Create a clear point of difference for your brand in a crowded market

Selco occupies a unique space in a hyper-competitive market between traditional builders’ merchants and builders’ warehouses, and wanted to attract more customers by positioning itself as a ‘one-stop shop’.

However, we saw this as two separate challenges. First, Selco needed to attract customers by building on its unique offering – and from our research and experience with white van men, we knew there was a bigger opportunity than being a one-stop-shop. Second, it was struggling to rapidly turn around collateral that clearly communicated its point of difference.

Our audience insight was key. Many self-employed builders work on their own or in small teams, and have little support or space for stock. Most importantly, time is money. Every second of every day that they’re not working on a job, they’re not earning money – and they definitely don’t have time for anything they perceive as nonsense. So if builders saw Selco as saving them time and money on every job, there was a real opportunity to create a relationship as their complete trade partner.

For builders to believe this, we needed to give them three things:

• Availability: If they aren’t sure that what they need is in stock, they won’t come to Selco.
• Clear pricing: There are few things more frustrating than having to wade through complex offers.
• Service: As a one-man band, builders have to do everything for themselves. So the more we can support them, the more they’ll appreciate it.

For these, we created three credible, ownable guarantees: Got It!, Straight Price and Service. Putting these at the core of the business, we unified them under a new proposition: Get it straight from Selco.

In a market where communications are constantly changing, we brought this to life with template-driven communications that stripped away confusing messaging. We didn’t just communicate a line – we communicated guarantees, products and no-nonsense promotions. By virtue of this template approach and our rigorous project management system, we’ve already rolled out a million pieces of collateral since the end of 2010.

As a result, Selco is now thriving amid intense competition and price sensitivity, with the recent opening of a flagship London store exceeding launch targets. Now, we’re extending our proposition across more platforms, including Selco’s sponsorship of football’s Masters Cup.

Selco is the UK’s No.1 trade only builders merchant.