Case Study: TAW

An innovative power solutions company needed an innovative marketing strategy and branding effort. What began as a booth became a brand.

The Situation

Although TAW had been in existence since 1921, the company had never had a formal marketing department to help them effectively brand and promote the innovative solutions they provide to their worldwide customer base.The forward-thinking, engineering-driven company develops customized solutions for the supply, control and use of energy.

Starting in 2008, Trickey Jennus assisted with a new positioning statement, website, tradeshow booth and sales materials. But before these could be completed, the company first needed help defining an appropriate branding platform.

Our challenge was to develop a strong cohesive message for a company with a long history of marketing its services under many different umbrellas. Often, customers who used one TAW service were generally unaware of its many other services. We needed to find a way to market these additional services to an already strong customer base.

The Process

TAW needed a relevant message that would resonate with the many diverse industries it serves, as well as with its own diverse internal audience. The first step was to determine what that message would be. To overcome this obstacle, Trickey Jennus conducted one-on-one interviews with key employees throughout the company. What we learned was:

  • The company has a broad customer base covering a diverse range of industries including fossil, renewable and nuclear power generation, the military, homeland security, mining, chemical processing, steel and water utilities among others.
  • TAW offers a wide range of turnkey solutions that extend throughout the entire product lifecycle. These include the first steps of engineering and design specifications to final fabrication and manufacturing to delivery and installation to maintenance and repair.
  • A long 90-year history has established a singular, unparalleled reputation for innovation, trust and reliability across the many diverse lines of its business.

Based on this information, we then distilled the single, unifying message to one of innovation. This core message then guided all subsequent work, uniting the company’s broad service areas into one cohesive look and feel. It also provided the 600 TAW employees, in all areas of the company, with a single, solid position they could rally around.

The Deliverables

Over the course of the next six months, Trickey Jennus worked closely with TAW to bring their brand to life. In fact, the branding of TAW is an ongoing project that continues to evolve. The initial efforts, however, included the following:

1. One, cohesive TAW website design was created to replace the many divergent sites previously developed by the various departments. The resulting singular message and look has helped cement the company’s new branding among its broad and diverse customer base.

2. An updated capabilities brochure had long been on the company’s wish list – something that would communicate the broad range of services TAW provides and encourage cross-selling between service areas. Trickey Jennus produced a comprehensive, four-color brochure that boldly and vividly brought to life the company’s historically innovative culture and its wide range of services.

3. The new brand message was carried throughout a series of smaller brochures covering the many different TAW services. The detailed service summaries armed salespeople with the information needed to close sales, while still reflecting the company’s newfound corporate image.

4. The company attends many tradeshows each year, finding them an invaluable way to connect with customers and prospects. TAW needed a way to carry its new branding message into this arena. A single tradeshow booth was designed to reflect the company’s overall theme, while offering the flexibility to accommodate customized, interchangeable messages to address individual markets. This spared TAW the necessity and expense of producing multiple booths for the many different shows attended.

The Results

Although the marketing process is still underway, TAW is already seeing the results of its early efforts. The new unified theme has given TAW employees a better understanding of the company’s overall mission, as well as its strengths and goals. The TAW salespeople report a positive response to the company’s new sales materials and, as a result, greater interest in the company’s offerings.