By Clare Bingham, Engagement and Operations Director
Powering the electronics sector: How we create a surge of interest for our clients
For many years, FMI has been renowned for creating some of the ‘best’ sales incentives programmes within the electronics industry.
Working with a range of global brands such as Sony Digital Imaging and LG Electronics, our team of talented engagement consultants are experts in connecting people with brands in this sector.
But what does it take to build such a well-established reputation for our work in the sector? And how do we ensure that our bespoke programmes and projects stand out in such a saturated market?
Below I’m offering some insight into our model and our success in the consumer electronics industry over the last 10 years.
Our offering
When it comes to designing engagement programmes for our clients, our expertise covers the breadth of issues and problems that electronics brands have faced over the years – especially in terms of earning buy-in from employees at the ground-level. Our services, which help to combat these issues, include bespoke incentives, event management and brand marketing.
Our integrated and strategic approach means that we’re able to engage business audiences at conferences and leadership events across the globe, as well as increasing business performance through effective sales incentives and targeted channel marketing.
Structured incentives
We’re proud to have won an array of awards from the Institute of Promotional Marketing for our incentives projects within the electronics industry. It’s a very competitive sector, but our work has always stood out, thanks to our planning and sector knowledge.
Incentive programmes in the electronics industry are designed primarily to engage sales staff and ultimately reward retail and call centre employees for their strong sales performances. However – and this is what makes us unique – our incentive programmes go that step further in that we also create long-term brand advocates, we reward staff with prizes that truly resonate and incentivise, and we constantly interact with audiences through frequent and relevant communications.
Take our work with LG for example – the team there initially contacted us back in 2014 with a challenge to engage sales representatives in independent electrical retailers in order to boost sales of the company’s flagship OLED TV range.
This saw us launch LG Rewards; a completely bespoke web-based platform with a supporting app which gave retail staff a reason to prioritise LG TVs. With targeted sales messaging, regular quizzes, competitions, structured communications and themed tactical activity, the programme has consistently delivered year on year growth in sales and engagement for each of its six years. For instance, in 2019 we managed to increase the average number of sales per user by 10% alongside an 11% increase in the proportion of higher value, higher margin TV sales, all in a relatively flat market with increased competition compared to 2018.
We’ve organised and implemented a whole host of successful incentive programmes in the electronics sector, and think our results speak for themselves! Take a look at some of our other projects in detail here.
Event Management
The electronics industry is incredibly fast-paced and with technological advancements happening almost daily, the need to showcase the work of the sector becomes ever more apparent. Events are a great way to do this – they’re a wonderful platform for knowledge sharing and if they’re executed correctly, can generate great results.
At FMI, events are our bread and butter. We’ve been specialising in event management since the company began and for a lot of our staff, the excitement of a live event is second to none. We understand that events, especially in the electronics sector, can help brands engage with employees and potential customers alike.
Whether it’s a corporate training day, a leadership seminar, an incentive travel reward, an annual conference or a product launch (or perhaps something else entirely) – we’re there every step of the way; helping our clients to meet their targets and deliver on ROI. From the initial recce of the space, to the guest list and then the catering to the design of any marketing collateral, we offer support and expert knowledge and can manage all aspects via our experienced in-house team.
We consider all types of offline brand engagement activities, and how these translate for both UK and EMEA markets. For the electronics industry, our focus is always on communicating key business messages as we know these can be technical and varied for our clients. We spend time understanding the motivation behind the event and how we can engage customers and staff across all levels of the business, including the business leaders, with the activity.
For us, most events should have an educational element, as they’re focused on increasing brand or product awareness. In the run-up to any event, we’ll spend time working on what this educational takeaway should be and then ensure all sales channels showcase this messaging, alongside the brand’s values. We want everything to be cohesive with what’s being presented at the event and so take all the little details into consideration.
When it comes to the planning, we also look at the production, AV and content support, which can often be overlooked. This, however, can really impact your event – especially if it’s being hosted abroad and in the electronics sector, we know the last thing any of our clients need is a technical issue showing them up!
Brand Marketing
Brand engagement, product marketing and leadership presentations are just some of the ways FMI have engaged audiences within the electronics industry over the past 10 years.
Inspiring loyalty, driving efficiencies, increasing sales and truly scaling business growth is in our DNA and one of the reasons our brand marketing is so highly regarded within our sector. We put brand engagement at the forefront of all business communications both externally with customers and internally with employees, and regardless of location or size, we’ll treat every client’s brand as completely unique, with its own challenges and opportunities.
In the electronics sector, we have some excellent experience and knowledge, having frequently attended key events including the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and Mobile World Congress. Our visits to these industry-leading events help us to keep up to date with our client’s competitors, but also provides us with an unrivalled understanding of the wider challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
We take time at these shows to analyse the most effective communications and marketing materials, which resonate with the customers and the experts. We then take these learning and apply them to our future campaigns, adapting and tailoring our approach so we’re always ahead of the game.
As part of our brand marketing work, we offer extensive experience in communicating product USPs, highlighting the features and benefits through the production of engaging channel marketing materials. We support the sell-in of products by creating bespoke videos and creative decks which go live across events and presentations; helping to position our electronics clients as industry leaders, with well-developed propositions in their sector.
At FMI, we focus on bringing products to life through our brand marketing. Whether we’re developing PowerPoint presentations for use at senior level business meetings or creating social media campaigns, we’re always looking for ways to push boundaries and be a creative partner for our clients.
Our work with Jabra is a great example of this. We recently supported them with product marketing, producing a selection of creative concepts, which were influenced by the Jabra CES stand.
We captured the attention of customers and engaged them from the off, by creating new templates, designs and icons for Jabra, using their visually strong brand identity as our starting point. Our team also worked alongside them to design style guides and capture striking product images, which all resulted in an impactful presentation deck.
Energised to contact us?
We’re always keen to hear from brands who operate in the electronics sector and see how we can help them with their incentives, events or brand marketing. We really do have a wealth of knowledge in the sector and we’d be keen to light up any brief with our creativity and expertise!
If you’re looking for a new partner in 2020, please do get in touch with me directly. I can be contacted on clare.bingham@fmiagency.com and would be happy to talk through our credentials and your requirements to see what ideas we can spark…
