Ronin Marketing Company Brisbane | Marketing Consultants & Agency

Case Studies

Woodland Shopfitting & Maintenance

The Case Study below is reprinted from our December 2008 Newsletter. Since then, we have worked with Woodland on a second website for their core shopfitting business, and overhauled their trade show approach, saving them tens of thousands in the process. - Kurt Schubert, February 2010.

A big part of what Ronin achieves for people is providing them with a clear plan of attack and the tools with which to reach their goals. Woodland Maintenance is a great example of how much can be done in a very short period of time. Woodland Maintenance was established in 2003 as a service provided by Woodland Shopfitting. The shopfitting division counts BCF, Supercheap, Tarocash, Michael Hill Jewellers, IGA Supermarkets, Mary Ryan Bookstores, 7-11, and Golden Casket Newsagents among the companies they’ve served over the years.

The maintenance service had evolved naturally from the fitout work. Since the early 1990's, whenever their fitout clients asked about what happens if they need general maintenance, they were told, "Just call us." Kurt Schubert from Ronin met with owner Woodland’s owner, Michael Casablanca and Maintenance Manager Ann Willis to provide a practical plan to formally market the maintenance division, & to develop materials that would appeal to the National chains.

“The experience has been a painless, pleasant process with the key being communication,” Ann recalls. “It gave me an insight into marketing and how it benefits our organisation. You think it’s an obvious tool to use but when you start to employ it you realise you don’t know the first thing about marketing your product. You know your product well enough but you don’t know how to tell people about it.” Following a data gather of all the relevant aspects of the business, Ronin developed a hit list of things that had to be in place before any marketing was to commence. This included a new website, electronic corporate profile, stationery and letters of introduction.

Ann continues, “I guess one would expect a Marketing Company to be good communicators and I believe this is what Ronin does so well. Kurt got down to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of our business and constantly kept in touch throughout the whole process so we were all on the ‘same page’ and the end result shows how well Kurt listened, gathered and used the information we gave him.”

In developing the website, Ronin took a great deal of effort to foreground the qualities of Woodland and strategise the ways in which prospective corporate clients‘ interest would be piqued. This included creating original photography which served to express the company’s values, not just showing “what they do”.

“The Ronin team created a slick website from the information Kurt gathered. We learnt the importance of branding and getting the website and profile right the first time,” Ann relates. “The Website is exactly what we wanted, it’s modern, slick and looks very professional, and it’s the image we want to impart. The profile compliments the website beautifully and the whole package speaks volumes on our services.” Additionally, the search-engine optimised website appeared on Google at number one within 3 days of going online.

Once Ronin had all of the materials in place, the next step was to provide Ann with a lead generation system and a detailed written and verbal briefing on the best ways to approach prospective clients. In short, it’s a marketing system and sales primer in one.

Ann continues, “The suggestions Kurt made for the website and the profile were spot on, and within 3 weeks of using the the Sales and Marketing System provided to us by Ronin we had two new major clients and our business increased by 40%. Colorado was the first client and then Bras & Things came on board and we have also picked up Crabtree & Evelyn and Connor Clothing. Colorado & B&T have been great with lots of work. Yes, business is good”

Michael Casablanca, Woodland's owner, speaking in October 2009:

“We expected that a marketing company would be good communicators, and with Ronin that’s exactly what we got. They really took the time to get to know our needs and what the market looks for first which helped in being able to portray the right image through our materials. Everything from our stationary through to the website is fantastic, stands out from the crowd and reflects exactly what we are all about. Sometimes it can be hard to judge how your marketing is working for you, but with Ronin the results speak for themselves.”

Michael Casablanca, Director