CLEVELAND – April 2023 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, announces NIBCO as one of its newest clients.
Founded in 1904, NIBCO is a leading provider of valves, fittings and flow control products for commercial, industrial and institutional construction, marine markets, as well as residential and irrigation markets. Headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana, NIBCO offers more than 56,000 SKUs to the plumbing industry.
“As NIBCO continues to grow and expand, Sonnhalter’s knowledge of the industry will help NIBCO to increase our brand awareness,” said Sally Boyer, marketing communications manager at NIBCO. “At NIBCO, we have a manufacturing history spanning over a century of producing high quality products, and with Sonnhalter we can continue to push boundaries.”
Sonnhalter will be assisting NIBCO in managing its earned media, social media, paid media and overall marcom strategy.
“NIBCO is a company with a rich history and expansive list of valves, fittings and flow control products,” said Matt Sonnhalter, vision architect at Sonnhalter. “We look forward to working together to enhance NIBCO’s brand leadership in the industry.”
About Sonnhalter
Established in 1976, Sonnhalter is the leading B2T marketing communications firm to companies that target professional tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets. Sonnhalter is located in the historic Brownell Building in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Sonnhalter’s brand identity highlights its expertise in marketing to the professional tradesmen. Its tagline, “Not Afraid To Get Our Hands Dirty,” promotes the employees’ willingness to roll up their sleeves and dig deep into clients’ businesses, also, it refers to the market it targets: the tradesmen who work with – and dirty – their hands every day. Sonnhalter developed the acronym “B2T,” which stands for “business-to-tradesmen” to capture the essence of its specialty. For more information, visit the company website at Sonnhalter.com.
About NIBCO INC.
Founded in 1904, NIBCO INC. is a leading provider of valves, fittings, and flow control products for commercial, industrial and institutional construction, Navy marine markets, as well as residential and irrigation markets. NIBCO is headquartered in Elkhart, Ind., and has 13 manufacturing plants located throughout the United States and globally. Visit NIBCO.com for information on the complete line of NIBCO products.
By the time I reached Indianapolis for the NTEA Work Truck Week, my seventh trade show in just over 52 days, my battery/energy level was running close to empty! Luckily for me there were plenty of batteries and charging stations since electric vehicles were once again the hot topic of the show. You couldn’t walk 10-feet down any aisle without tripping over something EV-related.
As the industry’s transition to electric power accelerates, much of the news coming out of Work Truck Week was related to electric vehicles, including the launch of eight commercial EVs, as well as associated auxiliary power solutions, bodies and equipment.
The Green Truck Summit, NTEA’s full-day advanced fuels and vehicle technology conference, was also sold out for the second year in a row, with nearly 1,000 attendees.
And the overall attendance of the show returned to pre-pandemic levels with 14,885 industry professionals, setting a new record with a 17% increase over the 2022 event.
Here are just a few of the commercial electric vehicles which were unveiled at the show:
-Isuzu Commercial Truck of America and Hino Trucks both chose Work Truck Week 2023 to announce their first all-electric trucks, Isuzu’s N-Series EV and Hino’s M5e and L6e.
-Mack Trucks unveiled its first electric vehicle in the medium-duty segment, the Mack® MD Electric.
-Shyft Group revealed the new Blue Arc Class 5 All Electric Crew Cab, while Ideanomics and VIA Motors introduced the VTRUX® electric work truck.
-Workhorse Group pulled the silk from its new W56 zero-emission step van.
-JB Poindexter & Co business units announced several new products and developments, including Project ZEVX, an EAVX, Reading Truck and ZEVX electric concept, and an all-electric C250 postal truck demonstration vehicle developed by Morgan Olson for Canada Post.
-Ram Commercial showcased its new Ram 1500 Battery-electric Vehicle Concept, and Bollinger Motors provided updates on its new B4 all-electric fleet truck. Meanwhile, Ford Pro marked the one-year anniversary of the Ford E-Transit all-electric van.
And while the commercial EVs dominated the headlines at the show, there was one booth that caught my eye as I was walking the last day of the show. Loop Energy, an industry-leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of hydrogen fuel cell systems for vehicle OEMs and power generation system manufacturers. They were showcasing their newest commercial vehicle solution. Who knows…maybe hydrogen could be the next alternative fuel/power source in the decades to come. I guess maybe we are not that far away from flying vehicles:)
Well, that’s a wrap for the 1Q 2023 trade show season, time to rest up for the Fall trade show circuit!
There’s a ton of money to be made in the s!@t business…at least that’s what I reminded every year I attend the WWETT Show.
This show does a great job on their education sessions…and this year was no different, with over 100 sessions running over the four days. And I loved their “Button Wall” which was just outside the main entrance of the exhibit hall…the “straight outta toilet paper” and “septic” (which was orange, so obviously had to grab) were the two buttons I picked up.
The exhibit hall was packed (I believe there’s still a waiting list for companies that wish to exhibit at the show). Pipe re-lining and repair was a “hot topic” for this year’s show. It’s been at past shows, but I feel this year it was much more prevalent across the entire show.
One thing I took advantage of this year, which I hadn’t in the past, were the facility tours on the last day of the show. I signed up for the Belmont Wastewater Treatment Plant, Indianapolis’ largest wastewater treatment plant. And this was the first time I had toured a wastewater plant.
