This transcript was generated with the help of AI and may contain some errors.

Brian Cole (00:00):
It’s important that manufacturers have clarity about their brand and it’s important that manufacturers have clarity about who their individual products are for and what pains or opportunities they create or solve for those customers. And then there’s that middle ground of like, why do we have all of these products? Why is our portfolio this?

Reid Morris (00:27):
Welcome to The Inventory. We are running a special podcast series from Element Three and Trader Interactive exploring how OEMs can launch products smarter and with more lasting impact. In each episode of this series, we unpack new research on what really drives sales momentums in dealer distributed industries from the timing of your reveal to how buyers actually shop and how dealers sell. I’m Reid Morris and I’m joined by Brian Cole from Element Three and Scott Smith from Trader Interactive. The team behind leading marketplaces like RV Trader, commercial Truck Trader, and Cycle Trader, as well as Statistical Surveys, the industry leader in sales intelligence. Together we’ll dig into data stories and strategies that reshape how new products come to market and what it takes to turn a launch and a long-term growth. Let’s get started. Scott and Brian, thanks for coming back on the mics with me. It’s awesome to be back.

Scott Smith (01:23):
Great to be here.

Reid Morris (01:24):
For those of you who have not listened to our previous episodes, have a couple of folks here talking about product launch research that Element Three and Trader Interactive have done together.

(01:33):
So Scott is VP of OEM and Strategic initiatives over at Trader, and Brian is a strategy director on Element Three’s team. And the thing that we really want to dive into today is this idea that when an OEM is going to market with a new product, it’s somewhat of an obvious statement that they’re landing in a competitive landscape, competitive products, lots of trade-offs for consumers to make, but that’s not the only thing they’re competing with. And that there is, let’s say they’re launching the 26, they have used inventory from 25, 24, 23 could be years depending on some of the industries that we operate in. And this question of what does an OEM do about that? How do you balance those things? How do you think about the decisions that you’re making? So I’d love to just pick you guys brains on that topic.

Brian Cole (02:18):
Let me start by going back to something we talked about in a previous episode. I’ll kind of recap this. We know that new products when launched in specifically that most of the data we have from the RV space as an example is that when you launch a new product, the most likely peak of sales for that product, the quarter where they’re going to sell the most of those is the next year’s peak selling period, which is usually like Q2 on a calendar year. That relays a few things. One, there’s this onion layer situation of model year on model year on model year that it’s just inherent and in the business where you’re just releasing products and they keep following one after another. And so it’s structural to the business. It takes a while to make these products get ’em out to the market. But what’s interesting about that is they’re also often launching brand new products that are new segments for them or new product line or a new category.

(03:19):
And to your point earlier, Reid, I think Scott can add to this too because of his experience, so often these manufacturers will treat these new products as if they are innovating the industry and frankly, they very rarely are. It is really rare that you’re going to launch a product that invents or creates a new category in the space. And that is an important thing for these companies to keep in mind that you are landing in a space where there will always be competitors in the manufacturers around you and within your own lineup and within your own previous model years. It’s just very crowded, basically

Scott Smith (03:59):
Extremely crowded. And you’re absolutely right Brian, that most new product launches are more evolution than revolution, I think is how you could put them. Which is not to say that they’re not great and newsworthy.

Brian Cole (04:13):
Yeah, totally.

Scott Smith (04:13):
But it takes time to explain to the retail network to convince the consumer why this new product is great. Whereas last year’s model has the advantage of 12 more months of doing that, right? That maybe it’s not as new, maybe it’s not quite the latest and greatest, but by then the dealer understands what resonates with the consumer, with the buyer about that product. And there’s also the advantage of word of mouth. The product that’s been on the market for longer they use product has as a reputation has that advantage of word of mouth that owners talk to other owners. There’s this thing called the internet where people say things on forums and owner groups and social media about those products. So they’re known entities at that point where the new product isn’t. And that’s really what you have to overcome with a launch is that this is brand new. You’re going to be the first or one of the first to buy. And this is why it’s worth doing that is really I think with a launch, the question you have to answer, that’s the burden of proof you have as a manufacturer.

Brian Cole (05:24):
The extended point here is that in a lot of the, at least on the B2B2C side, like the outdoor rec, RV power, sports, marine, these are leisure purchases. They’re rarely a, I need this X product in order to maintain the income or lifestyle that I have. It’s an add-on. And in those scenarios, you’re also competing against anything that customer might decide to spend that money on instead. So a boat purchase might be competing with a cabin purchase, a RV purchase might be competing with a new car purchase. There’s a lot of things to be considering there that demands that you not only tell the story of what the product is, but also why someone should art with their not small amount of money to buy said product or products from your company and your dealers.

