Marketing champion

The Howarth Timber Group has created a dedicated training centre to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and to provide self-builders, specifiers, contractors, tradesmen and DIY enthusiasts with a knowledge resource.

The aims of the GreenHouse marketing campaign were to create a display area that would engage with visitors, launch the venture to local, regional and national customers and prospects and to promote it to influencers in sustainability. We also aimed to drive sales and generate bookings for the training centre.

During the refurbishment of the disused building at Howarth Timber and Building Supplies' Rochdale branch, our PR agency undertook research across our branches to identify customer understanding of sustainability issues. It was clear that for customers to fully appreciate the depth of our offering it would be necessary to create the opportunity for us to engage directly with our markets. We were confident that a launch event would encourage market engagement with the centre. We believed the regional target markets would respond more positively to an event built on a distinctly local flavour, which would also have more appeal to regional press.

From experience, we knew the specification and contractor market would respond favourably to a more formal launch. We undertook two separate and very different events. Attendance would be driven by on and off-line initiatives supported with PR activity both pre- and post-launch. We believed that in addition to generating regional interest in the facility, it would be possible to generate traffic from our 28 branches if customers perceived it as more than simply a product showcase. As a result the decision was taken to train one person from each Howarth branch to become a 'Green Champion', helping drive traffic to the centre.

Central to this was the appointment of Jay Pickup as Howarth Timber's new sustainability development manager, who was tasked with driving the Green Champion initiative. To provide the Green Champions with a resource to assist them in the marketing of the new facility, a 360-page 'Green Bible' was produced, incorporating relevant legislation, green initiatives and product detail. Point of sale and banners were produced for each branch to promote the Green Champions alongside Howarth's involvement in sustainability.

An identity and branding were created for the new centre, which was designed to communicate sustainability while retaining an element of existing branding, which led to its becoming the Howarth GreenHouse. A dedicated section on the Howarth website was created, communicating the detail of the centre.

On a national scale, we organised an official opening by the managing director and chairman of the Builders Merchants Federation, while e-marketing was produced and distributed to customers and prospects during the build-up to the event. Event invitations were issued by Green Champions to customers and prospects known personally to them.

To launch the centre to local tradesmen and self-builders, a different approach was taken. Following customer research it was clear there was a significant following for Rochdale AFC, who were flying high in the league. We created the concept for an event where Rochdale's manager John Coleman would share his tactical knowledge with the audience prior to the start of a PlayStation giant screen 'FIFA 2013 Challenge' where he would play against customers. The winners would receive a voucher to be reclaimed against 'green' products, signed football memorabilia and the highest scorer would win an iPad.

An e-marketing initiative promoting the event and incorporating a specific response mechanism linked to the website was issued to regional contacts. The use of social media to promote the event and specifically the FIFA Challenge were integral in generating attendance on the day. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 promotional leaflets were produced and sent to the full circulation (20,870) of the Lancashire Telegraph. These were also available in Howarth branches. During the events, video and stills were taken for post-event PR, with the video hosted on the website and third-party sites.

More than 80 invitees attended our national opening day and it generated significant pre and post-publicity in the regional, trade and specification press. For the regional launch, attendance from Rochdale and the surrounding area was high and with around 50 visitors over the day, the centre was packed.

The majority of regional visitors were from the construction trade, with many saying that having a local centre for sustainable products was essential. Numbers across the three days exceeded expectations, with more than 300 visitors attending.

After the launch, increased trade was generated within three months and the Training Centre was booked to capacity. Feedback from the Green Champions indicated around 200-plus customers had undertaken training. A video of the event attracted over 300 views in the first 48 hours, editorial value on a like-for-like with advertising exceeded £15,000 and, with the total launch marketing cost under the budget of £5,000, there can be no question about ROI.