Marketing Mnemonics

Bug Spots

The Background:

Dejay Industries is a provider of precision Swiss screw machine parts. The company was started as a side line regional business to fill a need perceived by the founder. The founder saw a need for a company that could supply a wide variety of custom OEM Swiss screw machine parts. Manufacturers of Swiss screw machine parts typically provided only the types of parts that they could produce with their own in-house machinery. Dejay, acting as a virtual manufacturer, was able to provide customers with a much more complete line of precision Swiss screw machine parts.

The company started as Dejay International. Its founders were manufacturers' reps that were in the field and aware of a market need. The company was strong on sales ability. But, it had little experience in developing marketing communication pieces and putting a marketing program together.

Discussions with management revealed that the company really had no business plan. The company developed a business plan and made marketing a major element of that plan. By doing this, they became aware of the costs involved with a marketing effort.

The Positioning:

First, we determined that there was a problem with the name Dejay International. It sounded more like an import/export business or a financial services business. The owner believed that there was some good will with the name Dejay. So, we kept their Dejay but changed the company name to Dejay Industries.

We believed that positioning of the company should relate to the fact that Dejay was different from other companies. It had the ability to provide parts that were made by the right process for the job. They were able to approach several machine houses that in turn provide very competitively priced parts. And, these parts were precision and made right. Dejay was now a full service provider to the OEM of precision Swiss screw machine parts.

We developed the theme... Spot the difference..

We accomplished two things with this statement. We said that Dejay was indeed different from other manufacturers . We also created a perception that products were quality.

The Mnemonic Image:

We knew the image had to be high impact, show a variety of the different Swiss screw machine parts. It also had to be an image that the company could carry to several marketing avenues. It could not project anything negative. It also had to be small enough to relay the point that these parts are truly miniature and precision. We chose a ladybug and showed it with the parts magnified by a factor of ten.

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Comments from Mark Goff:

In Dejay's case, we knew what the message had to be. We came up with the ladybug concept and the words came easy by just looking at the picture. We made a computerized photo composite of the ladybug, a variety of parts, and a leaf .

We developed a full page sell sheet and quarter page ads in color and in black and white. These sell sheets could also be used for a full page ad or posters. We also developed a high impact folder that carried the ladybug theme. We also carried this theme to the company's Internet site.

The results are coming in. The mnemonic helped create the perception that the company was substantial and had longevity. We developed a directory advertising program and implemented a product oriented PR program. We generated a sizable amount of leads and provided the company with the opportunity to quote on jobs they otherwise would not have been able to. We carried the theme to the company's web site. It's difficult to use a search engine with the term "precision Swiss screw machine part" and not have Dejay appear in the top hits.