CASE STUDY: TELLING THE STORY OF YOUR BRAND

 

Dowding Industries is a family-owned business.  On the surface, they look like almost any other manufacturing company.   They have factories with stamping presses, lasers, and high tech machining equipment.  As you take a walk on the factory floor, you hear the sounds you'd expect to hear in a stamping or fabrication plant.  Walk through the factory and you hear the presses stamping out parts that end up in final products like giant CAT trucks, or Cummins engines.  

But as you walk through one of the 3 Dowding plants in Eaton Rapids, MI, even more than the sounds, or the smell of diesel, there's something else you can't help but notice.  The people.  

Dowding really is a family. Chris, the CEO, grew up hand-painting depth finders, while watching cartoons on TV.  Her dad, Skip, is the founder, and Chairman of the Board.  Over the last 50 years, they've grown, both as a company, but also as a family, and today, the 200 people they employ are an extension of not just a corporation.  You see, Dowding doesn't just build parts... they're building people.

It turns out, that those people they are building, are really great at building the things their customers need.  Sometimes that looks like creating custom processes to build a part that other suppliers couldn't.  Other times, it means inventing a machine that no one else thought could be built, just to meet a customer's needs.

Dowding came to us to help them create a series of videos that would tell their story.  They noticed that whenever their potential customers visit them at their 3 plants here in Michigan, they almost always won the business.  When people experienced who they are, and walked that factory floor, they almost always won their business.  The challenge was getting their potential customers here to their factories.

We took on their project to create a series of videos that their sales and marketing team could use when they meet potential customers, helping them re-create the "in-person" experience, even far from Eaton Rapids.   Our goal was simple - tell the story. 

Once we had dialed in the tone and message of the videos, we tackled an update of their website, so that the brand story was consistent across all of their digital marketing materials.  We focused on using large images, as well as creating pathways for their story to come through online. 

One of the most important things for businesses to remember, is that you have an ability to engage with your potential customers and share your story, before they ever interact with anyone at your business.  Your website, social media, and digital marketing strategy can help you communicate who you are and what you stand for, in a powerful way, that attracts your ideal clients.