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Dematic is a pioneer of intralogistics that invented some of the most significant supply chain innovations of the 20th century. However, as the company approached its 200th anniversary, opened a new HQ and geared up to launch a new product, its brand identity didn’t portray the company as the visionary it is, making it challenging for stakeholders to comprehend its legacy and continued impact on the future of commerce.The brand enlisted Alloy to identify its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities — and create a marketing roadmap for its new product launch that would set the standard for those to come.

We started with extensive audits and research on Dematic’s current positioning and marketing efforts. From core messaging and stakeholder perceptions to email marketing and website engagement, we evaluated every touchpoint, finding that the brand needed to elevate how it talked about itself. Previously fragmented and focusing on the inner-workings of intralogistics, the brand needed to reposition itself as an innovator to attract the customers and talent it sought.

Once we upleveled Dematic’s messaging, we immediately went to work launching a new product designed to reach a new target audience. Grocery e-commerce had emerged as a key target vertical for Dematic as consumers increasingly demanded rapid order fulfillment and delivery, exacerbating challenges in a market already plagued by tight margins. For Dematic to compete in a space dominated by robotics startups, it embarked on an accelerated project timeline to bring its unique microfulfillment solution to life. With microfulfillment, retailers could turn their backrooms or small urban warehouses into fully automated distribution systems. We needed to let those retailers know how microfulfillment could improve their operations and make Dematic their chosen partner to do so.

  • Reengineering messaging for an industry pioneer

    Dematic’s previous brand messaging neither championed the innovations the company had made in its history nor defined its role in addressing the supply chain challenges of today. After identifying this challenge, Alloy conducted a brand messaging workshop with key stakeholders and created a new platform based on insights, as well as competitor and persona research. The resulting tagline “Power the Future of Commerce” articulated both Dematic’s vision and value proposition.

  • Building an awareness engine

    Dematic had historically relied heavily on customer word-of-mouth and trade shows from a sales perspective. This presented an immediate uphill battle in terms of brand awareness with new target audiences and industry influencers. The brand needed to gain ground against loud competitors in the national e-commerce fulfillment conversation. To combat this, we planned an aggressive, rolling thunder media relations campaign, starting with the product launch and continuing with a steady drumbeat of customer announcements and thought leadership.

  • Educating the market

    Microfulfillment was a new solution to solving retailer’s challenges in meeting on-demand delivery expectations, so we not only needed to build awareness of Dematic as a brand, but also of microfulfillment as a solution. We developed anchor content — a playbook designed to educate current and potential customers on how micro-fulfillment is solving retail challenges — and then pointed all marketing efforts toward that content pillar.

  • Conversion-oriented advertising

    Based on persona research, we knew Dematic’s new target buyers — retail ecommerce and innovation leaders — conducted a heavy portion of their buyers’ journey online. So, we developed an integrated paid search, social and retargeting advertising campaign plan designed to reach new buyers with the benefits of micro-fulfillment, prompt them to download the playbook, and then nurture them into conversations with sales.

Previously decentralized, Dematic’s marketing department had never implemented an integrated, strategic approach to external communications before, so this program needed to show strong, measurable value to prove the effectiveness of a multichannel product launch campaign. We worked with Dematic’s communications, marketing and marketing ops team to identify KPIs at each stage of the funnel, and created processes for measuring them. The campaign was a finalist for the Sabre Awards’ Superior Achievement in Measurement and Evaluation.

qualified leads
+
improvement in search rankings
%
more media coverage in one quarter than previous 3 years combined

Not only did Alloy deliver the new buyers Dematic needed, we also created a replicable framework for future product launches.

Pre-seeding the news to key customers, prospects and media

GroceryShop, a key industry event frequented by Dematic’s new personas, was scheduled a month before the micro-fulfillment launch. We used this milestone to set embargoed briefs with key media targets, as well as set meetings with target accounts to tease the launch.

Weaving microfulfillment messaging throughout Dematic’s digital footprint

Dematic typically launched new products with a new website page. While we created a page for microfulfillment, we also touted the solution and the challenges it solves on Dematic’s homepage, key industry pages and other relevant places on the website to create an interconnected narrative on how brands can power the future of commerce. With these website changes, we created a path for prospects from initial awareness to requesting a demo.

Depositioning competitive solutions

Startup competitors were already touting microfulfillment solutions, so our messaging leaned heavily into Dematic’s proven experience, time-tested processes and heavily vetted technologies. Additionally, with SEO research and multichannel, multi-medium optimized content, we dethroned these competitors for top search rankings for microfulfillment-related terms.

DON'T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT

“The team delivered a high-profile strategic campaign, resulting in a major increase in press coverage, introducing us to new markets and increasing our brand presence. The team has excellent expertise; they were a joy to work with.”

— Jane Thompson, Senior Manager of Marketing
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