Moxie Media

Yesterday I attended Farm Fest in Morgan, MN.

Over 35,000 potential customers walk through the gates over a 3 day period. My mission for the day was to work the booth with one of my clients, listen to the conversations, watch the reactions to their new product roll-out in order to be able to advertise their product the best way possible. Oh, and to see how they looked in their new shirts from Moxie Media. It was an exciting day watching the steady stream of customers walk up to the booth on a mission to find out as much about this product as possible and to place their orders right at the show. What was more amazing was to see their direct competitor across the road, just feet away, and the traffic was just not there. It felt like, “yeah, what we did was right” for this client – May Wes Mfg. in Hutchinson, MN.

I would like to say that it was totally because of our advertising efforts, but I cannot. But it did play a huge part in their success. This success story has taken place over a two year period and it was for a product they have had in their catalog for 25 plus years – The May Wes Stalk Stomper. Let me tell you what happen. Because this could be how we can help write your success story.

When working with the May Wes team as their advertising and marketing consultant, we have always had close communication. I feel strongly that in order to advertise the product, we need to know the product, the targeted audience, the industry climate. And that is what happened. The sales manager received a fax from one of their dealers. It was a brochure from a tire manufacturer that had the warranty information in the body copy. In summary it said that if the farmer did not have a stubble or stalk stomper mounted onto their tractor or combine, it would could invalidate their warranty. The cost of one of those tires is $2,000+. The May Wes Stalk Stomper runs $650 per row. I know this is farm talk, but if you just do the math, it is a no brainer that it is less expensive to add protect your tires from damage than to replace one. I happen to be in their office that day.

Do you know what we could do with this information?

This is what I asked her. Then proceeded to discuss a marketing blitz with her and the owner. We knew we had something big.

The first year we did a postcard mailing to 10,000 current customers, a direct mail campaign to all of the dealers with information explaining the situation, press releases to all the major farming publications and ran a series of ads in multiple publications and attended 6-7 farm shows to show case the product. As a result, the farming magazines wrote articles about the problem of stalks damaging tires, it was newsworthy. We created a buzz in the farming industry. At the end of the harvest season, we reviewed sales numbers and found that the money and time we (the client and Moxie Media as a team) invested was profitable. Sales were tripled from the previous year. So when it came time to set the budget for year too, the owner said one thing to me.

We want to do everything we did last year plus more!

Now other manufacturers have jumped into the market, and now there is competition. Knowing this, we ramped up the marketing efforts. They included everything we did last year plus adding one more show, a direct mail campaign to 50,000 combine owners in the United States and more ads. Another significant action was to make product changes to meet the wants of the target audience. They listened to what the farmer needed and wanted from their product – which we in turn used to get more press in the publications as a product update release. To date, all indications point that their sales will exceed last year’s sales.

I love it when it works, when things come together for success. There was a need in the industry, a product to fill that need at the right price and a marketing effort to to the targeted audience. These are the 4 P’s of marketing. Place. Product. Price. Promotion.

But perhaps the greatest pleasure is knowing that May Wes and Moxie Media are on the same team, share common goals with the client and understand the direction they want to go. As an advertising agency, what could be better than that.

Thank you May Wes.

Together, we became a part of the Hutchinson Health Care Foundation — Community Senior Care Campaign.
The satisfaction of being a part of this campaign becomes a reality when the groundbreaking for the new Senior Care Campus takes place in April.  It will reflect the foresight of the community to do something now to ensure the future of health care in the future.  Collateral materials were created to communicate the message to the community about the needs of senior health care.  The 4 color brochure was designed to correspond with a previous brochure and a website created by another design firm. Being conscious about the branding that had already begun was important to the continuity of the project. Once the new brochure was designed and we had coordinated the all the aspects of the mailing set in place, a newspaper ad was designed to run in the papers immediately before and after the mailing.  Post-it-note pads were printed to hand with major donor packets.  We plan to attend the groundbreaking this April.

I enjoy helping  small companies grow into a large successful business. I have had the pleasure of working with a company in Hutchinson, MN called May Wes Mfg.   When I first started working with Mavis and Wesley Bruns in 1989, the May Wes product line could be published in an 8 page flyer. The company has since changed ownership and relocated from Gibbon, MN to Hutchinson, MN. Their market reach is international. 

In January 2010, 20 years later, we will be publishing the new May Wes catalog which has grown to 88+ pages and few thousand part numbers.

The first thing I sold them was business cards. Mavis had hers printed in purple because it was her favorite color, Wesley’s were printed in black as he was a straight forward, hardworking farmer/business man.  The idea of branding their company was simply a foreign idea.  So we started to build their brand with a logo design and choosing corporate colors. Now Moxie is their full service ad agency and is responsible for the entire marketing plan. This plan includes placing ads in national magazines like Successful Farming, design and production of tradeshow display signage, and all collateral printed material, direct mail campaigns, a full e-commerce website and even the shirts they wear to the tradeshows.

As marketing tools evolve, so does the May Wes marketing plan.  We are in the process of bringing the May Wes sales team into the world of social media marketing with blogging, e-newsletters and more.

Sometimes, I think I should have a desk in their office with my name on it. 

Do you have room for Moxie to be on your marketing team?