 hen Mack Trucks Inc. developed its new truck, the Titan, the company believed it had a knockout on its hands. But it also knew its reputation in the heavy-hauler niche preceded the Titan - and that reputation was anything but stellar.
After all, Mack hadn't built a truck for this niche in more than a decade, and its last entry into the heavy-hauler arena, the CL Elite, failed to catch on with Mack customers due to its low-horsepower, non-Mack engine.
But the company's long absence from the heavy-truck market and its need to overcome customers' doubts after the CL Elite were just the start of the Titan's long road toward success. Mack had just one prototype of the Titan on hand, and like most prototypes it differed in weight, cab detail, and other factors from what Mack envisioned for the actual production version of Titan. Add to that the fact that Mack had yet to determine a definitive price for the Titan, and it became apparent that generating faith in the truck, no matter how much Mack believed the vehicle would eventually resonate with buyers, would be an uphill battle.
Furthermore, the company faced the daunting challenge of pre-selling all 100 trucks from the first production run, which were slated to roll down the assembly line in October 2008. Pre-selling the entire run was important since footing the bill to manufacture 100 of the new Titans, then storing them in inventory until they sold, was not an option for Mack. Plus, Mack knew pre-selling the entire first run meant getting the trucks off the assembly line and quickly on the roads where word of mouth would spread and enhance the truck's - and thereby Mack's - image.
While selling 100 trucks may seem on the surface to be a featherweight goal, the Titan was designed for a small niche of the trucking market, the heavy haulers - trucks that look like highway tractor-trailers on steroids and are designed to rumble in both on- and off-road settings for the logging industry or to haul heavy equipment to and from remote job sites. Selling 100 vehicles of a new model meant Titan needed to earn the trust of construction-company owners who tend to stick with proven vehicles, and not just pony up big bucks for the latest flashy truck on the market.
With 100 trucks to sell, a lingering image problem in the market, no price to quote, and a delivery date months away, Mack decided that the best way to excite the truck-buying masses would be to orchestrate a one-two trade show punch, showcasing the Titan in early March 2008 at North America's biggest show in the construction industry, the five-day ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas, followed up two weeks later with a similar exhibit at the three-day Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) in Louisville, KY.
But Mack couldn't just take the chance that potential buyers - distracted by all of the other "new and improved" products at the shows - would just stumble upon the Titan. So the company decided to create its own in-booth extravaganza to highlight Titan's power and give the truck instant gravitas-by-association by surrounding it with some bona fide powerful performers.
"We knew we were up against all the distractions of Las Vegas at ConExpo," says Daniel Danko, trade show specialist for Mack. "There are all these attractions in Vegas - not to mention all the other exhibits - fighting for attention, so we knew if we wanted to generate enough buzz to overcome our obstacles, we had to really wow attendees and get them inside the new Titan."
Priming Titan's Engine
Getting the word out about Titan began with pre-show ads placed into construction-industry publications. The ads laid the groundwork for the Titan's impressive power, promoting a new 605-horsepower engine - a giant leap from Mack's previous power plant, a 485-horsepower motor. Still, the ads only served to whet the appetites of potential truck buyers, touting the name "Titan by Mack," and showing nothing more than the front grill of the vehicle. "No one had any idea what was coming," Danko says. "The ads were very mysterious."
Next, approximately two weeks before the ConExpo show began, Mack sent 10,000 postcards to pre-registered show attendees. Between the ads and the postcards - plus the word of mouth Mack hoped to generate on the show floor - Danko says he had high hopes of revving up show-wide buzz for the company's new truck.
While its pre-show marketing efforts were meant to entice potential construction-industry buyers in general, Mack also wanted to specifically target its core customers with the new Titan truck. Those core customers, known as the Mack Pack, comprised a group of 175 VIP clients representing 125 major truck buyers in both the construction and highway-truck markets. "We wanted the Mack Pack to know we're growing the product line, and we wanted them to see that, with the new Titan, we can accommodate them no matter what kind of hauler they might need," Danko says.
To introduce the Mack Pack to the company's new flagship vehicle, Danko and his team divided the group into two sets - the construction group, which was invited to ConExpo, and the highway group, which was invited to MATS. Mack flew the construction-group Mack Pack members to Las Vegas, gave them free show badges, put them up at the Red Rock Resort, and treated the Pack members to golf outings, Vegas shows, and VIP dinners.
Ready to Rumble
At 9:15 a.m. on the day ConExpo-Con/Agg opened - just 15 minutes after attendees began streaming into the Las Vegas Convention Center - Mack herded its Mack Pack members into seats in front of a stage and steel-like curtain in its booth, where the Titan would be revealed for the first time.
With a crowd waiting ringside and flanked by the muscled competitors of the Fox television show "American Gladiators," iconic fight announcer Michael Buffer introduced the crowd first to Mack's new 605-horsepower MP10 engine. Danko says the MP10, which sat front-and-center in a glass case, plays a vital role in helping the Titan gain the trust of buyers in the heavy-hauler market. After all, this is not the Cummins-made engine of the discontinued CL Elite. This 605-horsepower beauty is the biggest Mack engine available, powering the company's new entry into the heavy-truck market.
