INSTRON: CLIENT RESEARCH AND BRAND ANALYSIS
| Industry: | Technology
| | Client: | Instron is the world's leading technology product and service company focused on providing equipment to evaluate mechanical properties of materials and components (e.g. how “hard” a material might be).
| | Challenge: | Instron was building up to a major expansion and branding campaign. In essence, they needed to know, “What components of our service should we focus on improving so our efforts will make the most positive difference to our clients?”
Wellesley Hills Group was hired to help Instron understand which, out of 46 potential attributes of their services, were the most important for client satisfaction, retention, and willingness to recommend Instron to colleagues.
| | Intervention: | Wellesley Hills Group approached Instron's challenge by: - Building a survey process and instrument to collect the necessary data for analysis
- Implementing a major client survey via mail and e-mail to thousands of customers
- Collecting and analyzing survey data
- Delivering the results of the survey to senior management
| | Results: | Wellesley Hills Group's research and analysis: - Identified the 4 common attributes (out of a total 46) essential to Instron's services brand that made the most difference in client satisfaction, loyalty, and intent to recommend
- Identified, though advanced statistical methods, the likelihood of increased revenue from client retention should satisfaction scores for particular attributes improve
- Helped Instron's c-level and senior management stakeholders gain internal agreement as to what improvement activities were highest priorities
- Saved Instron substantial dollars and time in the expansion and improvement of their service offerings (see comment)
- Focused the value proposition and messaging of Instron's brand towards those factors that will make a measurable financial and competitive difference for the company
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Client Comment "Instron decided that it needed to focus on improving the brand of their technology services offerings. Originally, we interviewed several top advertising agencies. At a professional association meeting, I saw Mike Schultz and John Doerr speak on how marketing and branding of services is very different from products.
We interviewed the Wellesley Hills Group internally and hired them on the spot. They walked us through all the steps that we needed to take into consideration to make our service group successful and profitable. All the senior managers agreed that without their expertise, taking on such a challenge would have cost the company substantially more.
Their greatest asset for us was understanding how to launch a service the right way. They saved us months of tripping over ourselves and we were able to meet our launch date of the successful program."
- Robin Palermo, Worldwide Marketing Communications Manager, Instron
