Filling New Orders One Million Items at a Time: Marketing Masters Secures Customers in New Markets and Industries

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1 CASE STUDY April 2012 Filling New Orders One Million Items at a Time: Marketing Masters Secures Customers in New Markets and Industries Fastener manufacturer relies on web solution from Thomas Industrial Network to generate more RFQs and enable a more efficient sales process About Marketing Masters, Inc. Based near Seattle in Issaquah, Washington, Marketing Masters is a leading OEM of clip nuts, high tech inserts and self locking fasteners. At the company s inception 25 years ago, their products were primarily used by many major domestic and international commercial airlines, aerospace OEMs, prime contractors, suppliers, and MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) providers. Founded by the Gauron family, the company is the only one in the market to manufacture its fasteners with Torlon, a high strength specialty plastic. Torlon - based components are stronger and lighter than metal ones, and thanks to greater corrosion and chemical resistance, they need to be replaced less often, saving money in repair costs. In fact, the benefits of Torlon are so great, that it has begun to replace steel and titanium to become the new material standard for industrial applications. Marketing Masters' patented use of this revolutionary material gives the company a distinct competitive advantage. Their products can replace traditional metal fasteners and clips in any number of applications, from seat tracks in an aircraft body to airframe structures. Customers often purchase clips by the tens of thousands. For example, an Airbus engineer selected Marketing Masters clip nuts as part of a corrosion prevention project, ultimately purchasing more than 60,000 of its clips for use in just one A-380 jet. The company also manufactures a unique press-fit insert that simplifies the tricky process of fastening honeycomb sandwich panels to floorboards, ceilings and the like. Especially popular in aircraft for their light weight strength, honeycomb panels are notoriously difficult to secure to other pieces because of their hollow structure. Yet Marketing Masters has engineered an innovative insert for honeycomb panels that are capable of carrying over 2,000 pounds.

2 Today, the company has expanded well beyond aerospace. Marketing Masters products are used in a wide variety of industries, including renewable energy, electronics, construction, recreation, and transportation and vehicle manufacturing, particularly boats and RVs. They employ 16 people from an 18,000 square foot facility. Challenge: Reaching prospects at their time of need, and ensuring an efficient sales process Jacques Gauron has worked in the business since he was 18 years old and today oversees sales and marketing for Marketing Masters. He realized that the company struggled with a classic growth challenge: How could they develop new business in order to reach new customers just when these prospects need a fastener or insert? If they could figure this out, they might uncover new opportunities with existing customers around the globe, as well as uncover applications for their products in new industries. Further, when looking at the potential of increased business, Mr. Gauron needed to consider how Marketing Masters could make the part selection experience as easy and efficient as possible for their customers and prospects, when they offer more than 100 different choices of fasteners and inserts. He was certain Marketing Masters historical way of prospecting was no longer tenable. Product information was printed on specification sheets or in a printed catalog that Mr. Gauron, along with his father and brother would assemble 100 at a time, using a threehole punch in the office, and then mail directly to prospects. Customer service was also paper based, lengthening the sales process with back-and-forth sharing of product specs and drawings, each iteration increasing the risk of error. We needed a better way to increase our exposure and put our products out there, when, where and how customers wanted them, Mr. Gauron said. Solution: A complete online strategy to bolster Marketing Masters sales process and make it easier for customers to purchase Almost from the beginning, Marketing Masters has trusted Thomas Industrial Network to help grow its business. The relationship began 20 years ago, with an advertisement in the former Thomas Register of American Manufacturers. The fastener manufacturer has counted on the company s solutions to help them grow ever since. Having spent 25 years in manufacturing, I know that engineers who are ready to make a technical purchase always turn to Thomas Industrial Network. When they embraced the Internet, we were sure to come along, Mr. Gauron said. The leads we get through our Thomas program are always highly qualified. Mr. Gauron recognized that ThomasNet.com, the premier online platform for product sourcing, supplier discovery and selection, is where industrial buyers turn with confidence when they are ready to make a purchase. Since 1995, Marketing Masters steadily increased its rankings across the various fastener categories on the site. This has allowed Marketing Masters to differentiate itself in a commoditized marketplace.

