PUREi

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing communications at Bison Gear & Engineering. We manufacture electric motors, gear motors, and reducers. We’re primarily focused on selling into the food processing, agriculture, and packaging equipment industries. We’re based in Saint Charles, Illinois. We have one location, and we sell through a lot of national industrial distributors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PUREi?

We’ve been working with PUREi for quite a while. We originally approached them about a new print catalog for our entire product line. That was in 2004 or 2005, and they did a phenomenal job rebranding and repurposing a lot of our products. They did some really innovative things with 3D renderings that they came up with to highlight the products within the catalog. We’ve kept the same format for the catalog since then and just refreshed it over the years. It’s been a nice tool for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, it was the catalog, and then we gave the opportunity to quote on redoing our corporate e-commerce website. PUREi did a nice job rebuilding our shopping cart and the navigation for the site. It’s easier for a customer or distributor to select the proper motor or gear motor for their needs. PUREi has done a lot of photography work. Last year, they did a great job giving us 360-degree views of all the images on our site.

They did both the design and development of the site. We typically have a kickoff meeting, where we lay out our goals and expectations, and they just run with it. We’ve been very pleased with the talent they have. They always do a great job. Our shopping cart uses the Magento platform, but I’m not sure of any other technical details.

PUREi has also done a handful of videos for us. They created a corporate video for our 50th anniversary that included going to a lot of our big customers and getting testimonials from their executives. It’s a very well-produced corporate video.

How did you come to work with PUREi?

I think it was an internet search, looking for someone local with whom we could partner. We were looking for a firm that had done catalogs for industrial manufacturers, and they seemed to have experience in that area. All the graphics they showed us looked very nice. We could see that they certainly had the talent to get the job done.

How much have you invested with PUREi?

We’ve invested around $250,000 over the course of our relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around May or June of 2004, and our relationship is ongoing. PUREi continues to support our website, and we have projects from time to time. They take care of updates to the website. They built the customer portal for our website, so we can handle most of the changes to the site now. If we have major changes in the structure or navigation, they handle that for us as well. The most recent project, which was the 360-degree photography, was complete in September of 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Since we first started working with PUREi, they’ve definitely helped us improve our website, our metadata, and the way we appear online. Our website metrics continue to go up year after year. Selling products online isn’t our main goal, as we’re essentially looking for leads and inquiries; however, our web sales have gone up every year as well.

The video was a huge hit for our 50th anniversary. PUREi did an ad campaign for us years back that people still talk about. We actually still have posters of all those ads in our office. PUREi gave us really unique ads for our space that stood out and got people talking.

How did PUREi perform from a project management standpoint?

PUREi has been phenomenal. They set a schedule, and they follow it. They’re very good about communication and keeping up with timelines. They have an internal tool where they keep track of jobs and scheduling, review, and approval of jobs. We communicate through email, phone, or face-to-face; they’re right down the road from us.

What did you find most impressive about PUREi?

PUREi has developed a nice team and wants to be a true partner to develop overall corporate strategies with us. They sit down and learn about our business and our needs.

Are there any areas PUREi could improve?

No, PUREi does a great job.