Client
  

MYOB Canada, marketer of small business accounting software, Toronto, Canada.

 
Objectives
  

Move market share beyond its 10% plateau with economically-justified consumer communications.

 
Background
  

Australian-based MYOB entered the Canadian market in 1992. With a strong product and trade communications, MYOB slowly reached a 10% share of the market by 2000 against much larger and well-financed competitors Intuit (QuickBooks brand) and Accpac (Simply Accounting brand).

 
Strategy
  

Position MYOB as the partner for business success, rather than a pain to be avoided or minimized. Use radio as the primary medium in key markets, supported by online advertising. Our campaign concept was proposed to MYOB's Australian parent with a cost-benefit analysis developed by Coyote, and was approved as a special project with a total budget more than twice the regular annual marketing investment. An entry-level product called StartUp Accounting was launched at the campaign's start to exploit a competitive weakness.

 
Execution
   Our key consumer insight was understanding that the small business person is driven alternately by the desire to succeed and the fear of failure, and that they are tired of being made fun of and talked down to by marketers as "small". The initial campaign's tone was friendly, believable and straightforward (Lunch). Store Revisited works hard to push brand name awareness in a humorous way. BBQ takes brand name registration even further. Integrated communications targeting accountants was also created for the magazine, direct mail & online mediums.

 
 
Results
  

Six months after the Spring 2000 launch campaign, MYOB's monthly unit share had doubled to 20%. In 2001, both Intuit and Accpac responded with significantly increased advertising spending, and shifted emphasis to the radio medium. In competitive creative, MYOB was referred to as "cocky upstart".

With intense competitive pressure in early 2001, MYOB's monthly share dipped down below 15%, but returned to the 20% range again during the Fall 2001 campaign. In November 2001, Intuit, whose QuickBooks brand had been hurt most by our success, bought the MYOB brand in Canada. All indications are that QuickBooks will convert as many MYOB users as possible, then remove MYOB from the Canadian market.
© 2011 Coyote Marketing Inc