TrueDemand
Launching a New Company and New Thinking about RFID

The Challenge:

In the summer of 2005, TrueDemand’s (www.tdemand.com) CEO, Eric Peters, asked LP&P to help devise a strategy for launching the company.  LP&P had worked with Mr. Peters at Manhattan Associates where he was the EVP of Strategy and Business Development.  During that time, LP&P successfully positioned Mr. Peters as an expert authority on RFID and its potential impact on supply chain management.  At that time, RFID had become a dominant story line in the supply chain press with many vendors touting their offerings.  The key was to devise a launch that would not only gain visibility for the company but to provide the press with a new creative perspective on RFID that would inspire them to write about it.

The LP&P Difference:

To generate maximum impact for the launch, LP&P devised a three step introduction campaign.  Step one was designed to leverage the company’s venture funding as the official introduction of TrueDemand.  Step two was to announce the formation of an advisory board comprised of well-known RFID and supply chain experts from academia, customers and vendors.  And Step three was to unveil the company’s product strategy at EPCGlogal and accompany that with customer and partnership announcements with Kimberly Clark and IBM, respectively.  

Throughout this six week period, LP&P pitched and secured meetings with industry analysts and media in advance of each announcement.  Our success pitching target media enabled TrueDemand to maximize mind share while providing reporters and analysts the time they needed to break their stories in real-time with each announcement. 

The other key element of the launch was to devise a message that brought a new angle to the RFID story.  Up until that point, most of the stories on RFID had been based around chips, readers and Wal-Mart’s mandate to its suppliers.  The message we focused on was “where will the value of RFID truly come from?”  TrueDemand’s message was that RFID was a data source that has value if you can feed it to analytical applications that enable organizations to improve supply chain efficiency and more accurately predict future demand trends enabling them to act strategically.

The Results:

The resulting launch was a huge success for the company.  The following quote from Mr. Peters best sums it up:

“Just wanted to let you know that your team has been doing a fantastic job and has clearly exceeded our expectations on this launch, and the real launch isn’t even until later this fall!”

Some of the results worth highlighting include:

• More than 40 one-on-one meetings with industry analysts and media.
• More than 35 pieces of coverage.
• On message coverage generated across supply chain and technology media including InformationWeek, cnet, eWeek, Logistics Today, RFID Journal,  San Jose Mercury News, Red Herring, Modern Materials Handling, and Supply & Demand Chain Executive.