Manchester Brick Specialists

Manchester Brick Specialists (MBS) provide brick solutions to homeowners, architects and builders merchants.

When we were initially approached in 2020 to rebrand them, the brief was to move away from domestic ‘brick-matching’ and appeal to high-end property developers and architects.

The initial positioning was to place MBS as specialists in replicating the UK’s regional brickwork styles and demonstrate a depth of knowledge second to none.

It was really important that the brand conveyed their experience and promise to deliver where other brick specialists can’t.

The logo designs were inspired by the traditional brickmaker stamps found on bricks. This helped convey the brand message that it is a marque of quality, knowhow, workmanship and pride that is used across all of their communications.

Included was a full rebrand including updated signage, packaging, exhibition collateral, a new website, vehicle livery, brochures and brand guidelines.

As the pandemic struck MBS grew exponentially as other brick manufacturers struggled to produce product to match the demand. This growth led to a change of audience and customer base.

In response to this, we repositioned MBS as the brick supplying partner of choice and developed a marketing strategy to inform their new website structure, content and social channels.

For an effective strategy, we needed to break down the audience into manageable groups in order to create a coherent marketing communication plan. One that wasn’t too broad or too heavily targeted. We broke this down into Architects, Contractors, Developers, Merchants, Council and Users.

From here, we were then able to create a content matrix. This dictated channel usage and identified the overlapping needs and themes in order to create a 6-person persona to gain maximum reach. Our themes were:

• Sustainability
• Thermal efficiency
• Brick production
• Case Studies
• Legislations
• Employee Spotlight
• New products
• Community
• Healthy Living
• Local community
• Inspiration

Once we had our audience types, themes and content metric, this then provided us with an understanding of the high-level messaging we needed to include to target our audiences – without overcomplicating things.

Working side by side with you

Working Side by Side to…
Working Side by Side to be inspired
Working Side by Side to be supplied
Working Side by Side to be transformed
Working Side by Side to be equipped
Working Side by Side to be prepared

Website

The new website was built with this messaging and audience in mind to deliver a better online experience. Each one can now easily access a host of products, brick specifications and inspirational building projects. This aimed to showcase each individual brick as well as the convenience of ordering samples online.

Social

The content strategy informs the social messaging to ensure we target the right audience with the right content. This informs the creative and voila! perfectly curated content specifically designed for our intended audiences.

Marketing collateral

As much of Manchester Brick’s business comes through networking a lot of their marketing is used in a print capacity. Their inspirational messaging can be seen supporting local sports teams Salford FC, Radcliffe FC and Stand CC. As well as in-store at builders merchants, building exhibitions and point of display.

Website

Increased website traffic 1000%
Share of voice 300%
Increased ranking 200%
Website conversions – 435

Socials

1100+ new followers
2000+ post reactions
Instagram Reach up 894% since March 2022
Facebook Engagement up 18700% since March 2022
Instagram Engagement up 10300% in 6 months

Brand Listening

60% increase in brand searches.