Background

Lofthouse has been a leading design, engineering and brass forging company in Canada for over 50 years, manufacturing brass parts for North American companies in: plumbing, HVAC, hardware, electronics and automotive industries.

The brass forging market had been static for some time, so Lofthouse took the bold step of acquiring a new forging press that enabled them to manufacture aluminum forged parts which was a growing segment, particularly for companies in the automotive and recreational industries.

While forging as a manufacturing process dates back hundreds of years, Lofthouse saw an opportunity to capture more North American business – in spite of stiff off shore competition – because of their cost savings engineering and design expertise, proficiency in machining those parts and ability to now produce aluminum parts.

Recognizing that manufacturing opportunity required them to also look at some of newer marketing and sales tools. As well as the need to develop an integrated marketing and sales program to firmly and quickly establish their position as an industry leader in these two major forged parts markets.

The Challenge

Whiting & Holmes was brought in to help create that position and to develop the required marketing support tools for the Lofthouse Sales Team, Senior Management and for their Sales Agency personal across North America.

The Solution

W&H prepared a 3 year marketing plan that started with market segment research and the preparation of a comprehensive marketing and communication plan. That plan included numerous traditional communication tools, such as press releases and corporate photography, as well as selling sheets and the development of positioning theme for the organization. This plan and ongoing updates were also presented to the Sales Agency personal at their annual sales meetings.

Perhaps most importantly, W&H also prepared a corporate website, which included an interactive golf-game to capitalize on the new viral gamming craze and on Lofthouses’ ability to produce a well-known and prestigious aluminum golf putter.

W&H undertook photo and video footage of the new production facility, which was specifically designed to house the new aluminum press and photography continued once every 2 weeks during the build and the installation, so that the sales force and customers could be updated on the progress.

During the 3 year roll out of the plan, W&H prepared most of the elements of the planned communication program, such as the press releases, selling sheets and the corporate brochure, and were in the process of launching the website and promoting the viral e-game, when Lofthouse was purchased by a company in Italy. The new parent company decided to consolidate Lofthouse’s operation into one facility and to semi-integrate it with a US company who had also recently been acquired.

Over the last several years, and due in large part to the work we produced for Lofthouse, W&H was asked to become involved in developing and executing the marketing and communication programs for the US company as well.

We continue to work with both companies, producing updated marketing and sales material, ongoing website updates, videography and photography.