Press Release

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Contact:
Alyza Harris, (617) 630-0945 Alyza@PublishingGame.com

Wall Street Week's Expertizing.com Guest on Positioning Products in a Rough Economy

(Boston, Massachusetts; Business Wire)-Feb 14, 2005—Although tough economic times often prompt companies to unveil new products in their search for shrinking consumer dollars, businesses might be better off with their old products and new positioning, said Fern Reiss of Expertizing.com on this week's Wall Street Week with Fortune show.

Despite new products by Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, Procter & Gamble, and Mattel this month, Reiss said that sometimes repositioing old products can be more effective. In a down economy, repositioning an existing product line is substantially less expensive—and potentially as media-worthy,” Reiss said.

Reiss cited the lowly prune as an example of effective repositioing. “Two years ago, prunes were just a digestive aid for grandparents,” Reiss said. “But today prunes are being rebranded as ‘dried plums’—and that repositioning is making them a hot new item on restaurant menus and in packaged products.”

Moveover, introducing new products each year is no guarantee of market success. Reiss pointed to the publishing industry as an example of unseccessful branding despite constant new product intructions. “The average American can tell you his favoraite book, he can tell you his favorite author, but if you ask who published that book, he’ll have no idea,” she said. “So even though the big publishing houses are introducing new products each year, they're not capitalizing on their prior successes, because they're not branding their books sufficiently.”

Reiss, who has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fortune Small Business, and over 100 other prestigious publications in the last six months, now teaches busines owners how to get more media attention for themselves and their businesses through her Expertizing.com company. More information can be found at http://www.Expertizing.com.

The full transcript of the Wall Street Week show can be viewed at htp://ww.pbs.org/wsw.

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