When Vista were thinking of a brand name for their new composite door they started by listing the key features and benefits down on a piece of paper for inspiration. The original list looked something like this:
- Feature: The door has a five point lock, including three hooks and two deadbolts; and is Secured by Design accredited. Benefit: The door offers extreme security.
- Feature: The door is manufactured using the foam filed Nan Ya slab and is edgebanded with a PVC-u strip. In fact, the door is 19% more thermally efficient than a well-known 48mm solid timber core composite door and 17% more thermally efficient than the 44mm traditional timber panelled door. Furthermore it can achieve a U-Value of 0.8 in some styles. Benefit: It offers extreme thermal performance.
- Feature: The door has a triple sealed outerframe. Benefit: it offers extreme weather performance.
- Feature: The door is available in a wide variety of colours and can include excellent glazing, the new stylish stainless steel glazing cassette. Benefit: It’s extremely stylish.
- Feature: The door is made with leading components including stainless steel hardware. Benefit: The door offers extreme quality.
As the list grew longer become apparent the same adjective was cropping up time and time again – and the adjective was ‘extreme’.
“Suddenly it became apparent that we needed to call the product XtremeDoor” commented Vista’s managing director Keith Sadler. “The door had so many features that made it stand out from other similar products it needed a hard hitting brand name – and XtremeDoor fitted the bill perfectly. We settled on XtremeDoor and with the help of our marketing partners Purplex set about creating a brand that would appeal to the trade market and in turn help our customers sell the door to the end user.”
XtremeDoor was given a powerful red logo and a simple yet effective strapline: “Keeping the heat in and the intruders out.” “We wanted to sum up the key benefits in a simple statement that consumers would instantly understand” Keith explains. “Security and thermal performance are two of the main features consumers look out for when they’re buying a front door so this strapline seemed ideal.”
Xtreme Marketing
When Vista created their new brand they knew it was important to offer their trade customers marketing support and so launched a comprehensive package. The package includes a professional 32 page brochure, which showcases the wide variety of styles and design details on offer, and a consumer facing website (www.xtremedoor.co.uk) that gives helpful information on hot topics such as energy efficiency and security.
Keith comments: “A key element of the XtremeDoor strategy was to provide our trade customers with good quality marketing tools to help them sell. Most consumers do a lot of research before they buy these days, and the brochure and website will build trust with the audience and ultimately help installers improve their conversion rates. As well as being a useful portal for consumers to read about XtremeDoor, the website will enable us to generate consumer leads which we can then pass on to trade customers in the relevant area.”
Incredible demand
Vista launched XtremeDoor in January with an advert in Glass Times (the same one that features elsewhere in this issue), PR coverage in the trade press and a high impact newsletter; a combination that according to Keith paid dividends. “We had a fantastic response when we launched XtremeDoor and I’m pleased to say we’re gaining momentum all the time. Demand is so high in fact; we’re in the process of recruiting new sales staff to cope with all the new enquiries.”
With so many other composite doors on the market, what is it that makes XtremeDoor stand out from the crowd? “XtremeDoor has numerous tangible benefits over other composite doors and this gives installers an opportunity to sell quality rather than competing on price” Keith comments. “A stated earlier in the article, XtremeDoor is 19% more thermally efficient than a well-known 48mm solid timber core composite door and 17% more thermally efficient than the 44mm traditional timber panelled door. What’s more it is one of the few doors on the market to have a five point and lock and triple sealed outerframe – these are all added value options that installers can push and homeowners want to buy. Add the exciting new XtremeDoor brand into the mix and installers have a potent sales combination.”
