A global automotive tier one well-known for their reliable powertrain and electrical components was striving to raise awareness of their new mobility technology division. Realizing they were in a highly competitive market and their brand perception was dated, they turned to Third Law for help repositioning themselves, raising awareness of their R&D innovations, and developing a strategy to communicate their value to the market.
Getting the right team
The role of the executive director of advanced development at this tier-one was one of technology leadership: “I led a team that came up with future product ideas that customers might want in two to five years, and then turned those ideas into compelling products and demos.”
“Third Law understands where to put the emphasis and helped guide where our future work should focus.”
The global brand was not well known for the innovative work his division did. To capture the interest of potential customers, this executive knew they needed to differentiate, communicate, and get it right. “We had a two-part challenge,” he recalls: “Getting the right team to craft the message to customers was as important as getting the right team to build the products.”
The executive engaged early on with Third Law, knowing that “it was critical to have their industry knowledge involved in determining where we could go. Third Law understands where to put the emphasis and helped guide where our future work should focus.”
He adds, “Even for a technology proof-of-concept, you need to communicate your value in a way that highlights your strengths rather than simply focusing on product features.”
Highly specialized marketing
The tier-one executive first had Third Law conduct market research to identify where his organization had a competitive advantage. This included an analysis of the competitive landscape, a SWOT report, market differentiation strategies, a unique value proposition, and key messages.
“Third Law’s expert analysis and guidance was remarkable for its strategic orientation. They looked at our opportunities as well as our limitations and showed us how to achieve our goals.”
“There are perhaps 50 to 100 people in the world who we wanted to get our message to, and it required a marketing agency that was highly aware of our market and audience.”
The executive says that Third Law’s expert analysis and guidance was remarkable for its strategic orientation: “Third Law looked at our opportunities as well as our limitations and showed us how we could achieve our goals over the course of five years, given the constraints we had. Their independent, knowledgeable expertise gave us the confidence and credibility to move forward.”
He adds: “If we had not worked with Third Law, I think we would have kept searching for that direction internally, so Third Law accelerated what we were able to do.”
Way beyond buzzwords
Third Law’s rare combination of engineering experience, automotive market expertise, and marketing talent was evident to this tier-one executive: “Third Law could go through an outline of what we wanted to say and produce a full presentation from it. They really understood us—the industry, the customers, the painpoints. They weren’t just using buzzwords.”
“Third Law was able to discuss market trends and challenges with us, extract topical discussions and solutions from those conversations, and turn that into valuable marketing content.”
After the initial competitive analysis, positioning, and messaging strategy, Third Law provided a variety of support geared toward creating thought leadership. This included collateral, event strategy and management, videos, website, social media, blog posts, and presentations that dramatically increased awareness of the organization’s innovative offerings to automakers.
The executive notes that Third Law’s expertise facilitated new ideas and thought leadership within his organization: “Third Law was able to discuss market trends and challenges with us, extract topical discussions and solutions from those conversations, and turn that into valuable marketing content.”
Results were very encouraging. Not only did this tier one receive direct inquiries from desirable prospective OEM customers, they were able to measurably increase their awareness through website traffic (a 700-percent monthly increase in page views) and audience-targeted social media (1,400 percent increase in monthly organic impressions).