Marine Industrial Design, a specialist naval architecture and marine engineering firm, was established in 1996, and, like many small businesses in New Zealand, it focused on the nuts and bolts—literally—rather than marketing. New business was won almost solely through word of mouth and via a relatively limited circle of industry contacts. But in late 2009 MID was purchased by Babcock Fitzroy and new goals and strategies were put in place in order to establish itself as New Zealand’s elite operator, one of Australasia’s premier suppliers in marine engineering and design consulting and a leading regional player in South East Asia and the Pacific.
Research showed how clients judge a good marine engineer/naval architect, so MID’s offer was brought to life through references from satisfied clients, case studies and lists of previous clients. The sales force was trained up and mobilised, the business was re-branded and its rallying cries were ‘Making the intangible, tangible’ and ‘Professional, Pragmatic, Proven’.
The investment in a marketing strategy has more than paid off, with staff numbers doubling and huge increases in revenue and profit. Previously, the majority of its work was New Zealand-based but the new positioning, growth and expansion has given MID a newfound global competitiveness and it has signed agreements with one of the world’s biggest shipyards, Daewoo Ship Building and Marine Engineering of Korea, a new US client and, for the first time, large government contracts for the NZ Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
- Full case studies of all the winners are available in the latest edition of NZ Marketing and the first 20 humans (from within NZ) to subscribe here will receive a copy of James Hurman’s new book The Case For Creativity, valued at $40.
CATEGORY COMMENT: “In terms of this category it’s quite easy in B2B to do one or two things right, what we were looking for was the full gambit of marketing tools applied with a very clear focus in mind. That delivered a shift in the performance of the business and really took the whole business along with it and I think we saw that this year.”
THE PEOPLE: Ian MacLeod, General Manager
THE PARTNERS: Traffic New Zealand team: Scott Pilkington, Barry Bloomfield, Scott Espie, Gareth Poley
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