Background

JLG Industries, a publicly traded company with $1 billion in revenues, extended its leadership in mobile aerial work platforms and telehandler markets by acquiring Gradall Industries in 1999. Gradall telehandler products now represent approximately 10% of total revenues. However, Gradall telehandlers were branded and functioned differently than JLG telehandlers.

JLG needed a versatile product branding strategy for product naming, brand structure and coloring to resolve Gradall and JLG brand conflicts, reduce market confusion and simplify future product acquisition integration. Incendo Marketing Strategic Services analyzed JLG’s situation and developed a strategy that supported JLG's goals and objectives.

JLG was consolidating manufacturing into one facility and was on a tight deadline to incorporate changes to decals and paint themes.

Analyze
   • Qualitative research techniques were used to gain distributor and customer insight.
   • Results were evaluated to extract common themes and unique, powerful insights.
   • Industry research helped to evaluate general construction equipment industry branding and acquisition trends, telehandler distribution channel trends, and rental company trends.

Strategize
   • Based on research results and JLG’s defined objectives, branding and coloring alternatives were developed in a collaborative process
   • The branding strategy was developed to serve as a framework compatible with existing product lines and those that may be acquired.
   • Final telehandler visual representations were embodied in wire-frame models and digitally modified telehandler photos.

Results
"The challenge was to study our industry, research customer perceptions of our brands, develop a branding framework for past and potential acquisitions, and make strategic recommendations. While that sounds fairly common, Incendo Marketing was only given ten days to deliver. Their team effort, marketing insight, and dedication provided me with the ammunition to deliver a credible, well developed analysis that shaped our branding approach. By the end of the project, we believed we had expanded our marketing department with the addition of this resource."

- David Baxter
Director of Marketing