Caterpillar: Turning Dealer Service into a Global Growth Strategy
Caterpillar saw an opportunity to turn one of its greatest competitive advantages — its dealer network — into a more consistent customer experience. We helped define, brand and scale Customer Value Agreements into a global services platform, then continued evolving the program to build awareness, support dealers and drive enterprise growth.
THE CHALLENGE
Customers were benefiting from maintenance programs, inspections, digital monitoring and service agreements. But offerings looked different depending on the dealer, region or business unit. Some had their own programs. Others had no structured offering at all.
At the same time, Caterpillar set an ambitious enterprise goal: double services revenue by 2026. Customer Value Agreements (CVAs) would become one of the flagship initiatives.
Before Caterpillar could market CVAs globally, they needed to define it and create enough alignment across the enterprise and dealer network to go to market consistently.
THE SOLUTION
We brought together Caterpillar leadership, business units, dealers and customers to define the offering, its value and a framework that could work globally. Research helped create a shared foundation for how CVAs would be positioned and communicated across the enterprise.
From there, we built a system designed to scale across markets and evolve with customer needs. When research showed awareness was outpacing understanding, the award-winning CVA Crash Course helped make a complex offering easier to understand and remember.
As CVAs grew, the marketing ecosystem grew with them. We’ve continued developing campaigns and customer content to build awareness and understanding, while equipping dealers with marketing materials, guidebooks, web and UX experiences and other tools to bring CVAs to market.
Service lines activated
- Research
- Strategy
- Branding
- Experiential
- Motion Media
- Marketing Automation
- Paid Media
- Analytics
Deliverables
- Global research and customer testing
- Positioning and messaging strategy
- Enterprise positioning framework
- Global visual identity
- Dealer marketing guidebooks
- Web strategy and UX
- Marketing automation
- Global and regional rollout support
- CVA Crash Course campaign
- Customer testimonial content
- Paid media and experiential activation
- Global localization
THE OUTCOMES
What began as an effort to bring consistency to dealer service offerings became a globally adopted platform supporting Caterpillar’s broader services growth strategy. Years later, CVAs continue to grow and evolve across business units and regions building customer awareness, supporting dealers and creating a platform Caterpillar can use to connect customers with other key programs and services.
