From Tennessee to the World.
It Starts Here.
Overview
Since opening its doors in Dunlap, Tennessee in 1990 under the name Signel Tek Corporation, this global manufacturer built a strong reputation for the innovations and solutions that deliver better results at a greater value.
Today, with a name change and a move to Decatur, Tennessee, Storm Power Components is known within its industry as exceptional service, responsive customer care, integrity, craftsmanship, and focus on doing things right—the first time.
For decades, original equipment manufacturers around the world have relied on Storm’s electrical components to power, protect, and ground products used in mission-critical air, space, sea, and land applications.
Storm Power offers a suite of manufacturing services to help customers kick-start designs with real manufacturability, put a screeching halt to inefficient logistics models, and unveil smart sourcing practices to streamline their ecosystems.
From answering head-scratching design questions to parceling components that arrive in mint condition at the correct work center of the assembly line, Storm Power Components does it all, Under One Roof.
Storm’s Sticky Situation
For 23 years, Storm Copper Components has steadily grown to become a $40 million manufacturer of highly customized copper electrical components.
While Storm had successfully gained market share, it had done so very quietly, without proactively differentiating itself from the competition. In order to take advantage of the opportunity for growth in the market and leverage the reputation, it had built over the years.
The team of talented compensation experts run a breakneck schedule to deliver extremely complex client engagements. They needed a feasible way to increase its flow of leads and opportunities without adding additional business development responsibilities onto the already full plates of consultants.
It also had aspirations of capturing incremental revenue by making its job-specific custom compensation research studies available via e-commerce.
Not only that, the firm lacked the foundational toosl necessary to drive its marketing strategy and the tactical execution of the company’s overarching custome acquistion objectives.
To make matters more cumbersome, the Storm message, both visually and from a content perspective, did not adequately articulate and position its superiority in the copper fabrication business. The company was missing the very elements necessary to share and promote its value proposition.
Solution
Storm recognized the need to not only rebrand but reposition the company in the market.
A shining achievement of this project was the creation of the dominant asset in all of the marketing efforts – the brand itself.
With a new name, identity, and brand positioning as a responsive manufacturer, Storm not only had brand assets they needed but was now in a position to better tell its story and differentiate its value to its core audience.
The signature marketing asset that drives the Storm brand is its website. Simply put, it’s the engine that drives Storm’s business.
The mobile version of Storm’s site (a rare sales asset in its industry), was designed specifically for stock component customers who are in the field and who need the right parts immediately. We streamlined the shopping process, added smartphone features like requesting a quote via text messaging, and provided a way for checking out quickly.
Built on an Expression Engine platform, the new site not only improves Storm’s search marketing efforts, customer service, and content management capabilities, it also dramatically reduces the workload on the IT department, freeing them up to focus on improving overall manufacturing operations.
We elevated Storm’s brand to be in a category all by itself.
“Engineering Answers” goes to market
We helped Storm accomplish a long-overdue desire to launch a fee-based service model that allowed customers to receive engineering support. Storm’s service is legendary among its customer set. However, the company often found its serving nature took a front seat at the expense of the operational costs associated with engineering consulting. The brand repositioning served as a welcome opportunity to reimagine how it should use this service strength for future growth. As a result, the company not only now has a dedicated team of engineers ‘for hire’, but also is actively serving a short-but-growing roster of blue-chip clients.
A Small Town Employer Gets the Big Brand it Deserves
Because the world comes to Decatur through Storm, one of its core communications objectives from the very beginning was to create a global brand, right in the heart of Decatur Tennessee. It is one of the largest employers in a community that ironically is so small there’s not even a McDonald’s, and Storm wants the growth of the company and the strength of the brand to be a point of pride not just for its employees, but also for their families and their neighbors.
Digital-first experiences
Storm has a history of being an early adopter of Internet technology in the electrical components manufacturing industry. The linchpin of its success over the past 13 years has been its ability to be found online through its website, supported by its robust online advertising program. Launching the new stormpowercomponents.com with a digital-first approach set the stage for the company’s 10-year growth plan. The new site, along with its unique features, gives the company the very platform needed to not only maintain daylight between itself and the competition but also clearly demonstrate how and why it’s different.
Result
The elevation of its brand from being a commodity manufacturer to that of a responsive manufacturer with engineering know-how is a big part of the company’s long-term strategic growth plan.
With a new name, identity, and brand positioning as a responsive manufacturer, Storm not only had brand assets they needed but was now in a position to better tell its story and differentiate its value to its core audience. A new, 68-page, Storm Power Components brand standards manual presents a codified brand that has an authentic, industrial-strength point of view with corresponding messaging and modern visual identity.
The digital-first web experience seamlessly supports e-commerce functions unlocking additional revenue and customer service support, and the company not only now has a dedicated team of engineers ‘for hire’, but also is actively serving a short-but-growing roster of blue-chip clients.
But that’s not all. The cost savings from the project were significant.
Twenty-six separate websites, 3 separate e-commerce solutions, and an annual PPC campaign of $500,000 were streamlined into one central digital experience which dramatically improved Storm’s SEO and SEM efforts. The initiative also created massive efficiencies and reduced the strain on the marketing and IT teams regarding web maintenance. The new e-commerce platform reduced Storm’s annual e-commerce cart fees by over $18,000 annually.
Divisions of the company were realigned based on the brand strategy. Storm’s Quickship Metals (a B2C division specializing in stainless steel and copper finishes for kitchens) was sold off (at a profit) in order to allow the firm to maintain focus on the company’s core competency—B2B manufacturing.
Those efficiencies and cost savings made Storm’s CEO who’s a CPA by trade very very happy.
“When this all started, I thought we were just getting a new logo. We got that and so much more. ”
Vince Schreiber, CFA
Former CEO Storm Power Componets
We Power Brands & Business Forward
We could have never fathomed shelter-in-place. Our company was always a remote workplace, so when it happened, we just kept performing to help our clients pivot.