Tile Group's Amazing Success Story: $1.3M to $25M in Two Years
The Situation
When Elias first retained us about two years ago, they had a different name. As a full-fletched tile, kitchen, and bath company of $1.3 Million in revenues, they were selling directly to distributors, dealers, and as retail in their stunning showroom.
They had many concerns and frustrations about their business. They felt like they had enormous potential for growth, yet they could not exactly figure out what was holding them. The founder and CEO, just like many visionaries, was stuck with the details of the day-to-day operations and was concerned about losing sight of the big picture.
Our Actions
We started out with a thorough examination of their business. In addition to the information they have provided about their existing business through our diagnostic tools, we have literally camped on-site for over a week to interview each and every one in their team. We also talked to their primary supplier, one of the major tile manufacturers in Europe, as well as a representative sample of their customers from different segments.
Based on the information we have gathered, we recommended them to first split the company into a Group of three companies with three different brands. When we explained them how they were actually competing with themselves, they were amazed at the depth of our analysis. This was the kind of recommendation only a top-notch strategy consulting firm would come up with. They never thought a brand-driven strategic approach to their entire business, including their business and marketing strategies would reveal so much.
Their original name failed our initial tests against many criteria, so was not to be kept. There also was some unwanted reputation around that name, so they had to start fresh. Another important reason was that the original name implied and sounded like the category name for tile's substitute 'granite', their primary indirect competition. The naming of their product lines also had many shortcomings. We had a challenging task of naming three new companies under a group, and finding the names of 20 different product lines, each including an average of 30 products. That makes over 600 names!
Once everyone was happy with the new company names, we built the architecture of their new brands' product lines. Our research revealed that their product mix was not optimal. We optimized their product mix against several constraints, using our proprietary BrandFolio OptimizationTM tool. Our state-of-the-art methodology emerging from the field of 'operations research', also enabled us to incorporate even intangible criteria, such as 'American tastes' (as opposed to their original European version), into the equation. We finally hired an Italian 'tile design' firm and worked with them to create their new lines. The verbal and visual personas of their three new companies were designed and their online presence were established and search engine optimized.
The Results
Elias and the other group companies, with their new brands, but more importantly with their new perspective of looking at their business through the lenses of their brands, and without adding any more capital or hiring new people to grow their business, has made over $10 Million within one year. They were past $25 Million in two years. They were so happy with our work, we actually never stopped working with them for the last two years. They have always been on our Brand-Driven CoachingTM program as well, and we've given them third party professional guidance, along with the great relationship we've developed so far. And recently, they asked us to completely direct all of their design related initiatives as their partner, beyond our agency relationship.
We believe that this single amazing story of our capabilities would suffice as evidence to the quality and depth of our work, and how we can help you achieve similarly phenomenal success.
Our Actions
We started out with a thorough examination of their business. In addition to the information they have provided about their existing business through our diagnostic tools, we have literally camped on-site for over a week to interview each and every one in their team. We also talked to their primary supplier, one of the major tile manufacturers in Europe, as well as a representative sample of their customers from different segments.
Based on the information we have gathered, we recommended them to first split the company into a Group of three companies with three different brands. When we explained them how they were actually competing with themselves, they were amazed at the depth of our analysis. This was the kind of recommendation only a top-notch strategy consulting firm would come up with. They never thought a brand-driven strategic approach to their entire business, including their business and marketing strategies would reveal so much.
Their original name failed our initial tests against many criteria, so was not to be kept. There also was some unwanted reputation around that name, so they had to start fresh. Another important reason was that the original name implied and sounded like the category name for tile's substitute 'granite', their primary indirect competition. The naming of their product lines also had many shortcomings. We had a challenging task of naming three new companies under a group, and finding the names of 20 different product lines, each including an average of 30 products. That makes over 600 names!
Once everyone was happy with the new company names, we built the architecture of their new brands' product lines. Our research revealed that their product mix was not optimal. We optimized their product mix against several constraints, using our proprietary BrandFolio OptimizationTM tool. Our state-of-the-art methodology emerging from the field of 'operations research', also enabled us to incorporate even intangible criteria, such as 'American tastes' (as opposed to their original European version), into the equation. We finally hired an Italian 'tile design' firm and worked with them to create their new lines. The verbal and visual personas of their three new companies were designed and their online presence were established and search engine optimized.
The Results
Elias and the other group companies, with their new brands, but more importantly with their new perspective of looking at their business through the lenses of their brands, and without adding any more capital or hiring new people to grow their business, has made over $10 Million within one year. They were past $25 Million in two years. They were so happy with our work, we actually never stopped working with them for the last two years. They have always been on our Brand-Driven CoachingTM program as well, and we've given them third party professional guidance, along with the great relationship we've developed so far. And recently, they asked us to completely direct all of their design related initiatives as their partner, beyond our agency relationship.
We believe that this single amazing story of our capabilities would suffice as evidence to the quality and depth of our work, and how we can help you achieve similarly phenomenal success.