From unknown entity to renowned innovator
How we built a B2B brand from the ground up
Infor was a leading enterprise software company in nearly every industry.
Just not retail.
While the company was well established in manufacturing, healthcare, public sector and over a dozen other industries, it had no customers or landmark products in retail.
Yet company leaders wanted to push into this market, create some buzz about Infor and build new business.
We had some key things going for us:
Clear white-space: The industry was largely running on decades-old technology and retailers were clamoring for something better.
Industry expertise: Members of the executive management team had considerable prior experience building retail software solutions.
Fresh win: The company had recently partnered with a major national grocer in a multi-million dollar co-innovation deal.
Infor was a company built largely by acquisition, and this foray into retail would be its first all-new market and industry product. It was an opportunity to try different things when it came to product development, marketing and sales.
As the director of brand experience at Infor’s internal creative agency, I was tapped to help envision a new brand, build an exciting story and generate massive interest in Infor Retail. I was part of a core launch team which included the newly-hired GM for retail, his new industry strategist, a seasoned marketing VP, and my own creative director responsible for content and brand.
And though this effort meant a lot of new work, no new marketing hires would be made until the business was up and running. That meant part of my creative team would have to get laser-focused for a few months to work on the exploration and execution in time for a debut at the industry’s biggest annual event — NRF. Fortunately the team was amazing and some seriously talented and hard-working folks were more than ready to take on the task.
Our vision
This wasn’t just going to be a new division or department, it was a new religion. We wanted to give our customers, our partners, the industry, and anyone watching us something amazing to believe in. A new brand and a new organization at Infor that represented modernity, ingenuity and excellence — both inside and outside the company.
We set out to prove how the thoughtful application of technology, science, and user experience design could unleash incredible potential for businesses, leaders and users—driven by an entrepreneurial culture and relentless determination to create the best of its kind ever made.
Success metrics
- Awareness with retail company decision makers
- Successful lead generation
- Deepened relationships with known accounts
- Growth of a high-quality team
- Closed deals
The process
As my creative team took on many responsibilities for messaging, brand visuals, marketing and sales support, we established a tight communications cadence with the initial Infor Retail team.
We set context through competitive analysis
Our evaluation included:
- Audits of top competitors’ messaging, branding and digital ecosystems
- Industry innovators’ messaging and marketing
- Lists of top search terms and results — both organic and paid
- Breakdown of content from top video searches
- Initial takeaways and recommendations
We established the north star with content strategy
Because modern marketing lives and dies by the quality and relevance of content, we clearly articulated what Infor Retail had to say and how it was going to say it.
It provided a high-level but holistic overview of the strategy, stories, people, and voice that would help bring Infor Retail to industry prominence.
It provided a foundation for the Infor Retail content plan and all communications.
We elevated face-to-face conversations
To help a growing customer-facing team of sales reps and solution architects stay on message, we codified approved Infor Retail messaging in a straightforward guide.
The document was used in on-boarding & training, and helped ensure consistency of real-world communications.
We updated it regularly to reflect changes as the organization grew and product planning evolved.
We planned an omni-channel approach to communications
We established a microsite to be an all-new content hub, which allowed us to avoid the limitations and intricacies of heavily leveraging Infor’s corporate site.
We started publishing twice a week like clockwork with articles on the blog and videos on YouTube. Interviews, behind-the-scenes videos, case studies, conceptual demos and insights on industry trends demonstrated the value Infor Retail was starting to bring to the industry.
To make sure we got eyeballs on our stuff, we made it really easy for everyone on the team to share the content with their networks by creating social snippets pre-built for each channel with appropriate hashtags integrated. This rapidly expanded our visibility in the industry without spending a dime on paid media.
The continuous flow of new content ensured our sales team was always armed with something fresh to talk about and share with contacts. Because many on the team were well-connected recruits from other software firms, word spread quickly. And because we kept up the flow of fresh content, it was clear we were here to stay.
Measurement
Monthly reporting kept us honest and showed what was working and what wasn’t so we could adjust our plans in real time. We tracked which articles were getting the most views and shares, what seemed to keep visitors on the site and which videos had the highest percentage of runtime watched. Reporting wasn’t just used for creative and marketing planning purposes, I briefed the growing team (sales and product dev) weekly on the numbers and the impact — a practice which earned more enrollment and kept our marketing operation tied directly to all other aspects of the business.
Launch at NRF
After a few months of warm-up, we debuted Infor Retail at NRF 2016 in a huge way. Because Infor HQ is located in midtown manhattan, close to the site of the event at NYC’s Javits Center, we planned and booked round-the-clock tours and meet-n-greets with conference attendees. VIPs were received by executives at the office and shuttled from floor to floor to see the product design operation at work
Our vision, made real
Over the following two years we grew an incredible team from 6 to 150+, created incredible amounts of media to spread the word about our crazy idea and earned the business of major retailers including Whole Foods Market, Nordstrom and DSW. The business has blossomed: Infor’s Retail division now supports more than 2,500 global fashion, retail, and grocery brands who work with Infor to modernize operations and take advantage of the latest consumer and business technologies — mobile, social and cloud. And it’s still just getting started.
Thanks to a fantastic team, just a few of whom are: Corey, Nick, Angie, Erick, Chuck, Peter, Jenny, Josh C, Kim, Josh D, Melissa
My role: creative director + digital strategist
