group, Inc. GN Magazine 1 l 06 IP telephony is expected to account for almost 90% of all telephony by 2009. 7
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