Lafarge Group, the French building materials company, needed a competitive marketing edge and a better understanding of customer needs in their Gypsum Division. Our quantitative research simplified their product architecture and helped create a brand strategy that promised “The future of interiors.”

Situation

The Lafarge Group is a $15 billion building materials company based in France. Their gypsum division manufactures and markets gypsum boards, plasterboard, special plaster products, plaster coatings and sprayable plaster.

Despite rapid growth in recent years, divisional sales had been negatively impacted by several factors, including intensified competition in key markets by international players. Internally, the organization lacked an understanding of customer segment needs and expectations and marketing efforts were decentralized and unfocused.

Solution

Lafarge asked CoreBrand to help them get a handle on their brand vis-à-vis their gypsum competitors. Our goal was to create a brand strategy that would give direction to worldwide communications and marketing associates.

We conducted global quantitative research that explored perceptions of the Lafarge parent brand and its different business and product brands. Despite strong equity in the Lafarge brand, the product brands were not well recognized and the gypsum products especially were thought of as commodity offerings. Before tackling the brand platform, we simplified the architecture that linked all the product and division brands to the Lafarge corporate brand.

Once that strategy was approved by senior management, we wrote and designed a comprehensive brand book for the Lafarge Gypsum Division centered on the new brand promise “The future of interiors.” The brand book helped communicators understand the platform and personality and how they should influence design and messaging. The brand book also provided best practice examples and a checklist for evaluating new materials.