Reid Morris (06:29):
Where that makes my mind go, just as an aside, is the Go RVing campaign where it’s positioning RVing as actually a product as an alternative to flying. And it’s not even a thing you will own alternative and it’s just a mode of transportation of purchase the way to get there versus rent the way to get there or fly, which I think is just an interesting way to really extrapolate out that comparison

Brian Cole (06:55):
Point. And in this day and age, you say Uber or Lyft sort of started this, but now there’s so many ways to rent a boat or rent a vehicle that you’re also competing with the decision of rent versus own. And so the sale has gotten even more complex. Or maybe the better way to say that is that the decision for the consumer has gotten more complex not in the way they purchase, but in the things that they might consider.

Reid Morris (07:23):
Yeah, it’s interesting. There’s, for lack of a better word, kind of business platitude of the consumer has is better informed than ever is the consumer is stronger than ever. And if feel like typically that’s spoken through the lens of they’re better informed because there’s things on the internet and forums and all this information that’s available to them, but it’s also that the amount of choice available to them is so much greater than it used to be, which is kind of interesting. So if you are an OEM thinking about your launch, then what do you do with this information? What are the questions that you’re asking your team?

Scott Smith (07:54):
That’s a great question. I think that essential fact, the sheer abundance of choice available to the consumer, to the buyer is something you have to grapple with right up front when you’re planning for your launch. And as a marketplace at Trader Interactive, we operate a number of marketplaces in recreational and commercial industries, there’s arguably no better representation of the sheer amount of choice available to the consumer, to the buyer, whether they’re recreational or commercial than the marketplace itself. So you have to grapple with that while your launch is the biggest thing on your mind when you go into work at a manufacturer for the, let’s call it the 12 to 18 months leading up to that launch, it is but one product in a very crowded landscape as you put it. So everything you do really has to be about differentiation. Everything you’re planning for when you go to market with your launch has to be about why this product is different, why it’s worth buying this new product over a used one, why it’s worth buying this new product over another new product from another manufacturer.

(09:06):
Why this new product is worth buying over a substitutable product in another industry or a vacation or something in a totally different category. Differentiation as a marketer to me is all that matters If you’re not differentiating, you’re arguably not marketing. So I think that really you have to be quite obsessive about that. If I’m advertising in a marketplace, I need to call attention to my product and say, this is why we developed this product, this is why it’s coming to market now and this is why you should consider it and really make a strong case that way.

Brian Cole (09:42):
Yeah, I would add to that, that it’s also really critical that you understand your dealer’s business model. Your dealers are for the most part in these industries, carrying lots of products from multiple oes and yours is the most important to you. And for some of those dealers, yours is the most important to them, but that isn’t always the case. And so while I add to Scott’s point about differentiating, which I think is really critical in the story you tell about the product, there are also things you can do to help limit the competition for the buyer who steps on the dealer lot. So there’s a couple things. One is how do you help your dealers before you launch a product, clear off inventory that they have of your brand or even other brands through things like inventory focused, like local marketing campaigns, maybe co-marketing programs that help your dealer market themselves in a way in the area around them that benefits you because they have more space for your units and maybe they’re doing more sales overall so they can buy more of yours to sell more of yours, helping them win.

(11:01):
We’ll help you have more of your new products on their lot. We all know that the shopping process for people who buy anything these days has gotten more digital, more research ahead of time, but ultimately you need your product to be in as many consideration sets for people before they move into their shopping period. And then also you need to try to break into their consideration set when they get to those purchase engagements like at a dealer lot or excuse me, at a show, whatever that is. And so the more you can help your dealers have more of your products on their lot and your new products, the better chance it is that the warranty that they sign is going to be for that new product.

