Husband and wife team James Abbott and Lisa Cohen knew that Apex Manufacturing, a CNC machining business they had stated three years previously, had much greater potential than it was delivering.

They were committed to growing Apex Manufacturing and had come to the conclusion, that after three years of self employment, they were fiercely independent and driven to succeed. While the country was deep into the GFC, James and Lisa were not going to become one of its victims.

With a young family to support, they were determined to secure a solid future with a successful and growing business.

After approaching a few marketing consultants James and Lisa chose Marketing Angels because, “Of all the marketing consultants we approached, Marketing Angels were the only ones who were prepared to talk to our customers. And after speaking with some existing clients of Marketing Angels, who were getting some great results, they were the logical choice. We felt confident we would be in good hands and get the long term results we were looking for”.

Research and Development of Marketing Tactics

Research

Upon engagement, Marketing Angels spoke to 20 Apex Manufacturing clients, 9 prospective clients and reviewed 9 competitors. The results of the research were then compiled and presented to Lisa and James as the first stage of a marketing workshop held in the Marketing Angels boardroom.

Once the research findings were presented, the next thing on the workshop agenda was to map out the competitive environment so as to better understand where Apex Manufacturing was positioned in terms of the service it provided.

James and Lisa were then taken through the process of reviewing the target markets for the business, identifying the characteristics and drivers of their target markets, then developing a set of key messages that would resonate with the market.

Brand Refresh

Once these steps were complete it was time to focus on the Apex manufacturing brand.

A brand pyramid was developed for Apex Manufacturing that clearly established the brand attributes and the functional benefits to clients of using Apex Manufacturing services. It also reviewed the emotional rewards of working with Apex Manufacturing, articulated the client values and then finally the Apex Manufacturing brand values.

It was only after this process that it became very clear that Apex Manufacturing as a brand was not a true reflection of where the company wanted to position itself in the market.

The research and competitive review process, in conjunction with James and Lisa’s own ambitions for the company direction, demonstrated that the service they provided was at a level beyond pure manufacturing.

Apex Manufacturing was in fact providing more ‘engineering’ solutions and as such needed to establish a brand name that articulated its position better.

A new brand name was brainstormed and developed within the workshop.

After establishing Apex Manufacturing’s brand essence as “Challenging the way manufacturing is traditionally done by applying innovative thinking, and new technology to traditional processes to create better Australian products” the new brand created became:

CHALLENGE ENGINEERING – Smart thinking for Australian manufacturers

The positioning statement “Smart thinking for Australian manufacturers” is a key component of the new brand.

By communicating this statement across all marketing tactics, the business will save time and money and become more effective at communicating a consistent, cohesive and differentiated message.

When asked about the outcomes of the Workshop, James said:

“The workshop was a very intense process that forced us take an “outside-in” look at our business.”

“We had no intention of changing our brand, but once we established our objectives, our position in the marketplace with respect to competitor offerings, our target markets and the essence of our business, it became very clear that our name did not reflect our desired position.”

“We were calling ourselves Apex Manufacturing, when in fact the services we were offering and where we viewed the greatest growth potential for our business was in providing manufacturing solutions.”

There is no way we would have been able to get to this point without the direction of Marketing Angels”.

Develop A Marketing Strategy

The next step in the process was to develop a Marketing Strategy to support the new brand and direction. So after the workshop, Marketing Angels worked hard to develop a marketing strategy that was easy to understand and implement.

“When the marketing strategy was presented to us, we were quite overwhelmed by the amount of work we had ahead of us. We were also very apprehensive about spending money, because an outcome is difficult to justify.

“It took a few days for everything to sink in, but once we took ‘ownership’ of the marketing plan, we simply got on with it.”

Four Months Later

Within the initial four months James and Lisa achieved the following:

New company name and corporate ID
Ran a successful industry event at their premises with 45 attendees including media, client and prospects.
Editorial coverage in Industry Update November issue
Editorial coverage in Industry Update December issue
Editorial coverage on Manufacturers Monthly news website
Two hot new prospects as a direct result of their attendance at the event
A business developing a range of remote control car components.
A business developing a new range of plumbing components.
Established credibility in the industry amongst clients, media, peers and industry leaders and was invited by organisations in complementary industries to host similar evenings.
Approached by innovators with new products. These organisations are offering their product, either free of charge, or on a 100% satisfaction basis. If we are not satisfied, they would decommission and remove their innovation at no cost to us. However, if successful, they would like to use Challenge Engineering as a reference site.
Increased brand recognition in the target markets by using the media to reach a large audience.
Enhanced an already positive reputation.
Entrenched the Challenge Engineering brand as a solutions provider as well as a manufacturer.
Increased enquiries and quoting opportunities.

What’s Next

There is a long way to go for James and Lisa in terms of achieving their overall business and marketing objectives. But within 4 months, they have achieved much in terms of launching their brand, building brand awareness and establishing their position in the marketplace. They have worked hard to lay the foundations for the future growth of the business.

One thing that James and Lisa have discovered is that marketing is an evolving process, and there’s no silver bullet. Much effort is required to implement a successful marketing strategy.

Upon reflection over the first 4 months James says:

“Our experience with Marketing Angels has been rewarding and driven home the importance of a well defined marketing strategy. Marketing Angels have provided the marketing clarity and direction we needed in our business. We look forward to the ongoing guidance of Marketing Angels as we continue our marketing journey and enjoy the growth we are aiming for in our business. I view the process as ongoing in order to achieve the goals and objectives we are aiming for.”

Marketing Angels continues to work with Challenge Engineering in a coaching capacity making sure that everything stays on track.

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