RH Blake leverages its Growth Roadmap™ and expertise to launch innovative caster technology into new industrial markets

TL/DR

Caster Connection is a premier designer and manufacturer of high-performance caster and wheel solutions serving diverse sectors such as automotive manufacturing, healthcare, and distribution. The company needed to overcome the perception of being a commodity vendor with an inventory of SKUs to successfully launch an innovative new technology into three distinct, untapped markets. To address this, RH Blake utilized its proprietary Growth Roadmap™ to execute a tailored go-to-market strategy built on voice-of-the-customer research, application-specific messaging, and high-impact dimensional mail. This collaboration successfully repositioned Caster Connection as a strategic solution provider, resulting in deeper market penetration and established thought leadership across the healthcare, distribution, and fabrication industries.

Company

Caster Connection is a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance caster and wheel solutions. The company goes beyond simple transactions to provide customized mobility solutions that enhance performance and empower industries. Since the mid-2000s, Caster Connection has built a reputation for innovation with its flagship CC Apex line and newer heavy-duty offerings such as the CC Nexus and CC Juggernaut.

Since 1987, the company has served a wide array of specialized sectors, including automotive manufacturing, aviation and aerospace, medical and healthcare, and distribution. Their expertise also extends to agricultural equipment manufacturing, metal fabrication, food manufacturing, biotechnology, and warehouse operations.

Caster Connection helps clients solve unique onsite challenges related to ergonomics, maneuverability, and floor protection. Their commitment to quality is supported by technical resources like interactive 3D CAD models and data-driven insights, ensuring they deliver the right solutions for every application

Situation

Caster Connection faced the critical task of launching an innovative new technology into three distinct markets where it had never been introduced before. To achieve this, the company needed to reposition its brand from being viewed as a commodity vendor with an inventory of SKUs to becoming a recognized strategic solution provider.

Challenge 1: Overcoming Product Commoditization

For many industrial buyers, casters are a simple commodity product, making it difficult for manufacturers to compete on value rather than price. Caster Connection had developed a new technology for their casters that offered significant benefits, but they struggled to differentiate themselves in a market where they were seen as a vendor with a catalog. To succeed, they needed to overcome this perception and transition into being recognized as a high-value solution provider.

Challenge 2: Penetrating New and Diverse Markets

Caster Connection aimed to launch its innovative caster technology into three distinct markets where it had never been introduced before: distribution, healthcare, and fabrication. Each of these industries faced unique onsite challenges that a one-size-fits-all marketing approach could not address. The company needed to uncover the unique pain points of these unique audiences—such as the need for noise reduction in hospitals versus ergonomic safety in warehouses—and create a tailored messaging framework for each.

Challenge 3: Strategic Brand Repositioning

Beyond a simple product launch, Caster Connection faced the challenge of a complete go-to-market repositioning. They needed to move away from general industry marketing and toward a sustainable, industry-focused strategy that demonstrated deep expertise in specialized verticals like biotechnology and food manufacturing. This required a shift from tactical order-taking to strategic thought leadership, positioning Caster Connection as a partner that solves complex mobility and safety issues across the entire supply chain.

Solution

To help achieve deeper market penetration and build a wider moat around the business, Caster Connection reached out to RH Blake, an agency focused on manufacturing, marketing and product launches, for support.

Initial Research and Recommendations to Uncover Insights

To help ensure effective program development, we performed the RH Blake Growth Roadmap™, our proprietary strategic approach fueled by voice-of-the-customer research. Our initial research involved conducting qualitative interviews with our client’s customers and channel partners.

This helped uncover and validate the client’s unique market landscape, including their target customers, competitive differentiators, typical buyer’s journey and prioritized buying criteria. Leveraging our deep manufacturing marketing expertise, we used our research to outline several recommendations for how to achieve this differentiation and growth as a mobility solutions provider. A key component of these recommendations involved executing comprehensive product launches coupled with elevating their consultative expertise.

To help ensure success, we structured each product launch to include application-specific value proposition messaging. We used this messaging to create the following:

• Thought leadership content, including white papers
• Sales enablement tools, including brochures and use case videos
• Webinars
• Social media posts, PR and media placements

The variety of marketing materials allowed our client to establish thought leadership as a solutions provider, not just a product manufacturer.