After his proclamations about the new engine, and amid banging industrial noises belting out from behind the steel curtain, Buffer listed the stats on Titan as if he were reading off the fighting accomplishments of a boxer ready to enter the ring. Then, with sound effects culminating with the rumbling vibrato of a big diesel engine and rock music playing in the background, Buffer belted out his trademarked "Let's get ready to rumble" as the curtain rose to reveal the new truck.
With gladiators escorting them, the Mack Pack filed up onto a platform to inspect the truck. "We always tell the Mack Pack folks they'll be the first to see anything new," Danko says. And the invite-only feel of the initial unveiling definitely gave Mack Pack members the first glance - and red-carpet treatment - they warranted.
 |
 |
| The rousing reveal - complete with curtain raising, gladiators, a celebrity announcer, and rumbling sound effects - occurred nine times over three days. |
 |
Still, if Mack wanted to make a sizeable splash with the Titan, it had to drive awareness outside of that tight circle of brand loyalists. "We knew that once customers saw the truck, the Titan would sell itself," Danko says. But first, Mack had to get people to its booth - and keep them there long enough to learn about the Titan's specs.
The solution? Knowing the impact of the product reveal, Mack reset the stage for a press event at 11 a.m. and again for the public at 3 p.m. "We only had Michael Buffer for the first day, but we had the gladiators for all four days, and we continued to re-enact the reveal," Danko says.
In fact, Mack revealed the Titan, complete with curtain raising, muscled gladiators, and engine-rumbling sound effects, nine times over three days. Each unveiling brought the Mack booth a new crowd that spilled out into the aisles, while each and every engine rev fueled the equally deafening word-of-mouth buzz Danko was hoping for. And since crowds beget crowds, Mack quickly became one of the show's most talked about exhibitors.
According to Danko, the launch presentation played into Mack's goal of getting attendees excited about the truck as the new flagship of the Mack fleet and creating buzz throughout the show floor at ConExpo. Plus, the athletic gladiators and the heavyweight championship-style announcer reinforced the message that the Titan was a rough-and-rugged force to be reckoned with.
While the Titan and its new MP10 engine dominated Mack's exhibit, Danko made sure that other Mack successes were also on hand to lend credibility to the Titan and the Mack brand. The Granite, a construction-oriented truck, and the TerraPro, a concrete pumper, are No. 1 in their respective classes. "Now we have this newcomer coming in, so it's kind of like the new kid on the block," Danko says. "Having those other trucks in the exhibit was important because they already have credibility. Positioning them alongside the Titan helped to instantly lend that same credibility to our newest offering."
Going From 48 to 100
Despite all of the fun and showmanship of revealing the Titan, Danko and his team knew they needed to do more than attract attention - they needed to generate sales. But with no Titans available to purchase for six months and no price fixed on the truck, Mack had to find out who was just there to kick the tires and who was genuinely interested and ready to buy.
"We asked if they were interested in the Titan, and if they had a need for a heavy truck," Danko says. "If not, we started talking about our other trucks. If so, we continued hammering home the Titan's key messages."
By the end of the five-day show, Danko found attendees committed to buying 48 Titans, nearly half the planned 100 trucks to be assembled in the fourth quarter of 2008. For the other attendees, Mack handed out brochures showing how the company hopes Titan will evolve in the near future, with more options for customers whose needs don't mesh perfectly with the initial prototype and first 100 vehicles.
With about half the production line sold at ConExpo, Mack moved the exhibit to the three-day MATS expo. Other than the shorter run-time of the show, the only differences were using Michael Buffer's brother, Bruce, a ring announcer for the sport of ultimate fighting, and two fighters from that sport instead of the athletes from the "American Gladiators" television show. Again, Mack focused on bringing its core buyers - the highway half of the Mack Pack - to the show, and generating show-floor buzz with a series of Titan reveals.
"We quickly found another 52 buyers at Mid-America," Danko says. "In fact, we could easily sell upwards of 120 Titans this year as a result of our high-energy, buzz-building product launches at ConExpo and MATS."
After the two shows, the names of the Titan buyers - both those first 100 and potential future buyers - were passed along to the Mack dealers who oversee the regions where those buyers live. And one by one, all 100 Titans were pre-sold before production even began.
While Danko says that pre-selling the 100 first-run Titans was crucial to the financial success of the truck - "We can't be making these to go into inventory" - perhaps equally important was the goal of rebuilding Mack's brand image among the trucking and construction industries, not to mention its faithful Mack Pack followers.
Thanks to the impressive results following Mack's let's-get-ready-to-rumble product launch, the Titan is currently rumbling down America's highways and byways, while simultaneously hauling Mack's tough-guy image out of the woods and back onto the interstate. e
|
