How Point to Point’s Work on a New Product Launch Helped Disrupt the Market
Introducing a new industry category with a flagship product
When it comes to home exteriors, Ply Gem is known for its wide variety of best-in-class siding solutions. In fact, for more than 75 years, Ply Gem has been the leading manufacturer of vinyl siding. But, Ply Gem knew that to retain their leadership position, they would need to re-invent their offering.
Enter EverPlank. The introduction of Ply Gem’s flagship product launched a new category — luxury vinyl siding. It looks like the more desired styles of wood or fiber cement but still offers the trusted performance of vinyl.
Now Ply Gem needed an identity for this new product before launching it in the market.
The Challenge: Change perceptions of a legacy product and create demand
While vinyl has many great performance attributes such as easy installation, low maintenance, and high durability, it’s still viewed as outdated. The successful launch of the EverPlank product would require overcoming legacy perceptions of vinyl as a “less than” product.
The complexity of the siding market also added to the challenge. While homeowners are the ultimate decision-makers, their decisions are largely influenced by recommendations. Therefore, rather than marketing the product directly to the homeowners, Ply Gem needed to get their upstream audiences — their internal sales organization, B2B dealers/distributors, and siding installers — on board first.
The Solution: Internal alignment and a phased, omnichannel approach
Point to Point developed a full product launch solution for the client, including a logo, tagline, messaging, design, and launch strategy. But it started with aligning Ply Gem’s internal stakeholders around the need to embrace vinyl.
Through collaboration and discussion, Point to Point encouraged Ply Gem to rethink how they view vinyl. Rather than focusing on the negative product associations, they now talk about vinyl as the desired product with sought-after characteristics.
We helped Ply Gem leverage its leadership position in a way that credibly and meaningfully disrupted the market. The tagline “Ever Beautiful. Ever Durable.” balanced their legacy with the performance attributes the market demands.
The campaign execution followed a staged rollout approach. The initial launch was to Ply Gem’s internal sales organization and then extended to external audiences. The omnichannel approach leveraged the following mix of tactics:
- Sales tools kits containing a sizzle video, product brochure, product sample options, and a sales presentation
- Digital activation comprised of a product landing page, email nurturing sequence and social assets
- Dealer & distributor assets including pop-up banners and counter cards to use in showrooms, as well as digital assets for use on websites and social channels
The Results: Maintaining a position of leadership in the market
The campaign received strong response from the Ply Gem sales organization and distribution partners.
The launch successfully convinced contractors to adopt and use the product, which created opportunities to capture product photography for use in future market activations.
Overall positive feedback on the messaging of the product required minimal adjustments for introductions into new markets.