Company Background: Carpenter Technologies corporation is a leading, international manufacturer of specialty alloys and engineered products that find application in a wide array of industries such as automobiles and air-craft to sporting goods, medical devices and oil and gas exploration. Its engineered products are known for their dependability, strength, toughness, corrosion resistance and capacity to withstand high temperatures. In recent times the company has increased its product range and extended its geographical presence to Asia, Europe and Mexico. A majority of the alloys that Carpenter sells are tailor made and user specific and this has made it imperative for it to sell its products through its own sales network and not through external agencies. Carpenter’s metallurgists work in close contact with the client, understand their specific need and develop or upgrade an alloy for its exclusive usage. Carpenter’s transition from a specialty metals company to a specialty metal products manufacturing company exposed it to the challenges of a changing market place and emerging new technologies.

Before EchoMail: Carpenter had increased its operations multifold; it had evolved from a specialty alloy manufacturer and entered the highly competitive specialty metal products market and also extended its reach from its well established home market to new and challenging overseas markets in Asia, Europe and Mexico where it did not have an earlier presence. It realized the need to give a thrust to its marketing activities in view of the increased competition in the home market as well as to establish itself in the overseas markets. Carpenter wanted to engage in a personalized and targeted dialog with its existing customer base with a view of retaining them and reach out to new markets by explaining its background and superiority of its products. It realized that Electronic communication could be the ideal medium to achieve it twin objective.

The EchoMail Deployment: Carpenter realized that the best way to leverage the Electronic medium would be by appointing the services of a professional Email management company and entered into a strategic tie up with EchoMail. As a first step EchoMail prepared an online easy to fill web-form that would help customers to check pricing, availability, quote and help in placing an order instantly. EchoMail analyzed the need of the customer and recommended the deployment of EchoMail® Direct Marketing™ (DM) its powerful customer reach tool.DM became a vital component in launching the Carpenter Direct program, a massive exercise in educating and creating awareness on Carpenter’s specialty products to its Database comprising of existing customers and potential users across continents.

After EchoMail: The specially designed registration forms helped Carpenter to receive orders online which allowed more time for execution, the feedback columns in these forms helped in understanding customer needs across industries and gear its production accordingly. The highly targeted and customized campaigns helped in creating awareness on the superiority and advantages of Carpenter’s products among its target audience consisting of existing users and potential users. Most importantly it helped Carpenter in maintaining a personalized dialog with them bringing buyer and seller closer. Given the nature of Carpenter’s tailor made solutions a personalized discussion became critical for both buyer and seller. EchoMail played a major role in helping Carpenter to maintain the link with existing customers as well as spread awareness about company and products to potential customers and new markets that it was exploring.