3 The company now ranks at the top of searches on ThomasNet.com for about forty different keywords and phrases, including aircraft, automotive and plastic clips, as well as aerospace fasteners and honeycomb fasteners, driving qualified traffic to Marketing Masters every day. With steady web traffic under his belt, Mr. Gauron again turned to Thomas Industrial Network to help keep these prospects interest once they arrived. Together, they rebuilt the website, replicating the former sales process online by taking the information that once resided on paper spec sheets and printed catalogs, to create an easy-to-navigate online catalog of the company s fasteners. Sharing the company s product specs online simplified the customer service process overnight. Now, engineers from around the globe can visit the site at any hour of the day, regardless of whether the office is open, and find the right fasteners for their jobs, complete with information like clip nut size, panel thickness and other project requirements. From the detailed product information to the easy navigation on our website, we can be so much more efficient in our customer service, Mr. Gauron said. It limits the backing and forthing with customers and gives them instant gratification. The added benefit to us is our staff now has more time to work on strategic projects. As a result of these successes, Mr. Gauron sought even more ways to drive traffic to his powerful new website. With Thomas Industrial Network, they populated the content there with the keywords and terms that prospective engineers would use to conduct online searches, helping Marketing Masters to organically rise to the top of popular search engine results. He also took advantage of ThomasNet News (TNN). The company writes news releases to announce new products, to educate the market on the advantages of Torlon -made fasteners and to differentiate themselves. Through a keyword program with TNN, they have added yet another channel for qualified prospects to reach Marketing Masters. It s not just the teenagers who are going online to find things, anymore, Mr. Gauron added. Everyone goes to the Web now, and our buyers are increasingly sophisticated about where they will find product information. We now have a web program so complete that when they seek fasteners, they will always find Marketing Masters. Results: Steadily increasing pace of RFQs brings new customer orders from new industries and geographies, including one for one million fasteners at a time Marketing Masters grew by 30 percent this year, and credits its work with Thomas Industrial Network for delivering new leads from diverse industries around the world. The company is typically fielding more than 800 visits to its website from qualified buyers across 30 different countries every month.

4 One of these prospects was global aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, which found Marketing Masters online, and, selected its clip nuts as part of two new plane designs. The results? Bombardier estimates it will build 6,000 of these aircraft over the next 20 years. That represents 24 million clips, without including another 12 million clips to use in maintenance during the life of the aircraft. This customer lead through Thomas represents 20 years of business and as much as $50 million for Marketing Masters. This was an incredible customer to land, Mr. Gauron said. Getting in on the ground floor because they found us online is just phenomenal. And to think that our fasteners are now standard issue in their products is truly amazing! Our products will no doubt find their way into Bombardier's other products as time goes on. The value of the standardization for a Marketing Masters product in the newest jet blueprints cannot be underestimated, which is why the company is seeking more opportunities in the space. With a global backlog in orders from Boeing and Airbus, more aircraft manufacturers in Canada, Asia, South America and Europe are developing their own jets. The Chinese aerospace company Comac found Marketing Masters online and submitted an RFP that has the potential to represent another $50 million of business over 20 years. Through our efforts with Thomas, we have made our products visible and readily available to these new players, getting new standards created at the ground level so that our products are included on the first production aircraft for each of these companies, through the last aircraft, maybe 20 years from now, Mr. Gauron continued. The new web strategy is driving RFQs to Marketing Masters that the company would have never discovered on their own. One example is from manufacturing company MAV6, which recently won a US Air Force contract of $86.2 million to build new surveillance airships for use in Afghanistan. MAV6 engineers turned to the web to source fasteners and found Marketing Masters there. In addition to new aerospace business, Marketing Masters is landing new customers in new industries too. A boat manufacturer had been jury-rigging his own fastener solution until out of frustration he turned to the Web to find an easier alternative. That s where he found Marketing Masters, ironically nearby in Washington State. This boat builder is now a new, steady high volume customer. Renewable energy is also becoming a growth opportunity for Marketing Masters. Recently, a company that makes wind turbine generators turned to ThomasNet.com in search of an all-weather, anti-corrosive fastener and found Marketing Masters. By having our product available in the right place, at the right time when customers are searching, we now are finding a new opportunity to educate the market about why Torlon is a better composite, or how to fasten honeycomb panels. This program has truly differentiated our business, Mr. Gauron added.

5 Indeed, growth has been so strong, that in the last month Marketing Masters hired two new employees and invested in a new molding machine. For two decades we have seen consistently what keeping 100 percent of our marketing budget with Thomas Industrial Network delivers, Mr. Gauron said. We are so excited; we can t wait to see what the next 20 years bring!