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Transformed complete
consumer disbelief into
+47%
growth in unit sales
growth in distributor orders
+55%
...in just one season.
What to do when consumers are convinced that you're full of crap...
FIRE ANTS
Aggressive, fast, persistent...and in some cases, deadly...fire ants are the scourge of the Southern United States. Colonies can stretch for a mile, with dozens of surface mounds per acre. Beneath those mounds are intricate tunnels that make it extremely difficult for lawn care and pest professionals to get ahead. Kill one mound and in less than a day, another one will appear.
To overcome this, Bayer Environmental Science launched TopChoice - a groundbreaking fire ant killer. The new and innovative advantage? Using a brand new "non-repellant" molecule (fipronil), TopChoice was undetectable. Fire ants would walk through the TopChoice microscopic granules, track them back to the mounds, and eventually spread the chemical throughout the tunnels and chambers of the colony. On a time-delay, the ingredients for Top Choice would activate about 14-days later. By then, it was too late - TopChoice molecules were everywhere. Not only was the colony wiped out within 48 hours, but the active ingredient fipronil would actually prevent fire ants from returning for the following 12 months...sometimes longer.
TopChoice bottoms out!
Bayer promised to revolutionize the fire ant market. However, the company was astounded when the the brand landed with a resounding "thud." Sales never took off. Homeowners and even professional customers were completely disinterested.
CALM WATERS CAN'T BE TRUSTED
When I was brought in, the first-year failure of TopChoice made no sense to me, either.
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The brand had specifically targeted regions that suffered the most from fire ants.
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Scientists, distributors, and lawn care operators all believed in the brand and its active ingredient.
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The front line sales folks were stocked with materials that touted the brand's landmark (and proven) year-long performance.
Okay, some homeowners had complained about the price. And yes, TopChoice was about 2x to 3x more expensive than the products for sale in retail stores. But TopChoice lasted 4x to 5x longer. And in terms of its performance/effectiveness, the brand couldn't be matched by any retail competitor. So, economically, TopChoice was not only less expensive in the long run, but the brand delivered far greater value than anything else on the market.
Everything seemed to be in order. I needed to dig deeper.
FIGHTING AGAINST "LEARNED INTUITION"
Conducting research throughout the fire ant belt (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida), I talked to homeowners who had never known a world without fire ants. From childhood through adulthood to parenthood, they all had their own stories of being attacked by these vile insects. Each reacted with horror when a mound popped up in their yard. They spun tales of home-cooked anti-fire ant solutions, from boiling water...to borax...to kerosene.
However, when I introduced them to TopChoice, these homeowners were incredulous!
"Year-long control? Yeah...whatever!"
"Wipe out the colony? In your dreams!"
"That's ridiculous! A nuclear bomb can go off and fire ants will be back in two weeks!"
Two weeks. That was the consistent answer.
"Two weeks!"
"Two weeks, no matter what you do!"
"I'll give you two weeks. Guaranteed the fire ants will be back!"
While Bayer had touted the brand, they had failed to account for the homeowner's real-life experiences. For decades, these homeowners had purchased the latest and greatest brands that had claimed 6-months, season-long, and year-long control. But not one of those brands had lived up to those promises. Two weeks later, the fire ants were always back. Worse, homeowners were outraged that these brands were still on the shelves, still advertising, and still making those false 'season-long' and 'year-long' promises. In fact - even though homeowners were desperate for a solution - the moment any brand tried to make a sales pitch, they tuned right out. To them, TopChoice was just another blustering brand that would ultimately let them down.
As one research participant put it...
"Why would I be willing to pay a price 2-3 times higher, just to be lied to again?"
DISRUPTION: THE 'BRAND' IS THE ENEMY!
Disruption is about identifying conventional thinking (the status quo) that's undermining our success...and then identifying ways to subvert that conventional thinking to our advantage.
In this case, a popular marketing rule - Always lead with the brand! - was sabotaging our efforts.
"They just don't trust brands," I explained to Bayer management and the advertising team. "As a result, leading with the brand becomes an immediate barrier for us. It generates immediate doubt and dismissal. So, let's do us all a favor and move the brand out of the way!"
Just about anyone in marketing will tell you that 'You NEVER sell the science...you sell the sizzle!' Science is boring. No one cares about it. But that's the status quo, isn't it? So let's disrupt that! Besides, psychologists will tell you that a person's strongest beliefs tend to be the ones they discover on their own - just as homeowners had discovered, on their own, that all fire ant brands were liars.
"Let's allow homeowners to discover this solution on their own," I recommended. "Not the TopChoice brand, but the science of HOW this product is different and WHY it works so well! Let them sell themselves! On the results....our secret...their neighbor's secret...the fire ant-killing secret they've been missing out on."
FIPRONIL: THE SCIENCE IS THE SIZZLE!
In collaboration with brilliant PR leader Steve Albertini, our answer was www.nofireants.com
On this unbranded website, consumers found a wealth of information. Scientists talked in plain terms, not about the TopChoice brand, but about a groundbreaking new molecule called fipronil, its development, and the EPA evaluation results. The site explained why so many fire ant brands had failed to live up to their promises - showing how competitor technology, chemistry, and active ingredients worked against fire ant behavior, instead of with it. The site extolled fipronil's "non-repellant" approach that was invisible to fire ants, and actually leveraged fire ant behavior to spread fipronil throughout the colony. There were testimonials from academics, distributors, lawn professionals, and even homeowners, all astonished at how well 'common sense' fipronil got rid of the fire ants.
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"One year with fipronil," one homeowner testimonial cheered, "One year fire ant free!"
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"I've been able to take my yard back!" another claimed, "Thanks to fipronil,"
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"I haven't seen a single mound in over a year-and-a-half!" another homeowner said, "This fipronil stuff is a winner!"
In fact, the only reference to the Bayer or TopChoice brands was a small link at the bottom of the page:
"Click here to read about the only EPA-approved fipronil fire ant killer available in the U.S."
From there, consumers were taken to a supplementary website that promoted TopChoice. It walked homeowners through the value, the application process, and the guarantee - calling on homeowners to ask their lawn care professionals about TopChoice.
PERFORMANCE: MAKING THE CONNECTION
Closely monitoring activity on the website, we also employed a rapid unbranded re-marketing program that provided consumers with the "latest developments" on fire ant prevention, additional testimonials, and of course, leads for fipronil lawn care operators in their area. Equally, we also helped Bayer develop and employ a B2B strategy, targeting high-risk / high-visibility fire ant customers (schools, park services, etc.) with their own set of materials and messaging.
The website was only part of the equation. Success largely depended on retraining the lawn care industry on how to sell TopChoice. We provided them sales materials and info sheets on fipronil. But the most important thing was changing their approach.
As the keynote speaker at a nationwide fire ant summit in Orlando, Florida, I cautioned lawn care operators, "Homeowners will think you're just trying to sell them another failed solution. I know it flies in the face of all your sales training, but don't focus on the brand and don't try to close the sale right then. Instead, send them to the website. Let them learn, understand, and eventually trust on their own. The first time they see a mound pop up, trust me...they'll call you!"
And call, they did.
By the end of TopChoice's second fire ant selling season, applicators had managed to increase TopChoice sales by more than +47%. Moreover, distributors increased their supply-chain orders by more than +55%.
And today? TopChoice is the #1 professionally applied fire ant killer in the United States.
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