Update a trusted industry brand’s image while still keeping its historic appeal.

About the project

By its very nature B2B marketing is unique in that it appeals to a much narrower segment of consumers and the products—especially elevator products— themselves offer little real opportunity for customer differentiation. Equally important, there are far few real competitors in the elevator industry. Customers are well acquainted with the various players, and once a company has earned a reputation it can be extremely hard to change that brand’s image.

The Challenge

Refresh the image of a storied NYC elevator company, reimagine their sales tools, and help them position themselves so they could be seen as a modern force in the industry that could provide the latest products, services and critical know-how.

The Outcome

Developed updated industry presence for company, oversaw creation of brand standards, developed website, drip campaigns, literature, sales materials, tradeshow presence, paper for peer reviewed industry publication and oversaw public relations and social media presence, and refocused sales tools to target customer benefits of products.

Background

GAL Manufacturing is a company with a storied 90-year old reputation that had become known throughout the elevator industry as a NYC institution. They were renowned for manufacturing solid door fixtures, door operators and elevator controllers. But they were rarely viewed as innovators in the field, despite offering a fine line of products that made them extremely competitive.

I was invited in 2015 to work with management in a series of magazine advertisements touting their new line of products, promoting their sister brands of GAL Canada and Hollister-Whitney, and creating a brand look that, while not entirely removing links to their heritage, would help them stand out to a wider audience. I was fortunate in that GAL’s VP of Sales/Marketing had a good feel for the direction he knew the company wanted to move towards. This greatly simplified both the creative process and speeded up implementation of the new approach.

Since then I have been asked to create media that would appeal to consumers who are less engineering-oriented, and more youthful. This requires a new approach featuring print materials that are more consumer benefit-focused, less verbose, more engaging and visual. The total approach has been to create an accessible persona, a brand that is approachable, friendly, dynamic, but above all informative.

Over the years I have created email programs for products and services, various informational brochures, industry white papers, handled production of a new corporate website, showroom graphics, online ads, and assembled a virtual group of professional talent to help GAL and its family of companies present a look that is professional, up-to-date, and highly commercial.

The company has since been purchased by an investment group and all brands have been brought under the name Vantage Elevator Systems, . As I continue to work with others on aspects of the Vantage brand, I appreciate all that I’ve come to learn on what it takes to take an old name and help it move forward and become even more successful.