Rebranding and Promotion – Grabill

Rebranding and Promotion is Like Looking Before You Leap

The Grabill Cabinet Company was the best kept secret in their industry until 2009 when we launched an updated brand strategy that included a design competition, fresh company identity, advertising, p/r and sales process transformation. Today, Grabill is recognized nationally as a designer’s paradise for truly custom cabinetry, architectural products, and fine furniture. New dealers, as well as specifiers and homeowners, are continually flowing into their system.

The Look

Since 1946, Grabill Cabinets has stood for quality. In 2009, quality remained the bedrock of the company. However, it was clear that getting consumers to understand and place a dollar amount on quality was a real challenge. Spearhead walked Grabill through a sales and marketing planning process that we now call SM-art℠ Sales and Marketing. We looked at the company’s mission and how they functioned day-to-day. We evaluated their sales approach and interviewed sales staff. We studied their marketplace to understand the buyers, competitors and developing trends. We visited key dealers to get first-hand input and feedback on our findings.

The details of our findings are confidential. The essence is that we found a position in the market that Grabill could fill better than anyone. It required some re-branding and updated sales strategy but clearly, it was their future.

The Leap

Rebranding is always a challenge because the change precedes the expected results. In reality, people really only adopt change once results have been experienced. Our strategy was to leverage an upcoming trade show and dealer development event. By unveiling the new branding direction at such a high profile event, it was taken seriously and people got excited. The launch included a new website, brand identity, sales collateral and an innovative design competition that would be a two year process.

Results

We used a traditional ad agency before we met Spearhead. The difference is that Spearhead learned our business.
– Martin Heiny, President

• First year website statistics – traffic up 79%, bounces down 59%, pages/visit up 30%. These metrics continue to climb including a very impressive three minutes per visit average.
• 100’s of new leads as a result of integrated advertising, email marketing and ongoing featured project updates.
• Dealer engagement is at an all time high.
• The top tier dealers are either growing or being replaced by new dealers with aggressive plans.
• Clear value proposition and market positioning has re-focused the sales team.
• No longer the “Best Kept Secret” – made front cover of KBDN as an editorial.