Today ebm-papst is
without a doubt the world´s leading manufacturer of fans and
industrial drives. It is recognised as THE green company in its
industry sector. The successful change of name and the development
of a new brand identity, as well as the company's philosophy
GreenTech, which underline its claim of leadership, have
contributed to this reputation. wob BBN Germany has played an
essential part in triggering both, says Kai Halter, International
Sales Marketing Manager of ebm-papst.
We have been successfully working with wob for the past eight
years. What makes our relationship so special is that we are facing
each other on equal terms. That is, we don't do everything our
agency wants us to do. But we are always open to suggestions, and
we appreciate wob's advice. That applies all the more because we
are aware that wob's contribution has brought us to today's
position.
In 2003, when we invited various agencies to a pitch, we had a
single thing in mind: we wanted a new trade show booth, which
brings together our three company brands ebm, papst and mvl under
one corporate design without losing their autonomy. Instead, wob
recommended something completely different - namely to disestablish
exactly these three brands and create a new one: ebm-papst.
That was not only a very courageous idea. After all, it was far
beyond the task we gave them. It was the absolutely right idea. At
that time we never would have thought in that direction ourselves.
The notion had to come from the outside. Thereupon Gerhard Storm,
co-founder of EBM and acting partner at the time, changed the names
of all companies to ebm-papst on a global level. wob created a new
corporate design and all communications measures necessary,
including the booth we originally wanted and which was designed
by Kurz Architekten GmbH in Urbach.
The change of name and the worldwide uniform presentation of
ebm-past initiated eight years ago contributed significantly to the
awareness, affinity, and trust in the brand. Ever since then,
thanks to the driving role of the product and sales department, we
have more than doubled our total revenue - to more than 1.3 billion
Euros. In addition, we gained an almost exclusive brand awareness
in future-oriented topics such as the energy efficient GreenTech
EC-technology and our HyBlade® fans.
Based on these topics is also our most recent communication
project with wob, which is already a success story: GreenTech. The
idea first came up at one of our "Thinkdays", a regular meeting
every eight weeks, in which we work out new communication concepts
and solutions. wob suggested to create a new label in order
to position ebm-papst even more as a green company and
differentiate it from its competitors.
Environmental protection plays a key role in every area of
ebm-papst. Many other companies lack this degree of consistency. It
starts with our philosophy: each new product that we develop has to
be better than its predecessor in terms of affordability and
ecology. It also includes the development of products keeping that
promise and their production at sites which are saving energy.
We've already been awarded several times for both of these facts.
And our philosophy culminates in our most important request: that
our customers benefit each day from our products, which are saving
up to 70% of energy and the costs associates with it.
Since 2010, we have been communicating all of these facts by the
use of our label GreenTech, and the results are outstanding. Both
the number of visitors to our website and the number of visitors to
our stand has increased - by 25% and 30%, respectively. Our loss in
revenue due to the economic crisis (6.6%) lies clearly below the
average of the market in general. We have become the first-choice
deliverer for many clients, and more and more of our customers are
promoting their own products with our GreenTech label on it.
A special highlight happened just recently. In the beginning of
June, we and wob were honoured for our GreenTech communication with
the GWA Profi Award 2011. The GWA Profi is one of the most
important marketing awards for business customer communication in
Germany. The fact that we received it already for the second time
(the first time we got it for our brand identity in 2009) is the
icing on the cake in our successful teamwork with wob.