For almost 60 years Lonsdale Metal have been supplying the UK glazing industry with attractive, durable aluminium systems and their founding business principles have remained the same throughout - concentrate on providing well designed, competitively priced, high quality products to the end customer, make them easy to install and leave the installation to specialist contractors.

This concentration on the end customer and contractor has rather tended to overshadow any marketing activity in the specifier sector. However, an increasingly sophisticated range of solutions, which now features Patent Glazing, Rooflight and Atria Systems along with a client list that includes Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, The British Museum and Cliveden House, gave Lonsdale cause to reconsider its approach and we were asked for our recommendations.

Product cards to complement press activity

The Creative Department is already achieving increased awareness in the specifier market for Lonsdale, as a result of on-going PR activity and to complement this we recommended the use of product cards as a means of generating enquiries and growing the database. Product cards are extremely cost-effective and our proposal was that two publications - Building and RIBA Journal - should be used to carry them.

The body copy and photographs (featuring three recent projects) would be common to the two cards, but the headline would be adapted to suit each publication's readership. For Building Magazine, with its contractor as well as specifier readership, 'For a prompt and competitive service' was felt to be appropriate. Whereas for RIBA Journal's predominantly architectural audience 'Cost effective solutions with energy in mind' was devised to stress that specifiers are increasingly having to consider the energy conservation characteristics of products as well as their cost-effectveness.

Designed to comply with Lonsdale's house style requirements, the product cards also incorporated their current tagline, 'Letting light in, keeping weather out' and the reverse of the card offered simple multi-choice tick box options, allowing the enquirer to request literature, CPD or CAD information.

Looking to generate cost-effective enquiries?

Contact Lucy Garrett lucy@creative-department.com and let's discuss the options