Back in 2002, before they were bought out by Stadium, a UK electronics manufacturer called Zirkon engaged my then-employers to completely rebrand them and support them with a PR campaign to raise their profile and help bolster them in the tricky manufacturing climate.
I managed both the PR campaign and the rebrand and, whilst the brand has now been incorporated into the new parent company, I remain very proud of the work I did with Zirkon. Here are a few examples of what the campaign involved:
Managing the redesign of all the branded materials to highlight that the name was spelt with a ‘K’ , so we used the ‘o’ as a device to fit into the ‘K’:
- Zirkon ‘o’ device
We used a ‘mercury’ effect for the writing to tie in to the electronics market and continued the same font and style throughout all of the collateral, from brochure and letter head to website headings:
- website header
We created all of the copy for the new brochure and website, placing the emphasis that keeping the manufacturing in the UK meant working with partners who had a better understanding of their product and could create better solutions: “more knowledge, better solutions” became the strap-line and also the key message underpinning the PR:
Tony Inskip comments on progress towards the implementation of the WEEE and RoHS directives.
A recent survey carried out by the UK Environment Agency body Netregs revealed that only 18% of UK SMEs knew of the environmental legislation that applied to them. In July 2006 two pieces of legislation, the WEEE and RoHS directives will come into effect.
The directives are part of Government measures to reduce the impact the UK manufacturing industry has on the environment. The UK manufacturing and electronics industry faces a huge challenge in preparing to comply with the WEEE and RoHS legislation, but there is no reason why we shouldn’t meet the challenge and come through it unscathed.
Once people are fully aware of what they need to do to comply with the new directives, it will inevitably require some investment. Sufficient planning and open communications channels with suppliers and customers will allow the directives to be seamlessly absorbed into current business practice.
The main impact of the new legislation within the sector will be the restriction of lead within products and processes. Bearing this in mind, Zirkon has held its first customer advisory session in order to discuss the implications of the move to lead-free products and to raise the customer’s awareness of the implications of the RoHS legislation on the rest of their product…..
And the coverage soon stacked up:
Coverage
It was a pleasure to work with this team and deliver some great results for them, including increased brand recognition, better sales collateral and increased sales inquiries.
