Meet another of our clients! This time it is automotive brand Mitsubishi Motors. Andy Minns is their Marketing Communications Manager and in this video he tells us how Mitsubishi works with its large dealership network across the UK. Andy reveals the kind of challenges they faced managing and distributing marketing materials to the dealers and the problems with maintaining brand consistency. Until they found Brandworkz, that is.
‘Non-compliance of brand guidelines by dealers used to be one of our most serious issues,’ Andy reveals. ‘Brandworkz was part of the strategy to change this. Our brand is key, so we’ve made sure all the information people need is in the system and we’ve made a real push to ensure they comply. Dealer training includes when and how to use Brandworkz. It keeps everyone on-brand.’
In this video Marketing Communications Manager, Andy Minns discusses the problems Mitsubishi had before Brandworkz, why he chose Brandworkz, the benefits he received and more. Discover how Brandworkz fixed Mitsubishis compliance issues by creating their very own brand management system, helping them to centralise all their brand assets and improve their brand consistency.
Read the transcript below:
With Andy Minns, Marketing Communications Manager at Mitsubishi Motors.
What sort of problems were you experiencing before Brandworkz?
Andy: the main problems we had were that we didn’t have anywhere to keep all the materials so most of them were all over the business so there wasn’t a central area to keep everything in. One of the main issues we had was non-compliance with our brand guidelines and this was a big issue and it’s one that we’ve been working on quite hard over the last two or three years and Brandworkz was part of that whole strategy and that we were going to bring in a system that allowed us to keep centrally all the information that all of our dealers and agents and they have everything they need to comply with our brand guidelines. We had issues with dealers using the wrong colours or the wrong fonts, pictures of cars that were way out of date. This was just not only on their websites but also on materials they’re producing, so, it’s very important for us as a business to ensure that the brand is key and therefore we made sure that the information is there, the system was set up and now we are making a real push to ensure that they comply. There is no excuses anymore, information is there for them.
Why did you choose Brandworkz?
Andy: Mainly the flexibility compared to the competitors, I really like the fact that we can go in and we can change things ourselves. They pretty much have the ethos that once the system is signed over to you and set up, that basically, it’s yours to look after. That’s not to say there’s no sort of help in the background, there is but, it means that if I need to change something and we often do, in an hour or so we can do it, we can go in there and do that, we don’t need to bring someone else and to do that.
What is the main benefit of using Brandworkz?
Andy: It was a centralization of everything basically. So, everything that people are looking for, and it’s not just our dealer network agencies as well and people within the business, whereas before they would go off and try and find something or they would give us a call and we’d end up trying to look round for everything. Now they know where to come to, they know that there’s a resource there and generally if they want something they can find it there and if they can’t there’s an easy way for them to contact us they can click on a button and email
What is the best thing about Brandworkz?
Andy: There are a number of things that it’s good at, so it’s not just one thing. But it does mean that we have a central hub where they can go to, everybody that uses the system knows that if there’s any materials they want they can get it from there. At the moment we have it broken down into separate areas, so we have one area for all of our quarterly material which is very useful, we do everything on a quarterly basis as a car industry business but, we also have an area which is like a separate library where we keep all of our images and we keep all our points of sale material and bits and pieces that might not change necessarily on a quarterly basis. On top of that, we also have the additional extras that the system can revive for us that we didn’t have before, we have a workflow system, which basically means that the dealers can go in and they can order artwork directly through our creative agency.
On top of that, we also have a ‘create artwork’ area which is effectively the same but it’s based on some preset artwork that we’ve already done through our agency, so we have templates on there. Dealers can go in there and complete their name, details, change the price of the vehicle, put in their local information and then print off a high-resolution PDF of that which ensures it’s always on brand. So it’s a branded piece of material, we know it’s going to be compliant, but they can then use that for local papers as well. The issues we have with all these materials we’ve got is that we really didn’t know who was using what. Now we have proper laboratory reporting tools so we can check to see who’s used what. It’s an important thing that we can check to see what’s being used who’s actually using them and whether some of our retailers are not using them and that’s important as well. So it means that we now have a full reporting structure available to us that we didn’t have before and our senior management makes full use.
Would you recommend Brandworkz to other people?
Andy: We would definitely recommend Brandworkz to other companies, and we have done because I think they provide everything that we need it and actually they’ve been really helpful and they’re got a bunch of people to deal with.
