Industry leader Armstrong World Industries was finding it difficult to connect in a meaningful way with the contractor / installer portion of the building materials market.

Additionally, Armstrong’s long standing, high performing Drywall Grid System (DGS) had lost visibility in the contractor / installer marketplace. At a glance, “like” products had essentially become indistinguishable from DGS.

The result? In the absence of marketing, the market had defined the product and brand for themselves.

The opportunity? Armstrong’s silence in the market presented the opportunity to reshape perception, reassert value, and retake a leadership position.

The Strategy

Shift the market’s perception by shifting how Armstrong talks to the contractor / installer market. Position Armstrong more like one of the market – especially since market egos reject messaging about how great a company or its products are. When they choose a brand, it’s because they see value, not because they’ve been told there is value.

The plan? Use contractor / installer speak in a way that leads them to conclude they have arrived at what we want them to think on their own.

Create a message / visual approach that resonates with the market and sets Armstrong apart from the product look-alike competitors. One that appeals to the contractors tough, don’t mess with me, invincible, know-it-all attitude. An approach that would be difficult for competitors to easily knock-off.

During development, stock gorilla artwork surfaced that Armstrong had used once – then never thought about again. With a few refinements, the gorilla exhibited characteristics that paralleled surprisingly well with the market’s.

Equally the gorilla’s tough, get the job done without messing around attitude was a positive inflection of the time saving, strength attributes of Armstrong products the market uses day-in, day-out. Additionally, associating the gorilla with the name Gridzilla created more proprietary ownership, distinction from competitors, and resonated with the market’s egos.

The next step? Develop an awareness campaign for DGS based on this strategy. Marketing efforts featured the gorilla as the main visual with quick contractor / installer attitude headlines and copy developed to relate to both the market and product attributes. Ads and social media posts call-to-action linked to DGS landing pages that knit directly to the each ad concept.

The Outcome

Market interest generated by this strategic approach has:

Significantly increased web and social media hits over previous non-gorilla campaigns

Significantly increased market interest in joining Armstrong’s exclusive Contractors Club (growing membership from roughly 750 to almost 1,500 over the course of a year)

Stimulated positive market response and traffic to gorilla / Gridzilla themed trade show displays

Increased market interest / posts on Facebook about the gorilla, Gridzilla, how to get free Gridzilla swag, along with Armstrong contractor / installer related products and services

Spurred Armstrong to buy out the rights to / register the gorilla

Spurred Armstrong to trademark the Gridzilla name

Market response confirmed this strategy effectively speaks to / resonates with the contractor / installer. Likewise that the market identifies with / sees themselves in the attributes represented by the gorilla / Gridzilla name.