Perkins appoints new director of sales and marketing, and initiates new regional marketing strategy

The recent appointment of Michael Wright as Director Sales and Marketing is bringing about a step change in the way the Perkins brand interacts with and supports its customers going forward.

Customer requirements have for many years driven the design and delivery of the engines manufactured by Perkins. These global requirements, across multiple sectors, have presented Perkins with an opportunity to develop a product range which delivers dependability, flexibility, ease of installation and low cost of ownership.

From construction to electric power generation and agriculture to materials handling, Perkins power solutions serve a wide range of markets and today, are the driving force behind more than 5,000 different applications around the world.

Over the years Perkins has worked very closely with its valued customers, many of who are leading manufacturers in their respective sectors, supporting them through changes in the emission standards, helping to drive increased productivity in their machines and improve specific fuel consumption to lower every day running costs.

“We’re a market led business which continues to put the customer at the heart of everything we do,” says Adrian Talbot, Marketing Center of Excellence Manager at Perkins.

“In the past five years we have successfully introduced a program of Technology Integration Workshops, which have radically changed the way we work with customers. This process has resulted in numerous benefits for the customer, not least the better integration of our engines into their machines, which has yielded significant improvements for the end-user.

“We are now starting to apply the same thinking to our marketing activities, to ensure our approach is not only right for our business but is also tailored to our customers, focusing in on their specific sector, region and requirements.”

A greater regional focus, in support of the company’s manufacturing footprint, has seen the recent appointment of four regional marketing managers, each of who are driving a program of tailored marketing activities designed to specifically meet customers’ needs.  

This regional approach was implemented last month, when Perkins attended the BICES show in Beijing, China, to launch its new 1104D-E44T/TA for use in lesser regulated territories. “This new electronic engine will meet the future needs of customers in this region, so the show was a vital platform for us to reach existing and new customers and end users,” states Talbot. 

“Traditional activities such as exhibitions still have their place and serve as excellent platforms to launch new products to the market, as we did in 2013 at bauma Munich and BICES. However the market is changing fast and today, successful brands, in different industries around the world, are undertaking a variety of marketing activities to make them stand out from the crowd.

“We have to take a different approach however in territories and sectors where we have already established our offering to the market. In these areas, we firmly believe it’s more important to be focused on our customers, and work with them to jointly grow our and their business.

“In North America for example, the introduction and integration of our Tier 4 products remains our primary focus. Over the last five years we have launched our Tier 4 Interim and Final range to the market and now we continue to focus on working with our customers through TIWs to optimize our engines into their machines and deliver the best possible integrated solution for the customer.

“In this key territory our marketing efforts will be targeted directly at the customer. We’ll be undertaking a range of activities over the coming year, but most noticeably at ConExpo 2014 we’ll be concentrating our efforts on supporting our customers’ presence at the show, as opposed to having our own show stand. Due to the increased complexity of the engine technologies at Tier 4, many of our customers have been asking us to provide our engine expertise to support their sales teams, whether that is through personnel on their stand, our engine displays, multimedia and literature or new innovative initiatives to reach the all-important end-user.

“In addition to working alongside our customers at ConExpo 2014, we’re also focused on the year ahead and the opportunities it will bring for the Perkins brand in North America , including the achievement of a significant milestone in quarter one next year. We’ll have more to say on that, nearer the time.”

With the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Aurangabad, India, next year to cater for the fast growing electric power market, Perkins also has its sights set on business growth in this market. “We have a new regional marketing manager in India,” says Talbot, “who along with the rest of the team there, has been investing many hours in speaking with and listening to our customers.

“We have already selected the OEMs we will be working with in this market, and again, our marketing plan has been tailored accordingly, to deliver a targeted strategy that will drive awareness of our brand, our offering and our successes to the key decision makers in India.

“As a global business we have to develop a broad range of products which meet the needs of our customers, in different sectors, regions and emission tiers/stages all around the round. The same is true for our marketing. One solution cannot fit all, so we must continue to undertake the right activity, at the right time and in the right market, to ensure we best meet the needs of our customers and our business, by using the latest technologies, techniques, systems and tools,” states Talbot.

“This truly is an exciting time for the Perkins brand” adds Wright, “as we deliver a revitalized marketing strategy and successfully take our brand forward in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. These are diverse regions with a very varied customer base, so it’s only right that we adopt and fully utilise all the marketing solutions available to us, to meet their needs and ours, both now and in the future.”