RSC Bio Solutions, a global leader in environmentally acceptable lubricants and cleaners for marine and land markets, partnered with BRIGHT+CO Marketing to establish a new “branded house” strategy. BRICHT+CO conducted extensive research and in-depth analysis of RSC Bio Solutions’ previous brand identity and product naming architecture, as well as a competitive analysis of RSC Bio Solutions’ target markets. It was determined that the competitive offerings were rather undifferentiated, which gave RSC Bio Solutions a good opportunity to create a strong market penetration with a branded product portfolio.

BRIGHT+CO initiated a SWOT analysis, which helped define the situation. The research findings showed that other lubricant suppliers have been representing their offerings with rather weak differentiation between each other. Most of the communication of benefits of one competitive product over another was in fine engineering details that may or may not be obvious to the end user without a large amount of technical communication. Some of the larger brands have used the strength of their umbrella brand to carry the main differentiation of their products from other suppliers.

If RSC Bio Solutions wants to break out from the crowded field, competitive differentiation is a powerful weapon if used properly. It is critically important that RSC Bio Solutions establish a strong differentiation strategy because non-differentiated products in an industry usually get reduced to price wars to establish some kind of competitive advantage in the minds of the end user. Price competition can be a self-defeating strategy for RSC Bio Solutions because RSC Bio Solutions’ brand is not managed as a price leading company. RSC Bio Solutions’ cost structure is higher than lower-cost producers. Therefore, RSC Bio Solutions will need to work hard at differentiation on other dimensions other than price to attain and protect a competitive advantage.

Based on the research findings and analysis, BRIGHT+CO developed a strategy and implementation plan for RSC Bio Solutions. BRIGHT+CO determined that RSC Bio Solutions should establish all of its products into the overall brand architecture and strategic plan and that specific product variations should not be separately branded apart from the product line brand. There should be no reason to create or use separate logos for any of the product brands and lines. The RSC Bio Solutions umbrella brand will be the primary and distinctive graphic treatment with a simple and consistent word-mark treatment of the product-line brand. Any further brand creation would only add confusion to the marketplace and muddy the product portfolio for RSC Bio Solutions as they strive to create a unified brand strategy throughout the division.

The positioning strategy for RSC Bio Solutions’ centered around the brand promise to be “the innovative game-changer in sustainable fluids” which became the primary messaging and focus of all marketing communications and sales message campaign.

The rebrand of RSC Bio Solutions aimed to create a cohesive set of differentiated products both visually and in product development. This was accomplished through product naming and logo design, which can be seen on the RSC Bio Solutions website as well as throughout marketing materials. By developing these cohesive products under a “branded house” with consistent taxonomy, RSC Bio Solutions doesn’t cannibalize its own products by competing with them under different brands/names.

The new brand also remained consistent within BRIGHT+CO’s original go-to-market strategy of using the messaging framework:

• More advanced fluids;
• More performance;
• More environmentally friendly.

Our strategic objectives were carried out through a website redesign, an ad campaign, new collateral, trade show booth and a lead nurturing drip marketing program and a new product launch. The ad campaign targeted the marine market using a combination of paid media, trade print media, earned media, public relations and digital media tactics.

Comparing year over year (2015 to 2016), RSC Bio Solutions online reputation increased by 796%, our social media referral source increased by 271%, the average session increased by 25%, increase of 4% in pages viewed per session, and a 9.3% decrease in the bounce rate, which equates to a more qualified audience viewing the website. Public relations earned over 4.1 million impressions at a 1:1 ad value of $242,614, which provided a ROI of 4:1 return on their PR investment. Our paid media program consisted of search, trade media and digital display ads, which generated over 5.2 million impressions, over 27,000 clicks to the website, increased their prospect database by 4% and produced over 1400 “ready to buy” leads for sales team follow up.

Through the consistency of our messaging strategy and an integrated media mix that included all four media buckets of paid, earned, owned and social, we were able to achieve the successful results that encouraged a better sales performance leading into 2017.