The issues

Wehrman & Company's goal was to position the new Insituform to customers, shareholders, and employees with clarity and enthusiasm, keeping in mind these issues:

• While Insituform offers a variety of technologies and serves numerous markets, it is best known for and most closely associated with its flagship Insituform® process. The company wished to maintain a close association with its flagship brand, while also communicating its broader scope of solutions and capabilities.
• Prior to its acquisitions, there was some confusion in the marketplace about Insituform and its various licensees, some of which also used the Insituform name in their corporate identity. The company wished to find a solution which would help eliminate this confusion.
• Given the number of changes Insituform had undergone and the far-flung nature of its operations, it was important to develop a system for communicating the company's new corporate identity and the benefits of its integrated structure to both internal and external audiences.

The SingleVoice Marketing® solution:

Our SingleVoice solution for Insituform included:

Corporate identity

The identity Wehrman & Company developed for Insituform is made up of a typographic system designed to:

• Emphasize the corporate brand name InsituformŪ.
• Allow individual corporate name variations.
• Provide a unified look.
• Integrate easily with new marketing tools.

Verbal branding

Wehrman & Company developed ONE COMPANY-MANY SOLUTIONS as a campaign theme to announce the merger of Insituform Technologies with Insituform Mid-America. The theme succinctly addresses how the new Insituform benefits its customers. It was now ONE COMPANY -- product researchers, manufacturers, engineers and installers -- with experience and operations around the world. The integrated company also now had MANY SOLUTIONS due it its expanded product lines and market applications.

The ONE COMPANY-MANY SOLUTIONS theme and graphics served as a link for all marketing efforts in Insituform's subsequent merger communications campaign.

Merger communications campaign

Using our SingleVoice Marketing process, we extended the ONE COMPANY-MANY SOLUTION theme to communicate benefits of the merger using a variety of vehicles, including:

• A merger brochure which described the benefits of the new organization to customers and shareholders.
• Corporate advertising which announced changes to industry audiences and emphasized--with comments expressing confidence in the merger/changes --how Insituform is better than competition.

Trade show exhibit

The ONE COMPANY-MANY SOLUTIONS campaign was unveiled at the wastewater industry's largest trade show. Wehrman & Company worked with Insituform to modify the company's existing exhibit, adding large banners which made the theme line large and visible. To draw further attention, a freshly painted Insituform truck, with the company's new identity and filled with give-away hardhats sporting the theme, was placed in the center of the exhibit. Every element in the exhibit -- from the booth structure to the polo shirts worn by Insituform staffers -- carried the same clean, white design, which helped differentiate Insituform from the noisy clutter of surrounding exhibits.

Annual report

The ONE COMPANY-MANY SOLUTIONS theme was carried through to Insituform's annual report. In this case, the theme's message was tailored to address the specific needs of the financial community, focusing on the value Insituform's new positioning offered to shareholders.

Marketing communications standards manual

Using SingleVoice marketing, we developed a marketing communications standards manual which describes how to apply this new corporate identity and provides a system for producing marketing materials. Simple guidelines direct end-users to:

• Emphasize specific technologies or markets in their communications.
• Differentiate their products from their competitors.
• Educate customers at every opportunity.
• Systemize production of marketing materials.
• Display the corporate logo consistently.

The results

We succeeded in communicating Insituform's new identity to a wide range of audiences using the same, deceptively simple banner theme. The result was a consistent message and image that helped to educate and differentiate, and to motivate customers, shareholders, and employees. Feedback also suggested that the SingleVoice program helped diminish customer confusion while building a singular, positive corporate image. The marketing communications standard manual continues to guide the development of new literature, direct mail programs, vehicle and building signage, stationery, and advertising campaigns.