DragonSkin

It takes a dragon to tame a beast

In this case, the dragon is a monster of a new product, and the beast is a competitive market fighting for the same advantage.

Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) is a global designer and manufacturer of total-package solutions for wireless and broadcast infrastructure. They developed a new product — a coaxial cable that can withstand fire to keep communications alive to save lives in tall office and residential buildings.

RFS chose America’s #1 Positioning Ad Agency, Innis Maggiore. As with all B2B marketing services projects, we start with brand positioning and base everything we do on that defining a differentiating position.

In December of 2019 we started the process, launched the last Friday in February of 2020, and were already getting sales results the Monday after that weekend! The client continues to get qualified order inquiries as steady as the mission-critical communications their product protects.

An RFS team from multiple countries joined Innis Maggiore positioning and marketing experts for an Appreciative Discovery® session to learn, discuss, and strategize in order to help us recommend their brand position.

We named the product in the style of a consumer product, befitting its significance, while positioning the new brand as “The FIRST and ONLY in-building communications cable certified by UL” (without extra metal conduits, extensive wrapping, or requiring a fireproof enclosure).

This was followed, in quick succession, by a logo, a landing page, and an introductory package — from a collateral kit and trade show ads to email marketing and direct mail oversized postcards. When Google Ads and email marketing were deployed, they generated near-instant positive results.

Other agencies sell unicorns. We’re all about the dragons.

Babcock & Wilcox

Repositioning around a hot technology that has the world’s attention

How do you deal with a reputation that is 150 years old? You make it your credential and reposition from the “old dirty-coal boiler company” to the “clean power production technology company.” Then you symbolize that new position with the launch of a major innovation in clean energy power production, B&W’s BrightLoop™ new hydrogen production process. 

Repositioning is a tough challenge, but one that B&W has embraced. For more than 30 years, B&W has been innovating and acquiring new technologies that are now starting to see adoption. One of those just happens to be a hot topic worldwide: hydrogen production. Recently, B&W introduced its ClimateBrightTM decarbonization technologies and one of them, BrightLoop™, provides an exciting new way to produce hydrogen. CO₂ and H₂ are separated at the point of combustion, and both resources are isolated into their own “pipe” at a near-pure 97% stream. Unlike post-combustion carbon capture, BrightLoop is in-combustion carbon streaming, requiring little CO₂ and H₂ post-production processing.

The first challenge for B&W was about proper positioning. They brought in Innis Maggiore to help them position the technology line and then eventually reposition B&W. This included a website makeover (babcock.com), the development of the ClimateBright™ technology marketing materials, and specific pitch materials for BrightLoop™.

This “third way” of producing hydrogen (versus electrolysis and steam methane reforming) is in the pilot plant stage. Having achieved a successful test plant implementation in partnership with a state university, BrightLoop is ready for production. Pilot plant locations are currently in the works as B&W’s new hydrogen production technology is gaining attention.

BrightLoop allows producers to simultaneously accomplish low-carbon initiatives and an energy transition. The flexibility of the system has amazing promise for the future of power/fuel production:

• Flexibility of Feedstock — Works with a vast array of feedstock (raw material), including natural gas, biomass, biogas, petroleum coke (petcoke), coal, methane, municipal solid waste for waste-to-energy (WtE), and syngas.
  
  
• Flexibility of Off-Take — Suitable for a wide range of applications, through the production of hydrogen; synthesis gas (syngas) for transportation; and other uses, including steam for power, processing, or heating.
  
  
• Flexibility of Scale — Highly scalable to accommodate both large and small applications, while viable in a wide range of industrial processes, delivering a net-zero outcome.
  
  
• Flexibility of Carbon Utilization — The process inherently isolates carbon dioxide for storage/sequestration or for beneficial uses such as generating revenue, by isolating the CO₂ stream.
  
  
• Flexibility of Configuration — The system allows a modular deployment, from the feedstock to the scale to the off-take.

As a recent launch, the client does not yet have empirical results on the success of the B2B marketing services and PR efforts. Thus far, they have experienced a dramatic inundation of quality leads, and anticipate some major wins.

In the meantime, the client has taken the work we’ve done on their web properties and has expanded the messaging into their trade show collateral, booth, sales pitches, and more. One important lesson both agency and client learned quickly was that positioning strategy works — even for the most technical of businesses.