It was fascinating and the highlight of the show for me…here are just a couple of nuggets of wisdom I learned on the tour:
-they have a max daily capacity of running 330 million of gallons through the system (normally daily amount is 120M gallons)
-it only takes 12 hours for the untreated water to go through the entire system and when it is released into the water it’s actually cleaner than the actual water running in the river
-to help deal with surges and overflows from strong storms, they are currently building (scheduled for completion the end of 2025) the DigIndy Tunnel System that’s a 28-miles-long network of 18-foot diameter deep rock tunnels, 250 feet beneath the city, with a main trunk and five fingers which has a 250 million gallon capacity
-I think the gigantic ten screw pumps were my favorite part, followed by the UV light treatment
Typically this shows runs Monday-Thursday and tends to be in the mid/end of February, but the show organizers are shaking things up for 2023, which will now be happening at the end of January (January 24-27) and running Wednesday-Saturday. This 2023 show will also run up against AHR Expo in Chicago and coincide with the World of Concrete Show out in Vegas, so it will be interesting to see how this affects attendance.
CLEVELAND – April 1, 2023 – Sonnhalter, a leading B2T communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, has made the strategic decision to supplement its marketing offerings with plumbing, HVAC and electrical contracting services due to industry need and demand.
“After careful consideration we’ve made the decision to add plumbing, HVAC and electrical contracting services to our current business offerings, since there is a growing demand and potential for exponential growth,” said Matt Sonnhalter, vision architect, Sonnhalter Contracting.
“Our philosophy as a marketing firm was always ‘that we are not afraid to get our hands dirty,” explained Sonnhalter. “With more and more tradesmen retiring, the skills gap has become a more urgent crisis in the contracting arena. We feel Sonnhalter can do its part to address this need.”
Every day, the shortage in the skilled trades becomes more acute. Industry experts say the trades lost nearly a million skilled workers during the recession that have yet to be replaced, and as older workers retire, the crunch will get even tighter.
For more information on Sonnhalter’s contracting services, including plumbing, mechanical contracting, general contracting and electrical contracting, please contact: Matt Sonnhalter at msonnhalter@sonnhalter.com.
Just kidding… APRIL FOOLS!!!
About Sonnhalter
Established in 1976, Sonnhalter is the leading B2T marketing communications firm to companies that target professional tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets. Sonnhalter is located in the historic Brownell Building in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Sonnhalter’s brand identity highlights its expertise in marketing to the professional tradesmen. Its tagline, “Not Afraid To Get Our Hands Dirty,” promotes the employees’ willingness to roll up their sleeves and dig deep into clients’ businesses, also, it refers to the market it targets: the tradesmen who work with – and dirty – their hands every day. Sonnhalter developed the acronym “B2T,” which stands for “business-to-tradesmen” to capture the essence of its specialty. For more information, visit the company website at Sonnhalter.com.
Over time, we have seen many social media platforms rise and gain in popularity. TikTok has risen to be the third-largest social media platform out of the big five worldwide (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter). TikTokis a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share short videos on any topic. Many tradespeople have turned to TikTok to connect with existing and new customers to talk about their specific trade.
TikTok first launched in 2016 and started to grow rapidly in 2020, mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic as people were stuck at home and needed entertainment. Over the past couple of years, not only has TikTok continued to grow, but we can see a variety of content on the platform. On TikTok, we see videos about plumbing, tools, construction, automotive and much more! With TikTok still on the rise, it’s important for the trades to be highlighted and for companies to be promoting their products. In this blog post, we will discuss why you should be on TikTok and the pros and cons of doing so.
Cons:
Content Limitations
Like every social media platform, you do have some limitations when it comes to posting and the type of content you can post. TikTok is video platform that utilizes videos from 15-seconds to a minute. Since TikTok only allows videos to be posted and not static photos then you can’t use the platform like other social media sites. Because of this, you will need to reuse or produce videos, which your company might not have the budget for.
Labor and Quality of Videos
Short form videos are easier to produce than long form videos. When producing videos, you will need to think of everything this entails from potential scripts, shooting the video, editing and publishing it. Your videos are a form of storytelling, which means they need to be high-quality videos that are engaging with your audience. If you’re worried about shooting videos then check out our other blog post where we discuss five tips for video. Although TikTok has content limitations, it allows users to be creative in their content. The way TikTok has transformed over time, it provides a great way to experiment with your videos.
Third-Party Ownership
One con for some businesses might be the China ownership of the TikTok app. With ByteDancebeing the parent company of the app, they are able to access the basic information on each user. Although nothing has happened between the parent company and the US, this is definitely one piece of information to keep in mind.
Pros:
Increase Your Audience
On social media, one of your goals should be to increase your followers so you have more people viewing your content and engaging with it. TikTok mainly targets a younger audience so you can increase your brand awareness with younger people in the trades. TikTok content also feels more organic. It’s an effective way to increase brand awareness without feeling salesy.
Increasing Sales
Because we can closely connect with our audience, it’s easier to get your content in front of people who are interested in it. As a company, you can freely post any appropriate video which means you can have endless possibilities to promote your products or services. In fact, 49% of TikTok users have purchased something because they saw it on the app.
Less Competition
While TikTok has grown and a lot of businesses have joined the app, you still have less competition than Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Other popular social media apps have been around for a while and have become supersaturated with other brands. Because of this, it’s much harder to grow organically on these platforms. Due to TikTok’s algorithm, it’s much easier to target your audience and grow your business.
Although you want to be careful before jumping on the latest marketing trends, TikTok is definitely a platform you will want to consider. Sit down with your company and review the pros and cons and see if TikTok is something you are willing to invest in. Sonnhalter believes now is the time for manufacturing companies who target the trades to join TikTok to grow your brand and marketing strategy.
