Case Study 001

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Marketing ProjectCase Studies

Illustrations on how Gwinnup Communications will approach typical and not-so typical

marketing campaign and workflow challenges


Modular Trade Show

Situation/History: Therma-Tru was relying on a booth

structure built for a Publisher Tour that was intended for one year, but was repeatedly put into use year after year in venues that were not consistent with the original design.

The structure was also showing its age and had minimal flexibility for booth space and was often supplemented by Therma-Tru Door Gallery displays.

Approach: I led the team that explored design

options with multiple vendors requesting pricing and designs that would fit a 30 x 40 booth space, or two smaller 10 x 20 or 20 x 20 booth floor plans simultaneously.

Solution: Downing Exhibits won the final bid with

a design that was modular and would allow Therma-Tru to:

Attend one larger show or two smaller shows.

Decrease freight costs by reducing weight 25%.

Reduce setup and dismantle time by 10%.

2006PCBC

2007PCBC

2007RemodelingShow


Lead Fulfillment Processing

Situation/History: In 2005 Therma-Tru was only fulfilling leads once per month. Lead fulfillment was limited to only sending two catalogs (one entry and one patio) to each inquiry received from trade

publication business reply cards, trade shows and the company website. There was no personalization. Leads were not captured in the company’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application.

Approach: Explore options for better fulfillment that included personalization and more targeted messaging. Contacted 5 lead fulfillment service providers to explore options. Each provider was given a process questionnaire to validate their internal processes to ensure a fit with Therma-Tru

lead fulfillment requirements and to assure that they could handle the leads coming from all sources into Therma-Tru. Site visits were scheduled for the two best respondents to the initial request for proposal, pricing and the process

questionnaire.

Solution: DataBanque provided the best solution and demonstrated the best pricing and processes.

Leads were now segmented by type—consumer, contractor, dealer or distributor, with each receiving literature appropriate to their category.

Each lead processed was integrated back into the Therma-Tru Customer Relationship Management application.

All leads received a personalized letter acknowledging who they were and where the lead originated (trade show, trade publication or website).

Contractor and consumer leads included a list of the three closest dealers to their location. All leads submitted to DataBanque were processed between 24 and 36 hours of receipt. DataBanque provided monthly reports to Therma-Tru marketing members to assess results and adjust

fulfillment messaging and contents. DataBanque eliminated bogus “bonus” leads provided by the trade publications. These were subscribers that

never indicated an interest in Therma-Tru on the business reply cards, but may have indicated interest in other building products. This reduced publication fulfillment costs by 20%.

All leads provided were de-duped to other sources or multiple entries on the website, further eliminating waste and expense by 5%.

Business Reply Cards

Trade Shows and Events

Website


Website Redesign

Situation/History: Launched in 2002 with overall traffic averaging 90k visits per

month for 2005. Static content for both navigation and site architecture. No business category or consumer segmentation. Trade portion of website was very generic with no content for

specific trade channels, distributor, dealer, contractor or architect.

Product information was not dynamically driven by a product database which required maintenance of 100s of static pages and product line exclusions, such as steel door products.

Dealer locator was limited and could not show more details such as showrooms at dealer locations with Therma-Tru products.

Limited site search abilities that resulted in very broad results. External web developer expense of $90k.

Approach: Analyze site traffic. Evaluate organization of content. Align marketing and IT resources on redesign and

functionality.


Website Redesign

Solution: Launched in 2006, traffic increased to an average of 125k

visits per month (compared to 90k in 2005). New, more consumer friendly design. Site revisions target both trade and consumer audiences with

70% of site visits by consumers-in support of brand management goal of increasing overall brand awareness beyond trade professionals.

Further site segmentation to support consumer insights research.

Find your style = Entryway Passionate (1st) Choose the best = Simply the Best (2nd) Start a project = DIY (3rd)

Added a new trade portal with an average of 6k visits per month Dealer/Distributor.

Product pages are dynamically generated from a product database and now include the full breadth and depth of product offerings (including steel door products).

