Best Marketing Case Studies & Campaigns

Innovative marketing is a set of innovative processes and activities that market and communicate new products and services to a targeted group of consumers. Innovative marketing employs conducting market research into customer needs, behaviors and trends, in order to explore new markets, increasing sales and profitability.

In today’s case study, we’ll take a look at how Elevation Marketing innovated a process for TIKI brand, scoring huge increases in sales.

Tiki brand culture has represented outdoor fun with friends and family for more than half a century. The TIKI® Brand torch, with its dancing yellow flame, is an indelible part of that tradition that still burns brightly today. Lamplight Farms acquired the TIKI brand in 2001 to enhance its portfolio of outdoor torches, candles and torch fuels.

PROBLEM

With “staycations” emerging as a popular alternative to expensive out-of-town vacations, consumers began investing more in their outdoor living spaces, enhancing their landscaping, upgrading their outdoor kitchens and paying more attention to décor, including lighting. In fact, the American Institute of Architects noted in a recent survey that outdoor living spaces are now the most popular special function room in the house—69 percent of homeowners have expanded theirs during the past six years, and that number continues to grow.

From snow country to beachside, from mid-century modern to Tuscan, outdoor living styles vary tremendously. TIKI knew it could help people create the backyard paradise they were envisioning, but the brand needed to move beyond its rattan roots and appeal to a broader range of styles. TIKI also wanted to become an all-season brand, with fall, winter and spring purchases balancing sales from its already popular summer holiday season.

Lamplight Farms, the TIKI Brand’s parent company, was developing new fuels that would burn cleaner and repel insects better while minimizing environmental impacts, but they weren’t focused on innovations centered on the outdoor living trend. Competitorswere, though, and low-cost imports began to undercut TIKI pricing and erode brand equity. Lamplight engaged Elevation Marketing as an innovation and marketing partner to modernize the TIKI product line and position it for today’s outdoor living lifestyle.

SOLUTION

Elevation used its proprietary LEAF innovation process (1. Look, listen, learn 2. Envision 3. Activate 4. Forward) to assess and address the TIKI brand’s challenges. The LEAF process rests on a “look, listen, learn” philosophy that begins with a multi-stage discovery phase. In this case, it included:

• An audit of global lighting trends and the more specific outdoor torch and outdoor lighting categories
• A brand assessment and deep dive into Tiki culture to identify visual signals, textures, design styles and materials that were already “owned” by the TIKI brand or that the brand could own
• Conversations with interior designers, retail buyers and trend experts to understand how outdoor living was evolving and what it might be in the future

Information gleaned from the discovery phase was then synthesized, organized and used to inform and inspire a cross-functional team of strategists, industrial designers, engineers, real-time sketch artists, trend experts, interior designers and lighting specialists during Elevation’s unique Envision workshop. Using custom-designed Envision exercises and worksheets, the team explored three areas ripe for innovation:

• Brand equity – Identify ownable, recognizable signals that combine Tiki culture cues and outdoor living trends to elevate the TIKI brand.
• New products – Create innovative new products appropriate for all seasons and integrate proprietary enhancements.
• B2B2C strategies – Build an exclusive sell-in program with power retailers to extend the selling season and increase market basket rings (the amount of money spent on TIKI products during a single transaction).

RESULT

Elevation used its proprietary LEAF innovation process (1. Look, listen, learn 2. Envision 3. Activate 4. Forward) to assess and address the TIKI brand’s challenges. The LEAF process rests on a “look, listen, learn” philosophy that begins with a multi-stage discovery phase. In this case, it included:

• An audit of global lighting trends and the more specific outdoor torch and outdoor lighting categories
• A brand assessment and deep dive into Tiki culture to identify visual signals, textures, design styles and materials that were already “owned” by the TIKI brand or that the brand could own
• Conversations with interior designers, retail buyers and trend experts to understand how outdoor living was evolving and what it might be in the future

Information gleaned from the discovery phase was then synthesized, organized and used to inform and inspire a cross-functional team of strategists, industrial designers, engineers, real-time sketch artists, trend experts, interior designers and lighting specialists during Elevation’s unique Envision workshop. Using custom-designed Envision exercises and worksheets, the team explored three areas ripe for innovation:

• Brand equity – Identify ownable, recognizable signals that combine Tiki culture cues and outdoor living trends to elevate the TIKI brand.
• New products – Create innovative new products appropriate for all seasons and integrate proprietary enhancements.
• B2B2C strategies – Build an exclusive sell-in program with power retailers to extend the selling season and increase market basket rings (the amount of money spent on TIKI products during a single transaction).