After a successful Smart Heating campaign in the Danish market, Danfoss decided to move into the growing German market for intelligent thermostats. Kunde & Co developed an integrated cross-channel campaign focussing on multiple target groups. At the centre of the strategy, like every Kunde & Co campaign, was a solid understanding of the customer journey. The campaign resulted in a boost in both sales of Danfoss LinkTM systems and a strong improvement of the Danfoss brand as a whole.
10 years ago Danfoss Heating started adding intelligence to their thermostats fuelled by the opportunities brought around by IoT and data. A great product development but also a commercial challenge. Cause how to position a solution within a new competitive market with low consumer awareness and adoption rates?
In order to better understand each target group’s pains and needs, as well as the overall market and Danfoss’ competitors, Kunde & Co conducted extensive desk research, interviews with homeowners and installers, and a digital study to map the customer journey.
These valuable insights provided the foundation for the positioning of Danfoss LinkTM as well as the campaign strategy, segmentation and audience building in the media tactics.
From our research and findings, it was clear the concept should highlight both the core values of installing a Danfoss LinkTM system – energy savings and ease of use – but also address some of the barriers in adopting the system, such as perceived complexity of installation, doubts on pay-back time and data security.
The product was positioned as “the easy way to smart heating” compared to some of the more complex and tech-focused new digital entrants in the category. Directions were tested with installers and homeowners and it was evident that the concept primarily had to answer the first key moment in the customer journey – what is smart heating? To deliver on this insight, we developed the integrated concept I am smart. I am Danfoss Link that was rolled out on both B2B and B2C channels.
To empower the organisation internally and get the sales team ready and motivated for the campaign launch, an internal awareness campaign kicked off with a big summer launch party. The event offered different campaign materials, such as launch kits, roll-ups and flyers, to educate the organisation and create awareness around the campaign.
With the integrated concept a central catalyst, the result was a better understanding of the campaign and a sales force ready to sell Danfoss LinkTM to wholesalers, online retailers and DIY.
From the initial analysis of homeowners, it was clear they could be divided into two groups: early adopters who want to buy and install solutions themselves, and those that are a little hesitant and need help from installers. This finding meant we had to create a presence in new distribution channels, such as online shops and DIY chains, as well as cement the position in traditional professional channels by engaging wholesalers and installers.
To ensure this, we developed sales-in material including POS packages for wholesalers and DIY as well as packages for online retailers.
For many homeowners, it’s crucial to seek the advice and help of installers. And installers used to working with mechanical thermostats actually have many of the same barriers as homeowners when installing connected thermostats. We, therefore, had to make installers confident that Danfoss LinkTM was easy to install and use. To do this, we ran 34 training events in 30 German cities where installers had hands-on training followed by a barbeque night.
On top of training events, a dedicated installer campaign was launched through ads and inserts in trade media, direct mails, social media, an e-mail flow and more. All communication led to a dedicated website where installers could explore more and participate in a smart challenge to learn about the advantages of Danfoss LinkTM. Again, all communication delivered the central campaign concept to maximise cross-channel synergies and the impact across target groups.
For the entire initiative to succeed, demand from homeowners was key. At the heart of the push was an ambition to drive and guide homeowners through the customer journey. In the mapping of this journey, we established five central moments that we had to answer with our campaign. Crucially, we had to invest in making passive homeowners consider the product and start their journey, which was achieved with TV bursts. Once interest was triggered, we wanted to drive the remaining four moments of the journey across digital channels and platforms by delivering the right content at the right time using an advanced Data Management Platform (DMP) setup.
All content led homeowners to our end-user website, which was also developed to deliver content that answered key moments in the journey.
All content in the campaign was developed from the five key moments in the journey. To ensure we could drive homeowners to purchase, it was necessary to rethink content distribution and media buying. A cross-functional team of strategists, creatives, media and data experts working together was necessary to ensure that segments, concept, content and formats matched media, audiences and data opportunities.
In order to do this, Kunde & Co developed a customer-centric approach to media handling – to only buy exposure towards the right audiences within the target group that had engaged with our campaign at a prior stage instead of just buying the channels. This meant we could always deliver content matching the next step in an individual journey based on prior behaviour and campaign exposure.
The customer journey was driven digitally across platforms, where all content was developed to deliver on one of the key moments.
The content of the 5 key moments was delivered to the individual user in chronological order across channels, thus maximizing relevancy and maturing the German homeowners for purchase. See how an individual user could experience the content journey across platforms in this film:
In the professional campaign, we wanted to make installers understand why Danfoss Link was the easy way to smart heating for them too. To maximize impact and market coverage we developed an engaging ”Smart Challenge”. In the challenge, we developed a creative concept to dramatize just how easy Danfoss LinkTM is to install and use for standing out on social media. The installers could test themselves and participate in a challenge that left no doubt about how easy Danfoss Link is to install. See a cut-down of the four installation films from the challenge:
The campaign has delivered on both brand positioning and sales. Homeowners exposed to the campaign on average had a 30% more positive perception of Danfoss as a leader of the Smart Home market. At the same time, sales targets on system sales and app downloads was reached and exceeded. And as a result of the campaign, Danfoss was named winner of the German Brand Award 2017 for “Excellence in Branding – Heating & Bathroom”, and won best product launch of the year amongst German installers in the industry magazine Si.
To find out more about what Kunde & Co can do for you and your company, please contact us
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