Problem

Before engaging The Faulkner Group, LM Financial Partners (LMFP), a division of Legg Mason – a $900 million investment firm – was poorly positioned, had lost close to $1M, and was on a downhill slide.

Solution

Through positioning research, The Faulkner Group uncovered a fundamental weakness common to virtually all the competitors in the third party marketing arena and developed a marketing and promotional campaign to help LMFP to exploit this weakness.

Results

The campaign helped put LMFP on an 80 percent per year growth track for four straight years.  Not only did the division become profitable – by the fourth year, LM Financial Partners had become the third most profitable division within the entire Legg Mason organization. 

Problem

Raymond James, the market leader, bought LMFP because they had become so successful at taking their business and that of competing firms. Raymond James desired to increase its overall market share, post acquisition.

Solution

The Faulkner Group was contracted to devise and execute a marketing campaign for Raymond James like the program that had helped Legg Mason become so successful in the bank investment channel.

Results

The campaign resulted in overall sales commission increases through the bank channel of $50 million. The 200+ affiliated financial institutions purchased the customized marketing materials to such a great degree that all but $30,000 of the costs to deploy the campaign were recouped by Raymond James.

Problem

While Murray could boast being the world’s largest manufacturer of outdoor power equipment, with over a $1.2 billion in annual sales, their competitive position was extremely unstable. 

With only two other competitors in an industry where products were primarily private labeled – and totally commoditized – Murray desperately needed to find a way to meaningfully differentiate themselves.  They needed to compete on something other than price.

This situation was exacerbated because the foundational competitive retail strategy of their largest customers and distribution partners, Wal-Mart and Home Depot, was price. 

Solution

Through our careful analysis, a weakness in the competition was discovered – the lack of expertise in helping their retail partners create sell-through to the consumer.  This weakness became the primary attack point for the differentiation strategy created for Murray.

Because 65 percent of outdoor power equipment sales took place at Sears – and because neither Home Depot nor Wal-Mart had been able to make any significant inroads despite their vast resources, this strategy proved to be a mountain-mover for Murray. 

Using extensive consumer research, Murray created and launched the first line of value-priced outdoor power equipment built solely on the likes and dislikes of the mowing public.  Research relating to architectural design and operational aesthetics enabled Murray to present to both Home Depot and Wal-Mart the optimal design and merchandising of their store’s outdoor power equipment departments – to facilitate maximum sell-through.

Results

Murray’s position of “consumer marketing experts” caused both sales and stature to skyrocket.  Lawn tractor sales jumped a staggering 34 percent in the first year alone. 

In addition, public relations efforts netted over $150 million of publicity related to the introduction of the new product.  The success of Murray’s merchandising model led Wal-Mart and Home Depot to mandate that all other lawn and garden vendors to conform their in-store marketing to Murray’s model.

Problem

Merrick was a regional pet food manufacturer attempting to expand from its West Texas base into other parts of the Midwest.  Specifically, they were trying to break into Tulsa and Oklahoma City grocery stores, and had worked over eight months to do so without any success.

Solution

A thorough investigation of the Merrick situation revealed no opportunity to approach the situation head-on with the corporate buyers.  Utilizing a direct-to-store promotional strategy, creativity, and network television contacts, The Faulkner Group devised a means to leverage entrance of the product into a major chain.  The plan included a promotional tie-in with the Hollywood producers of a new CBS Television pilot show, Prime Time Pets.

Results

In less than three weeks after the start of the engagement, the food was in the first chain.  Within a week following that, the second chain was landed.  Within 90 days, the campaign and resulting PR helped Merrick secure all of the major chains with resulting initial sales of over $500,000.