Reid Morris (11:46):
So my mind goes a couple places here. The first double click episode we did was on this operational part of the launch, which I feel like in other words is just how you interact with your B2B partners, which feels like the second part of what we were talking about here, the other side of this being the consumer, the differentiation. I’m curious to maybe dive a little bit deeper on that. First, the report talks about product messaging, there’s obviously a brand and product portfolio layer to this and how you do that. Well, I’m curious what goes through each of your minds as you think about that? Alright, how do I actually then beyond differentiate the product, think about my portfolio inclusive of new and used competitive products As you’re on that kind of messaging consumer facing standpoint,

Brian Cole (12:33):
There is a challenge for manufacturers in this space or even this is true in automotive and other industries like that, that you have a manufacturer brand that you need to build up and keep strong and reinforce. That’s sort of what the automotive industry is famous for is how strong their manufacturer brands are. But then you also have product brands to maintain strength. And so an example of a highly visible product launch from the past five years is when Chevrolet released the new Corvette generation and all the teasing they did ahead of time and that and how big of a change in the product it was and all those things that is work that they have to do and have spent basically 70 years building up both the Chevrolet brand and also the Corvette brand and educating people about how they name the different generations of Corvette.

(13:30):
And all of that is done leading up to this moment of a pretty massive change in the product where they went to a mid-engine model and the giant risk for them there is if we don’t do this well and we change this product this much, do we alienate these loyalists we’ve built up for almost a hundred years or do we bring them with us along the way? That is a sort of a expanded, really significant version of this, but the same holds true in any of these worlds. Many of the manufacturers in say RV or Marine, their individual product brands are interesting and helpful for shopping when you get to the website, but don’t carry a lot of cachet, but some of them do and that adds to complexity and you have to consider that and where you can build up both of those brands together, it just builds more consideration and relevance and equity and all of that. But it’s a hard game.

Reid Morris (14:32):
I’m curious about each of your reactions to this. The place that my mind actually goes is it feels like in an environment like outdoor rec, there’s actually some inconsistency in whether it is the OEM brand or the product brand that carries the weight. So for example, you’ve got some storied brands like Airstream where they’ve done a lot of brand building over time

Brian Cole (14:51):
And

Reid Morris (14:52):
People know that they have, they speak about that manufacturer brand. But then as you go into some other areas and some other producers of class A, B, C, people know the product brand that they have, but they don’t really think about the OE at all. And I’m curious what your reactions are to that fact or poke holes in it. I’m curious.

Scott Smith (15:09):
That’s a very good point and I think for me it speaks to the importance of marketing to your loyal customers as well. Not just conquesting because do I think it’s important in rv, I think it’s important in Marine and any of these industries to invest in the manufacturer brand and to have that emblem stand for something universal across your product line. Ford, sometimes you’d hear this referred to as polishing the oval. There has to be equity in the parent brand from my perspective because that cascades to your individual products and I think Airstream is a great example in rv. There are a number of great examples there. I think that becomes your overarching brand narrative and then you have all of these products that bring that brand promise to life in different ways for different buyers. That to me is the right architecture because you have to have a coherent narrative to share with your loyal customer to bring it all back to that to say, you came to us and you bought this product from us and this is the lifecycle, the point of the lifecycle you were at, this is what your needs were at the time and now we’re coming to market with this new product that does these different things and that this is why it’s the right product for this consumer, which maybe you are now.

(16:41):
So I think that it’s really important to have that narrative framework of why this product, why now, who’s it for and how does it connect to the brand, the manufacturer brand? I think a really successful launch answers all of those questions very effectively for the buyer.

Brian Cole (17:00):
I would add much to that. Scott’s spot on with that. I think just to go back to a couple of things we talked about in an earlier episode, it’s important that manufacturers have clarity about their brand and it’s important that manufacturers have clarity about who their individual products are for and what pains or opportunities they create or solve for those customers. And then there’s that middle ground of why do we have all of these products? Why is our portfolio? The other thing I might add, just something to think about is if you’re a manufacturer with a lot of products, but one of them is like a flagship that has its own sort of Kleenex situation where they don’t, maybe people know of your product than they know of your brand, that’s an important opportunity to use that brand as a sort of Trojan host into the rest of your portfolio.

(17:56):
And so if you have a clear understanding of who your audience is and why they might want one more product over another or if they’re going to buy multiple in their lifetime, like how they progress through those different purchases, you can leverage that product brand to bring people into the larger portfolio in a way that makes sense for them rather than trying to force the OE brand on these people and really make it necessary that they put that first. Don’t ignore the strength of a product brand even if it feels like it competes with you, you’re the rest of your products in some way.

