Microarts Creative Agency - Launching Brands - Case Studies

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New corporate brand identity, including brand book and usage & style guidelines documentation

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Web site and online application interface

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Integrated sales and marketing communications plan

		-	To-market strategy

		-	Trade advertising campaign

		-	High impact direct marketing

		-	Interactive & online marketing

		-	Trade show events

		-	Corporate collateral

		-	Sales support materials

•		I-many was able to secure $12 million of second round venture funding using the new brand and marcom plans as key pieces of the company road show presentation.

•		Within 90 days I-many had registered 45 sellers (year goal was 70) and 995 buyers (year goal was 1000). These goals were exceeded within a 6-month time frame.

•		First e-commerce contractual relationship occurred within 3 weeks of launch.

•		I-many won two best-of-show awards at two separate industry trade shows.

•		In July 2000, a difficult IPO time as the market began to retreat, I-many raises $68 million in successful IPO and the stock jumps 39% on first day of trading.

THE OPPORTUNITY
In 1999, SCC (Software Consulting Corporation) of Portland, Maine, an $80M developer of manufacturing contract management software, recognized an opportunity to leverage the Internet to expand their business and take it public. A number of dot-coms had launched online purchasing exchanges for medical and surgical supplies, yet this spot buying amounted to only 15-25% of healthcare purchases.The real opportunity was to offer a unique online solution to address the 75-85% of healthcare purchases made through contractual relationships.

The objective was to create an internet business leveraging SCC's software heritage, while creating new business opportunities, building their traditional software business, and taking advantage of the internet and financial environments to firmly establish a public company.

The critical first step was inventing the new brand, including the identity, positioning, value propositions, to-market strategy and integrated communications plan.

Launching the Internet business required building key business relationships around a community of buyers and sellers, and this presented a classic Catch-22 situation: Without registered buyers, sellers weren't interested, and without registered sellers, buyers weren't interested.

Take the company public within the year
Establish a new brand as the key provider of healthcare contract management technology
Build 70 seller relationships consisting of manufacturers of healthcare medical and surgical supplies
Build 1000 buyer relationships consisting of those directly involved with the purchasing decisions for hospitals and Independent Care Providers

Starting with research gathered from client workshops, focus groups, and personal interviews, MicroArts strategic advisory team documented the opportunity within the market landscape, and made recommendations for a position and approach that would accomplish SCC's business objectives.

While SCC was focusing the new business opportunity on healthcare, MicroArts recommended developing a broader brand strategy, enabling the company to seize other business opportunities.

MicroArts' proposition was to establish a business category using the concept of "individualized contracting" and name the new business I-many, with the promise of providing "individuals" with information and purchasing power currently only available to groups of "many" via established GPOs (Group Purchasing Organizations).

A comprehensive brand book with corporate guidelines was produced to ensure successful internal and external migration from SCC to I-many.

The next step was to bring the new brand to market, and two segmented tracks where defined, one to accommodate sellers (primarily manufacturers) and a second to accommodate buyers (healthcare providers).

For sellers, the message focused on leveraging e-business tools to reduce customer acquisition costs and improve service. MicroArts identified CEOs and GMs of large manufacturers of healthcare supplies as primary decision makers, and created a detailed plan to help the sales force reach these people and initiate relationships. A high-impact campaign, that included innovative use of a cellular phone mailer, grabbed the undivided attention of over 40 c-level decision makers.

This coincided with a print campaign directly targeting their VPs and Brand Managers, driving over 100 companies through an online process to register and build a business relationship with I-many.

For buyers, the message focused on a personal motivation, as we had identified a segment of under-satisfied individual buyers at hospitals who believed they could save money and do a better job establishing their own negotiated contracts with sellers. Now, instead of being locked into just what the GPO's would provide, I-many offered them the unique benefits of individualized contracting.To encourage building this buyer community (in-spite of not having sellers on board) a promotional sweepstakes campaign was created, attracting buyers with the concept "Individualized Contracting, only you can make it real" following a registration process that allowed people filling in the online forms for contact and qualifying information a chance to win an "individualized" dream vacation.

These two communications programs were digitally integrated into the new I-many.com Web site. Campaign response sites worked to identify visitor's interests as a buyer or a seller, and created a customized experience for each. To drive the message forward, MicroArts created and coordinated complete integrated communications programs including print ads, tradeshow events and both online and offline direct marketing.