How does a mid-sized manufacturer win against much larger competitors? By going narrow before going big.
Our client, a family-run shower and bath manufacturer, built a strong business the “old fashioned” way: a great product and high-touch customer service. While their sales are measured in the 10s of millions, they’re much smaller than their global competitors.
In an effort to compete with the larger marketing budgets and dealer networks of their competitors, the company attacked more and more segments of the market. While successful in many ways, the brand lost focus, inadvertently becoming undifferentiated and, dare we say, boring.
To add to the challenge, the 2-person marketing team was smart and talented, but overwhelmed by urgent internal requests. They didn’t have the time or energy to be strategic, let alone execute with confidence.
R+M worked with the management team to crystallize the company’s core value propositions, ultimately refining them into a defensible, concise, and memorable brand position.
This new positioning guided our selection of strategies and tactics, and enabled the company to go toe-to-toe with global competitors.
Website redesign: integrate positioning, improve UX, increase leads
SEO: leverage narrow positioning to increase discoverability against global competitors
Content marketing: provide value to hard-to-reach audiences, including architects, designers, and trades
Direct-to-consumer sales: pilot and scale DTC on Amazon and company-owned channels
At the highest level, we reinvigorated and modernized the brand. Led by digital efforts, they now punch above their weight, competing and, in many ways, dominating their much larger big box competitors.
Sales are up (enough to require the addition of a production shift) and the marketing team has grown in staff size, capabilities, and stature within the organization.
Select results:
272% yoy increase in website quote requests
167% yoy increase in organic search impressions
62% increase in online brand lift
Want to see our work? Let's chat.
A bi-weekly newsletter full of actionable processes, tips and mental models that build a strategic marketing mindset.