Brand building and sales generation – B2C

SITUATION:  Imagine that Steinway only made pianos for concert halls and then decided to sell them to dedicated amateur enthusiasts for use at home. In the same sense, one of the best-known names in commercial cooking equipment for over 70 years, took the products professional chefs relied on for their livelihood and made them available to the serious cooking enthusiast at home.

PROBLEM: Unfortunately, several competitors had already spotted the trend toward at home gourmet cooking, and had made exclusive deals with distributors and dealers across the country for their commercial style ranges (emphasis on the word style, as they had no heritage in true commercial cooking equipment).

SOLUTION: Research revealed that serious cooks did not care about the “fashion aspects” of their equipment. Instead, they cared about the equipment’s performance. This simple difference provided an understandable, credible and important positioning for the client in a highly competitive category.

The Miller Group developed a clear and differentiating position for the range as the genuine article – found in the finest restaurants in the world, and used by leading professional chefs.

To reinforce the message, The Miller Group deployed consumer and B2B collateral, print advertising, direct response, public relations, promotions, POS, events, guerrilla marketing, promotions, and an innovative custom-builder program for high-end residential developers.  We even got Wolfgang Puck to endorse the product (at no cost to the client!].

BENEFITS: Response was remarkable. Consumer brand awareness increased dramatically, and the client ranked #2 behind the market leader who was outspending the client 10:1.   The work generated thousands of leads at an average cost per lead of under $50, remarkable for a premium brand in this category.

Sales increased nearly 200% a year and the client had to add capacity to keep pace with demand. Their base of distributors increased, as well. B2B communications increased retail category penetration across the country by more than 33%. More importantly, the brand has become synonymous with the finest quality cooking equipment in the world.

For more information, contact Renee Miller at 310-442-0101 or [email protected].