Project Goals

Designed and developed correctly, a website is more than a marketing tool; it’s a brand asset that benefits all marcomm efforts and increases profitability for years to come. That type of website requires business intelligence, brand strategy, audience insight, and the specialized skills of a team of experienced designers, writers, and developers. That’s why True Residential came to MarketPlace, and that’s what we delivered.

Strategy

True Residential is a division of True Manufacturing, the global leader in commercial refrigeration products. True Residential’s product line, True Professional Series undercounter refrigerators, benefits from the heritage of their parent company, so while their products work for them, their website was actually working against them. Due to less-than-ideal site architecture and little search-friendly or valuable content, their search engine visibility suffered greatly, and their visual branding didn’t fully reflect the premium nature of their line.

With an ideation session, website audit, and goals assessment, we got to work creating for True an online presence that works for them, increasing visibility in a competitive market and reflecting the quality not only of their products but also of their brand.

Branding

We undertook a redesign of the True Residential site with an eye on current issues in typography, photography, and UI/UX.

Our type styling choices addressed three primary objectives: complement the premium position of the brand, distinguish between commercial and editorial, and prize readability for both consumers and specifiers looking for technical information.

 

We partnered with True to develop a strategy for imagery on the site, from tertiary pages to product category headers. Balancing functional and self-expressive benefits, we communicate both product and lifestyle in ways that flatter the format and represent the brand.

We designed the site to meet several directives, including social sharing, ease of use for consumer and specifier both, and the most important user behavior: dealer search. Every decision, from button size to document library functionality, reflects those directives.

TECHNICAL BUT CONSUMER-FRIENDLY

With our expert staff of writers, we collaborated with True to recommend and then enact technical, meaningful semantic changes to the brand messaging, from the way products are described to the style and substance of original, consumer-oriented content across the site.

SEARCHABLE CONTENT

We had a lot of homework to do, including learning not just about True Residential but also about the people and products that their refrigerators benefit. We created content addressing, among other things, kitchen zones, wine storage, and the similarities between tennis and kegerators.

DATA VISUALIZATION

As important to True as the consumer are the dealer, designer, and architect. So we organized and presented—in a fluid, easy-to-find way—scads of technical data, including spec sheets, 3D files, templates, and install guides, providing clear paths to information throughout the site.

Nurturing

Badly in need of brand awareness, True entrusted us with designing the site to make search engines happy. And that’s what we did, moving them, in a matter of weeks, from being buried in the unread pages of search results to appearing alongside and ahead of well-established competitors.

As a premium appliance brand, True relies on designers, architects, and dealers to recommend and sell their products. With our design and set-up in Google analytics, we helped them track performance and, more importantly, increased it—our design encouraging twice the number of users to locate a dealer in half the time.

To keep content fresh (and search engines happy) and to ensure that product line updates (and all the technical data and documents associated with it) wouldn’t create a problem for True’s marketing team, we implemented a content management system that would ensure ease of use for those not accustomed to IT.

TRUE CUSTOMIZATION

Based on a phone call with True at an industry trade show, we recognized the opportunity to boost engagement on the website, make the website a more compelling option for industry specifiers, and increase brand differentiation. That opportunity took the form of a product configurator. We designed and developed a custom configurator to be used inline or as a standalone app, and we ensured the flexibility to grow alongside True’s product offering. Incorporating various products, finishes, and sharing/saving options, this project was a classic case of translating back-end complexity to front-end ease-of-use, and it’s now serving to elevate True to its rightful place as a premium residential appliance brand.

OUTCOMES

What started with a discussion about content marketing turned into an analysis of their website, which was proving inefficient to update, unfriendly to search engines, and difficult to use for specifiers looking for the resources they need to help sell True to their customers. With the equity of the parent brand behind them and a legitimately incredible product line, they could say that their website was actually hindering success. Together, we worked to plan and then develop a website that addressed all of their concerns.

The website project has proved to be successful on many fronts. We always say that a website is an investment, and this case is a great example of that. Not only is True seeing desired behavior on the website increase, they’ve also used our visual brand updates as assets, incorporating them across their marcomm portfolio, from trade show collateral to corporate brochures.

In the end, we gave them both what they wanted and what their brand deserved: a website that reflects the heritage of the company, the quality of the products, and the good taste of the consumers who fall in love with True Professional Series refrigerators.

Have questions about our work with True? Want to know more about the results? Give us a call today—we’d love to talk.

When we began the project with MarketPlace, we didn’t anticipate the level of proactivity, care, and concern that they’d have for the details. And not just of the website project but also—and perhaps more importantly—for our business goals. They certainly delivered what we asked for, but they often went beyond, making unsolicited recommendations for how we could improve sales and marketing efforts based on what they saw as they worked through each step of the process.

- Manager, Sales and Marketing at True

SO WHAT’S NEXT?

WE’RE READY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS. Let’s talk.