Sounding the Alarm in a New Market
When your business is about making sure people know you’re there, then you’d better have a brand that does the same for your company. Brigade Electronics is in the heavy vehicle safety industry—think of the backup beeps you hear coming from commercial trucks. They were founded in the United Kingdom and have spread all over the world. When they opened their newest division in the U.S., they captured sales from just getting the word out and spreading awareness of their products, but it seemed like the brand was not supporting their efforts. The fear was that once the novelty of their company wore off, they wouldn’t be able to grow much further in the U.S. market. So they turned to us to see where the Brigade brand was misfiring.
Discover
As we began analyzing the brand, it was apparent that Brigade’s heritage exerted a lot of influence on its messaging and styling. In many cases, that’s not only acceptable but even encouraged. An organization’s legacy can help define the brand and its story. But in this case, it was just confusing the different geographical regions in very practical ways. For example, British terms did not translate over to Americans. What’s referred to as a “dealer” over here is
a “stockist” across the pond. And the garbage trucks (which are called bin lorries in the U.K.) that were featured in pictures simply looked different than what we have in the States. We found the unfamiliar words and visuals created a disconnect for American customers.
Develop
Since the ask was that we concentrate solely on the U.S. effort, we couldn’t change the corporate logo or tagline—the goal was to create a more American story around them. To that end, we assembled a customer experience map that targeted these very specific geographical audiences. We showed how U.S. customers journey through the decision-making process and what appeals to them and what creates friction. Using that, we worked to create a more consistent story for the Brigade brand. A major factor was giving the team a lot of tools that would allow them to tell that story in a way that doesn’t deviate from the corporate brand or the division’s goals.
Deliver
Our research in the Develop stage pinpointed target audiences, so the first implementation of our brand refresh was designed to appeal to one of those specific groups. We put together an Ignite campaign aimed at the electric utility market and sent out numerous touchpoints to a curated group of stakeholders in that industry. It spread awareness of Brigade and created conversations within the audience about their capabilities and products. The message was finally being heard—loud and clear.
