Choose Your Trail. We’ll Create Your Dream Lifestyle.
Case Study
TRAILLITE MOTORHOMES
TrailLite Motorhomes has been manufacturing motorhomes and caravans from their purpose- built factory in Auckland, New Zealand, for over 70 years. As a family-owned business they have a good name in the market with a strong sense of values that translates into handcrafted vehicles that are produced to the highest of standards.
Despite this, local and international competitors with cheaper components and mass produced manufacturing processes, were chipping away at their market share. TrailLite was not capitalising on their history—a great story of courage and craftsmanship—or moving fast enough to stop the decline. As such they were losing out on opportunities to reach new customers and grow their business. They asked me to help.
Services
Strategy
Brand Strategy
Marketing Strategy
Copywriting
Design
Web Architecture & Content
Web Development
Naming
Product Development
REQUIREMENTS
Take the TrailLite brand to the next level to match the quality of their motorhomes.
I identified TrailLite’s initial requirements, which grew signicantly over a 5 year period as the company grew and purchased their competitors.
Strategy
Explore improvements to the manufacturing process, and how to tackle the European import issue.
Naming
Create a naming system for the product ranges.
New Website
Create a new eCommerce website to show off the craftsmanship and display and sell the vehicle range. This needs to use APIs from two leading auto trading websites to import and export data.
Product Development
Further develop the product range, and strengthen and create partnerships.
Brand Strategy
Write a new brand strategy including TrailLite’s Values, Brand Essence, Personality, Brand Story, Positioning, Key Messages, Tagline, Tone of Voice for the brand and each product, to set them apart in the market.
Marketing Strategy
Write a new marketing strategy for the parent company and brand marketing strategies for each product.
Marketing Campaigns
Create new marketing collateral, advertising and direct marketing campaigns for the parent brand and all products.
Recommendations
Dream Lifestyles
I started with a Marketing Brand Audit, and discovered immediate areas for improvement along with the need to develop resources that would resonate with their internal and external audiences, including:
New Values
New Positioming
New Business Strategy
New Marketing strategy
Redesign the Company Logo and Stationery
Develop a new sales-driven Website
Create a new Company Brochure
Create new brand and retail advertising campaigns
Create new on-site and in-vehicle signage
Develop new Public Relations campaigns
Develop new electronic Direct Mail campaigns
Create Trade Show materials
Develop Internal staff communications
With a list this large, everything had to be developed over time to work with their cash flow.
Starting with their Brand Positioning and tagline, I wrote CHOOSE YOUR TRAIL as it embodied the independent spirit of their customers.
Retail messaging centred around getting people to take action sooner rather than later. That’s because a common phrase heard in their sales yards was “One day I’ll do this.”
Life can change in the blink of an eye, so without a little nudge, that day may never come. Retail campaigns started with GET YOUR LIFE BACK because TrailLite had the perfect vehicle to do just that, by exploring New Zealand in style, and at your own pace. Before long, there was a 6-month waiting list for a TrailLite motorhome.
I collaborated with TrailLite’s management team on issues relating to their factory and manufacturing process. This resulted in TrailLite fully adopting the Lean Manufacturing process, which is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System. Lean is centred on preserving value with less work, and utilises a set of tools that assist in the identification and steady elimination of waste. As waste is eliminated, quality improves while production time and costs are reduced.
Results
New Zealand’s Motorhome Leader
Working closely with TrailLite over a five-year period, we ticked off all their goals, helped improve the TrailLite process and dramatically and positively changed the face of their marketing materials. Externally they now looked like the company they were inside, with an excellent story and quality materials that have an attention to detail rivalled only by their own craftsmanship.
Incredible Growth
The result is nothing short of fantastic. Despite other significant local manufacturers folding in a tough market, and an increase in European motorhome imports, TrailLite has continued to grow, through acquisition of key competitors and by attracting new customers, to achieve record sales each year.
TrailLite also extended their manufacturing hours, and were considering building a second factory for 24-hour operations to keep up with ongoing demand for their new motorhomes (and to chip away at their waiting list). They were considering expanding into Australia too.
The Right Strategies
Good strategies, open collaboration between teams, a willingness to explore opportunities, asking the right questions and developing excellent quality collateral, have all helped to increase TrailLite’s business and ensure they’ll be a success for another 70 years.
SHAUN NEWMAN, JOINT-MD
Will has always impressed us with his creativity.
We appreciate Will’s creativity, high standard of his work and very importantly, how hard he works to get the job done, sometimes with seemingly impossibly tight deadlines.
The quality of work delivered by Will has been very impressive and always cost-effective. We enjoy working with Will and greatly value the contribution he makes to our business.
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