Powerhouse Factories | Brand-Building Agency

Powerhouse Factories is a brand-building agency that helps brands become more relevant, spark conversation, build relationships and inspire action. We do this by cross-referencing cultural knowledge with data to create strategies and experiences that authentically engage consumers.

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Shaw Floors

Social From the Floor Up

After we created a solid social media foundation for Shaw Floors, we launched their Facebook presence. We positioned the floor as the centerpiece of great room design and crafted content people actually talk about: interior decorating tips and DIY inspiration

To bring this social strategy to life, we worked with some of the nation’s most influential bloggers to start conversations about a new line of flooring, HGTV HOME Flooring by Shaw. We invited bloggers to an exclusive event emceed by HGTV host Lisa LaPorta..., where we inspired them to design a room from the floor up. Nothing was off limits. We turned the before and after photos and videos into short webisodes, which served as the focal point of a Facebook promotion for fans to vote for their favorite room makeovers and win a Shaw floor of their own.

The results? 247+ million word of mouth impressions and 39,000+ new Likers in 30 days. Who says people don’t talk about their floors?

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Girard's

GREAT TASTE IN BLOGGERS

Some people question the value of Google+. What about a virtual blogger event to conduct new product research and reduce time to market by six to nine months?

In the specialty salad dressing category, speed is critical. And so is good timing. Nobody wants to be the latecomer to the taste party with a “me too” flavor; yet, it doesn’t pay to be too far ahead of where the country’s palette is headed.

Connecting with influential food bloggers gave us trend insights... and provided a panel of quality testers to give real-time feedback on whether Girard’s take on the latest and greatest was ready for prime time.

Plus, Girard’s was able to generate discussions around the new flavors from people who had a hand in bringing them to life. We call that dressing for success.

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Isotoner

A GOOD FIT FOR INFLUENCERS

We helped ISOTONER exceed sales and word of mouth goals in the launch year for its touchscreen-
compatible glove brand, smarTouch. In its second year, smarTouch gloves faced an increasingly crowded market and the brand needed to get the word out that its gloves were the best choice for people who need fit and function. So, we empowered lifestyle and technology influencers to tell the brand’s story.

We successfully identified key offline and online influencers relevant to smarTouch gloves and surrounded the consumer with credible information through... :

Outreach to mom and tech bloggers, emphasizing key product benefits and sharing samples of the product for reviews and giveaways
Outreach to lifestyle and technology reporters, highlighting glove styles and functionality
Paid product integrations with credible technology influencers that maximized awareness and complemented earned media
An award-winning website that provided product information, curated coverage and drove additional conversation through "The Ultimate Misfit Gift Contest"

The campaign excited influencers about the product and got consumers talking, too. We generated 950+ million word of mouth impressions and 18,000+ online mentions. smarTouch also led the industry in online search interest during its key sales period. Retail partners rewarded ISOTONER for the strong 2011 sales with incremental shelf space leading into the 2012 holiday season.

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Tide

A NEW WAVE OF INNOVATION

Using our Innovation Factory process, we developed the concept that was used to drive the design and packaging for the new Tide Pods product. In under one month.

We believe that traditional segmentation doesn't tell the whole story, so we created Inspirational Design Targets that filled in the missing pieces. We brought them to life visually and verbally, expressing the details that made each target consumer unique and human.

We used this as inspiration to co-create new product concepts with the brand team that would resonate with both the overt and underlying needs of these consumers. The result? Tide Pods — one of the best-selling innovations and best project launches in laundry care in quite a while.

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Kroger

IT'S OKAY TO BE QUEUE-LESS.

What’s the biggest complaint most shoppers have? Slow checkout and waiting in line. So the Kroger Company asked if our Big Data wizards could help its customers spend less time in the check-out lane. No problem. Utilizing our proprietary iQue tool we helped Kroger optimize customer flow, staff and lane counts — all by leveraging its POS data.

As a result, individual stores were able to optimize labor plans and lane schedules to minimize queue lengths, reduce wait times and improve the consumer... experience. Ergo: better and more efficient service, improved customer satisfaction scores and more credence to its advertising claims of less time waiting in line.

And we didn’t stop there. Ongoing reporting from Powerhouse allows Kroger to continue to spot improvement opportunities, evolve with the customers' needs and behaviors and deliver a consistently-improving retail experience.

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TIDE The innovation factory at work.

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Girard's A taste of things to come.