Midwest Industrial Supply

Market-specific “microsites” supported by search and article marketing

Midwest is the leader in proven, earth-conscious dust control, soil stabilization, lubrication, and anti-icing/de-icing products and programs for roads, runways, rail, mines, and industrial facilities. But the range of industries served is staggering — from iron and steel mills to precast concrete; from solar and wind farms to vineyards and agriculture; from oil and gas facilities to wetlands; from out-of-the-way runways to even more out-of-the-way indigenous village and community roads; and more. How can we reach them in meaningful and relevant ways in order to generate leads?

Talk about specializing! Midwest is an industry expert in chemistries that control dust and stabilize soil, having pioneered the category nearly 50 years ago. Then, it subspecializes in discrete target markets such as Alaskan native villages or remote gravel runways or vineyards. As you can imagine, a government purchasing agent for a municipality isn’t interested in how Midwest strengthens and protects gravel runways, while a winemaker only wants to know how to keep invasive dust from ruining the crops.

Fortunately, we’re not afraid to roll around in the “dust” of an industry to learn about and build the tools that clients need to achieve success.

Innis Maggiore collaborated with Midwest to create dedicated and detailed webpages for each of its specialty markets. The content follows a similar format but caters to what’s relevant to a given audience.

Narrative and statistics set up the problem, followed by the customized means that Midwest devises to solve those problems. Independent studies — solely about that specific market — confirm efficacy, as backed up by niche-specific whitepapers and videos.

In creating these pages, we rely heavily on the SEO relevant to a given industry. Once visitors land there, they get everything they need where they are, with no expectation of navigating within other markets, so that each serve as “microsites within the site.”

Comparing the prior year to the first two years after Innis Maggiore took over, the results were amazing. Not only did Midwest see more leads, but the quality was far better than what they had seen previously. Our work helped to increase effectiveness and reduce cost.

Leads doubled after we took over the account, through a combination of the new website (SEO), an optimized Google Ads campaign (paid search), and insightful content marketing (additional SEO work).

The leads were also higher in quality, resulting in 6x the revenue from new leads from the website. Innis Maggiore also worked with Midwest on three significant product launches, featuring B2B marketing services materials and web content, all at a greatly reduced cost. Meanwhile, Midwest’s SEO footprint continues to expand.

Harris Battery

The birth of two brands

For 42 years, Harris Battery Company has been a distributor of conventional flooded and AGM batteries to retail, OEMs, aftermarket, and others. They wanted to increase their focus on niche markets for lithium battery products for higher margins.

One of the lithium-based applications targeted for significant growth is vehicle backup energy storage for healthcare vans, food trucks, mobile pet groomers/vets, and mobile beauty salons. Now these vehicles have to use diesel generators — which unfortunately also generate noise, fumes, and expenses.

Innis Maggiore recommended taking advantage of the opportunity by creating a dedicated brand for both applications. This would give the new products the attention appropriate for their importance and allow us to market them separately to discrete targets.

We recommended the new lithium brands be treated like consumer brands, similar to the DragonSkin™ approach (though at a smaller scale).

Though an industrial category, we sought to create memorable “personalities” to stand out from typical B2B marketing services, and so the brands would “come alive.” Within months, we made two new brands, including naming, logo designs, landing pages, and targeted marketing that brought traffic to the landing pages through a combination of B2B email marketing, along with streaming audio, digital ads, and Google Ads.

For the first brand, compact lithium power for residential use, that capitalizes on rising home energy costs and unreliability (e.g., grid disaster in Texas), we named the line Harris Solaris™ (solaris is a Latin word meaning “pertaining to the sun”). Since Harris Solaris relates to the sun to power solar panels, yellow was used as a main color, and symbolism included the sun, battery symbol, sun rays, and a power button.

For the second brand, mobile lithium power for vehicles to capitalize on skyrocketing diesel costs and desirability to get rid of “gas-guzzling generators,” our brand name was EnerGenie™. A genie is a magic spirit who takes human form and serves the person who summons it, in this case to generate power on demand (your wish for a sustainable energy source is EnerGenie’s command). The logo featured a font treatment that embodied motion and energy, combined with a lamp icon and bolt stemming from it.

