Gotham has been an expert industrial marketing company since its inception.
And now, more than 20 years later, Gotham's business is still about making
business better for our industrial clients. Brand development, packaging
design, trade ads, brochures, collateral, videos, trade show presentations,
websites with e-commerce capabilities — no matter what type of
marketing your business needs, Gotham's strategic approach to business
to business marketing delivers the competitive advantage your company
needs to succeed.
Business to Business Marketing
CLIENT Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation - North
Carolina
Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned cooperative
specializing in electrical distribution to its 72,000-membership base
consisting of rural residents and corporations in Caldwell, Watauga,
Ashe and Allegheny counties and parts of Wilkes, Alexander and Avery
counties in North Carolina.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Blue Ridge’s 72,000 members
OBJECTIVE
To provide members with a newly formatted Annual Report
that enhances customer satisfaction by delivering member capital
credits in the form of a credit or a check, cooperative news and
a services brochure.
CHALLENGE
There were three major challenges to this project:
Design the annual
report so that it fit postal codes
Uniquely identify each of 72,000
members with variable data
Accurately match checks or credits to the
appropriate member
SOLUTION
The issue of sending the correct check
to a specific member was resolved by die-cutting a window on the
back of the self-mailed report. The variable addresses appeared on
the back side of the check or refund to ensure that the appropriate
money was mailed to the specific member. The “services” brochure
was designed to fit into the annual report structure and be used in
the future as a stand-alone piece. Communicating value-added services
is a critical aspect of Blue Ridge’s overall messaging strategy.
The lighter weight paper stocks and overall structure of the piece
were selected so that the annual reports could be mailed as affordably
as possible.
RESULTS
Members who attended Blue Ridge’s Annual
Meeting had overwhelmingly positive feedback regarding the newly formatted
annual report:
Raised member/owner identity.
A third-party survey was conducted in the second quarter of 2008
by TSE Services, Inc. to quantify member/owner satisfaction and
messaging success. The survey revealed that member identity rose
to 74.4%, up 8.3 points from the first quarter of 2008, representing
the largest jump in member/owner identity since data was first
collected in 2004, as well as the highest member/owner identity
rating ever received. Previous ratings were in the 68% range.
Increased
awareness of the benefits of Capital Credits
The survey showed definitively that the new Annual Report package
raised the level of awareness and understanding of the benefits
of the capital credits for members/owners. Of those surveyed, the
following percentage of members/owners reported a better understanding
of capital credits:
41% of those who received checks with their annual report
28% of those who received the bill/credit insert with their annual
report
33% of new members who received the general information (without
a check or a bill/credit insert)
Increased customer satisfaction
Client research has shown that member/owner identity drives customer
satisfaction. Indeed, the TSE survey measured customer satisfaction
at 9.1 on a 10-point scale. This rating represents one of the
highest customer satisfaction levels Blue Ridge Electric Membership
Corporation has ever received.
CLIENT'S REACTION TO THE PROJECT
"For well
over a year," explained
Renee Whitener, director of public relations for Blue Ridge Electric
Membership Corporation, "Gotham's Woody Stoudemire not only
worked closely with me to plan the project, but he also met with
other employees and vendors who were responsible for executing this
project every step of the way." She continued, "I especially
like Woody’s
high level of accountability and how he treats each project as his
own regarding not only creating effective design and copy, but also
in finding cost effective ways to develop and deliver the project.
I could not have chosen a better marketing partner than Gotham for
a project of this magnitude and importance to our strategic public
relations plan. They were a very big reason for its success."
