Overview:

We had the pleasure of meeting R.P. Johnson & Son – a building materials and hardware company with a 110 year legacy – at a seminar we put on for the Northeast Retail Lumber Association (NRLA) in November of 2009. At the event we introduced our GIFTS™ Formula for marketing and business growth culture. Additionally, we touched on how to integrate healthy and consistent growth and change into a business’s marketing program by making a culture shift and marketing with meaning – rather than just creating marketing gimmicks, promotions or tactics. Shortly after the meeting, we were contacted by R.P. Johnson & Son and asked to create a plan that they could implement to help overcome the negative impact of a down economy – which was stifling any potential for growth in the building industry for the foreseeable future. Sales were down and people just weren't coming in their doors in the volume that they had experienced even in slow years.

Challenge:

R.P. Johnson wanted to connect with more potential customers in a manner that had both meaning and value to the customer, the community and to the bottom line at R.P. Johnson & Son at a time when traffic was low. They needed a new website, a better marketing plan and some consistent strategy to move the company forward and create new bid and sales opportunities.

Outcome:

The firm had never been properly introduced to the genuine benefits of a well-developed interactive website presence, so we were charged with guiding key members of the company’s marketing team through the architectural and development process – while keeping our focus on immediate priorities in the marketing plan. We needed to redesign the company website, which was initially just a very basic 2 or 3 page online brochure. Additionally, we provided 2 on-site workshops that introduced the new marketing strategy we had in mind. They needed advertising design, media buy planning, and an overhaul on their radio and TV strategy, PR and many other promotional collateral pieces.

Innerspire created several innovative programs for the company, including an extremely successful outreach program that we branded and promoted called “We Build it Forward” day, where we were able to bring in nearly 70 volunteers, tens of thousands in dollars and in-kind services to help the needy in the community and hundreds of new and familiar faces into the R.P. Johnson facilities. Add to that the format for “Handy-At-Home” Workshops and the highly interactive website campaigns and R.P. Johnson & Son has hit many key goals with our campaign – including making a measurable difference to 2 area food banks and Habitat for Humanity. To read the event press release, go to: http://innerspire.com/blog/?p=40 To see the event website, videos and more photos: http://www.webuilditforward.com

Client Feedback:

"The feedback that we’re getting from this campaign, from people I haven’t even met before is beyond anything that I could have imagined. People are just stopping me in the street. From the start, I was enthusiastic about Innerspire’s brilliant ideas for our new marketing strategy, but it was unclear how we could translate the idea into reality. Innerspire made it happen – they just made it happen. We’re going to do this again and again."

-Stephen Johnson, President – R.P. Johnson & Son