Case Histories

Guardog™, a skate guard manufacturer who enjoyed year over year successes faced the reality that their patent was running out and over-seas competition was ready to over-take their market with cheaper alternatives. They reacted by taking brand action.

Since it was determined that Marc Evon Enterprises was an originator of skate guards, the new brand could claim “The Original” moniker. The brand name was changed to Guardog™ to give the guard an identity and something buyers could identify with. Analysing the competition, Guardog™ embraced bold packaging and an aggressive position – “Anything else is a mutt.™

Our efforts absolutely differentiated Guardog™ in the marketplace. Their largest market is figure skating and among the pros, Guardog™ is the preferred guard. A nod to the quality and fashion of the product. Today each new Guardog™ product carries with it unique naming, packaging and promotion.

Guardog™ has since regained market share and a reality that they are quite proud of is that even in China (where the biggest competition began) skaters are asking for the “Original Guardog™” over other locally manufactured and cheaper guards. A testament to great branding.

Testimonial:

“In the late nineties the patents expired on all of our products and they were readily copied by manufacturers in the far east. Without a brand strategy our market share began to erode quickly. Early in the new millennium, we consulted Ed Roach of the Branding Experts and began to build a brand for our company. As a result of this brand strategy, we have re-gained much of our market share and established Guardog as the premiere brand in the skating accessory business. Our collaboration with the Branding Experts has been an essential part in the re-birth of our company.” – Marc Evon, President

icoat™, an industrial, commercial and automotive coatings supplier brought in The Branding Experts to help them raise the bar with a new brand direction. Originally called Innovative Coatings, the company felt it had grown beyond that name and wanted to simplify and expand the brand.

In discovery sessions to identify the positioning strategy and validated in stakeholder research, it was revealed that their trump card was their uncanny knowledge of the coatings industry. They had become the go-to people for knowledge. Even competition turned to them for information on the application and durability of products. The differentiator (positioning strategy) became: “Leading industry in knowledge.” This coming year will see icoat expand on this positioning by adding its very own Certified Gold Coat Training – adding additional value to the brand.

In the few samples shown here you can appreciate the progressive palette and consistent image across all materials. The new icon represents the three core markets, mixing colour and in motion.

Suntrition™ was going through a transition when we were called in to spear-head their new brand initiatives. Management was inspired to take their brand to the next level.

Through the process we unlocked where their brand stood today and were able to gage, what the expectation was with stake holders. This was done with stake holder research and the assembled Branding Team.The team identified the brand values, personality and brand message to carry us forward. The key component that absolutely re-invigorated the Suntrition™ brand was the new positioning strategy, “The leader in small-batch, oral-dose manufacturing.” It was identified that the industry (and many industries for that matter) totally focus their sales efforts on the large contract. Every part of their being concentrated on this dynamic. We identified the reality that contrary to this desire for the big job, they could making a good living on the little guy. Why not harness this reality and turn our focus to servicing them with gusto.

The branding team embraced this “small” strategy in a BIG way. Turning to the brand image and through analysis, delivered a brand palette that Suntrition™ could own and coupled with a progressive brand image that complimented the findings of the branding process. Using their new standards guide, they now have to be brand compliant as they move forward confident in their new clothes.

All our efforts were validated by an unprecedented response from the industry and small-batch customers in particular. Stake-holder research, recent sales and making the Profit 2012 200 list of Canada’s fastest growing companies have validated this bold new direction.

Testimonial:

“Let me start off by saying that rebranding or creating your brand is not something you can do effectively on your own. It truly does take an Ed Roach with a proven approach, process, courage and creativity to take you through the steps. Our experience with Ed was outstanding in the transformation of the firm internally and externally and turned out to be a master stroke in terms of outcome. With our new identity we were finally clearly defined and at our first public (industry) rollout in NYC the resultant branding stopped people in their tracks, created conversation, leads, sales and a stir……photographs and compliments were routine….absolutely amazing. The theme was repeated in Las Vegas, Vancouver, Toronto, Minneapolis and at home during presentations and facility tours. You need to do this and Ed Roach is the guy.” – Ken Wheeldon, Former General Manager and Director of Operations