Neuger Communications Group

Making Tracks to Cat Auctions

The Situation:

Cat Auction Services is the new auction arm of several Cat equipment dealers serving the Caterpillar brand. As it entered the heavy-equipment auction business, it faced a supreme challenge in two ways: 1) The top competitor in this market category has a 50-year history and has held the dominant position in the industry, far outreaching the revenues of the next 10 competitors combined; 2) In spite of one company’s dominance, the marketplace is crowded with a combination of competitors, making it extraordinarily difficult for a newcomer to stand out and make a meaningful impact in a short period of time.

The Communications Challenge:

With auctions already underway, Neuger Communications Group was charged with helping the company identify its brand, develop a common look and language around that brand, and stimulate interest and activity around upcoming auctions on an incredibly tight timeline. While it was ultimately determined that that the brand should closely mirror the widely-recognized and respected Cat corporate identity, it needed to be able to stand on its own and capture mindshare in the noisy and cluttered heavy-equipment auction marketplace. To create such a presence, it was vitally important to understand current perceptions in the marketplace and also help the rapidly growing Cat Auction Services team to recognize their respective roles in reinforcing the brand and building the company’s reputation.

The Strategy:

A series of focus groups and one-on-one interviews were conducted with employees, managers, consignors of equipment, buyers who were attending auctions, Cat dealer partners and media representatives. In addition, the Neuger Communications Group team conducted a competitor analysis and completed a communications audit of efforts that had been completed in the first six months of the company’s communications program. Once the research was complete and recommendations had been approved, an integrated execution began, including traditional public relations, direct mail, e-campaigns, trade and general advertising and collateral materials.

The Results:

Cat Auction Services has announced there is great reason to Follow the New Leader™. As a means of building its brand, the company has trademarked this tagline as well as Leaderboard™, its giant-screen video board for showing auction equipment.

In spite of deadline and budgetary pressures, the introduction of this new program was a tremendous success. Within 12 months, it’s already changing the landscape of how the company’s target audiences are viewing the heavy-equipment auction business and Cat Auction Services is far exceeding its profitability goals, forcing the organization to revise previous targets – a challenge the team is more than happy to tackle.