Dorel (UK) Ltd - success in a competitive market

Dorel Ltd is the UK arm of Dorel Inc., now the world's largest manufacturer of nursery and children's products. Its brands include: Maxi-Cosi, Quinny, Safety 1st and kub, which cover child car seats, pushchairs, child safety products and nursery furniture.

Lexicon has managed pro-active and reactive PR and Advertising Placement for Dorel for 13 years, generating excellent results, driving high visibility, and protecting the reputation of Dorel's brands.

Background

One of our longest-established clients, Dorel first approached Lexicon 13 years ago to manage its first launch into the UK market: the Maxi-Cosi Priori child car seat.

Within 18 months, the Maxi-Cosi Priori had gone from being completely unknown to taking 8% of the entire UK child car seat market, within a highly-competitive environment previously dominated by Britax.

The challenges

The nursery and baby products market is notoriously competitive marketplace which new players continually enter - often failing to succeed long-term.

The challenge of this market is to continually promote innovation within an environment where fashion can often be as important as function, and to protect the brands' good names through effective PR management.

The strategy

The proactive PR strategy for Dorel is to target pregnant women, new mums and their partners with the right message at the right time when they are making buying decisions.

This involves promotion to all media, offline and online, and extensive use of third party endorsement such as tests, reviews, and celebrity parents.

The initiatives involved are:

• Ongoing presence in the Mums / Parenting consumer press;


• Consumer tests;


• Awards and Accolades;


• Celebrities, Film and Television;


• Social media, blogging and e-newsletters.

This activity is backed by a proactive advertising campaign that ensures a strategic approach to a modest advertising spend and not a 'knee-jerk' reaction to last-minute offers.

The retailer campaign ensures that the retailers of Dorel's products are kept fully informed of news and development and the promotional spend that Dorel is putting behind its brands. This is achieved through the third-party endorsement of trade press as well as direct communications to retailers.

Reputation protection

Within this volatile environment where a child's safety is paramount, consumers will immediately boycott a product that receives negative publicity - justified or not.

Therefore, Dorel's reputation amongst parents is a vitally important part of our PR service.

We protect all of Dorel's brands by providing 24/7/365 crisis media management. This includes drafting 'lines to take', drafting and distributing responses to negative media coverage, and being first point of contact for the media.

The Results

The PR outcomes

• During Dorel's most recent financial year, Lexicon generated media coverage worth nearly £900,000 in the consumer / parenting press.


• The campaign enabled 24.3 million consumers to see, read or hear about Dorel's products, and reached 106,000 retailers.


• Dorel's products were placed - through non-payment PR - with 26 celebrities, many of whom are featured with pushchairs and car seats in paparazzi photographs. Celebrities include: Danni Minogue, Denise Van Outen, Greg Rusedski, Gareth Gates, Jo Whiley, Katie Price / Peter Andre, Chris Evans, Charlotte Church, and Billie Piper.


• Dorel's products were placed in three popular TV programmes, including Eastenders.


• Products were placed in three feature films.

The Business outcomes

• Dorel is now the world's biggest nursery products manufacturer;


• The UK arm sells more child car seats than any other European country;


• The Maxi-Cosi brand has been developed from a complete newcomer to a household name;


• The company continues to thrive and grow through the recession because of its reputation for quality, innovation and fashion.

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