Manufacturing

Case Study
Hoffman Group

Challenge

Hoffmann Group, headquartered in Munich, Germany, is Europe’s leading system partner for quality tools. Hoffmann Group combines trading competence with leadership in both manufacturing and service. The company offers 62,000 quality tools from 500 of the world’s leading manufacturers including GARANT, Hoffmann Group’s own premium brand. In 2016, Hoffmann Group entered the American market with the launch of Hoffmann Group USA, located in Knoxville, Tennessee. When faced with the task of setting a foothold in the American market, Hoffmann Group USA hired Ackermann.

Working with the Hoffmann Group USA marketing team, Ackermann was challenged with launching the company into automotive and aerospace manufacturing markets.

Plan

We started by reaching out to key online publications, increasing their online impressions to 1.2 million among their target audience. To keep customer engagement, we began a monthly newsletter. This newsletter reaches 2,000 industry contacts. Hoffmann Group USA values their customers, and stressed the importance of this to us. In return, we decided to mix old school with new school. We launched a direct mail campaign with their tool brand GARANT. We then used these graphics to create a digital ad campaign that launched in 32 cities. The cohesive theme stressed the power of nature within the #Hoffmannbetter campaign.

Impact

As a result, Hoffmann Group USA has grown 61%, media impressions reached 2.1 million, newsletter average open rates hit 20%, website traffic increased 98%, all of which led to 310 new business prospects. We were recognized for our work this past year, winning the 2017 MarCom Platinum Award and a Hermes Creative Platinum Award in 2018 for our integrated marketing campaign.