For each market, we leveraged marketing messaging that highlighted key pain points from several categories, including health and safety, ergonomics and efficiency. Then, we introduced a relevant product that would address the specific challenge. By doing this, we helped demonstrate our client’s application expertise as well the consultative process they follow for recommending solutions to customers.

Educational Webinars

We leveraged the thought leadership content and sales enablement tools to create market-focused educational webinars that addressed common industry challenges. The webinars helped further differentiate Caster Connection as a solutions provider within each target market. We divided the webinar marketing execution into three parts:

• Before: We focused on driving awareness for the webinar and generating meaningful attendees.
• During: We focused on leveraging webinar engagement and attendee questions for further marketing opportunities. For example, we asked the attendees several survey questions during the webinar. Then, we edited the questions and responses to create quick video snippets, which we repurposed as proprietary research.
• After: We leveraged a series of emails and the newly developed content to nurture opportunities.

Dimensional Mail

As part of our marketing elements, we created dimensional direct mail to deliver a memorable, tactile experience to our client’s potential customers. We designed the mail to cut through the noise of traditional content and grab the customers’ attention.

Healthcare

In a hospital setting, many patients dread hearing the sound of carts rolling down the hallway. Patients may be disturbed by noisy wheels on carts at scheduled times throughout the day and night. Beyond the five-second annoyance, this can make them feel anxious before and after, which can impact their ability to rest and heal.

Through our research, we discovered that our client’s healthcare customers had an elevated need to touch and feel a product to appreciate its advantages. We created dimensional mail that contained casters and messaging about minimizing noise. We converted a wheel into a dial on a radio to help them visualize that each caster is an effective way to turn down the noise in a hospital.

Distribution

For those who work in distribution, safety, productivity and performance are paramount. To speak to their challenges and concerns, we created dimensional mail that featured a vibrant CC Apex caster and information about safety and efficiency. The trifold brochure included a diagram of the CC Apex, highlighting its improved maneuverability, enhanced movement and push/pull functionality.

Fabrication

In the fabrication market, key priorities include improving productivity, enhancing ergonomics and reducing injury. To resonate with this audience, we developed messaging that featured a testimonial from a long-term customer that described the performance, durability and ergonomics of the CC Apex caster. Like the distribution campaign, the brochure focused on the product benefits using a colorful diagram.

Results

By partnering with RH Blake, Caster Connection successfully repositioned its brand from being viewed as a commodity vendor with an inventory of SKUs to becoming a recognized strategic solution provider. This transition allowed the company to achieve deeper market penetration by successfully launching its innovative technology into three distinct markets: distribution, healthcare, and fabrication.

The implementation of the RHB Growth Roadmap™ provided Caster Connection with a sustainable, industry-focused go-to-market strategy based on validated voice-of-the-customer research. Key outcomes of the engagement included:

Result: Established Thought Leadership

By moving away from general catalog marketing, Caster Connection established itself as a consultative strategic partner rather than a simple manufacturer. RH Blake developed application-specific messaging used across white papers, webinars, and media placements to demonstrate deep technical expertise. Educational webinars were particularly effective at addressing industry-specific challenges and differentiating the brand as a solution provider. Furthermore, engagement from these webinars was repurposed; survey questions and responses were edited into video snippets to serve as proprietary research, further cementing the company’s status as a leader in the field.

Result: High-Impact Market Engagement

To cut through traditional market noise, RH Blake utilized dimensional direct mail to provide potential customers with a memorable, tactile experience. For the healthcare sector, where research showed an elevated need to “touch and feel” products, this included a “radio volume dial” wheel design that helped hospital staff visualize turning down the noise in patient environments. In distribution, the mailers featured the CC Apex caster with diagrams highlighting maneuverability and safety. Fabrication campaigns focused on ergonomics and durability through customer testimonials. This tailored approach allowed Caster Connection to resonate deeply with each market’s specific priorities.

Result: Effective Lead Nurturing and Strategic Growth

The implementation of the RH Blake Growth Roadmap™ enabled Caster Connection to successfully transition from a vendor with a catalog of SKUs to a strategic solution provider. This transformation was supported by qualitative interviews with customers and channel partners to validate the buyer’s journey and competitive differentiators. A structured nurturing framework was established using a series of emails and newly developed content to capture opportunities. By leveraging sales enablement tools like use-case videos and white papers, the company created a sustainable, industry-focused strategy that successfully penetrated three new markets.