Farrell is a construction equipment and supply depot with seven locations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I worked on a marketing team of two designers and two digital/internet advertising managers. Farrell traditionally advertised mostly through print materials including monthly sales booklets, product catalogs and various flyers.
Print Marketing
During my time there we worked to transition the marketing strategies to include more digital campaigns, and to establish the online sales section of their website.
As a construction supply company, an important aspect of advertising I learned early on was that customers need clear, concise and accurate information on the products and services (in the case of Rebar Fabrication) that Farrell offers. When we took on a new product it was always accompanied with a marketing materials introducing it, and we had to regularly update older product flyers.
Farrell also partnered with its vendors to put on several classes throughout the year, and these events offered opportunities to establish new events moving forward, and creating an exciting look around them was an important factor in recruiting new customers.
Farrell’s print advertising occasionally manifested in different kinds of postcards and brochures; we were continuously looking for ways to keep our work exciting and attention-grabbing for customers, as well as up-to-date and informative.
Priced flyers were another significant part of Farrell’s print advertising, and served as great tools for our salesmen to bring deals on overstock, special deal programs, and brand new or used rental equipment to the attention of their customers.
Sales Booklets
With my previous experience in publication design, I soon took over the creation of the monthly 16-page sales booklets that were one of Farrell’s most successful marketing tools.
They advertised new products and special deals, and were sent to every single person on our mailing list every month for about 6 months a year. They also had a tight turnaround of 3, maybe 4 weeks. I learned a lot about construction products and use of space and color design through these projects.
When I came to Farrell, I thought some of their previous booklet designs were eclectic and hard to follow, so I changed the direction of the design to be a little more simple, with consistent design elements and brand-forward color design. I also chose to focus the cover designs on a single product or brand and have a strong theme, instead of advertising multiple products.
Outside of the monthly sales booklets, I did a few specialty booklets, like this power tool catalog, the Christmas Wish List. I took the opportunity to utilize my artistic abilities on the cover picture, as well as making a really bold color design to highlight the featured brands.
Another specialty booklet I developed was a Building Maintenance ad collection, which featured more products and no pricing for contractors like plumbers, HVAC mechanics and building repairmen.
Another specialty booklet was one covering our rental products and equipment. This was another opportunity to redesign a Rental Catalog with more attention-grabbing design and information to generate more business for that service.
In 2019 I tried to step up the design of the monthly sales booklets even more, with more excitement in the design and some lessons learned from the previous year’s run.
The design of the booklets took more influence from the email program we had been developing over the winter season, with product images that leapt off the page more and new features like a New Products section. I also think the cover designs and color compositions were more successful over time.
Product Catalogs
Another major feature of Farrell’s marketing strategy are catalogs of its products, each one covering a different contractor type. The new marketing team I was a part of revamped the design of the catalog covers into a much more eye-grabbing magazine look, but kept the insides largely the same.
Email and Digital Advertising
A major focus of the new marketing team was improving our email promotions in both quantity and quality. We tripled our email list and started sending emails much more regularly and frequently. It wasn’t a large part of my job, but I created a variety of different email designs when it was needed.
Event Promotion
I worked on ad designs for multiple events, but the biggest event of the year for Farrell is its Product Show, of which I worked on advertising, setting up and participating in one March of 2019. The other designer and I developed a unique logo for the event, as well as multiple flyers and booklets advertising it.
