By Indra Valeinis, Associate Director, Endless LLP
In today’s keen economic environment, competition on the high street remains intense and pressure on household budgets is high. Retailers are continually seeking to reinvigorate and invent new ways to gain access to discretionary spend. Shoppers are prepared to invest in names they trust and which reflect their own aspirations and values. Brand positioning is therefore key and getting it right is critical, not just to ensure a company’s immediate survival but also its long term growth and success. Recent brand turnarounds at Hewlett Packard and Burberry have impressed, but the more local success at Crown Paints proves you can teach even a market leader new tricks.
Strategy
Endless acquired Crown Paints in August 2008 against the backdrop of an increasingly commoditised market and oncoming global recession. ICI Dulux was dominating the space and Crown was coming under increasing price pressure from consumers trading down to own brand.
Post-Liverpool FC sponsorship in the 80s, Crown had lost market share from 25% to 15% at the same time that Dulux saw its share increase from 35% to 45%. The Crown brand was in need of a turnaround in order to stand for something different to Dulux. Crown needed to reinvent its message and shake up the market.
A strategic review early in the life of our investment confirmed that core equity was contained within the key brands. The long term development of the Crown, Sandtex and Sadolin names (amongst others) was therefore fundamental to business success and future returns. Research showed brand awareness to be high, but consumers struggled to identify what made Crown stand out from the crowd. Crown needed to break with convention to be bolder, more edgy and unique – a true ‘challenger’ brand rather than a ‘me too’ contender.
Crown formulated its turnaround strategy around 6 Critical Success Factors (CSFs), one of the key priorities being;
"To develop a strong brand identity that helps to position and clearly communicate what Crown stands for to customers, employees and stakeholders."
It was not about changing the fundamentals, but rather bringing out existing USPs in a different way. The market had historically dictated which colours, trends and ranges customers should choose, with DIYers passively selecting from the predefined combinations. However, Crown had identified a clear customer enthusiasm for something new – decorating was no longer a functional necessity, but more a tool for people to bring something of their individual fashions, tastes and experiences into their homes. A new brand mantra of ‘It’s not just paint. It’s personal’ was born.
Launch
Supported by BJL, a local Manchester based creative agency, the strategy was first launched internally to ensure its ethos was at the forefront of everything Crown does. New signage was pushed out across the UK and Ireland in a single weekend, coinciding with reinvestment in customer areas to accentuate Crown’s commitment to change. New creative communication was introduced, with an ‘Up Close and Personal’ newsletter particularly underpinning the ongoing messaging to field-based colleagues. The new brand mantra has been exceptionally well received by Crown’s 1,300 employees, who are now key Brand Ambassadors for the ‘It’s personal’ approach.
Brian Davidson, Group Chief Executive at Crown Paints, notes: “Our entrepreneurial culture has enabled us to continually adapt in response to and in anticipation of changing market conditions. This level of flexibility affords us a unique position as a highly innovative challenger brand in a market that is highly competitive.”
Roll Out
The success of the internal launch encouraged a braver external communications strategy to be pursued. A more challenging tone was adopted for press advertising and new media routes were embraced. Crown was the first paint company in the UK to launch a colour iPhone app, for example, to add to its other innovative ‘firsts’ (see opposite page) and to use more directional imagery. Gone are the traditional room sets so heavily featured on colour cards, posters and promotional materials to date, displaced by a more gender neutral, animation-led route in the long awaited return to TV campaign. The new advertisement tells the story of how walls come to life by revealing the personal inspiration behind each colour choice. The month long campaign has targeted an audience of 16 million viewers, inspiring more passion and personality to flow through into home decoration. “It is a call for the audience to liberate themselves,” says Sue Nickson, Group Account Director for BJL. “Crown is encouraging customers to be a bit braver, a bit bolder, a bit more individual and to literally out something of themselves, their passions and experiences on their walls”
The TV advert has been heavily supported by a wider press, social media and on-line advertising campaign and a consistent brand mantra has been pursued across Crown’s diverse customer channels. From architects to decorators to consumers to retailers, a coherent brand approach encourages more ‘bang for buck’ and a compounding multiplier effect.
Future Development
Not content at having conquered the increasingly alphabet-acised world of e-commerce, f-commerce and other market making sales channels, Crown will be seeking to drive further reappraisal of paint purchasing through more experiential activity in the coming year. The business will also be improving the in-store customer journey and will of course be keeping a close eye on those all important ‘It’s personal’ customer and environmental trends. Liz Hickson, Marketing Director, adds: “We have focused our core marketing efforts on the internal and external delivery of ‘It’s Personal,’ right across the business. This is the first time we have had a truly integrated marketing strategy across the diverse channels we operate in. Moving forward we will continue to challenge our thinking, to keep the brand fresh and invigorating – it’s a very exciting time at Crown Paints.”
Measures of Success
Although the effectiveness of any corporate marketing activity can prove notoriously difficult to measure, the financial success of Crown’s brand re-invigoration can be summed up through three key metrics:
Market share growth: Crown’s share of the UK decorative coatings market increased from 17% to 19% between 2008-2010, against a wider market contraction of -5% over the same period.
EBITDAR (Earnings Before Interest, Taxation, Depreciation, Amortisation and Rent): £20m delivered in the year ended 31 December 2010 on revenues of £180m, versus £10.5m in the year ended 2009.
Cash generation: More than £50m headroom in 2010.
So it seems getting personal with your customers can be the secret to success – however daunting the prospect may initially seem, it is clearly worth its weight in gold. Or gold coloured paint of course.