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EnduroTurf - www.enduroturf.com.au is an Australian manufacturer and installer of artificial grass. Traditionally they gave customers promotional footballs after making a purchase. Whilst this worked well-enough our challenge was that there was perhaps a more effective way for them to use merchandise.
With two distinct customer groups we decided we need a merchandise strategy that was tailored to Enduroturf's marketing challenge with with each group. Identifying customer groups allows us to look at the specific Marketing Challenges faced in communicating to each group.
Domestic Customers
These are suburban customers who want artificial turf installed at home and typically spend $5-$15K. It could be around the clothes line of a small putting green. Enduroturf told us that they attract a lot of enquiries from their well-ranking website. As we explored this group more we discovered that the best leads in this group are referrals - people who have been recommended by existing customers.
The challenge was to generate more referral enquiries.
Commercial Customers
A commercial customer typically spends $50K+ a year, usually these are Architects, Playground Designers, Landscaping Companies and Builders. These customers repeat. Whilst being a group of customers with smaller margins the jobs that flow from a good commercial customers are larger and on-going. We discovered that the biggest marketing challenge with this group was staying top of mind with the buyer. These buyers have multiple vendors and providers of the products and services that Enduroturf supply. However Enduroturf have multiple product and service advantages over their competitors.
The challenge for this group was to remind them of these advantages when considering a supplier.
Before we look at the merchandise solutions provided to each recipient group let us consider the theory behind creating different groups.
The (4 Step) Buyer Journey
Awareness > Consideration > Purchase > Advocacy/Retention
Every time a customer buys a product or service they enter something called the Buyer Journey. This holds true if it's you buying a new fridge or an Enduroturf customers. This buyer journey looks different for different buyer (customer) groups. This then means that when you are marketing to these groups you need to understand that journey and where your marketing challenges are in those respective journeys.
The purpose of marketing is to drive buyers through stages of the buyer journey. Merchandise is the perfect media to do this through.
The Solution - Domestic Customers - As identified the challenge with this group is creating more referrals (advocacy). Very simply we needed to provided a merch solution to drive advocacy.
With a limited budget we needed to develop a product that would drive conversations and the recommendation of Enduroturf's product. Very often when creating merchandise people seek new or different products. Whilst this has validity what is often more powerful is the development of messaging that drives an outcome. We chose a simple stubby cooler with clever messages that highlighted the product benefits; 'I've got my weekend back' and 'I'm cracking (beers) not cutting (grass)'. These quirky messages are on a stubby that has magnets that attach to a fridge - keeping them front and centre of the customers mind.
The Solution - Domestic Customers - Referring to the customer journey the challenge for this group was maintaining consideration of Enduroturf's products and services.
With a higher budget related to a higher spend and higher lifetime client value we developed a wireless phone charger. Given to buyers after being visited by an Enduroturf rep these chargers sit on the desk. They have a simple message; 'Why we get it right...' There is then a link to this webpage.
The webpage list key buyers advantages of using Enduroturf.
With two distinct buyer groups there were two different marketing challenges relating to different parts of the buyer journey. Both merchandise solutions directly drive customer through the (different) bottlenecks in the buyer journey.
This careful segmentation of customers has helped Enduroturf have a greater focus on the different buyer groups and their needs in general. Referring to the customer journey for each buyer is a low-tech and very under-used tactic that helps marketers understand their marketing challenges in a clear and concise manner.
5 months after integrating these products into their marketing Enduroturf reports:
Domestic Customer Referrals - Up 28%
Commercial Customer Enquiries - Up 17%
Of course, as anyone who is involved in marketing can attest to, it is sometimes difficult to attribute which marketing activities are driving your results. They survey customers as they place orders and have found a strong correlation between these merchandise items being mentioned and the new enquiries. As good looking, cleverly designed products, they are also cited as being memorable and inherently usable... which we know drives merch success.
'Both our new coolers and phone chargers get frequent mentions by customers when we talk to them. They are both in demand and we have had people asking for them'
Glen Hannon, Director Enduroturf.
Key Points:
The team here at Promotion Products are experts in Merchandise Marketing, contact us for helping in creating an easy to understand (and implement) merch strategy.
Author Bio
Douglas Gregory is the Managing Director of Promotion Products with over 20 years of Promotional Merchandise experience. With an Honours Marketing Degree he is trusted by some of Australia's largest brands and is a recognised authority in this area of marketing.
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