The Challenge

Contractors Debt Recovery (previously known as Payment Claims Network) is an established company that assists trade contractors and sub-contractors to make claims through the Building and Construction Industry Security Payment Act (NSW) 1999 (SOPA) in order to claim outstanding debts that are owed to them for building and construction work.

Whilst the company had tested a number of marketing strategies, including; Direct Mail, Advertising, Seminars/Speaking events and e-learning, the response had not been as overwhelming as anticipated and the majority of leads were coming in to the business via random and inconsistent referrals.

In order to drive the business growth and maximise the effectiveness of their marketing and communications, Contractors Debt Recovery (CDR) approached Marketing Angels to develop a clearly articulated and consolidated brand and positioning strategy.

The Process

With trade contractors and sub-contractors frequently experiencing a normal turnaround of anything from 90-150 days for payment of their accounts, it was evident that a real market need existed for an organisation like CDR. The challenge was to develop an awareness for this service offering so that the target market would see it as a viable and cost-effective alternative to traditional debt collection methods.

In order to gain critical insight into the target market, Marketing Angels undertook a research project and conducted interviews with key CDR clients to ascertain:

CDR‘s point of difference and key attributes
Perceptions of the business and the quality of the service provided
Perceived competitors

Interestingly, the research revealed that the existing name of ‘Payment Claims Network’ did not resonate well with the target market and that they strongly associated the service with debt collection. It was therefore decided to change the business name to something which would have more appeal to the target market and ‘Contractors Debt Recovery’ was born.

Following a brand and positioning workshop, Marketing Angels was able to work with CDR to develop a positioning statement which strongly supported the company’s new name and desired position in the market, and then to develop a new ‘corporate identity’ or logo for the business.

Marketing Angels then went on to develop a full marketing communications strategy which incorporated clear supporting key marketing messages which are compelling and have cut-through with the target market, as well as a PR strategy to start to build awareness of the CDR brand and service.

The Result

CDR now has a fundamental blueprint for their brand, which is both relevant and compelling to their target market. The new creative (logo) strongly supports the brand and positioning and creates consistency across all their marketing materials. CDR will now take this new ‘look and feel’ across to their website and any other future marketing communications activity.

The Future

Marketing Angels has identified a number of Industry Associations and publications for CDR to target and will work closely with CDR to develop speaking and editorial opportunities in order to build the profile of the organisation and develop lead generation opportunities.

Client Comment

“The client interview process was enlightening and really showed up the difference between how your clients see your service, and how you think they see your service.

This was a ‘light bulb’ moment and opened the door to a completely new marketing approach. Marketing Angels was the catalyst for a brand repositioning exercise that will probably be an important milestone in the growth of the business.”

Anthony Igra, General Manager, CDR