FROM CHALLENGER BRAND TO MARKET LEADER IN 12 MONTHS
Zehnder Group is a well-known heating and ventilation manufacturer in Europe with an established history. Its pioneering market solutions are often firsts to market yet in the UK, the company had done very little marketing to stand out from its competitors. Within the first year of working with 361 Communications, they went from being a challenger to market-leading hero.
Zehnder Group UK had done very little brand promotion for some time and had virtually fallen off the industry’s radar. They were not front of mind enough in the industry and it was costing them business leads.
The
CHALLENGE
361 was tasked with reframing the company’s external communications approach, updating corporate messaging and media training a whole new spokesperson bench. Following these core elements, Zehnder wanted to cement its place in the market as a pioneer in indoor climate solutions and ‘go to’ expert for indoor air quality.
What
we did
361 Communications created a plan to make Zehnder Group famous again in the UK construction and HVAC industries. We began with a two-day intense messaging workshop where we honed in on the brand’s key proposition, audiences and communication messages. From this we drafted a set of key messages that would be consistently rolled out across all external content.
Once the key messages were set, we onboarded, and media trained a bench of Zehnder spokespeople before working with them to identify key industry trends, issues, challenges and passion points to formulate a thought leadership and story content plan for the year.
Starting with Clean Air Day, we devised a series of hard-hitting campaigns that tackled the issues around poor indoor air quality – placing news and features in the media on both a national, broadcast and trade level to educate both consumers and the industry about the importance air quality has on human health.
Throughout the year thought leadership articles were also seeded with multiple key trade press each month to keep Zehnder front of mind for all different types of projects – from effective ventilation in schools and workplaces to residential overheating and the risks of condensation and mould.
We also ensured that Zehnder had a presence at key trade shows throughout the year and entered its hero products into major industry awards.
The
Results
The impact of our work was astonishing. Within the year, Zehnder had been featured in every key trade publication through news, feature comment and thought leadership articles.
Our spokespeople were repositioned as experts in their fields and were invited to attend industry association briefings, roundtables and speaker opportunities at shows. Our thought leadership was so prolific that one spokesperson was stopped on the golf course and congratulated for his article in that month’s issue of Modern Building Services.
In total we placed:
170+ pieces of coverage
43 thought leadership articles
And reached over 20.5 billion people with our key messages
Our work also led to Zehnder winning Residential Ventilation Product of the Year for its hero cooling product, Heating Brand of the Year and a bundle of additional shortlists in key industry award ceremonies.
In the space of one year, Zehnder Group UK went from zero to hero in the media stakes and the business is reaping the rewards.
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