Since 1987, Caster Connection has been providing casters and wheels to customers in the industrial, healthcare and consumer markets. Their products are designed to support loads ranging from 50 pounds to several tons.

Sustainable differentiation can be especially challenging in a commodity business like caster manufacturing, where competitors are never too far behind in copying material innovations.

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.

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.

Consultative Approach Creates Differentiation

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.

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.

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 cart wheels at scheduled times throughout the day. 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.

This project showcases our ability to uncover insights and connect them with effective marketing programs and business outcomes. At RH Blake, we know the right questions to ask, and we know how to use the answers to build creative marketing strategies that speak to what your customers truly care about.