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In the B2B world, retailers need to be creative to stand out in a highly competitive industry. Global Industrial Co., an e-commerce-focused distributor of more than 1 million products, rebranded itself “with very cheeky language” in January 2021 with a new logo and voice, says Chief Marketing Officer Klaus Werner.

“Injection of humor – where appropriate – is intended to give people a warm and fuzzy feeling when interacting with us, so that they see us not just as a purveyor of goods helping them run their business, but as personable and memorable people.”

The company’s marketing strategy has helped it generate over $1 billion in revenue, reaching $1.03 billion in 2020. More than half of its customer orders are fulfilled through e-commerce, and executives say Global Industrial’s multichannel sales and marketing strategy is key to its continued growth.

Brand awareness is less about us and more about building a relationship between the customer and Global Industrial.

Klaus Werner, Chief Marketing Officer

Global Industrial Co.

Global Industrial has yet to announce its full 2021 sales, which the company typically does in the third week of February. However, for the nine months ended September 30, Global Industrial revenue totaled $801.1 million, an increase of approximately 6.1% from revenue of $755.1 million a year earlier. Net income was $49.8 million compared to $47.7 million for the first nine months of 2020.

Global Industrial is increasing its investments in raising brand awareness, a move that will strengthen ties with customers and increase sales. “It’s less about us and more about building a relationship between the customer and Global Industrial,” says Werner.

NASCAR fits customer demographics

Klaus Werner, Chief Marketing Officer, Global Industrial Co.

Sports marketing is another way to spread brand awareness, he says. After delving into a variety of sports, NASCAR proved to be a good fit. Global Industrial sponsored a NASCAR racer to race the Xfinity Series at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona in November.

Having a national-level presence and being able to interact with customers and vendors has proven invaluable to Global Industrial, says Werner. Companies have asked Global Industrial to co-sponsor the NASCAR vehicle.

“We were very pleased with our sponsorship of Sheldon Creed (racer) and the #78 Global Industrial Chevrolet racing the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Phoenix Raceway,” said Werner. “The partnership provided numerous digital and in-person marketing opportunities before, during and after the race, allowing us to highlight the Global Industrial brand and the value we bring to our customers.” (Werner declined to disclose whether Global Industrial plans to sponsor future vehicles, or how the marketing campaign has impacted online sales/traffic.)

Each race brings together a different set of companies, he says. “And they work together – we have companies that used the event as an opportunity to discuss private label deals with us.”

Global Industrial actively explores other sports including baseball, hockey and soccer. “But right now, NASCAR is one of the sports that best fits our customer demographics,” he says.

Knowledge Center as a tool for building customer relationships

Customers expect a wide variety of industrial products from Global Industrial, says Werner. But as a brand, the company wants to go beyond the role of a supplier and become a point of contact. “We want to be a go-to place for information that goes beyond price,” he says.

The Knowledge Center, an educational content section of GlobalIndustrial.com, contains online articles that appeal to the distributor’s customers. Subject matter experts and vendors write articles to educate and inform customers looking for solutions. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, customers were looking for topics such as hygiene and maintenance. Other articles cover topics such as the challenges facing the trucking industry or offer tips on digital innovation from Walmart Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar.

Global Industrial also ran a marketing campaign called “Restore, Return, Rebound” early in the pandemic.

“We’ve had a lot of thought leadership on how to restore your environment so your customers and employees can come back personally and you can recover along with the economy,” says Werner.

Subject interest changes with the seasons. When the weather gets cold, people want to learn about heating, and when summer comes, customers start looking for cooling equipment and cooling fans. Storms lead to disaster recovery searches, and as the holiday season approached, customers sought content on how to increase storage capacity and double or triple inventory levels.

When the COVID-19 vaccines rolled out, Global Industrial evolved its campaign into: Ready, Set, Ready, Perfect. Each campaign reflected the changing economic landscape as clients moved from mitigation to growth.

In early 2021, Global Industrial planned to register the COVID-19 vaccine. “We knew that vaccines were on the shelf just waiting to be approved,” says Werner. “So we made sure that once approved, we had all the collateral and marketing materials ready to go.”

The ready-to-use materials included information on how to set up a mobile clinic in a facility, as well as information on products such as sharps containers that store needles and freezers needed to keep vaccines viable.

“We had the entire product range ready for use,” says Werner. “We have to anticipate what will happen.”

Sometimes that anticipation leads to products sitting on the shelf indefinitely. “But it’s about being relevant and quick if what we expected happens,” he says.

QR codes allow easy access to the product range

Global industrial customers expect traditional paper catalogs that offer an extensive product library and ordering information. Werner says the physical catalog is valuable to customers.

“The end users of our catalog are often maintenance personnel who refer to our paper catalogs as they walk up and down the aisles of their facility,” he says. “They place sticky notes for products they buy most often so they can easily access them.”

But there are benefits to pairing the traditional paper product catalog with an easy-to-use digital companion, says Werner. Customers can still browse through a physical catalogue, but they can also scan a QR code with their smartphone camera and be taken to the product’s webpage for more details.

As a result, Global Industrial has condensed its 600-page product catalog down to a more manageable 200 pages, he says.

The QR code is used when a customer wants to see the entire product range or search for a recommendation or alternative.

Global Industrial can make adjustments in the backend of the software. The URL links to the QR codes, directing customers to the product they are looking for.

“As our e-commerce technology evolves, we spend a lot of time learning about QR codes and the various tracking capabilities that are emerging,” he says.

Global Industrial continues to test different paper and digital catalog variants to provide customers with a convenient way to access what they need. “We will be putting out a handful of catalogs with different products next year. We plan to run experiments every quarter,” says Werner.

go viral

In 2022, Werner wants to “double down” Global Industrial’s content strategy, which she calls Prime the Pump. “Social is a platform for companies who, if you want to play, have to pay,” he says. “So I’m trying to respond with more investment.”

Social media is another place to introduce people to the Global Industrial brand. Global Industrial is active on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and plans to explore Twitter and TikTok in the coming year.

In 2021, Global Industrial worked for six months with Terrill Haigler, known on Instagram as “Your Favorite Garbageman,” a former Philadelphia sanitation worker who organizes community clean-ups.

Since Haigler has about 29,000 Instagram followers and a growing following on TikTok, Werner says the popularity of the “Trash Man” videos came as a pleasant surprise.

“These entertaining and serious videos can become new contact opportunities,” says Werner, without providing any information on web traffic statistics or conversion rates.

“Hygiene is a big category for us,” he adds. “We are looking for additional influencers and brand ambassadors and are in ongoing negotiations with them for 2022.”

Navigating social media is a test-and-learn scenario, says Werner, but it’s worth the effort. “Learn fast, fail fast, fail fast forward,” he says. “Some things work, some don’t. If something works we double it and if it doesn’t work we learn from them and make it better.”

Werner will be speaking on Global Industrial’s B2B marketing strategy at EnvisionB2B, a conference hosted by Digital Commerce 360, on June 10th.

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Darling