Developing a Commercial Brand Structure

A world leader in engineered polymer solutions with a turnover of more than €2Bn, Trelleborg was a thriving group but had a highly complex brand portfolio representative of its acquisition-rich past. The company wanted a market-based organizing principle for its commercial brand structure to optimize its corporate brand in relation to the operational needs of its five business areas.

To address this challenge, MBLM has worked closely for the last three years with the vice president of brand and marketing as well as other members of senior management to develop a commercial brand model that clarifies the business and enables strategic initiatives. Our first step was to develop a brand architecture blueprint to lay the strategic foundation for how the corporate brand should add value to the business and how to organize the company’s commercial offerings structurally. To inform the blueprint, we conducted extensive research of the group’s five business areas and communication practices, focusing on the deployment of the corporate brand as well as of key product and solutions offerings. Based on the insights gained, we worked closely with Trelleborg’s brand board to arrive at a market-based commercial brand structure.

Moving on to operationalization, we then worked with corporate marketing to develop a product category framework that clustered the offerings according to key business and brand-driven criteria. To inform and validate the framework, we catalogued the group’s top 650 offerings and cross-referenced them with key industries. Through workshops with Trelleborg’s brand board and marketing council, we evolved the framework, settling on an industry and solutions matrix. After evaluating offerings against criteria, this matrix now includes 15 core industries and 25 primary product and solutions categories. Implementation of the new commercial brand model has been kicked off with Trelleborg’s new corporate website.

The model has enabled Trelleborg to revamp the information architecture, making it easier for visitors to navigate the site and understand the breadth and scope of the organization and its offerings.

As a result of our work, customers can now easily understand the full breadth of the company’s offerings and how they are relevant to them. The group is able to prioritise and evaluate its offerings with a new mind-set and employees are equipped with a new toolset for creating further value for customers. We are effectively creating a closer relationship between Trelleborg and its customers.