In a limited Harris Solaris™ 3-month limited budget campaign, we generated 15 leads per month that were delivered to local Texas installers, nearly as many conversions, and one killer lead that could potentially change the company forever, from the FAA.

Next up is an 8-week SEO campaign for EnerGenie™ that’s based on data mining and capturing information on 74 food truck installers, with presidents/owners/founders to be targeted with email, and DM kits.

Lewis Services

A B2B website that is able and agile

Lewis Tree Service came to Innis Maggiore looking to grow and expand their service offerings beyond utility line management. That includes groundskeeping, residential/commercial work, light changing, land cleaning, and more.

The client also expressed that those not familiar with their company — in other words prospects — could perceive the company as small.

As always, Innis Maggiore started by working with Lewis to define their position in the marketplace through a proprietary process called the Appreciative Discovery®. Together, we arrived at a position of leader in protecting essential power and critical communications, understanding the necessity to do so while conveying that Lewis is both sizeable and capable, even for big, complicated jobs.

The agency recommended the wording AGILITY + ABILITY as the rhythmical and alliterative creative expression, making this combination the focus of the hero panel on the new website we designed. This powerful statement was highlighted in a graphic that symbolizes forward motion, reminiscent of the red Lewis logo.

The messaging reinforced the idea that Lewis clients get the right team size, yet with the agility of a smaller enterprise relentlessly pursuing success. A breathtaking montage of video clips defines the situations in which Lewis excels and dramatizes the scale of their services.

SōL Harris Day Architects

Brand repositioning puts people first

Harris Day Architects, one of Canton’s oldest architectural design firms, was in dire straits. Projects in the market were in decline. Market share was being lost to design/build companies offering speed and mass customization but not much creativity. Contrary to the design/builders, Harris Day didn’t just “fit people in pre-formed boxes.”

They designed buildings around the heart and soul of what people wanted and needed in order to be fully productive and satisfied beings. Going against the design/build cookie-cutter approach to building, we positioned Harris Day as designing for people (“the human element”) and designing for life (creating structures where “form follows people”). To reinvigorate the brand, we appended the SōL idea to the Harris Day name and created a whole new logo and identity consistent with our lighter, brighter, “people-first” idea.

In addition to the branding, the agency taught the firm how to package and sell the idea in one-to-one presentations. Today, SōL Harris Day Architecture is not only surviving, but thriving, adding staff and growing market share.

Elite Advanced Polymers

3 months of intensive work and 3 months of magic

Elite doesn’t actually make products but provides the raw materials for companies to make gaskets, seals, hoses, conveyor belts, and more. Their growth goal was to expand beyond elastomers (a rubbery chemical compound capable of recovering its original shape after being stretched) to thermoplastic elastomers, silicones, and engineered plastics and to add a life sciences segment.

We recommended that they signal this expanded aspiration by altering their name from Elite Elastomers to Elite Advanced Polymers. Our messaging would focus on the company as always advancing and innovating, representing the forefront of application-driven advanced compounding with the phrase, “advancing your potential” and the brand promise, “We make what you make better.”

Next was to transition from a dated look to a more forward-thinking brand with a new logo built around the colors blue for strength (and an association with this industry), greens for sustainability (and to differentiate from industry sameness), and a darker green (providing a nod to their former identity). Iconography in the form of an arrow shape represents advancing technology with a lowercase “e” and shapes formed by punching out the “e” to suggest extrusion profiles. Within the logo text, the small green arrow that dots the “i” symbolizes a person looking toward the future. As a leading B2B marketing services agency, Innis Maggiore continued to create a visual style that’s modern and clean to symbolize their advanced research and technologies.

We then gave Elite the perfect tagline with three simple words, “the perfect mix.” This tangibly relates to compounding and symbolizes their customer-centric commitment in the form of industry partnerships.

This tagline was employed as a device to convey company strengths (the perfect mix of innovation … technology … expertise … customer service … speed … quality). We carried Elite’s brand position as the leader in advanced specialty polymers into the web copy. Since Elite makes polymers for a large number of applications across several industries, creating a focused message was critical, while "the perfect mix” tag did so simply and credibly, providing an opening to discuss their four core competencies: customized polymer mixes, state-of-the-art R&D, rigorous testing, and customer service.