Product pages also include product attributes such as ENERGY STAR and Tru-Defense®.

New dealer locator allowing users to search for dealers and dealers with product displays (at top of the list).

New search tool that generates more accurate results. External web developer expense of $0 (site redesign and

revisions managed and created with internal resources).


Marketing Communication Timingfor Product Launches

Situation/History: Launch communications and related marketing activities were

not included on the critical path for product launch activities. Product photography, displays for tradeshow events and

samples for sales representatives were determined as critical elements to allow channel partners/distributors to get ready to promote each launch.

Approach: The Research, Development and Engineering group

implemented a stage-gate process to improve product launch activities from conception and approval through manufacturing and delivery to distributors.

I had created a marketing timeline for launch related activities with key marketing managers and specialists. The goal was to ensure that all communication and marketing materials were documented and that base timelines were established for annual communications.

Solution: Collaborate with product managers, engineers and marketing

on when materials are required to effectively execute on marketing communication activities.

Once a product cleared feasibility approvals and went into development, marketing communication activities would progress on a parallel and overlapping timeline.

This resulted in improving communication timelines and allowed the organization to improve timing of communications while supporting annual product launches.


Database/Project Tracking

Situation/History: The marketing department at Therma-Tru was growing in

complexity and specialization. It had grown from a group solely focused on a two step distribution model supporting mostly new construction to a multi-channel model targeting retail (big box) and added Remodeling and Replacement (R&R) to production/new construction customers. There was additional emphasis placed on pursuing a pull-through strategy to help dealers reach more homeowners than ever before.

Approach: This increased complexity required better methods for

tracking projects within the department for creation and production of printed collateral including annual catalogs, signage, direct mail, lead fulfillment, merchandising displays, trade show activities, email campaigns and website development.

Solution: I created a Microsoft Access application, Marketing Tasks,

for the marketing and marketing services team to track daily, weekly and monthly project progress.

This application also allowed the team to evaluate consumption of internal and external creative resources allowing for real-time schedule adjustments and/or redistribution of work.



Basic Structure: Users of Marketing Tasks accessed the application on their desktops through simple forms that would allow for project and job data entry. Each form was intended to capture data related to the project or job and was also supported by common data elements such as vendor or

creative resource data, project originator and channel and audience information.



Sample of Project and Job Entry: At the highest level, projects are entered when received from internal customers. Actual activities were assigned job numbers and included detailed requirement necessary to complete the job or task. These included dates, print specifications, vendor information and creative resources, to name a few.



Reports: There were a variety of reports that allowed customers to view project/job details as well as weekly progress reports. Summary reports enabled the marketing department to quickly assess workload and shift priorities based on deadlines and resource

availability.



Weekly Summary Report: This report calculated job progress in terms of on-time status, amount of work completed, amount of work left and current revision number.



Work Order: Every activity under a project resulted in actual jobs. Each job had a report, or work order, that was shared with creative associates, channel managers, and vendors. All job details, including project description, were included to guide all stakeholders and keep the job, or task, on time.


Plant Tours & Showroom Design

Situation/History: Therma-Tru conducted plant tours at its manufacturing facility

in Butler, Indiana. This included an education center that was out-of-date and showing its age. In addition, this area was too small and crowded for some of the groups that sales representatives were bringing in for product training and plant tours. Worse yet, marketing was not fully engaged in the plant tour process.

Approach: Assess the environment, hand out materials, product displays

and overall appearance of the training area for plant tours. Survey sales and recent attendees on their experience at both

plant tour training sessions and take-away packages.

Solution: The resulting surveys and site evaluation led to the following

changes. Increase the size of the showroom—doubled the

training area by removing clutter, taking down walls and remodeling the area to include expanded and improved product displays.

Created several take away kits for attendees. Each group was able to select a kit of materials best suited to their needs. Kits were collated on site ahead of time by Therma-Tru associates.

Involved marketing staff members in plant-tour training sessions—improving marketing visibility to the process improved the experience and materials provided.


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Case Study 001

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