Instinct Hardware is a Birmingham based architectural iron monger. They design and manufacture high-end door handles for some of the most prestigious buildings in the UK, as well as overseas. They initially came to us with an apparently simple request for a corporate film. However, our initial conversation lead to one of the most interesting projects we have ever worked on. Door handles might seem trivial to you, there is a whole ecosystem of users, customers and distributors to discover. Time for a deep dive and explore our audience analysis methodology.
Step 1: Brand Identity
Every project, for us, starts with understanding who our client is and what they do. And more importantly, understand what makes them special.
In our conversations, we discovered the pride they feel about the product they manufacture as a strong family business with an impressive past and exciting future. It also struck us how passionately they speak about the craftsmanship of their workforce. Every single employee was celebrated for their skill and the role they play in the delivery of their products.
One anecdote that springs to mind whilst writing this, is how passionately Haq Meharban, director of sales & marketing and co-owner, spoke about the skills involved in hand-polishing bare metal to a perfect shine. He also emphasised how this skill and craft is dying out and how he encourages the younger generation to learn and keep the trade alive.
Step 2: Audience Analysis
Understanding your audience is key when designing video marketing content. Our conversations with Haq lead to us understanding that, in essence, there are two vital customer segments who purchase the Instinct Hardware products: architects and distributors. Yes, there is some overlap in these two segments, but they both have a specific need that needs to be addressed. To fully understand this differences, we reached out to several architects and distributors who have used Instinct Hardware before to learn more.
Architects
After speaking to several architects, we learned that there is a central theme in what they value in the products Instinct Hardware manufactures and that is craftmanship. It’s the handmade nature, a combination of skill and finesse that the workforce brings to create these great products.
Distributors
Our conversations with distributors lead to a different revelation. Yes, distributors care about craftmanship, skill and finesse similar to the architects. But the key difference lies in logistics, especially in quality control. Distributors want to ship products to their clients feeling confident that there won’t be any returns. Returns mean more unnecessary work and will negatively impact profitability.
Step 3: Understanding Value
Armed with knowledge from our audience analysis, we set out to design a narrative that showcases three key elements:
- The Instinct Hardware Brand Identity
- The skill and craftmanship of the workforce
- The continuous quality control mechanisms in place
Our challenge now boiled down to one single question. How to design a narrative that meets these three criteria.
Step 4: Design Direction
Through an iterative design process, we finally settled on following a visual journey of a product being made, supported by a narrative that explains the history and vision of Instinct Hardware. We knew that in order to meet the needs of the architect customer segment of our audience analysis, we needed to visually focus on the interaction between the workforce and the products they make. Highlighting the dedication, skill and finesse they bring to the manufacturing process. And for the distributor segment, we needed to visually follow the quality control process and show how every product is checked every step of the way.
The three key-frames below explain how we managed to convey the right message through carefully considered framing:
Capture Craftsmanship: A close focus on the interaction between the craftsman and the product.
Capture Quality Control: Highlighting how every step in production is checked and signed off.
Teaching future generations: subtle, but important footage to introduce the importance of training the young ones to keep the profession alive.
Step 5: Results
In the end, we’ve managed to produce a single video, highly targeted to our two different customer segments. And did it work? Don’t just take our word for it, but listen to Haq himself as he explains it:
Technical Details
Shot on a RED Digital Cinema Gemini-W 5K cinema camera and Zeiss CP.3 lenses.
If you’re interested in other projects we’ve done, you might want to take a look at our piece on video game trailers.
