Berglund Construction

A Marketing Story by The Simons Group about Berglund Construction

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Brand Development

Challenge

Berglund Construction is a third-generation, family-owned firm and is one of the Midwest’s leading construction companies. As Berglund neared its 100th anniversary, the company wanted an image revamp that conveyed its rock-solid reputation as well as its vision for the future. The company wanted to create excitement around the brand with a yearlong campaign that would culminate with a celebration for clients and colleagues. The success of this 12-month process would be measured on event attendance, since that was the opportunity for Berglund to strengthen its industry relationships and thank its customers for their support over the years.

Solution

Rebranding a company’s goals, message and culture is no easy undertaking. A successful rebranding campaign requires more than a revamped logo. It demands a vision that inspires customers, prospects and employees to see the company in a new light. We developed a yearlong rebranding, marketing and PR program to ensure that we generated excitement around the brand and, in turn, drove high attendance numbers to the big anniversary event. The Tactics Rebranding: We started by conducting extensive interviews with Berglund’s leaders and researched the firm’s competitors, turning our findings into a fresh logo and tagline. We also updated all of the company’s marketing collateral, from its proposals to its website, to reflect the new brand. We developed brand standards which internal Berglund staff can reference when they update the collateral we created. Communications: We understood that unveiling a new brand to employees can be a delicate undertaking. For the reveal, we wanted to create buy-in for Berglund’s new image and created a video with custom animation and music. While the new brand was being created, we simultaneously added a blog to Berglund’s site and created content that would be featured on it with a post a day for the 100 days leading up to the big event. We announced the blog with an e-blast and encouraged readership by sharing little-known facts about the company and offering prizes based on Berglund knowledge. Public Relations: The event was very personal to Fred Berglund, Berglund’s president, so his speech had to hit just the right note. We worked with him to understand his speech goals and helped write his speech for the big night. We also wanted to get the word out about the event to the general public, so we crafted a press release which was used to obtain media coverage. As a special surprise for Fred, we also reached out to leading politicians in Illinois and Indiana to obtain recognition for Berglund’s accomplishment. Event Management: The Simons Group provided turnkey support that included coordinating details such as venue research, event gift selection, décor, food and signage. Since we were tasked with getting as many attendees to the event as possible, we created print and electronic save-the-date collateral, invites, and reminders. We created and managed an online RSVP tracking system. We also developed a solution for inviting last-minute guests who were not on the original list, creating printed pocket invites that Berglund staff could hand out.

Event Management

Results

The blog played a large role in building excitement leading up to the 100th anniversary event. Traffic to the Berglund site skyrocketed to 32,560 from 15,987 and page views increased to 123,838 from 58,867 compared to the same period of the previous year. We were successful in securing congratulatory letters from leading politicians in Illinois and Indiana, arranged a photo-opportunity with the outgoing Mayor Richard Daley and secured a resolution from the Chicago City Council in honor of Berglund for this accomplishment. The original invite list Berglund provided us with was close to 1,200 people – that included clients and employees, but not employee family members. The final RSVP count was 475, with 450 showing up for the actual event. Typically, only 20 to 25 percent of invited guests will actually attend an event, so Berglund’s 37.5 percent attendance rate far exceeded the firm’s targets. The event served as a great thank you to existing customers and helped Berglund become closer with prime prospects and influencers.