Faced with the collapse of the detached housing market (and of new-build more broadly), manufacturers have rethought their communication strategies and are now focusing all their efforts on the renovation market.
We recently spoke to Anne Renon, Marketing Manager at JELD-WEN France, to learn about the direction the manufacturer is taking in 2024 and to gather her best communication recipes. Enjoy the read!
We firmly believe that the services a brand offers take on their full importance and make all the difference when a market is disrupted.
What are the main communication topics or challenges you have identified for JELD-WEN in 2024?
Unlike the new-build market, refurbishment is a stable market that is not experiencing any shortfall as we speak. We have been working on this topic and on promoting our Refurbishment range for nearly 6 months now, and we will keep talking about it in 2024.
At the same time, we plan to reach out to joiners and general building contractors in the commercial property market. Our joinery customers all have visibility over at least 18 months, with order books already full. Not one of them has complained about a lack of visibility for 2024. That is encouraging: even though the construction market is struggling, projects keep coming to life!
Finally, we will continue to push our existing product ranges (our Largement Vitrée fully-glazed range, our EI30 fire-rated range, our DAS range and so on) while building the notion of service into our 2024 communication strategy. We firmly believe that the services a brand offers take on their full importance and make all the difference when a market is disrupted. That is why we plan to support our customers on a number of fronts, such as rolling out an online quoting tool and providing access to training. Joinery is a complex world with a great need for upskilling on product selection and technical detail. With that in mind, we have expanded our team of trainers and developed new training modules to make our customers even more self-sufficient.
In short, the challenge for 2024 will be to communicate as much about the JELD-WEN brand as about the support we offer our customers. It is our duty to stand by them in good times and bad!
How do you communicate in an uncertain climate like the current one, with the collapse of the new-build market, inflation and so on?
The current climate is already anxiety-inducing enough, so the aim is not to add extra pressure but to opt for a reassuring, light-hearted tone. Convergence supports us extremely well on this point, with communication campaigns built on a knowing wink.
For every campaign, the challenge is to make our customers understand that we are there to support them and that we are working flat out to make their lives easier! In the relationship we have with them, it is not all about price or product. Our primary motivation remains offering them services that live up to their expectations and giving them the keys to increase their sales.
What is your best recipe for engaging your audiences around a "refurbishment" value proposition?
On the subject of refurbishment, we worked several angles and several channels to reach all of our audiences: project owners, contractors, architects, joiners... The strategy of betting on multiple touchpoints worked well! Print gave us visibility in certain well-established trade publications. On the digital side, we built a landing page that brings together all of our product arguments. Every communication we put out points back to that web page. As for our physical presence, we ran live installation demonstrations at construction trade shows (H'Expo, Artibat...). It is precisely in those moments that you realise "a picture is worth a thousand words" - or in this case, that a demonstration is worth more than a 3-page article! It worked so well last autumn that this year, our builders' merchant customers are asking us to come and run demos at their own trade events.
That is why, in 2024, we will prioritise our customers' events - such as Gedimat, Tout Faire or Samse - over the professional trade shows like Batimat that we used to attend. 2024 will be all about proximity and transparency. The climate lends itself to it, and so does the renovation theme. We are going out to meet our installer customers to demonstrate live all the arguments we put forward in our presentation brochures. On paper, you can claim whatever you like. Live, it's a different story!
Our marketing department was cited as a major player in JELD-WEN's achievements and success in 2023. Our communication campaigns paid off, and so did our presence at trade shows. So yes, that allows us to approach 2024 with a degree of serenity. The market is tight and will remain so, but we are on the right track and, above all, we are well supported by Convergence. We know the agency will always have the idea, the little spark, that hits home with our teams and our customers.
Since you mention it: what difference does it make to work on these topics with a communication agency specialising in construction and housing?
The agency's huge asset is that it knows what it is talking about. The teams know our customers at least as well as we do! We move in the same world, we speak the same language, and we never have to re-explain how the construction industry works. The agency knows exactly how to address each audience, from the specifier to the end user, and can adapt the campaign message for every customer profile. Without Convergence's support, we could not have delivered the last 4 campaigns. We would certainly have spread ourselves too thin across messages or audiences. So this partnership is genuine added value for JELD-WEN!
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I spoke earlier about the notion of partnership with our customers. The same goes for our relationship with Convergence. Beyond the supplier/client relationship, we have become partners who lift each other up. It is important to be able to count on an agency's expertise and perspective to tell us when we are heading down the wrong path. That is what allows us to progress, to grow!
In all transparency, these past few years have been the finest of my career. It is so gratifying to release campaigns and receive positive feedback from our customers, even 2 years on. I can't wait to see what 2024 has in store for us!