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Kroger It's okay to be queue-less.

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Isotoner Connecting a legacy brand with the modern consumer.

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Shaw People typically don’t talk about their floors. We changed that.

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GAIN PERSPECTIVE

We help you understand how the consumer views and experiences your brand. We humanize consumer data and information to identify their needs and desires to integrate your brand into their everyday lives.
GET FOUND

When people are unaware of or searching for what your brand has to offer, we will help them find you on the shelf, on the Web, on the move.
ENGAGE

We listen to what the data and consumers are telling you and each other. Then we can start conversations and compelling experiences with the people who matter most to let them help build your brand.
INSPIRE ACTION

We help you tell the right story, with the right people, at the right place to inspire word of mouth, trial, purchase and the coveted repeat-purchase.
STAY RELEVANT

Brands can lose relevancy over time or at a moment's notice. So we cross-reference and translate cultural knowledge with data to stay on the pulse of consumer understanding and trends so you don’t fall by the wayside.
COURSE CORRECT

When are you hitting the target and when are you missing the mark? We help you sift through the data to reveal the patterns and trends that help you stay on course.

Powerhouse Factories Offerings: Analytics

TRENDS AND INSIGHTS

Clarifying Chaos

Marketers are faced with data overload as access to actionable insight dwindles. Often, this makes it difficult to see how one initiative impacts another day-to-day or to frame the opportunities of tomorrow. We have solutions to analyze inputs to illuminate meaningful trends and insights, generating business implications and leading to measurable success.

At Powerhouse Factories, we leverage today's trends and insights to drive tomorrow's brand strategy. We don't think of analysis in terms of measuring your media or advertising, but how cultural and purchase behaviors collide to spark insights that lead to more robust, relevant opportunities and concepts.

As we enter the era of the omnichannel consumer, individuals have more options and tools at their disposal to help them make smart decisions. Because of this, brands' CRM has to keep pace: looking at various sources holistically across marketing, merchandising and operational data to inform, enhance and optimize the consumer's experience and provide the greatest ROI.

Our focus is to make insights meaningful, accessible, understandable and — most of all — actionable.

Cultural & Consumer Insights
Trend Reporting
Predictive Modeling & Segmentation Strategies
Database Marketing & Target Marketing
Full Campaign Tracking (pre/post analysis)
Marketing Impact Modeling
Dashboards & Visual Analytics

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BRAND

Implementing Strategy

Consumers are more social and more fragmented. They demand authenticity, relevancy and human connection from the brands they buy. We thrive in the changing marketplace because of our culture-led,
data-fed, brand-building approach. We put consumers, and the cultures in which they live, first in everything we do.

We immerse ourselves in different cultures through our factory model, social listening and experiential learning and “live to learn” by pursuing our passions outside of work.

At the end of the day, it comes back to translating the right insight into a meaningful implication for your business. Having our hand in counter culture makes our innovation and brand strategy more powerful – and even faster. It’s why “measure twice, cut once” is a key piece of our manifesto. This model allows us to win more often in consumer concept testing, shorten product development time and increase speed-to-market.

Segmentation and Persona Development
Inspirational Design Target (IDT) Development
Product and Commercial Innovation
Brand Strategy

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CONSUMER EXPERIENCES

Dimensionalizing Experience

People choose what brand information and sources deserve their attention – in their social networks, in the media, on the Web and in their community. That’s why we create relevant and holistic consumer experiences that spark conversation, develop relationships and inspire action.

Consumer Experiences is where we integrate the brand into consumers’ lives. Often, brands are focused on the channel. We believe, regardless of the touchpoint, the emphasis needs to be on telling the right story, to the right people in the right place.

People are the emerging and most credible communicators of brand messages. They become the mouth piece and creative expression of the brand. The power is with them. So, we inspire, arm and empower them through digital, mobile, in-store, package design and word of mouth experiences. These compelling experiences create brand relevance that is sustainable long-term.

Word of Mouth Marketing

Social Media Marketing
Influencer Marketing
Experiential Marketing

Advertising

Content Strategy & Distribution

Development, Creation & Monitoring

Digital

Digital Design
Web, Mobile and Application Development
Video
eCommerce

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Our roots are showing

We got our start as a rock poster shop. It’s been a huge source of the cultural insights that have inspired our work for some of the biggest brands out there. And we still work with some of the best artists around. Here’s a sample.

For more head over to the factory site.

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