Three months to stop a 10% sales slide
One of our campaigns for a successful national whiskey company increased sales by 20% in 3 months. It started when the President of the brand, Bill Samuels, asked me to help him change a 10% slide in sales. It was September and the holidays were our chance to save the year. The campaign used the same communication budget from the previous year. It captures the warm feeling our customers would get when sipping a great Bourbon. Marker’s Mark is known for the hand-dipped red wax seal on the top of each bottle. We had a glass Christmas tree ornament made with glass ice cubes and hand dipped it in their trademark red wax. The image was the focus of all our communication tools. Bill Samuels credited the campaign for changing the way Marker’s Mark Whisky was perceived.
Naming a product or service can have serious consequences
While brainstorming with the segment manager, I suggested we create a brand uniting several coatings into a system. The product was a mildew resistant barrier. It was used to protect the underside of service station canopies. The name for the system became MilDont. Nothing changed but the name. In three months our sales we up 30%.
Sales and marketing win when they work together
One of the paint store managers came to me with a problem. He discovered that several of our products used the same catalyst to create a unique coating system. How could we promote it? We branded the system OneCat. Combine OneCat with a powerful image of a Lion, and the retention was magic. The new brand was immediately accepted and quickly promoted by the sales team. It soon became a standard and a star system in our coating line.
Presentations are worth millions
The agency I worked with had lost six consecutive new business pitches, each worth over a million dollars in billing. I was an ambitious, creative team member who believed he could help make successful presentations. It took a hopeless happening to give me the opportunity. It was Thursday; I had just returned from vacation. My wish came true. We were pitching Kentucky Tourism, a million plus account. By the way, the presentation is on Monday. Our competition was the agency that handled Kentucky Governor Brown’s successful election campaign. I used Thursday for conceptualizing. Friday we gather the support team to help complete the proposal. The agency believed in working smart, and you don’t have to work overtime; however, we needed extra help on Saturday morning to complete the presentation. We pitched on Monday. Friday we won the account. I was part of all future new business pitches. We did six submissions in a row, all worth over a million in billing. We won them all. I was asked to join an agency in New Orleans and continued creating presentations with similar business successes. Shortly after arriving in New Orleans I opened my agency. In 20 years, we built a successful 13 person team. I sold to my partner before moving to Dallas shortly after Katrina.
Campaign created problems for the owner
Our successful campaign created problems for the owner. A friend, Peter Ives the president of Ives Office Supply, asked us to help his warehouse office supply company compete against the big box stores. The company name, Ives Business Forms, reflected the pride the family had in their business. Preliminary research indicated the family name could be too conservative to compete in the big box office supply market. We created a focused study so the family and our team would know what changes would work. Our approach to focus studies was unique. We studied and tested high-quality mock-ups of ads, headlines, names, and images; We commentated the study. The results guided the Ives family and our campaign. We discovered a new company name would be needed. We implemented this change and several long-term branding strategies. We ran a 2-week campaign to introduce Warehouse Express Office Supplies. When I called Peter, a week after the program ended, he apologized for not getting to us sooner. He was busy adding a phone line, buying another delivery truck, and hiring another salesperson. He also thanked us.
For immediate released!
Mad rocks are attacking windshields all over New Orleans. These attacks were the results of a fictitious campaign, we created. The concept had fun with a serious problem. After the campaign people came into our customer’s windshield repair locations with the Mad Rock that attacked their windshield. While the campaign created the sales we wanted, there were unexpected consequences. Three brothers owned the Star Glass company. They had one thing in common; they loved to hunt and fish. The success of the campaign caught the attention of a national auto glass installation company. They offered to buy the company at a price the brothers could not resist. Shortly after the campaign ended, the brothers sold the company, and the three brothers went to Alaska for an indefinite hunting and fishing trip.
The Wrath of Grapes opened winery doors
Coatings are not exciting. How do you create community and life in a flat gray coatings world? Wineries have a problem with the product that pays their bills, grapes. The acid destroys everything it touches. They think of coatings as gray paint. Their belief that salespeople don’t understand their problem compounds this. We had to glorify the grape while saying it is a problem. We created a coating system “Dedicated to the Wrath of Grapes.” We called it VinoShield™. It was now easy for sales to contact wineries with a blanket solution dedicated to their problems. The campaign opened the doors to some of the most prestigious wineries on the West Coast. We soon discovered wineries had national demand. Our brochure became an aid for the sale person. It opened to a cutaway of a typical winery with call-outs recommending a VinoShield™ system for each segment of the winery. The center spread was also a worksheet with checkboxes for each coating. There was also room for notes. The sales person could leave a copy and retain a copy of the meeting notes.