What really matters is how big people think you are. Not how big you really are.

SCF Containers International, a leading organisation within the Australian Transport & Logistics sector, had grown organically, through acquisitions and through product spinoffs. While the growth was achieved on an ad hoc basis,
the company enjoyed great success financially. However, with the business units still functioning as separate entities, and with little or no cross-sell occurring between individual units, customers received a fragmented view of the organisation.

This resulted in a poor conversion of mining and defence contracts since the organisation was perceived to be too small to deliver the requirements of these complex sectors. Clearly, if SCF was to grow and make a serious dent in the national market, it would need to overcome its existing perception of being a minor player.

Was it all worth it?

The beauty of the new branding strategy is that it allows the individual business units to aggressively push their own products as before, but they’re now seen in a much larger, more credible context; a win-win situation. What’s more, the SCF Group has been winning new business contracts as well as business and product innovation awards at a steady rate since implementing the branding strategy. While such recognition would normally have accrued to the individual business units, it now accrues to the entire Group, thus building and leveraging the equity of a single corporate brand as an innovative leader.

Another aspect of the branding strategy was to position the organisation along the lines of innovation (‘Built to contain’) given that this was a gap amongst larger competitors. And with several product innovations to its name, this was a promise that the brand could deliver convincingly.