Posts Tagged b2b
Kobelco Cranes North America’s New Website Promotes Dealer Sales and Service
Posted by admin in Web Design on March 15th, 2010
Marion recently completed the design, search engine optimization and programming for Kobelco Cranes North America, Inc.’s new website at kobelcocranesnorthamerica.com, which was presented at the AED show this past January.
Kobelco specializes in selling Lattice-Boom Crawler Cranes; however, all sales are handled by dealers. The goal of the new website was to improve the way dealer information was presented and drive traffic to the dealers. Since dealers are determined by counties, Marion developed an interactive county-based map that allows users to click on the appropriate county and review contact information for that dealer. The dealer locator application is intuitive and simple to use.
Additionally, Marion repositioned the homepage message to reflect Kobelco’s main differentiator, a lower cost of ownership. The site was also flattened to allow an easier understanding of the benefits Kobelco has to offer. The crane models and images can be viewed directly from the homepage with a quick guide of the product differentiators. Users can easily click to crane product pages and find complete, detailed information about each lattice-boom crawler crane’s features and transportation plans.
The site has become a valuable resource for customers and dealers, especially with the addition of crane training videos.
Since the site has been so successful for the U.S market, Kobelco wanted to make it available as a resource to the Latin American market. Marion just launched the Spanish and Portuguese versions of their site at kobelcocranesnorthamerica.com.
Future updates include adding a Ground Bearing Pressure Calculator, which will help determine safety requirements for crane placement.
From the Kobelco North America team:
“Thank you and congrats guys! The new website is incredible. We have had several calls coming from dealers this morning about the site and it is rave reviews! Also our service guys have already been sending people in the field to the videos section of the site and they were happy to get on and look at specific information they needed. That was quick. We’ve made them happy. Very impressed. You guys made us look good!!
I want to thank you for all the hard work that has been put into this; seeing the end result, it has been well worth it!
I know we still have some pieces to work on, and a few big ones for the future, but it has been a real joy working with all of you and I look forward to continuing……
Thanks again for everything!”
To view this website, go to http://www.kobelcocranesnorthamerica.com/Xdefault.asp
More web designs by Marion can be viewed at marion.com/portfolio.php.
For your own custom web design, contact The Marion Group at 713.623.6444 or email us at info2@marion.com.
The Art of Brochure Design
Posted by admin in Brochure Design on February 12th, 2010
The Wright Asphalt brochure project was a fun challenge for us, since it dealt with an industry we had not previously worked with. The design utilized images of asphalt in various ways to bring out the essence of the product and highlighted the beauty of the open road. The completed piece was a 9” x 12”, 4-page plus cover brochure.
Corporate brochures are important as sales tools and positioning pieces. However, if the brochure is not strategically planned out and professionally designed, your new brochure may end up in your potential customer’s trash can.
Consider the following points, when you decide to redesign an existing brochure or create a new one.
- Does your brochure communicate the message intended and stand up against the competition?
- Does your brochure connect emotionally with your prospective customers?
- Is your design professional?
- Does the design use high quality imagery?
- Does your brochure connect personally with your target audience?
- Is your brochure easy to read and follow?
- Is the brochure in language the customer will understand and relate to?
- Are the benefits of the product or service listed up front?
- Does the brochure convey a strong message?
- Is the customer asked to complete a specific action such as calling the office or visiting the website?
When it’s time to produce a new brochure, it should be for a definite purpose and the appropriate investment should be made. Cutting corners may end up with an unimpressive piece.
Check Marion’s latest brochure creations.
Learn more about Marion’s brochure design processes at www.marion.com.
Points pulled from Darrell Zahorsky’s Design Trash TestChampion Brochure Design Wins Award – A Case Study
Posted by admin in Brand Positioning, Brochure Design on January 12th, 2010
Marion has created thousands of custom brochure designs over the past 27 years from simple and cost effective to elaborate and high-end.
The positioning brochure Marion designed for Champion Technologies is an example of a completely custom, high-end piece.
Champion Brochure Cover Design
Goals
The goal for this brochure was to create a positioning piece that would put Champion Technologies in the same playing field as other larger upstream chemical companies such as Baker Hughes, Nalco… etc. Although Champion Technologies is the world’s largest privately owned upstream chemical company, many in the industry have been unaware of Champion’s presence or have been under the impression that the company was not competitive with large, publicly traded firms.
Champion’s challenge was to position the Champion brand as one of the “Big Players” within the industry and to have their technical capabilities and global experiences stand out from their better known competitors.
Strategy/Tactics
The strategies used to accomplish the objectives were to:
- Determine an overall structure and layout for the text and images, showcasing an overview of company capabilities
- Illustrate each page layout by hand to create unique imagery and diagrams of processes
- Select images that capture Champion’s brand and capabilities
- Lead a custom photography session with hired models and selected props for additional original imagery that would enhance Champion’s new positioning within the industry
- Showcase Champion’s high level of sophistication, technical know-how and global reach to again enhance their positioning, by utilizing high-end printing and binding techniques including:
- Spot dull varnish
- UV coating throughout
- Custom die cut pocket
Results
The end result showcased a full-color, 8-page brochure that encompassed the company image and qualities of leadership and innovation.
