Artistic Concrete Stamping: A Branding Strategy

Author(s)

Kristen L. Gregory, University of Rhode IslandFollow

Major

Marketing

Advisor

Mitchell, David

Advisor Department

Marketing

Date

5-2017

Abstract

KRISTEN GREGORY (Marketing)

Sponsor: David Mitchell (Marketing)

Artistic Concrete Stamping: A Branding Strategy

Now more than ever, it has become increasingly vital for businesses to maintain a strong brand image to remain competitive in the marketplace. No matter how big or small, a business having a strong brand image is a key ingredient for long term success. This remains true for Rhode Island small business Artistic Concrete Stamping, a locally owned and operated construction business with a family-focused image.

As one of the oldest concrete stamping businesses in the state, Artistic Concrete Stamping has maintained a strong, trustworthy, family-friendly image while utilizing limited branding tools to convey this to new prospective customers. Artistic Concrete Stamping had a lot of potential to grow this strong image into a large competitive advantage that would set them apart in the market from its competitors. The key objective of this project was to give this small business owner informed recommendations to help him build upon his strong brand to obtain new customers in his target market.

Several steps in a previously determined outline with a faculty sponsor were followed to draw appropriate conclusions and give the small business owner informed recommendations to help his business reach its full potential. First, an analysis of the external environment was conducted with an emphasis on direct and indirect competitors of Artistic Concrete Stamping in the marketplace. Then, the current segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) of the small business was identified and defined. Using the STP methods that were previously identified, the marketing mix was evaluated as it applied to the specific demographics targeted by this small business. A marketing mix is characterized by the analysis of a company’s product, place, promotion and price. Each of these characteristics of the marketing mix were defined and evaluated in this analysis.

Using this specific information gathered in the outlined procedure above, branding recommendations were presented to the small business owner. These branding strategies were tailored to the company’s target market, current strong family-brand image, and emphasized its long standing competitive advantage in the market.