Building Brand Awareness With the Right Tools

Northern Tool + Equipment is where you can find tools and expertise the big box stores simply don’t have. With such a strong point of difference, we wanted more than just those in-the-know to know about Northern Tool.

So we built Made for This. Not just a campaign, but a mindset that it’s about more than a job or a project or the task at hand. There’s an innate feeling that this is what our Skilled Solver audience was made to do — just like Northern Tool was made to supply the right tools for any endeavor.

This national platform exists at the intersection of creative, media and design, and positions the retailer as the first choice in high-quality tools and equipment for high-end DIYers, prosumers and professionals. The campaign launched with broadcast TV and radio spots, out-of-home billboards, digital, social and in-store elements. And because we want the media plan to work harder than the tools Northern Equipment sells, we sought to extend and amplify these efforts with compelling earned creative marketing partnerships with Skilled Solvers like world-renowned metal artist and welding influencer Rae Ripple.

Made for This confidently separated Northern Tool from competitors in the category by positioning the retailer as a problem-solver’s paradise. A bold brand identity system was crafted to drive recognition and recall across the entire brand ecosystem, from TV to social to in-store.

Social posts and in-store materials reinforced our Made for This platform, showcasing a variety of tools and the Skilled Solvers who use them.