Once the brochure was delivered to its intended audience, the awareness of those unfamiliar with Champion Technologies rose significantly. This was determined by an increase in the unaided recognition rating measured from a pre- and post-brochure survey. This positioning brochure has proven to have played a part in the new recognition and awareness of the Champion brand and capabilities.
Additionally, through the use of the selected photography and illustrations, the piece successfully conveyed that Champion is a worldwide player, a technology pioneer, a proactive leader and a people- and service-oriented company in the upstream chemical industry.
The Champion brochure received the Communicator Awards Gold Award of Excellence.
To see other examples of recent brochure designs, check out Marion’s portfolio.
Mobile Marketing – R u in the Loop?
Posted by admin in Mobile Marketing on August 20th, 2009
Marion can help you get a handle on mobile marketing
Momentum is gaining with mobile marketing as more and more individuals are utilizing phones with data packages. The mobile phone is the one device that is always with you, making the accessibility factor a major benefit for businesses promoting to consumers.
With mobile marketing you provide a direct response mechanism for any call-to-action and when utilized as part of a larger media campaign, it increases visual exposure for better results. It should reinforce your other marketing strategies.
Benefits of a text messaging campaign may include:
– More traffic to your business and your website with targeted campaigns
– Improved customer loyalty and a closer relationship with your customers
– Enhanced name and brand recognition
The most advantageous part of mobile marketing is it is 100% permission based.
With mobile marketing, your audience receives your message immediately, your reach is extended, and it’s affordable. The response rate has also been noted to be higher than direct mail or other promotional tactics.
According to a white paper by Zeep Media, over 5 billion SMS (short message service) messages per month are sent to subscribers’ phones in the US with content they opted-in to receive. Texas receives 9% of the total SMS alerts sent in the United States and California is number one with 11%.
Types of Response-based SMS Ad Formats
Pay per reply – subscriber responds with a specific keyword (74% of market)
Pay per click – ad contains a link to a website (26% of market)
Let’s also think about B2B for a moment…
Where mobile marketing was once viewed only for the B2C business, B2B companies can get creative in how they stay connected to their clients. Businesses can send their customer base best practice tips on using a particular product or case studies on how a product or solution worked well for another client.
Look at mobile marketing as another way of engaging your customer and providing them the information they need as efficiently as possible.
If you’ve considered mobile marketing but are not sure where to begin, Marion can help you determine the best strategy.
Yahoo! and Microsoft Hand in Hand
Posted by admin in Search Engine Optimization on July 29th, 2009
Microsoft and Yahoo! announced today (Wednesday, July 29th) that an agreement has been made to integrate Yahoo! Search engine technology with Microsoft’s new search engine (excuse me, “decision engine”) known as Bing.
The ten-year partnership will deal exclusively with search and search advertising. The two groups will apparently remain independent in certain sectors like news sites and electronic mail services
The partnership is intended to create a new “number 2” in an effort to strike a blow at Google (never really mentioned by name in Steve Ballmer’s video below), the behemoth of search and paid ad revenues.
Fickle Yahoo! has changed search partners before.
1995-Yahoo! directory first to “catalog the web”
1998-Yahoo! uses Alta-Vista and Inktomi for web search
2000-Yahoo! uses Google for web search
2004-Yahoo! kicks Google out, buys Inktomi and develops its own search engine
2009-Yahoo!and Microsoft agree to collaborate on a web search and ad partnership “Bing go!”
Because Marion follows standard SEO practices (cleverly executed) our rankings on Bing remain as strong as they were on MSN.com, if not just a little bit better. And instead of optimizing separately for Google, Yahoo and Bing, we only need to optimize for Google and Bing now.
Making the Most of Every Business Sales Lead
Posted by admin in Business to Business Sales Lead Tracking on July 17th, 2009
Dealing with warm leads is tough. They are interested in your product or service but are not necessarily ready to do business with you – yet. It could be anywhere from 12 to 18 months down the road before you ever hear from them again, but once they contact you, they’re ready.
In order to keep a warm lead from going cold, it is important to nurture the lead by keeping your name in front of them. This could be in the form of product demos, educational podcasts, white papers, online RFQs, newsletters, etc. After the sales lead is generated, the challenge is nurturing that warm lead, and it seems that there might be something more effective than that old rolodex.
The Marion Group offers a program called TLC for Your ROI™ that allows for business-to-business sales lead tracking and lead capture for inbound calls and sales leads generated from your marketing campaigns through any media – print, online or broadcast. Furthermore, it allows you to determine your return on investment (ROI), and if that particular media outlet is generating sales leads for you.
Here is a simple example: If you place an ad in Magazine A, and it generates 38 sales leads in a month, and you place the same ad in the same position in Magazine B that has the same circulation as Magazine A, and only get 12 sales leads in a month, you can determine that you might be wasting your adverting dollar on Magazine B.
The database gives you an easy and efficient way to keep track of your leads, flag a lead as hot, warm, cold or if they became a customer and generate reports that show your campaign’s progress.
For more information on business sales lead tracking, feel free to contact us at info2@marion.com.
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