Case Study
New Market Development - Firestone
These days, thinking outside of the box is nearly cliché and par for the course. However, ingenuity often solves the challenges Adentive Marketing faces every day.
Challenge
When we began working with Firestone Industrial, we found the Firestone brand was well known to truck and trailer OEMs by virtue of its industry-leading AirRide® suspension products, but two similar products, AirStroke® (an actuating device) and AirMount® (an isolation device),were virtual unknowns in the industrial marketplace.
Firestone Industrial had introduced the AirStroke and AirMount products using the traditional means: advertising, public relations and direct mail. But the results had been distinctly lackluster and, according to Firestone marketing, somewhat attributable to the industrial design engineers’ lack of understanding as to how to utilize these new products. (They can replace any pneumatic actuating device such as pneumatic cylinders, or shock-absorbing device as used in mounting a parts vibrator.)
Solution
To resuscitate the AirStroke and AirMount programs by leveraging the strength
of the Firestone brand. We also needed to educate the industrial engineer
regarding the features and benefits of these products and the various ways they
can be used.
Our first idea turned out to be a winner: develop a design contest for
industrial design engineers that called upon them to create uses for these
products. Promote the contest using advertisements, public relations, posters
and direct mail and then utilize trade press editors to act as contest judges.
The top design engineering magazine, Design News, was also commissioned to
write feature articles on some of the best designs (both serious and humorous,
as the contest included both).
The contest created a buzz about Firestone and its new products among design engineers, raising the brands’ awareness position significantly. In fact, the contest was deemed so successful that we were asked to run a contest for engineering students the following year.