THE BRIEF
Led by Mini MBA in Marketing trained marketer, Matthew Hall, CCS McLays came to us after they’d done some initial research to identify their aided awareness and develop a basic funnel. They had a segmentation plan in place and had set aggressive growth targets for two key retail segments.
However, CCS McLays hadn’t to date invested in any proper marketing and had never presented itself to the market in a meaningful way. They wanted a partner embedded in the Mark Ritson x Marketing Week Mini MBA school of thought to help them build on and clarify their research, implement a strategy, and take them from zero to brand campaign hero.
…Gasp! was tasked with developing a big idea and distinctive brand communications that’d get CCS McLays noticed alongside bigger players in the market, putting forward a position synonymous with their personality, passion and a dogged commitment to ‘getting it done’ for their customers.
THE RESPONSE
All roads start with good research. We began with an in-person kick off session in Cardiff with the core teams from ...Gasp! and CCS Mclays to understand more about who they are, what makes the business tick, where their strengths and weaknesses lie and what success might look like for the project.
We then reviewed competitors, dug into any forces affecting the market, and undertook qualitative interviews with both internal staff and CCS McLays customers and loyalists.
On top of this we conducted the backbone of good marketing planning, the brand tracking survey, to measure category attributes, custom funnel and related consideration factors.
Collective findings supported the brief. The brand survey found that awareness of CCS McLays in the category is low compared to competitors. This quote from a stakeholder interview backs that up nicely;
"No one knows about us...even though we are probably the biggest independent in retail. Getting people to recognise the brand and what we stand for will have massive knock on effects, they'll at least know the brand before we approach."
Luckily, they have a stellar sales team and Ian, their CEO slash “force of nature”, who successfully and consistently win business once they get in front of a potential customer;
"Once we get in front of [customers] with the right team, with the right focus and the right agenda and the right storytelling...90% of the time, we knock the socks off people."
To grow, CCS McLays needs more opportunities to get into the room with potential customers. To do that, potential customers need to notice and remember them.
Several key findings aligned across both the qualitative and quantitative research. Specifically their personality-packed approach to consolidation and getting the job done; CCS McLays is committed to making the jobs of their customer’s easier, acting as genuine, honest partners who you’ll really enjoy working with. This leads to a great sense of loyalty and trust in the market. Which needed to be communicated, memorably.
The Toilet Takeover at LIVE 2024
A collaboration between Retail Week and The Grocer for their LIVE 2024 event made it perfect for CCS McLays to get in front of their target audience of medium and large retailers (high street, e-commerce and food retailers).
Our budget didn’t stretch to headline sponsorship, however, we worked out an idea with the lovely folks at Retail Week who agreed to the opportunity (one that had never been done before) to sneak in through the loos as the first-ever toilet sponsors.
Given the tone of voice we’d developed didn’t take itself too seriously, and the fact CCS McLays actually provides janitorial products and things like toilet paper to some customers, a toilet sponsorship was a good fit and brilliant opportunity to get in the (bath)room with the target audience.
Now the proud sponsors of 1109 sqft of exquisite bathroom space, we set about making the most of it. Covering wherever we could with witty copy lines and CCS McLays’ distinctive assets. We even had mints emblazoned with the swing tag for guests to take away.
There was lots of ace feedback including from one of the keynote speakers, Andrew Busby, who (kindly) waxed lyrically across LinkedIn and Twitter/X including…
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