Reid Morris (18:34):
Yeah, that’s really interesting. The other place I’d be curious, we can abort if this feels like two in the weeds, but flipping back to the operational side of this, we talk about moving inventory, things like that. One of the tactics that we spoke to or Brian that you did earlier is this idea of inventory specific geospecific promotion. You can use marketplace obviously for that, for promoted listings. What other tactics come to mind as ways to help move that inventory beyond say, specific inventory based media efforts? What else comes to mind

Brian Cole (19:12):
There? Well, certainly your OE are going to look at opportunities to do rebates or some kind of other price play to move previous model year things off the lot. I think the other thing that you could be thinking about, maybe this is a little bit different than what you’re saying Reid, but in some of the consumer interviews or research surveys that we did on this project, we heard from a lot of people that they will start their shopping considering used and then maybe work their way into new and that one of the reasons that they are, well maybe say this differently, they are kind of predisposed to not trust the dealer purchase experience and to think that there’s something maybe that they’re getting got on and that they would maybe lean more toward a private seller. And so I do think there’s also work that a OE can do with their dealers to help them deal with that trust issue. Could be different types of campaigns. It could be helping them evolve their shopping or buying experience in the showroom. It could be helping them with local RV events or local sponsorships that build some community trust in a way that makes people not as adverse to shopping from that dealer.

Scott Smith (20:37):
Right. Yeah, I think that’s a good point. It’s a very important hurdle to clear, I think on the path to purchase for a new product, right? You have to overcome as a consumer, you have to overcome that anxiety that you may have, especially if you’re interacting with a dealer you haven’t dealt with in the past. If you have a relationship with that dealer, if you’ve had a positive purchase experience, ownership experience, inclusive of service, inclusive of all the things that ownership entails, I think that can be a real asset. But otherwise it can be intimidating. The dealer can be intimidating, right? Fairly or unfairly. There is an anxiety that comes with visiting a dealer or submitting a lead. Even that there’s always that fear, that perception that am I going to get God, as Brian put it, yes, I’m interested in this new product that’s just launched and it looks really appealing and I’ve seen the ads, but am I confident enough in my knowledge and in what I want to achieve going to the dealer that I’m willing to take that step. And yeah, I think that’s why the consumer, the OEM communication to the consumer has to be strong enough that the consumer feels empowered to have a really strong conversation with the dealer, that the dealer is more of a facilitator and more of a partner in the transaction rather than taking the lead on it and maybe steering the consumer to a product that they didn’t intend to buy. I think that’s the importance of empowering the consumer so that it really does become a two-sided transaction rather than being led by the dealer.

Brian Cole (22:13):
This is something that I would love to do additional research on at some point is the psychology of going to a dealer versus going to an event like a local boat show versus shopping online and how much a consumer feels like there is a commitment expectation or who has the power in that moment. Certainly if you’re shopping online, you probably feel like you have all the control, especially if you’re not giving them your information. But when you walk on a dealer a lot, you feel at least this has been my experience shopping for cars or other things that it does feel when you’re at the dealer that you are not in control. You are along for a ride and that can be disorienting if you’re not ready to purchase yet. And I’m curious whether the reason that shows in these type of industries are such a common moment in the buying experience or the buying process is because it is somewhere in between there. It’s like a hands-on version that looks a little bit more like shopping online where you can see everything and you haven’t given up as much control over the moment to the dealer as you do if you walk onto their property, so to speak. So something that I would love to research further or talk to more consumers or even dealers about how they think about that, but that’s got me thinking about the prevalence of events in these industry.

Reid Morris (23:38):
Yeah, well, it feels like more research to do is maybe a good place to wrap us up here. So hopefully some helpful thoughts and takeaways from the conversation. Again, if you haven’t listened to our other couple of episodes, there’s some great nuggets in there too. But appreciate you all jumping on the mics and talking product launch.

Brian Cole (23:56):
Appreciate it. And if you’re an OE out there listening, good luck with your next launch. Let us know if we can help.

Scott Smith (24:01):
Really enjoy the chat and yeah, we’d love to help. We’ve clearly, we’ve got some ideas and would love to hear yours too.

Reid Morris (24:06):
Appreciate it guys.

(24:08):
The Inventory is brought to you by Element Three. We’re a full-service marketing agency that helps modernize go-to-market strategies for organizations that go to market in the OEM-to-dealers business model. And this series has been brought to you in partnership with Trader Interactive, near the organization behind brands like RV Trader, Cycle Trader, Boat Mart, and Statistical Surveys. For more information on Element Three, you can head to elementthree.com. And for more on Trader, you can head to traderinteractive.com.