Case Study: Pharmaceutical Consultancy Sought Highly Targeted Messaging

The Client: A boutique health consultancy, specializing in Market Access in Canada needed to establish itself as a leader in other countries. The target – pharmaceutical companies who were looking for new markets, and pharmaceutical companies already active in Canada and in need of partner firms to deploy and support their submissions.

The challenge: There was a need to 1. Advertise to international markets by promoting Canada as a viable market and 2. To make clear the message of the consultancy’s expertise and identify specific challenges.

Our solution: Craft a campaign around converting the unknown into the known; Canada as California. California is known to be large and profitable market. Canada has the same population and thus represents a comparatively attractive market share. The message was driven home at trade shows around the world and especially in the US. Two messages were promoted: 1. We know Canada and 2. Would you ignore California?   The second tagline was a provocative conversation starter and the company representatives spent less time trying to go after new leads and more time responding to leads who came to them.

It was also important as an overall marketing strategy to communicate the consultancy’s understanding of the unique challenges facing companies that wish to optimize their pricing and listing targets at Canada’s Common Drug Review. A series of slide decks, banner ads and trade show materials rolled out over several years.

The result: The client became known as the go-to specialists for the Canadian market. The consultancy began a series of webinars to further spread the word about their expertise, building authority and trust. The company was successfully acquired by a larger firm which recognized its value in 2017. In a highly regulated and technical sector, precision in communication is key.

Case Study: Building Trust and Professional Positioning in the Condo Sector

A construction company needed to establish its market quickly, since it had ambitious goals to reach the condo sector, specifically to gain a significant market share in the plumbing sub-specialty of Kitec Plumbing replacement. The market for this service has a limited life span.

The challenge: Targeting the condo sector is not at all straightforward, with different stakeholders and decision makers, as well as strong competition. Also, replacing Kitec was not a topic most boards and managers wanted to address. The company also was not ready to scale up to deal with a high volume of individual suite transactions, nor was it ready to respond to the high volume of leads they anticipated once public knowledge blew up. It was a matter of timing, preparedness and risk.

Our solution: One of the things the client believed was missing was knowledge. There was fear and confusion – property values were at risk as well as the real possibility of damage to property. But the company understood the issues very well and so Trellis wrote a guide book that could be shared by Boards, Residents and Managers alike, which achieved the twin goals of educating the target market about the problem and establishing reassuring expertise. The second goal of scaling up was met through the creation of a CRM with Buildings and stakeholders organized in a way that gave the company a distinct edge in communications; all connected to lead capture. A dedicated and information-packed website, videos, and a series of cards, letters to residents and flyers, as well as trade show materials and displays for town hall meetings all contributed to the overall positioning of the company as an industry leader.

The result: within 1 year, the client became established as the go-to solution for Kitec replacement and continues to secure steady business 4 years later.

Case Study: Real Estate Company Wanted to be Familiar, Friendly and Memorable

A new real estate company made up of a group of realtors wanted to establish themselves as the neighbourhood choice in the Suburbs.

The Challenge: Real estate is a highly competitive and saturated market. Also, detached homes are increasingly scarce, with few opportunities for a new company to enter the market.

Our Solution: A branding package that would “feel” familiar to people seeing the company for the first time. Trellis created the Goldfish brand, with the tagline “Making Real Estate friendly”. The goldfish is a familiar fish with positive connotations and lots of attractive opportunities for advertising. A goldfish outgrows a small home and people can relate to it. Also, with a diverse neighbourhood to target, a Goldfish can be presented as both high end (Lucky in some communities) and at the same time approachable for any new buyer. Trellis launched the company at a fall fair which included free face painting , and a stencil was created with the goldfish logo so children would walk around the fair with the goldfish logo on their hand or cheek. Free pumpkins were distributed labeled with the company branding.

The Result: Goldfish real estate now has a strong motif and is set up with all the branded materials they need for success.

Case Study: 360 Marketing Support for Property Rental Business

A furnished rentals company had long outgrown its startup strategy. Positioning was needed for multiple stakeholders in an omnichannel series of campaigns would be needed to see revenue growth and increasing market share.

The Challenge: Now established with a good reputation for its service among its past clientele, bookings were still low due to the lack of information in the public. The business model was still largely unknown. The company was not Air Bnb, nor were they a hotel, and so to make this distinction and target the perfect clients would be a challenge.

Our Solution: Going back to basics, the targets were identified with more precision and a brand map was created. Several different markets exist for the service and all use different terminology, from Corporate rentals or insurance housing to short term rentals and apart-hotels. Markets outside of Canada have their own terminology. Trellis created a new website with targeted landing pages and lots of information to explain the concept. A blog was created with new articles bi-weekly to boost web traffic with very specific subject matter. Graphics on the home page explain the difference between rental suites and hotels, and a photo shoot was arranged to put images for the different suite configurations on the website. We added chat and What’s App for immediate responses to inquiries and this has helped book more business.

The Result: All goals have been met for occupancy, even during the Covid-19 pandemic – and Trellis maintains a top-ranking for the main keywords thanks to keeping content fresh and engaging month after month. The client is able to respond to market changes in little time because a team is at their fingertips.

Case Study: Launching A Beauty Salon in a Time of Upheaval

It is said that recessions can offer opportunities. When a beauty salon owners wanted to open their brand new salon in March of 2020 to take advantage of the summer traffic, there were murmurings of a virus going around. When all salons had to close down, what did it mean for the business plan? How to change the marketing which had been planned for months and the timeline based on on planned roll-out of materials and messaging?

The Challenge: The owners faced a major barrier when salons had to shut down. The previous tenants were occupying the space still, and with the leasing agents all closed, there was no transition time, no ability to renovate and re-brand the space. When salons opened again, there were still delays making it impossible for the new business to settle in.

Our solution: the timeline was stripped down to the basics. Adapting the new website to reflect covid-safe procedures and modified services became a priority. Adding a booking system, something the owners considered adding later, seemed like a good idea while things were slow. Mind Body’s scheduling solution Booker was added to the backend. Booker comes with two other marketing features – Bowtie, an in-site  chat bot, and Frederick, a newsletter promotional tool which works with the internal CRM. Trellis’s staff populated the back end with all 138 services and then tested the booking. Already Trellis were engaged to install and design exterior signage and all the mailing and digital collateral pieces, so these were simply moved to another date. When in October the salon was finally able to open, all the pieces had to fall into place at triple speed., from opening specials promotion on Google My Business and in Social media, to a door-knocker drop in the local area.

The Result: Bellus Beauty and Hair Studio is open for business and actively, aggressively, advertising locally. Walk in traffic and pre-booked traffic are similar in terms of volume. The new staff are getting comfortable with the booking software and social media and Google remain of utmost importance with moment-to-moment updates on what is happening in the Salon.