Messaging

Benefits

Ease of Business

• ASRaymond responds quickly

• More agile than competitors

• Small business within a larger corporation

Legacy Manufacturer

• More than 135 years of manufacturing experience

• Proven expertise to reign as a legacy leader 

• Forward thinker in the struts and springs market

Innovator Mindset

• Engineering background powers an entrepreneurial attitude

• Custom engineered solutions

• Creative applications of existing inventory

Breadth of Products

• Broadest product catalog in the world

• Good, better, and best options for nearly any client need

• One-stop partner experience

Depth of Inventory

• Highly strategic inventory management

• Incomparable level of available inventory 

• Quick and reasonable lead times

Differentiators

ASRaymond strategically layers service, quality, and expertise for a premium experience at an incomparable value. While competitors may be able to match on a single mark, ASRaymond has been proven to meet and continually exceeds expectations in all three areas. 

Personality

Smart

Mindset: Stay relevant

Established Behaviors: Anticipating client needs, Proactively addressing market opportunities and client requests, Evolving brand and positioning to future-proof company

Voice & Tone Application: In this case, smart is all about being savvy, modern, and straightforward. Replace formal writing with a more casual, personal tone that feels relevant to the target audience.

Example:

• Current: Associated Spring RAYMOND understands the needs of independent boat builders and the marine industry’s unique production challenges.

• Revised: We know the marine industry. We’re experienced in the unique production challenges and needs of independent boat builders.

Why It Works: “We/our” language feels approachable and relevant in today’s consumer market, and reinforces ASRaymond as a company that’s current.

Consistent

Mindset: Deliver on promises

Established Behaviors: Meeting and exceeding client expectations, Creating a smooth client experience at multiple touch points, Maintaining product quality

Voice & Tone Application: Include relevant product or company data and awards when appropriate to reinforce proven examples of trustworthiness and consistency.

Example:

• Original: With worldwide stock of over 100,000 SKUs, and leading brands and technology like Raymond®, m–Struts®, SPEC®, SPD, and Clover®Dome, we provide quality products with competitive pricing, outstanding quality, global service, and on–time delivery to our customers around the world.

• Revised: We have the largest inventory in the world, including leading brands and technology like Raymond®, m–Struts®, SPEC®, SPD, and Clover®Dome. Since 1883, we've delivered on competitive pricing, outstanding quality, and on-time delivery — no matter where you are in the world.

Why It Works: Numbers need context. While the original touched on impressive statistics, without knowing this quantity is the largest in the world, only part of the ASRaymond brand story is being told.

Confident

Mindset: Lead with pride

Established Behaviors: Celebrating legacy status of the company, Leaning into opportunities to improve brand presence and positioning

Voice & Tone Application: Choose active voice over passive voice. Simplify word choices and shorten sentence lengths to create more written energy.

Example:

• Original: You can also request a formal quote through our Quick Quote system, helping you speed up the purchasing process.

• Revised: Keep moving with a fast formal quote from our Quick Quote system.

Why It Works: When writing for marketing and engagement, shorter sentences allow busy readers to get to the point quickly and keep moving onto other pursuits. The energy of shorter sentences creates a quick, confident, and punchy rhythm. Longer sentences and technical words are okay, but they're better suited for when it's needed most (like the detailed sections of corporate case studies).

Agile

Mindset: Move with purpose

Established Behaviors: Offering an incomparably broad and deep product catalog, Moving quickly on client requests, Maintaining inventory levels

Voice & Tone Application: Anticipate client needs by prioritizing information on order status and other time sensitive communications.

Example:

• Original cart details: Minimum order quantities vary by product. If the product in your cart yields no price, please ensure you are meeting the minimum order quantity required. Minimum order: a minimum $50 order value is required per online transactions. Orders valued at less than $50 will add the difference to equal the minimum value requirement of $50.

• Revised: Here's the fine print. There are minimums on product quantity and total cost. Online sales must be at least $50, or else the cart will add the difference to reach $50. If there isn't a price in your cart, the product quantity minimum hasn't been met. Quantity minimums vary by product.

Why It Works: When written content directly impacts the user's ability to understand the task at hand, it's important to keep the text as simple and skimmable as possible. Even styling, like bullet points, can make instructions faster to complete.

