Colson Rodas e Rodízios / Colson Group Brasil – Operating internationally since 1878, the Colson Group is a world leader in the manufacture of wheels and castors. Present worldwide, it has several factories spread across the Americas, Asia, Europe and Australia.
It is the leading company in world production in the segment and with several prominent brands in all European and North American markets, with wheels and castors for practically all existing applications - except automotive and high-speed transport applications.
However, in 2018 there was the challenge: Being such a relevant brand in 80% of the major world markets, what was missing for the brand to stand out in the Brazilian market?
Consultancy carried out between 02/2018 and 01/2019.
A Colson Group Brasil – operação brasileira do Colson Group.
Active in Brazil since 2001, the Colson Group Brasil started its local manufacturing operations in 2004 - with its own factory and headquarters it has since been located in the city of Araucária / Pr, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba / Pr. Where within Colson Group's global manufacturing and logistics management, it manufactures products for the entire world market and resells products from other facilities in Brazil. Colson Holdings.
It has 11 product brands in its portfolio, with medical, industrial, logistics, commercial and residential applications - presenting a standard of excellence that leads to the wide recognition of its brand throughout the European, North American and Asian markets. Among the renowned brands in the portfolio are: Colson Caster, Albion, Shepherd, MedCaster, Rhombus, Jarvis, Revvo, Imsa, Pemco, Faultless and Bassick. Some created by the organization itself and others acquired during the company's global expansion.
With considerable success in the Brazilian market, in the year 2017 Colson do Brasil had achieved with great difficulty the 7th position in the National Survey of Preference for Industrial Brands (conducted by NEI magazine and unique in the segment).
This situation pointed to great opportunities for improvement, given the distance between the Relevance of the Brand in other markets in relation to Brazil.
Without finding the means internally to make such improvements, we at Burlamaqui Marketing and Strategy Consulting we won the competition held by Colson do Brasil, surpassing others among the main Marketing consultancies of Paraná.
Challenges we encounter
The company, at that time, was very well run. Fruit of the competence of all the leaders involved, represented in the person of its President for the Brazilian market.
Quality certifications, management processes and renowned management methods were constantly being implemented and improved. The engineering involved in the products and the final technical specification of the products placed on the Brazilian market were undoubtedly the best in the segment at the time.
However, a great truth of Marketing was self-evident: There is an abyss between the great Engineering of Products and what buyers and consumers perceive as the best cost / benefit ratio, basic perceptual lever to make an industrial good overcome the product condition commoditized.
THE Brand Equity solid that Colson Group had achieved in the European and United States markets was not repeated in the Brazilian market, with preference for Colson brands only in old customers who had already experienced the differences compared to competitors, particularly in relation to the leader of the National market.
Still being the focus of the organization focused on manufacturing and marketing via sales representatives, there was no clear structuring of the Marketing Strategy or an effective definition of the necessary Marketing operations - which generated a great loss of opportunities in receptive contacts that they could wish for. the Brand. In addition, resources were minimal in relation to needs.
Our challenge was to organize this situation and improve Colson Brand Preference.
Actions for the goal
Strategic definitions
Acting to generate maximum performance, we were aware of the limited resources. And so, we made strategic definitions in fields where the best results would be possible.
Our first consideration was that we should devote all efforts and resources to improving the Brand Awareness from the Colson Group. In other words: we should build the Strategy and to take actions to improve Stakeholders' Awareness about Colson, its qualities and what factors should weigh in the choice of products in the category.
This choice was the result of the market and behavioral analysis of consumers, enabling the effective choice of the highest priority. And in Business Strategy, choosing what to give up is as important as choosing what to do.
And so, the brands of the product families were left as a nomenclature to be used in orders and by the sales team.
Getting to know people
In order to make a Brand's success possible, it is necessary to study the behavior of the people involved in the process: from the internal team to the customer's profile.
In constant interactions, we had the opportunity to understand the behavior of those responsible for the Brand. In your goals, desires, desires and restrictions. As well as participating in a great training for commercial representatives, in order to measure their perceptions about the market and the acceptance of Colson products.
Finally and most importantly, we study the behavioral profile of stakeholders in client companies.
And so we act in the definition of Target Audience and relevant general actions in such a diverse and wide-ranging portfolio.
Brand Strategy
For a Brand to be successful in its segment, it needs to occupy a “space” in the positive perception of consumers. Otherwise, it becomes irrelevant and / or a commodity at the time of purchase need. And in a commoditized market, it sells who offers the cheapest product. Which was not always feasible given the superior specifications of Colson Group products across all lines.
Thus, we present data and factors external to the company's day-to-day life for managers, demonstrating how certain paradigms needed to be overcome to fulfill the objective of generating greater Brand Remembrance and respective Preference.
In this way, we adjust the Brand Storytelling. Before guided by an incremental approach to products, we move to an approach based on the Value Proposition.
If you didn't understand, let's explain it in simple terms: Previously to our consultancy, all Colson advertising was guided by deeply technical data about casters. Such as load capacity, strength, construction engineering and other mathematical elements.
However, within our expertise based on the most renowned scholars of Marketing and Management, we know that people do not buy mathematical characteristics of products. What people actually buy is the perception (that is, the sum of their sensations with their reasoning) that that product will solve the problem for which it was acquired.
And in this way, we were able to adjust the entire Brand narrative to talk more about how people could solve their problems with the Colson Group casters.
Digital Marketing - aligning the tips
The same challenges that existed in the way the Brand spoke of itself, were found twice in the aspect of Digital Marketing.
We made most of the necessary improvements possible by defining scope and project management on a new website, a particularly challenging step due to the large volume of products and families that needed to be organized in a simple and easily understandable way - to make it easy to do business with Colson. The execution of this website was developed by a digital partner agency.
Finally, we define policies for social media and omnichannel communications - that is, on and off line.
Results achieved
* Based on data from the National Survey of Preference for Industrial Brands, conducted by Revista NEI and the only one in the segment in Brazil.
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