Issue:

A Fortune 500 electric utility, rocked by impending regulation, embarked on a search for a branding and positioning formula that could succeed in a competitive marketplace.

When the advertising agency’s concepts were unsuccessful in generating the right idea or emotion around a new brand position, the Blackstone Group was engaged.

Approach:

The Blackstone Group led ideation sessions with a team from the utility. We created more than 40 distinct and innovative positions using the Persona IPB™(Image, Positioning and Branding) protocol.

Two rounds of focus groups followed, one exploratory and one using a hybrid methodology that singled out the eight strongest concepts.

A large-scale quantitative study among consumers helped generate perceptual maps between the ideal electric provider and the client’s established brand. In addition, unbranded testing ranked the eight concepts based on customers’ propensity to select the company based on each concept.

Our market segmentation analysis, based on the eight concepts, helped spotlight dramatic differences in spending on electricity, customer loyalty and prospective per-customer profitability.