Messaging Framework

Smart Solutions. Built to Perform.

At ASRaymond, we’re not just engineering parts — we engineer the springs and strut solutions that power the most critical applications and bolster the clients’ end product. Our product catalog is broader and deeper than any other company, and the value of our products far exceeds the competition. And we deliver on this through an incomparably smooth experience. Quality and craftsmanship is at the heart of everything we do.

Audience

Primary: High Standard Seekers

To best align with ASRaymond's corporate strategy, the brand in its entirety should target the "High Standard Seekers" segment of the market. While there are currently other markets served by ASRaymond, for brand clarity High Standard Seekers should be the primary audience target across all communications.

• Emotional needs: technically leading, collaborative, responsible, sustainable, service-minded, ethical

• Functional needs: trusted brand, highest quality, best warranties, well established, gives expert advice, environmentally friendly products, personal support

Secondary: Digital Progressives & Bargain Seekers

ASRaymond is also able to serve price shoppers through the catalog, as well as digital progressives through the use of advanced technical tools. However, these audiences need to remain secondary to the High Standard Seekers. Any communication in alignment with these secondary audiences' values should be highly segmented to ensure it doesn't detract from the primary brand positioning.

Writing Recommendations

Premium, Precision, Partner, and Smart in Context

Premium, precision, partner, and smart are each important to the ASRaymond brand story. In order to best represent ASRaymond, consider using these terms within the contexts detailed below.

Premium

Premium, meaning exceptional value and higher quality than others, connects directly with the High Standard Seekers audience. Among other factors, this persona seeks the highest quality and best warranties from trusted and well-established brands. ASRaymond delivers on each of these, by providing a premium experience that's the right fit for each client. In this case, premium is less about cost, and much more about the value of the experience. To create a strong alignment with the concept of premium, consider including words and phrases like:

• High quality

• Long-lasting

• Exceptional value

• Tailored

• Above

• Beyond

Precision

Precision, meaning the quality, condition, or fact of being exact and accurate, aligns with the High Standard Seekers' preference for technically-leading businesses with expert advice. ASRaymond is known for creating products that excel in their intended roles, providing exact engineering power for critical applications. ASRaymond goes further by providing the technical expertise and customer service that maximizes the clients' results. When writing through the lens of precision, consider including words and phrases like:

• Technical excellence

• Proven expertise

• Craftsmanship

• Attention to detail

• Strategic

• Intentional

Partner

Partner, meaning a person or organization associated with another usually sharing its risks and profits, connects to High Standard Seekers' need for service-minded, collaborative and ethical businesses with strong personal support. This audience segment is seeking a true connection to the company they work with, which fully aligns with ASRaymond's personal and confident brand personality. To best capture ASRaymond's partner pillar, consider including words and phrases like:

• Transparency

• Authentic

• Approachable

• Working together

• Listening

• Supportive

Smart

Smart builds on the ethos established in the brand personality. In the context of ASRaymond, smart is less about technology and more about being modern, savvy, and straightforward. In the tagline specifically, smart refers to the solutions ASRaymond supplies. These solutions, whether catalog or bespoke, are defined by ASRaymond's technical-leadership, engineering expertise, and forward-thinking drive — which connects back to the heart of "smart". This also aligns with the High Standard Seeker segment's core need for technical leadership and high quality. When defining "smart" for ASRaymond, consider words and phrases like:

• Technically-leading

• Curated

• Designed / Engineered

• Forward-thinking

• Advance

• Excel

Tagline

The new ASRaymond tagline is Smart Solutions. Built to Perform. For brand consistency, the tagline should use title case treatment with periods after each statement. The tagline should not be locked-up with the logo by default, though it can appear near or around the logo to support marketing efforts.

Supporting Headlines

Extend the brand message by incorporating related headlines, including:

• Engineered with Care

• Powered by Precision

• Moving with Purpose

• Quality and Quantity

• Engineering a Difference

• Service. Quality. Expertise.

ASRaymond Writing Style

For brand consistency, it’s recommended to write the company name as ASRaymond, without a space between the words and only using capitalization on A, S, and R. In shorthand internal applications, ASRaymond can be shortened to ASR, though for brand consistency, this should not be used externally.