One of North America’s Leading Manufacturers Discovers Their Talk Trigger
Client
Superior Glove – one of North America’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of industrial work gloves with over 3,000 styles on the market today.
Location
Headquartered in Acton, Canada
Services Provided
- Talk Triggers word of mouth strategy
- Talk Triggers word of mouth testing development and implementation guidance
Overview
How do you take a utilitarian and mundane product like a work glove and turn the research, purchase, and usage of that product into something that is massively talkable? To further complicate matters, Superior Glove only sells through distributors, so how can customer chatter be created when the company rarely interacts with customers directly?
For Superior Glove, the Convince & Convert strategy was clear. Help them identify the brand differentiators, leverage the fun and lovable aspects of the brand, become their true strategic partner, and give them the permission to develop and test unusual, yet relatable ideas that drive word of mouth.
Situation
Manufacturers oftentimes have a difficult time differentiating themselves in the marketplace because the products are a necessity and “flash” isn’t typically part of the equation. Employee safety is a serious matter and is of the utmost concern and breaking through using word-of-mouth is not inherent to this industry.
But, Superior Glove isn’t afraid to try new things and is willing to push the boundaries of traditional marketing tactics by showcasing the staff’s fun and quirky personality. With the variety of high quality glove products on the market, Superior Glove already had a successful sales staff and process, but was looking to grow their overall reputation with end users as they began to scale their US operation.
They needed a methodical way to get customers talking with remarkable, realistic, relevant and repeatable Talk Triggers – operational differentiators that compel word of mouth conversations.
Challenges
Although Superior Glove was culturally in favor of word of mouth as a major customer acquisition effort, there were challenges in doing so:
- The gloves themselves require a complex manufacturing process that varies significantly by product
- Customers buy from third-party distributors
- The purchase decision within a factory, plant or other organization tends to sit with a small group (or even one individual) with employee safety responsibilities. However, it was critical to reach the end users to generate conversations among that group.
Solution
Convince & Convert started by interviewing company management and front-line employees, current clients, and lost customers who chose a brand other than Superior Glove. In those interviews, we found the moments of tension within the purchase process, and moments of opportunity that could be leveraged to create chatter.
We then developed word of mouth parameters that provided a model for how Talk Triggers could work for Superior Glove, given their operational realities.
Convince & Convert developed more than 10 Talk Trigger word of mouth ideas synched to various touch-points within the consideration, purchase, and post-purchase processes. Each would create new, inherently talkable moments among end users.
The Superior Glove team selected their six favorite Talk Triggers candidate ideas, and Convince & Convert built execution models for each, exploring viability, requirements, rollout, costs, measurement schemas, and other criteria.
Superior Glove then selected their top two ideas, and Convince & Convert developed full testing plans and chatter volume benchmarks so each operational differentiator could be properly tested in a controlled environment to understand the impact of the Talk Trigger(s) on customer conversation and order volumes.
Currently, Superior Glove is in the testing phase of the final two ideas and will report back on findings in the upcoming months.