The web design complements all the new print materials to create a cohesive brand experience across all advertising mediums. A tight and definite deadline ensured that we created the perfect mix with our client, as they planned to have the go-live happen during the industry’s most important trade show. The name change and rebrand were so important to the client that they planned an official announcement at their booth, using three pull-up banners to hide the new look of their booth until they did a dramatic collapsing of the old-look banners to reveal the new brand. This was augmented by all-new collateral, identity elements, promotional items, apparel for employees, and Yeti tumblers that were laser engraved to win via drawings.

AultCare Health Plans

Positioning is believing

35 years ago, AultCare changed health insurance in its market forever. Vertical integration in a healthcare system, coupled with customer-intimate positioning, defines the design and messaging style for the site, as expressed by “We believe in you.”

When AultCare says, “We believe in you,” this health insurance company is showing how different they are from everybody else in the industry. Forget call centers on the other side of the world. With a local call for local care, you talk with a real person who’s your neighbor. Forget voicemail jail or endless prompts for information, you’ll be asked again anyway. You get the personal attention you deserve. And forget cold, clinical “customer service,” because AultCare believes in you and cares as much about you being healthy as about helping you when you’re not.

It's only natural that we wanted their new website to be as different and connect as personally as they are different from the rest of their stodgy industry.

Apple Growth Partners

Healthy growth from helpful B2B marketing services

Marketing a professional service is more challenging than marketing a product. Products have tangibility. You can pick them up and look at their ingredients. They’re displayed in a handy manner — side-by-side in the same section of the store. Services lack obvious tangibility. It’s not the building or buildings that matter so much. The people are what matter, but what’s the tangible difference between a group photo of architects, accountants, financial advisers, engineers, lawyers, or advertising professionals standing together with their arms folded versus another? Besides, professional service firms sell knowledge and expertise, something that is not observable or material in nature.

In addition, far too many advertising agencies prefer consumer marketing to business-to-business marketing (and it shows). In contrast, Innis Maggiore markets to the business customer with the same energy and the same quality as we do when targeting the consumer.

One example of making a client stand out in an extraordinary way was another professional services firm. Certified public accounting firm Moore, Stevens, Apple was under legal requirement to change its name. The company took the opportunity necessitated by the renaming to revisit its broader competitive strategy, aka positioning.

Through Innis Maggiore’s proprietary Appreciative Discovery® process, we worked with the client partner to discover that the company’s position was providing “healthy growth for private companies.” Once the brand position was identified, the next step was renaming the firm, and we recommended keeping the “Apple” portion of Moore, Stevens, Apple as a way of adding symbolic tangibility to the brand (similar to how Prudential has the rock and Aflac has the duck). The obvious suggestion of imagery and the opportunity to retain brand equity with the company’s previous name were additional pluses.

The new name was Apple Growth Partners, combining the symbolic representation suggested by “Apple” with the brand promise of “Growth,” reflecting the company’s position as an expert in growth strategies for privately held businesses.

A new brand was born. We created a new logo and identity system along with the tagline, “Apple growth is healthy growth^SM.” This was augmented by regional business publication advertising, together with a radio campaign to generate awareness, focusing limited media dollars on the morning drive daypart on the area’s leading news station to reach business decision-makers.

Though radio is not the right medium for everyone, it provided the perfect platform to target the right people with an unusual campaign. We say unusual because the client partner was open to making good-natured fun of stereotypes about accountants through our “Invisible Heroes” persona.

We defined Apple Growth Partners with greater meaning and created the “brand voice” by melding the distinctive diction and arch attitude of actor René Auberjonois (the original Father Mulchahy in the film version of “M*A*S*H” and a regular on “Boston Legal”).

The self-deprecating concept was that accountants don’t exactly look the superhero type and are best kept invisible. The campaign ran for three years — and according to the client, generated recognition with prospects years after it left the airwaves of Northeast Ohio.

Other valuable assets the agency developed was the valuable URL IWantHealthyGrowth.com and a means to impel website visitor contact, a Healthy Growth Checklist. The most gratifying part of this introduction was when the client informed us that the first new client won through the radio-to-web process paid for the whole radio production budget.