OMT-Veyhl

Case Study

From Good to Great

OMT-Veyhl Makes it Happen for its Furniture Clients.

OMT-Veyhl is the leading manufacturer of height-adjustable table bases and other accessories for the contract furniture industry. Founded in 2005 with just seven employees, it has expanded to more than 300 in its world-class facility.

It approached Deksia for help in updating its brand. Also, OMT-Veyhl had plucked the low hanging fruit in the market and recognized it needed to improve its message in order to grow its share of wallet with existing customers and to attract the remaining clients available in the US market.

 

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Brand Strategy

OMT-Veyhl had the vision. We had to capture it.

OMT-Veyhl already had a tremendous culture and world-class product development and manufacturing capabilities. Detail after detail confirmed it wasn’t just its products that were engineered to an exacting vision; the entire company was too.

The problem was that OMT-Veyhl hadn’t ever clearly articulated what that vision was.

Traditional positioning-based brand strategy approaches wouldn’t work. While those tools can communicate how a product compares within its category (usually at retail), a features-and-benefits-based approach fails when engaged in a complex, months-long sales cycle.

To share the OMT-Veyhl brand vision in a manner that was clear, memorable, and believable, we relied instead on the most powerful communication tool humans have ever invented: story.

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We documented the many sales stories OMT-Veyhl had to tell. Then we built a story architecture to align its tone, characters, verbiage, color, and emotions to create a unified brand strategy.

The core element of this story architecture is an archetype. Aligning the OMT-Veyhl brand character with the Jungian archetype that most closely embodied the existing OMT-Veyhl vision and culture brought the OMT-Veyhl brand to life.

At its most essential, OMT-Veyhl’s story is that of a Hero that rescues people and projects that are in trouble and empowers others to be Heros themselves. The tagline suggested itself: “Make It Happen”, which is both a reflection of what OMT-Veyhl does every day and an exhortation to its customers to do the same.

They assessed all of the information before they started telling us what we needed to do differently.
Nick Fernandez, OMT-VEYHL
"We make the impossible possible every day" graphic

Marketing Strategy

Build the Brand and Increase Market Share

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OMT-Veyhl approved the brand strategy and began to incorporate it in internal events, educating its employees about how OMT-Veyhl embodies the hero and what it means to “Make It Happen.”

We were now responsible to create a marketing plan that would bring its brand to life and achieve its goals of attracting its target customers while increasing its share of wallet among existing customers.

The strategy we recommended for the first 12 months focused on several prongs at once:

  • Brand Identity: Refine its brand assets
  • Photo & Video: Tell the OMT-Veyhl story in captivating fashion
  • Web Updates: While retaining its existing design, incorporate new photography and messaging
  • Signature Brand Brochure: Tell the OMT-Veyhl story in a signature piece that could be a peer to the highly designed brochures its customers are accustomed to.
  • C-Suite Direct Mail: Capture the attention of the C-Suite at each of OMT-Veyhl’s target customers.
  • Guerilla Trade Show Marketing: Create curiosity at the industry’s main tradeshow (even though it wouldn’t exhibit)
  • Digital Marketing: Nurture its existing audience through retargeting and regular content.

Brand Identity

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Making an Existing Logo Heroic

OMT-Veyhl’s existing logo was competent, modern, and yet featured typography that contributed to a slightly unbalanced appearance. Aside from its trademark orange, OMT-Veyhl’s brand identity was almost entirely devoid of personality.

With the brand strategy formulated and approved, we needed to update the logo to embody its archetype. That said, we couldn’t sacrifice what equity OMT-Veyhl had in its existing brand identity. A careful redesign was in order.

We chose a more confident typeface that retained the cleanliness of its existing sans serif while feeling more heroically muscular. We also rearranged the logotype and retained its existing logomark while enlarginxg it to provide additional balance and punch.

The result? A new logo that captured OMT-Veyhl’s existing personality without requiring it immediately to redesign every brand asset it used.

Photo & Video

Telling the OMT-Veyhl Story

OMT-Veyhl’s existing photography and video assets were, like its brand identity, competent but devoid of personality and ineffective in conveying its story.

We shot and edited two brand videos, one that would be used on its website and in its public-facing advertising and another that, with its detail about product design and manufacturing, that would be used by its sales team to persuade prospects (while protecting trade secrets from competitors).

We also were able to build a large library of still images to enliven its marketing. Environmental portraits celebrated the team members’ whose craftsmanship and pride made OMT-Veyhl into an industry leader. Images of the manufacturing process conveyed the energy and precision of its heroic brand. And wider shots illustrated just how far ahead its world-class facility was compared to most competitors.

 

Website

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Upgrading an Existing Asset

OMT-Veyhl’s existing website was easy to navigate and, like its other assets, competent. While it wouldn’t win any design awards, it didn’t need to in order to serve its role in OMT-Veyhl’s marketing plan.

While we could have designed a more attractive and heroic website, we concluded OMT-Veyhl’s budget was more wisely invested in other assets. So we updated the copy and added new imagery to its existing site instead.

The result? A big statement on a small budget.

Print Design

A Signature Brand Brochure

OMT-Veyhl’s existing sales collateral was strong on data, features, and functionality, but weak on story.

Defined by design-trend-setting firms like Herman Miller, Steelcase, and Hayworth, the contract furniture industry, however, is accustomed to carefully crafted and highly-designed marketing. By taking the care to tell its story in the same fashion its customers tell theirs, OMT-Veyhl would encourage prospects to sit up and take notice.

We designed a signature brand brochure that lovingly told the OMT-Veyhl story in all its dimensions, from how it began to its tremendous success and the vision behind its tailored solutions and line-of-manufacturing services.

The result? A leave-behind with presence and power.

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Direct Mail

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Getting the Attention

By the time we began working with OMT-Veyhl, it already counted 13 of the top 20 companies in its industry as customers. To continue its growth, it needed a new way to get the attention of prospects who had been thus far reluctant to engage.

Any outreach had to create intense curiosity, demonstrate OMT-Veyhl’s unique capabilities, and do so in a manner calculated to get attention while being sensitive to the ethos of its prospects.

The solution we designed was a direct mail package that included four elements: a one-page letter, a highly visual eight-page booklet, a limited edition sculpture designed and manufactured by OMT-Veyhl, a certificate of authenticity, and the custom box it shipped in.

Trade Show

Guerilla Trade Show Take Over

The story of OMT-Veyhl’s guerilla marketing campaign at the industry’s leading tradeshow has yet to be told. With the 2020 edition of the show canceled due to coronavirus, OMT-Veyhl has tactics in reserve for 2021.

Digital Marketing

Nurturing Its Existing Audience

OMT-Veyhl has a talented sales team and significant name recognition in its industry. Discovery revealed, however, that even many of its best customers didn’t have a complete picture of its capabilities.

Unlike its competitors, who are frequently less sophisticated metal-working and wood shops creating parts that will be assembled as final furniture, OMT-Veyhl is a highly automated and completely integrated manufacturer with world-class engineering and design capabilities.

To more fully tell the story of OMT-Veyhl’s capabilities, Deksia recommended digital marketing to nurture its existing audience. We captured people who arrived at its website or engaged with its marketing and then retargeting them with carefully chosen messages.

The result? Higher levels of engagement and more widespread appreciation of OMT-Veyhl’s unique position in the industry.

Let’s start making a plan to unify your marketing to reach your goals and maximize your investment.