Stoke

Background
Oldcastle is the North American holding company for Ireland-based CRH plc. With over 30,000 employees the company is among the leading construction products and building materials companies in North America. With $1 billion (US) in annual revenues, the Oldcastle Precast division produces a wide range of products including precast concrete utility vaults and building systems.

Challenge
Through acquisition, organic growth and investment, Oldcastle has dramatically increased its national footprint. Despite its broad market coverage, the industry affords few advantages from manufacturing scale, as most product specifications vary by individual market, and freight costs require most products to be manufactured locally. This required Oldcastle to re-think market strategies to create a competitive advantage.

Outcome
Oldcastle Precast assembled its strategy team to assess the position of its brands, and to initiate the development of a comprehensive marketing communications program. In 2009, segmented customer research was coupled with a competitive positioning assessment, a continuing audit of the product portfolio, and a review of the company’s strategic growth plans. 

Engaging senior leadership, Stoke created a set of strategic assumptions and market opportunities upon which the brand strategy could be based, and expressed. 

Rather than simply compete at the product level, Oldcastle began to explore and discover new and differentiating ways to compete through added-value services. Oldcastle's objective was to create greater affinity for the brand by enhancing the way a broader range of products are sourced, specified, procured and fulfilled. Ultimately this would build customer loyalty and drive organic growth.

A comprehensive marketing program was developed for 2009-2011, including print collateral, direct marketing, advertising and Web. A brand management plan was further developed, dramatically narrowing the number of new divisions and product names and logos, to align the organization behind one Oldcastle Precast brand identity. Instead of marketing as 100+ individual units and products, Oldcastle created further market force behind one promise: "Delivering Reliability."