Branding Case Studies

 

CUSTOM BUILDER
A small luxury custom builder wanted to grow his business but had been stuck at the same volume for several years. The owner tended to micro manage the projects and the project managers and the business ran with little documentation, was basically an oral culture and customers were difficult to manage through the selection process which kept projects from progressing. After attending a SWOT session (Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats), it was pretty obvious that the business could not grow under those conditions.

Realizing that the building process was replicable even though each home was unique, Core Strength Marketing’s recommendation was to define and codify the building process into a Customer Care Guidebook.  This guidebook defined key construction milestones,  meeting protocols, selection schedules, and team member roles and responsibilities. We also drafted the Operations Manual including all job descriptions and operational procedures.
The Customer Care Guidebook became both a marketing message to prospects (“We have a process to guide you through the complex construction process”), a customer management tool during construction and the core of the operations manual aligning process and deliverables with the brand promise.The company grew over 500% in 3 years and hired professional management to run the new. larger and more complex organization. The blog entitled, “How Can Be More Compelling Than What”, speaks to this brand strategy.

AEROSPACE ENGINEERING COMPANY
A company that designs and manufactures parts for the aerospace industry was well regarded by its current customers but was not attracting prospects to its site in order to obtain RFP’s and other opportunities. Like many b2b companies, they were a technology, product and sales driven company. They recognized the need for marketing help to support their in house expertise.

After a week of online research and a day at the company meeting with the President, and the heads of marketing and sales, Core Strength Marketing determined that in spite of their strong performance, their marketing was out of date and did not compare favorably with the competition and that coupled with a “remote” location cost them sufficient credibility to warrant a site visit and consideration. Their marketing was not supporting either the strong performance they were providing current customers nor the technological capabilities they offered prospects.

CSM wrote a brand strategy brief around the platform, “Performance You Need Today. Technology You’ll Need Tomorrow.” guiding the company’s repositioning. In 6 months time, the company had an updated name, logo, website, trade show presence and strategy, continuity of contact program, and social media strategy. All possible because of the road map indicated in the brand strategy brief. More than a ‘face lift”, the brand strategy drove internal performance metrics and technology initiatives. The company has since added a 30,000 sq. ft. addition, added new personnel and has been recognized by the Governor of the state as one of the fastest growing companies. The blog, A Brand is More… speaks to this strategy.

INTERNATIONAL PESTICIDE AND HERBICIDE COMPANY
One of the world’s leading brands in the pesticide and herbicide industry contracted with Core Strength Marketing to work with its product and packaging development team to design and produce a new applicator for a number of its products. Our role was to insure the consumer “voice” was heard during the development process to optimize the likelihood of acceptance on product launch. After several design iterations and qualitative research of several prototypes, the product went into production and was successfully launched in several countries. The packaging program has now been expanded to a broader product line and has proven very successful.

MULTI-LOCATION AUDIOLOGY PRACTICE
Every audiology practice relies to some degree on referrals from physicians to make up part of their patient base. Even though every practice works hard to develop these physician relationships and referral program, none were leveraging the credibility of the Doctors with testimonials.

Core Strength Marketing, working with this client, developed a campaign, “The Doctors You Trust, Trust Hearing Health Center”, and utilized print and video physician testimonials to differentiate this practice, even though it was a trait shared by most other audiology centers. The blog, “Brand or Commodity..”, speaks to this strategy.

FUNERAL HOME
Admittedly a very challenging business to market and differentiate and be appropriate and sensitive to the context within which the business functions.

After studying the industry, it was surprisingly apparent that in spite of the expressed need, funeral homes by and large were not offering grief support programs.

Core Strength Marketing, working with this client, developed the “Helping Hands for Healing Hearts” program. This program, held at the funeral home,  brought in grief experts to speak and held sessions for both clergy and the community. The first held in late October, entitled , “Getting through the Holidays, when You’re Grieving” attracted over 40 members of the clergy and over 100 members of the community. The program has been running several years and the business has gained market share.

Truly an example that doing good, can be good marketing as well as an example that any business can differentiate in a way that is meaningful and fills a need or want. The blog entitled, “Every Business has an O.P.O”. speaks to this strategy.