Bringing a Historical Brand Online

Decorative hardware produced by P.E. Guerin breaks down into stock products and custom pieces in four categories – bathroom fittings and accessories, builders’ hardware, furniture hardware, and fixtures and furniture. There are around a thousand stock items and most of the ornate, crafted hardware is available in various materials and finishes.

P.E. Guerin is a very historic brand and traditional business that has been successful following an approach to business that hadn’t changed much in its long history. It produces a product catalog as a sales tool for its extensive line of hardware, and this was being updated in 2007 when our relationship began.

However, the company hadn’t taken full advantage of newer marketing channels such as the web. It had a simple website, but this was difficult to navigate, had no search functionality, and didn’t provide the level of support for sales staff and functionality for customers that was potentially possible.

By reformatting existing product photography and assets, we built a new website from the ground up, featuring a database-driven Content Management System (CMS) to hold information on almost 1,000 products. This was linked into template-based product pages on the site, making management of products on the site much easier and more effective in future. The CMS also facilitated search functionality that combined with clear display and navigation of information to provide a much enhanced user experience.

The timing was opportune to promote a new site, as 2007 was P.E. Guerin’s 150th Anniversary. A commemorative 150th Anniversary bathroom set was released by the company. PR support leveraged the anniversary and the website launch, alongside promotion of key products, to foster as much coverage as possible to drive traffic to the site. An update of advertising creative, with media placement in key home décor and lifestyle publications, integrated with other marketing and further promoted the new site.