Samson Rope

Solidify market leadership

Situation

For well over 100 years, Samson has been recognized as a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of high-performance ropes. They were in jeopardy of losing their grip on the top position.

Insight

• In a world of constant technological change, the ability to maintain value in the minds of customers can be a big challenge.
• Samson’s messaging and visual presence did not reflect the level of technology and innovation that their products were actually delivering.
• Any changes in the brand would require preservation of the Samson logo, the oldest actively registered trademark in America.
• Samson also had to reach four vastly different target audiences while remaining true to the company brand.

Strategy

Our strategy focused on developing relevant messaging and strong visuals that communicated that Samson’s products were the outgrowth of significant technology, innovation and a long history of manufacturing rope. We developed a messaging system that helped bridge the gap between their long history and their contemporary technology that would allow them to continue to build on their superior reputation. We communicated Samson’s strengths in a relevant way to each of their audiences without fragmenting the overall brand. The overall Samson position was applied consistently through messaging that was relevant to the needs of each individual audience.