Long-term brand relaunch project - the first step has been taken!

In 1962, Theobald Wilhelm Kessler founded TWK-ELEKTRONIK GmbH (called TWK in the following). Under the management of its eponymous owner, what was once a small operation developed into a medium-sized company with two sites in Germany. Since 1992, the company has been in the hands of the Steinebach family. Mr Johannes W. Steinebach works together with his two sons, Dr Felix Steinebach and Dr Hannwelm Steinebach, in the company's management. As a family-owned company and German manufacturer of sensors, TWK develops and produces the essential basis for process automation and digitisation amongst others.   

The 50th anniversary in 2012 demonstrates that TWK is an established and crisis-resistant company on the market. Over the past five years, the company has displayed constant and healthy growth in the single-digit percentage range. To ensure this, it is necessary to be familiar with and correctly asses the market and to be prepared for change. Due to extensive product homogeneity and digital change, each company is facing a major challenge. TWK also has to face up to this challenge. This necessitates clear market positioning and precisely defined delimitation from the competition. This is why Dr Felix and Dr Hannwelm Steinebach have focussed not only on expanding the production and development departments but also on extending the marketing department. To strengthen the marketing team, they consulted Mr Cedric Bartelt in March 2016, since when he has been dedicated to repositioning the brand as the head of the marketing department.

Despite the company's long existence and successful corporate management, it is now necessary to reposition the TWK brand. The question of "Why?" is a justified one in this case. To remain in existence in this growing market and not become lost amongst the wealth of suppliers, it is crucial to attain and implement clear market positioning and precisely defined delimitation from the competition. These are objectives that TWK is pursuing with its brand relaunch. According to Mr Bartelt, further reasons for restructuring and positioning the brand include communication channels and media that are "in need of a revamp". The communication media and the manner in which contents, irrespective of whether they are product- or company-specific, are communicated do not currently correspond to the desired corporate mission statement. The corporate culture of TWK was determined in close cooperation and based on several personal meetings with the employees. It was used as the basis for defining the new corporate mission statement.

This then raises the question of how and particularly with what the company intends to delimit itself from the competition. According to Dr Felix Steinebach, one of the first major differences is targeted service: "Measuring mechanical variables is our passion. Driven by the process of developing solutions and manufacturing individual and technically innovative products for customer-specific applications. As a result of this, our customers have a right to expect highly-qualified technical advice and long-term support from us for each product – even after decades of operation." In addition, Dr Hannwelm Steinebach describes another relevant corporate value – tailored precision: "Our quality standards are one of the cornerstones of our philosophy. The extent of our product portfolio has no bearing on this quality. We are continuously working towards further optimising our processes to equip them with robust, durable and high-precision sensor systems in the long-term." "Ultimately, it is the increasing innovation processes and partnership-based closeness that are intended to delimit the company from the competition", explains Cedric Bartelt. Innovations demand forward-looking thinking and actions. As a result of this, we are always development- and solution-oriented and focussed on constantly further developing our technologies. We are facing up to tomorrow’s challenges together with our customers."

Along with the new corporate values, the long-standing TWK logo has also been adapted and rounded off with a clear message. The new brand claim "Supreme Sensoring" has been derived from the corporate values. It not only promises customers a bespoke product for their applications but also simultaneously indicates that they have a technically expert and reliable partner by their side that is driven by its customers' requirements. Dr Felix and Dr Hannwelm Steinebach add: "With this specific positioning, we want to clearly stand out from the prevailing absence of service. Our focus is on fulfilling customer benefits, not on creating product advantages that do not help our customers to progress. The central element in our corporate philosophy is therefore the customer." Cedric Bartelt adds the following in this regard: "Summing up the cited corporate values and communicating the focus of our corporate philosophy was a major challenge. We gave a great deal of thought to how we could transform our defined values into a short, succinct and simultaneously meaningful brand claim. Ultimately, it became clear that we are delimiting ourselves through values that, in colloquial terms, are located in premium segments, not low-cost segments. The word "Supreme" can be described using adjectives such as maximum, highest, greatest or also utmost. Our brand claim "Supreme Sensoring" therefore expresses that fulfilling customer benefits is our highest priority and that the customer is the core element of our corporate philosophy."

Communication of the new brand image is scheduled to start at SPS IPC Drives this November. "During the trade fair, we will not only be presenting our new trade fair concept but also our new website and a new printed material portfolio. Our new trade fair stand will offer a reduced and structured product portfolio. The following product highlights have been announced: the dynamic inclinometer with gyroscope, the PROFINET rotary encoder with new encoder profile and the vibration sensor for dynamic applications with redundant sensor system. On site, visitors can use interactive media technology to obtain all relevant information about TWK products and, if desired, receive extensive personal advice regarding their individual application requirements", reveals Cedric Bartelt.

Mr Bartelt reports that the new website concept will be more intuitive and clearly arranged as well, therefore enabling visitors to experience and discover the TWK brand. It will additionally be possible to access the desired product directly and with just a few clicks using a product selector. Structured product detail pages will simplify the information flow and making it easier to download technical information or documents, etc. Finally, customers who have already purchased a product and require a replacement part even after a number of decades can directly reorder a product via our replacement part shop using the serial or order number on their device. 

According to the general management, the relaunch of the TWK brand is not a project that will be concluded following its completion this November. Instead, it is a milestone or the kick-off for a long-term maturation process for strong corporate management that will continue to remain future-oriented. Finally, Cedric Bartelt adds the following: "Lifting out the company's actual image with the assistance of our employees and developing and defining corporate values and missions to achieve the objectives of the specified image were and remain a demanding, major task. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the TWK brand's continued development over the next few years." During the coming years, the company is planning to extend various communication channels and expand its production, manufacturing and storage capacities.