Launching a French Brand in India and Scaling its Lead Generation Efforts

social media marketing

heavy equipment

india is a unique country whose business market can be tough to conquer, even for some of the most seasoned global brands. the sheer magnitude of complexities and diversities stretch much beyond the average demographics, right into behavioral aspects, aspirations, and much more. for any multinational conglomerate to succeed in india, it needs the right local agencies as partners that can help them succeed.

it becomes critical for businesses to have multi-channel strategies, considering the cut-throat competition. with the marketplace being as saturated as ever, it becomes tough for new brands to gain visibility and score on the lead generation front. it is common that making a brand visible and gaining trust of the customers can take time.

this was precisely the challenge emporiom had when it got the responsibility to launch manitou in india and scale its lead generation efforts. in this case study, we take a look at our successful partnership with manitou.

what is manitou?

manitou is a french company that is one of the largest manufacturers of heavy equipment machinery. their product line ranges from heavy-tonnage rough-terrain telehandlers, semi-industrial and industrial forklifts, articulated loaders, skid and track loaders, backhoe loaders, aerial work platforms, truck-mounted forklifts, storage equipment and attachment. since its launch in france in 1957, manitou has established its presence in over 140 countries to date. they have a worldwide team of 4,600 employees and had sales of €2.1 billion in 2019. uk-based heavy construction machinery manufacturer jcb is their biggest competitor.

brand launch in india

besides announcing its arrival in india, manitou had also scheduled the launch of its first-ever indigenous machine in india, the 1700r skid steer loader. being one of the leading global names, they wanted to have that same authority in the unchartered territory of india. it was a challenge keeping in mind low consumer awareness with their brand in the country. all of this was possible if we educated, promoted, and communicated the brand story to the target audience aptly. it was a surefire way of giving rise to new business opportunities for manitou.

initial hiccups

after a careful brand and product analysis, we came up with a strategy to increase brand visibility and demand. we had identified the following actionable items.

establish manitou as a brand and maximise its reach
drive engagement for the target audience
generate qualified leads
overcome misconceptions about the brand (if any)
drive brand recognition and authority

defining the strategy

besides announcing its arrival in india, manitou had also scheduled the launch of its first-ever indigenous machine in india, the 1700r skid steer loader. being one of the leading global names, they wanted to have that same authority in the unchartered territory of india. it was a challenge keeping in mind low consumer awareness with their brand in the country. all of this was possible if we educated, promoted, and communicated the brand story to the target audience aptly. it was a surefire way of giving rise to new business opportunities for manitou.manitou’s biggest competitor, jcb, is a name synonymous with the industry, equipment and machinery. it is almost an equivalent of parle-g or coca cola from the fmcg industry. it was thus important to overcome this notion about the name and colour of machines. understanding the audience segment, we divided the strategy into two parts—increase awareness and generate leads. we also defined the communication touchpoints and wanted to synchronise them across all the platforms to ensure the target audience receives uniform messaging.

numbers that matter

on the launch day, #makeamark hashtag organically trended for over three hours on twitter. sustained marketing and outreach efforts helped us achieve much more, as we list them below.

100+ warm leads from sms and email marketing.
15 million+ impressions on social media platforms inside 60 days
4 hot leads with a ticket value of inr 18-20 lacs.

“we have always considered emporiom as a partner of manitou. the entire team of emporiom knows how to mold themselves according to their client’s needs. be it knowledge, innovation, feedback, or new initiatives, emporiom is an all-rounder. they never refrain from giving us a heads-up about the project and how to achieve real results from the initiatives. thanks for all your efforts and hard work. keep up the good work,” added mr. karandeep arora, about his experience of working with emporiom on this project.

digital campaign and social media

besides announcing its arrival in india, manitou had also scheduled the launch of its first-ever indigenous machine in india, the 1700r skid steer loader. being one of the leading global names, they wanted to have that same authority in the unchartered territory of india. it was a challenge keeping in mind low consumer awareness with their brand in the country. all of this was possible if we educated, promoted, and communicated the brand story to the target audience aptly. it was a surefire way of giving rise to new business opportunities for manitou.we launched #makeamark, a digital campaign to highlight the launch of manitou’s first-ever indigenous product in the indian market. our primary goal was to build engagement and gain traction for the brand. since they did not have any digital assets, the first step was to create them with uniform branding and messaging in place.

the marketing mix included focus areas like social media channels (facebook, linkedin, twitter, youtube), landing page, sms marketing, email marketing, and missed call marketing. our 360-degree digital approach involved seven action steps targeted towards b2b and b2c segments.

here is an overview of the digital assets, including their creation and subsequent results.

Facebook Page

We created 41 posts during the posts and scaled the number of followers from 201 to 10,841. The impressions count was 2,92,574.
Twitter

We posted 355 tweets and increased the followers count to 2000+, with an impressions count of 1,33,40,191. The average engagement on the tweets was 4%, which was high as it is usually 1% for such a niche audience segment.
LinkedIn

We made 41 posts and garnered 1386 followers with an impression count of 4,07,709. Most of the traffic was from the four major metro cities, with a balanced mix of target industries.
Youtube

The channel increased its count from 800 to 5,000 daily views, registering 11,730 impressions.
Landing Page

We had two versions of the landing page—pre and post launch. It was primarily to play out on the sentiment that was portrayed through social media as well. Major traffic on Facebook was through the landing page.
Email Marketing

There was a pre and post-launch emailer that had an open rate of 13.34%. The campaign generated 32 leads.
SMS Marketing

We ran SMS campaigns targeted towards B2C audiences. An SMS message in English and Hindi including a “missed call mobile number” was sent to the recipients. It helped us in creating opt-in contact database for sales.