When you’re an established business with 60 years’ manufacturing heritage, how do you reenergise your brand to make it stand out in an ever-noisier marketplace?

Climate change and increased flooding risk saw the UK drainage market grow by almost 10% last year but competing against bigger players with bigger budgets meant Clark-Drain needed to engage not only with its audience’s rational decision-making powers, but its emotional drivers too. But how do you do get emotional about a drainage channel or a manhole cover?

 

The Solution

Superior segmentation and customer profiling unearthed new insights into Clark-Drain’s target audiences.

Sustainability is a key message in the sector, but research showed that this messaging would land most effectively when combined with practical proof-points like transportability, ease of installation, resilience, and low life-cost. Clark-Drain had to make the buyers feel they were champions of both sustainability and return on investment. The “sustainability pays” campaign resulted in the acquisition of new customers and drove profitable sales.

We aligned the marketing with the strategic goals of the company. By listening to prospects so they felt truly understood, and using superior segmentation to deliver permission-based communications that were relevant, emotionally engaging and relationship-focused, we moved prospective customers faster towards a purchasing decision.

 

The Results

LinkedIn followers increased by more than 1300% over the year and clicks to the website jumped up by 370%, resulting in an uplift in website sales leads of over 400%.

Brand awareness went up by 4%, showing a 46% lead against Clark-Drain’s biggest competitor.

This was achieved in a period of economic downturn, demonstrating the increased marketing productivity BCM’s cognitive approach delivers, even when budgets are under pressure.