Brand development: Keep it simple, keep it focused

When creating a brand, keep it simple and focused. Brian Anderson, VP of Strategy and Marketing at FlexSteel Pipeline Technologies, shares the research that went into developing their identity.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I am Robin Tooms, vice president of strategy at Savage, and my guest today is Brian Anderson, VP of strategy and marketing at FlexSteel Pipeline Technologies. So Brian, welcome to Brandonomics.

Brian: Thank you, Robin. Pleasure to be here.

Robin: I’m so glad you’re here. I want to talk today about some of the initial branding challenges you’ve had around FlexSteel. So it’s a spoolable pipe product that’s really kind of innovative and new, but you had some education issues as well as some brand awareness issues. So where did you start?

Brian: Yeah, I think we were tasked with starting with the website, but really started with first and foremost trying to understand who we were. You know, we were a relatively new company, trying to figure out where we fit within the marketplace and what value we really added to customers. So in order to do that, we identified who our potential customers were and really went out there and actually spoke with them firsthand to talk to them about what’s important to them when they make line pipe purchasing decisions. From there, we came back and then could really craft a concise value proposition, which then we could go out and create our website.

Robin: True. So once you did that research, was there something that you heard from the customers that really helped shape that messaging?

Brian: You know, I think something that we picked up as we talked to the customers that I found interesting was that we had internal perception of who we were, and when we really understood kind of how customers perceived us, we found that there was this gap. And what was interesting was that we were actually creating that gap, that misconception for the customers in our communication style. It was very convoluted and very inconsistent. So something that was kind of an “aha” for us was that it’s best to kind of keep it simple when you’re kind of creating your brand and really your positioning points, and really trying to have a communications plan that is very understandable and something that people can recall, really who you are and really what you’re all about.

Robin: Okay. Keep it simple. Keep it focused. That’s very good advice. All right. Well, thank you, Brian. Thank you for joining us on Brandonomics. This has been another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.

FlexSteel Pipeline Technologies offers the pipeline solution that couples the durability of steel with the installation, performance and cost benefits of spoolable pipe products. Highly corrosion resistant and more durable than flexible pipe, FlexSteel combines the best features of currently available pipe options to deliver superior life-cycle performance and value. https://www.flexsteelpipe.com/