- September 25, 2014
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How a Chainsaw Brand Swayed Consumers to Buy Local
Chainsaw maker Stihl Inc. wanted consumers to shop at small, locally owned businesses and not only because those are the only places where they can buy its chainsaws. The company’s grass-roots campaign took on a life of its own to support the buy-local movement and strengthened its reputation among its independent dealers and consumers.
Stihl sells lawn and garden equipment exclusively through its network of independent dealers, many of them mom-and-pop hardware stores throughout the country. The company has purposely avoided stocking its products at the larger big-box retailers. It’s even gone as far as to run advertising campaigns that boasted how home improvement giants Lowe’s and Home Depot don’t carry its products and never will. Its fierce loyalty to its independent retailers is spelled out clearly in the STIHL blog and throughout the rest of its company website.
The company put its marketing muscle behind a national campaign called “Independent We Stand.” Run by Stihl’s Virginia Beach public relations firm, The Meridian Group, the campaign was designed to promote the benefits of spending money at local businesses, according to a story by Allison Banko for Marketing Sherpa.
Not ecommerce, local commerce
Stihl launched IndependentWeStand.org, an independent website, to allow searches by location among the initial 7,000 registered retailers and service providers, many who were Stihl independent retailers. The campaign proved to be wildly successful and reached beyond its intended base to include more than 100,000 retailers and service providers listed on the website.
With almost 100,000 on board, STIHL helped morph Independent We Stand into a champion of local businesses across the nation. The new organization also gained the attention of large companies that joined the initiative as co-sponsors. Devoe Paint and Chrysler Group’s BusinessLink serve as forms of outreach to small businesses.
A new kind of social revolution
The chainsaw maker designed the campaign to promote and educate the benefit of small-business patronage through its website, social media, and a mobile app.
The site houses a variety of features, including a business locator and an economic calculator. Independent We Stand utilizes a multitude of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+ to name a few. The company actively used #buylocal to help support communities and other business through Twitter, leading to a 54 percent increase in Twitter followers. The mobile app proved to be a great success with the shift by consumers to shop via their smartphones and tablets.
The website also provides tools for business owners to market themselves independent of Stihl and IndependentWeStand.org so they can effectively capitalize on the buy-local movement. From posters, fact sheets and videos to PowerPoint presentations, the website provides a variety of tools to help out small business.
The goal of Independent We Stand remains the same, the tactics used by Stihl and its agency have shifted in the wake of the adoption by thousands of local communities.
A marketing lesson for the small guy
In this new era of social responsibility, what you don’t do can cost you. Cause marketing is now the norm, and customers who visit your website and see your advertising want to know that you share their desire to make the world a better place by supporting an important cause.
There’s a strong connection between marketers and giving. The challenge is to make the socially responsible efforts a winning proposition for the nonprofit group being supported, the community and your business.
If your company is new to the concept of cause marketing, start off small. We offer eight charitable marketing ideas that show you have a heart in this article.
