Launching the world’s largest HVAC manufacturer in the Canadian market
Daikin is the largest manufacturer of heating and air conditioning equipment in the world. As a global company, they have operated for over 90 years providing systems to residential, commercial and industrial applications.
While Daikin is a global leader in manufacturing HVAC equipment, their brand awareness and recognition was low in North America, with customers being either completely unaware of or indifferent to the brand. In 2012, Daikin purchased Goodman Manufacturing based in Houston, Texas for $3.7 billion. This provided them the opportunity to grow their brand within the profitable North American market. However, to successfully do so they had to overcome several core challenges.
Challenges
BRAND AWARENESS: Daikin is a global leader in HVAC, however, in Canada, they were virtually unknown by consumers, with less than 3% brand awareness. They did not stand out. Customers being generally indifferent to the brand names of their HVAC equipment, typically view the purchase of new equipment as a “grudge purchase”, posing a brand awareness and recognition problem.
RELEVANCY & CONSUMER PERCEPTION: Daikin was confronted with a dealer network that also works with Daikin’s competitors. Matching their competitors wouldn’t be sufficient. It required a new and innovative approach to marketing the brand and lead generation.
Solution
iDIG was engaged as Daikin’s (Agency of Record) AOR in 2014 to develop both brand awareness and to help grow their dealer network in Canada. Our two-pronged solution focused on:
- Brand building through ads, promotions, and positioning as a global leader and;
- Working directly with the Daikin dealer network to grow their brand awareness and promote them as a dealer, with the financial support of Daikin.
Strategy & Branding
Unlike the entire HVAC industry, we chose to promote the dealers within their respective and exclusive (at the time) territories as the “Experts and HVAC Specialists”. The industry manufacturers at that time provided rigidly defined advertising allowances or “Co-op dollars”, which promoted the manufacturers first and the dealers second. iDIG’s research showed that consumers identified with the dealers first and wished to receive service from local service experts, who would recommend the manufacturer for product sales.
iDIG developed and promoted nationally the newly created and uniquely Canadian Daikin Dealer Program.
This multifaceted dealer-centric program:
- Completely revolutionized how HVAC product and dealer marketing was done in Canada. By harnessing web-based initiatives, we took the associated Daikin dealers to the next level within their respective markets.
- Emphasized the Daikin message as a global leader to consumers and developed an engaging content marketing strategy.
- Delivered a strategic blend of targeted mass advertising.
- Created brand awareness and, most importantly, service and resulting sales funded through quarterly promotional campaigns and Daikin’s unique accrual program, which was tied to Daikin product orders.
Content & Video Marketing
Based on keyword research and by regularly monitoring analytics, we outlined a strategic content program.
- Used a relevant content marketing program to position and emphasize Daikin as a global leader, through social posts, blogs, and videos.
- Boosted and promoted content to reach and inform a wider audience across social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
- Monitored content campaign analytics and adjusted content delivery on an ongoing basis for highest impact.
PPC Advertising
A strategic PPC advertising campaign was launched in support of the content and partner programs.
- Launched a PPC advertising campaign focused on driving engagement, building awareness, and increasing sales.
- Performed ongoing conversion optimization of ads for brand evolution and to enhance the effectiveness of partner offerings.
- Boosted key content and offers using paid ads to increase engagement and traffic to website and landing pages.
Integration – Daikin Dealer Program & National Broadcast Program
As part of our solution for Daikin, we had to implement and integrate the partner program.
- Established and executed a customized partner program (Daikin Dealer Program) in which integration and a mutually beneficial relationship with dealers were core to business development.
- Discovered and helped implement integration between service provider/dealer and manufacturer, with a key focus on the dealer benefitting.
- Executed dealer program primarily online, complemented with offline ads on radio, prime time news and Blue Jay game telecasts.
Results
iDIG completely changed the way HVAC manufacturers and dealers were marketed.
- The national TV advertising program evolved in the second year (2016) into exclusive Blue Jay segment sponsorships and ads run in-game throughout the season.
- Achieving 3x growth of brand awareness in less than two years.
- Attracted 10x new premium dealers who saw the Daikin brand on the broadcasts. This helped Daikin surpass their new dealer objectives by over 30%.
- This approach in conjunction with the grassroots Daikin Dealer Program provided a new and innovative dealer marketing program which resulted in a win/win for everyone.
- iDIG continues to work with the majority of these dealers to this day. Most have seen their associated results continue to increase annually by 20-40%.
3x
Growth of
Brand Awareness
10x
New Premium Dealers
Surpassing New Dealer Objective
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