Case Study - eON Outdoor

Introducing a new product to replace traditional wood was a huge challenge for CPI Plastics. “In theory, everyone understood the advantages of wood replacement products, but a skeptical public would need to be educated on the significant advantages of eON wood alternative products,” said Cliff Hatch. CPI chose Cundari Interactive Advertising to get the message out about eON. John Riccardelli, account director at Cundari, put the strategy and campaign together. “We analyzed the decking and fence marketplace and realized that the key to influencing consumers and the deck building trade was to win over the professional installer/contractor segment.

The focus of the campaign was to develop and promote the eON brand name as a premium alternative decking product into the contractor-installed market, since this segment represents about 70% of the decking marketplace, measured by board feet of lumber.” eON products also gave contractors more versatility in their design concepts, showing consumers elaborate design possibilities that “do-it-yourself-ers” could only dream about.

The campaign included trade as well as consumer advertising, but Cundari wanted to expand the traditional approach of reaching consumers with the unique ability to connect those customers with contractors interactively. Cundari contacted MapFusion, a Toronto-based company that specializes in delivering Spatial Information Management products and solutions.

“MapFusion showed us how we could extend our advertising campaign interactively by using their MF-CRM Locator product on the eonoutdoor.com website. The advertising campaign would drive awareness and interest to the eON website and MapFusion technology would link consumer interest in eON products with expert contractors/installers and retailers in their immediate area,” said Ricardelli. Contractors loved the idea of being listed and “found” by customers who wanted to build decks. “What really excited the contractors about the campaign and specifically about the MF-CRM technology was once the consumer selected them on the interactive map, the consumer would know exactly where they were located in relation to where the consumer lives.” says Ricardelli. “More importantly, MF-CRM Customer Locator provided the contractor with the ability to have an on-line portfolio come up, so a prospective customer could view and evaluate the quality of their work instantly.”

This campaign was launched in February 2003, and CPI’s main objective was to sign up as many contractors as possible. Cliff Hatch confirmed “Each expert installer generates about $15,000 in revenues for CPI.” The goal is to sign up 10,000 installers by 2006, up significantly from the 1,500 they had before the campaign started. To date there are over 3,500 contractors who have signed up as “certified” eON expert installers. “Cundari’s brand generating and awareness advertising campaign, with their use of MapFusion’s CRM technology, has exceeded all of our expectations,” says Hatch. “MF-CRM Customer Locator was the hook that we needed to differentiate our “go to market strategy” and drive contractors to sign up as certified eON professional installers.” Hatch added, “The revenue potential in reaching our goal of 10,000 expert installers more than justifies the investment in using MapFusion’s location finding technology.”

MapFusion’s CRM Locator allows eON consumers to easily find contractors over the Internet.

Contractors can supply complete contact information, as well as a link to their website.

MapFusion has given contractors the opportunity to display customized content relevant to their specific location, products, and services. Consumers can view a contractor’s portfolio or email the contractor directly from this window.

John Ricardelli is equally pleased. “The advertising industry is extremely competitive, which forces you to continually innovate the way you deliver messages. MapFusion technology has given us an edge over our competition in the ability to connect customers to locations, to the products they seek, as well as highlighting promotions and additional information. Our clients are getting much more value from their campaign expenditures, and that makes them extremely happy.”

While CPI Plastics is seeing growth in all areas of their business, the real winner in the consumer market for the company — the “sizzle on the steak,” as stated by CEO Peter Clark — is its wood replacement product line. The eON line has fueled major growth for CPI, ensuring a fifth straight year of double-digit growth. Aggressive advertising and trade brand awareness campaigns developed by Cundari have been coupled with MapFusion’s CRM technology to interactively locate and promote expert installers. This partnership has given CPI a major competitive advantage, a powerful momentum-building strength that CPI believes will drive double-digit sales for years to come.