This is the story of how one of man’s earliest products becomes one of our latest brands. Until quite recently, a door was a door, and it was made of wood. Along came steel and PVC, but still a door was a door, a commodity for all but a few. Yet a door met important needs, providing warmth, security and a pleasing face to the world, for as long as it stood the test of the time. Why had no-one made a door into a brand, for homeowners to trust and recognise?
This question was aired when the European manager of Therma-Tru, the world’s leading manufacturer of exterior doors, asked for a brand story to be explored. Serendipitously, its U.S. parent was being asked the same question by its new owner, Fortune Brands, which as its name suggests was doing rather well with brands. So when brandstory replied to its brief that all Therma-Tru’s trade customers were homeowners too; that it had built a trade brand on classic principles of trust and superior performance, over time; and that there was no reason why a brand for homeowners could not be built with the superior doors they already made – well it found itself knocking at (forgive us) an open door.
A brand story was written that linked long-standing Therma-Tru values, as business partner and employer, to its uniquely long-standing doors (guaranteed for life across the USA). Then came another chapter, reminding the reader how important the door was to hearth and home. It had just been taken for granted all these years.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the brand story was welcomed. In the USA Therma-Tru went to market with great success, from builder’s brand to homeowner’s brand almost overnight. In Europe, brandstory was asked to help with strategic pathfinding on a major acquisition, to open a similar route to market. Soon, through the very largest retail outlets, the UK market will also see that a door is not just a door, as the story unfolds: “In the beginning there was wood, then there was Therma-Tru.”
The Therma-Tru story informs all the brand’s activities, through acquisition, corporate rebranding and now market development; “Making homes better for life” is what it says and what it does.
