Focused on driving footfall and sales
BMN awards 2010
26/05/2010
Marketing is sometimes seen as a difficult discipline to measure but Finnforest’s targets are simple and clear – drive customers directly to the merchant’s door. Here Tom Tong, Vice President Sales and Marketing of Finnforest, the sponsor of the Builders’ Merchants Awards for Excellence - Best Marketing Initiative, highlights some of the ways that all of Finnforest’s activity is aimed at driving business to its merchant customers’ branches.
There are many threads of an integrated marketing campaign and as a leading timber supplier in the UK, Finnforest recognises that it has an important and integral role to play for its channel customers. For our merchants this means that there is a significant amount of research, development and investment to deliver effective marketing and communications strategies that are ultimately designed to drive footfall and ultimately repeat sales.
Using a blend of communication tactics, web, sales literature, point of sales, PR, advertising and direct mail - the ultimate aim being to provide the potential customer with not just the product information but crucially a bespoke stockist list by product and post code to enable quick and easy access to locations where to purchase.
Publicity in the form of editorial and advertising within leading trade publications and online plays a role in creating product interest and steering potential customers to the Finnforest website.
Once online, the customer is able to gain further details and specifications relating to their product interest via electronic brochures and in some cases they can view interactive facilities such as the 3D computer generated log cabin tour and various downloads which provide information on sizes, calculation tools and installation advice.
Having explored the website and discovered the products of interest, visitors are able to view a list of local stockists simply by selecting product(s) and then keying in their postcode. An advanced web reporting tool provides clear information on how many unique visitors access this tool, a figure which is growing on a monthly basis. Requests for literature through web, phone, ads or PR are all centrally fulfilled and each recipient receives their product information and crucially a bespoke stockist list based on their product selection and post code. Over the course of a year, through web and through mailings – be they specific literature requests, or pro-active direct mail, Finnforest highlights its Merchant customer base with the sole objective of driving footfall and product sales.
All enquires are also logged centrally and data protection permitting, are used to inform potential customers of new products, literature and promotional offers. These accurately targeted mailings to defined groups of end-users reinforce Finnforest’s product offering and further strengthen its ‘pull through’ strategy. To demonstrate this, a recent direct mail exercise involving the new Timber Trade Guide and customer survey resulted in a 12% response from professional builders and carpenters – all receiving both product and stockist information.
Another recent initiative is the Finnforest Merchant Timber Marketing Toolkit – a series of simple but effective off-the-shelf promotional leaflets, posters and direct mail cards.
The toolkit comprises of a range of templated designs and each can be adapted to meet the needs of the individual merchant, incorporating the merchant’s choice of product, pricing and own branding.
Available in three ‘house styles’, merchants can choose from a range of leaflets that can be distributed via the trade counter or sent out with the statement or invoice run, postcards ideal for direct mail and various point of sale posters and banners to support the chosen campaign. The toolkit is aimed at supporting merchants to promote core timber products such as machined mouldings, decking and panel products to create awareness around new product launches, or communicate important information such as legislative requirements.
It is through a combination of these marketing tools, all with one crucial target, that Finnforest aims to add value to its supply chain and in turn its merchant partners are able to draw upon these resources, further supporting and developing their timber business over the long-term.