Cummins Inc. is a global diesel engine manufacturer that struggled to build brand awareness in Europe. They hired CMB Automotive to develop a marketing strategy for Europe. CMB faced challenges like Cummins' large size, multiple market segments, and lack of centralized brand messaging. CMB created campaigns to increase awareness of Cummins' products, services, and dealer network. They ensured consistent branding across countries and managed various marketing initiatives. As a result, Cummins saw increased brand awareness, successful product launches, and positive feedback from their marketing manager in Europe.

1. CASE STUDY
Developing a
world leading brand
in Europe
CMB Automotive help Cummins raise brand profile
in a challenging market place

2. Background
Cummins Inc. is a global power leader
and the world’s largest independent
manufacturer of diesel engines. With global
manufacturing and support, Cummins
powers more types of equipment in more
markets than any other engine company.
It provides products and service to
customers in more than 150 countries.
Developing a World Leading Brand
in a Challenging Market
CMB Automotive Marketing | T: +44 (0) 1327 856102 | www.cmbautomotive.com

3. In addition, the number of stakeholders involved in
a project often leads to demanding requirements for
what is (and isn’t) included in marketing messages.
With more than 35 Cummins owned locations and
300+ dealers throughout Europe, it was inevitable
the Cummins brand would be misrepresented,
abused or even, in some cases, totally ignored.
This presented a challenge of bringing the brand
under control to ensure every one of these touch
points was communicating the same message in the
same consistent way.
Objectives
CMB were brought in to support the Cummins
Europe marketing team.
Our key objectives included:
Challenges
Despite its size and position of the world’s largest
diesel engine manufacturer, Cummins had
struggled to command a leading market position
in Europe. A well-known, almost household brand
in North America, Australia and other territories,
Europe remained less aware of the range of markets
served, the product range and the dealer / distributor
network capabilities.
With nine sectors (Agriculture, Automotive,
Construction, Defence/Government. Industrial,
Materials Handling, Marine, Oil & Gas, Power
Generation and Rail), operating in 15 countries
and 13 different languages, Europe is a challenging
market place. In addition, cultural differences
between countries make a significant impact
on business operations and it is important to
identify these differences to work effectively
in those territories.
As a large organisation, Cummins has separate
teams controlling business activities and
relationships with their specific market segments.
These teams are often split between countries with
different language, cultural and time zone barriers.
Liaising with these teams can often be a slow
process, creating ‘lag’ with project time scales.
“CMB demonstrated a real understanding of our brand,
business and markets. They used their B2B experience
to help us define our strategy, making them an ideal choice
to support our own marketing efforts.”
Mark Dunk, Marketing Manager, Europe - Cummins
• Build awareness of Cummins brand
in European markets
• Build awareness of market segment(s),
relevant product ranges, services and
aftermarket support
• Support distributors and the dealer network
in all European territories
• Create and deploy marketing
communications
• Create and deploy internal communications
to educate and enforce Cummins brand
messages to staff and stakeholders
CMB Automotive Marketing | T: +44 (0) 1327 856102 | www.cmbautomotive.com

4. Cummins maintains a traditional approach
to marketing, PR, advertising and
promotional efforts.
With very little existing digital marketing
capability, almost all of the European websites
were controlled by Cummins US. Developing
digital and web-based marketing platforms
was a complicated process and involved CMB
providing education and training to bring the
internal marketing team up to speed.
From an external view point, we could see
that Cummins did a great job looking inwardly
at product development, market organisation
and structural effectiveness but lacked a clear
understanding of communicating its benefits
to customers and end users effectively.
It became clear, quite early in the process, that
the way Cummins supported owned distributors
and the dealer network throughout Europe
had no unified approach. This was clearly the
cause of inconsistency in brand messaging
and customer communication, with each
country communicating to its market in its own
particular way.
Insights and Observations
B2B brands cannot exist in a purely B2B
environment, without consideration of the
end user. Where the end user may not be the
direct customer, they still need confidence
in the product and the brand. If the end user
sees the brand as desirable, this will create
greater demand for the products and services
(driving sales and building brand equity).
Distributors and dealers can be your greatest
asset. By supporting distributors and dealers
to market your products, this makes it easy
for them to sell your products. They will earn
more money, see greater turn over and a better
bottom line. If your product is helping them grow
their business, they will promote, push and sell
your product more eagerly, creating better
business and profits for you.
CMB Automotive Marketing | T: +44 (0) 1327 856102 | www.cmbautomotive.com
•

5. A key consideration for all marketing
communications was brand consistency.
We needed to be able to adapt messaging to make
it relevant to individual countries and market
segments but the over all Cummins brand needed
to be strongly enforced – on everything.
This included marketing literature, advertising,
trade shows and events, PR and also on service
vehicle livery and office /service depot signage.
CMB became ‘brand stewards’ for Cummins in
Europe, ensuring alignment of all branding and
communication across all markets and countries.
Where relevant, the marketing literature was
created in template format so the pieces could be
efficiently adapted for use in different countries
and languages.
Collaborating with the Cummins marketing team
CMB deployed marketing strategies and campaigns
to drive brand growth and strengthen brand equity.
This included:
• Brand stewardship
• Design and deployment of marketing and
product literature
• Copywriting
• Advertising
• Dealer and Distributor support programs
• Trade shows, exhibitions, conferences and events
• Technical and pricing guides
• Website and digital marketing
• Email marketing
• Video production
• Internal communications
• Office and depot branding
• Vehicle livery
• Sourcing, management and production
of marketing collateral
• Supplier liaison
• Translation and multi-lingual communications
What we have done...
CMB Automotive Marketing | T: +44 (0) 1327 856102 | www.cmbautomotive.com

6. What we have achieved...
Notable Achievements Include:
• Increased awareness, creating positive brand
associations, adding to the overall value of the
Cummins brand
• Helped Cummins communicate the
restructuring of the Cummins MerCruiser
Diesel (CMD) brand without losing
market share.
• Organised and managed an extremely
complicated and commercially sensitive
internal communications programme on
restructuring of Cummins management teams
and country leadership. We delivered internal
communications bulletins simultaneously
to over 1000 Cummins staff, throughout
15 countries, in 13 different languages and
3 time zones. 18 separate communications
were carried out over 6 month period,
all successfully delivered on time.
• Marketing support for more than
66 exhibitions and trade shows across
Europe from Ireland to Turkey and everywhere
in between!
• Successful product launches QSB6.7
and QSK95 engines throughout Europe.
• Creation of Cummins Europe’s ‘Legendary
Service’ campaign which has subsequently
been adopted for use globally.
15 countries
13 languages
10 markets
35 locations
300+ dealers
Cummins Europe
Results:
Although we are not able to disclose figures and information relating to the performance
of marketing activity for Cummins, we do feel this testimonial goes some way to proving
the value of the work we do...
“CMB Automotive have contributed a great deal towards Cummins’ success
in Europe. Their expert support and creative thinking has ensured the Cummins
brand has been consistently and professionally represented in all our marketing
communications. By maintaining Cummins brand integrity, CMB help us deliver
our marketing messages more effectively to customers and also internally to staff
and stakeholders. The overall effect on sales, brand loyalty, customer retention
and awareness shouldn’t be understated.”
Mark Dunk – Marketing Manager, Europe - Cummins

7. Digital publications
Marketing Literature
Exhibition design and support

8. CMB Automotive Marketing Limited
Innovation Centre, Silverstone Park , Northamptonshire NN12 8GX UK
t: +44 (0) 1327 856102 e: studio@cmbautomotive.com www.cmbautomotive.com