Harkness Screens

BACKGROUND: Harkness Screens is the world’s largest manufacturer of projection screen surfaces. Despite their command over the market, their brand presence has been more difficult to establish because of the concealed nature of their brand name on the products they manufacture. In their 80 years, the company has always focused on providing technical specifications rather than building a unified brand.

CHALLENGE: PUNCH was challenged to analyze Harkness as a company and as a brand to strategize the best way to strengthen and improve each. Since Harkness already had a brand identity, PUNCH recommended they focus on the seven screens they manufacture and develop a brand for each, aspiring to create seven sub-brands. The marketing strategy had to be built from the ground up, all marketing materials had to cater to an international audience, and the sub-brands had to be consistent with one another and cohesive with the preexisting corporate brand.

EXECUTION: PUNCH did extensive research, performing situational and competitive analyses of Harkness as well as interviews with their clients, vendors, and staff in both the US and UK. With this information, PUNCH developed brands for each of Harkness’s products, designing print and web ads, brochures, taglines, and key messaging for print materials and the Harkness web site. PUNCH also made sure to keep the ever-changing market in mind at all times so the strategy was malleable enough to be altered when necessary.

IMPACT: PUNCH successfully partnered with other vendors to implement print, web, and tradeshow materials for the Harkness brand and sub-brands. The seven sub-brands saw success following the new branding initiative. In fact, production of the Spectral™ 240, Harkness’s 3-D screen, hit maximum capacity during this time. PUNCH also provided a brand manual that clearly defined the usage for all logos, taglines, colors, fonts, graphics, photographs, advertisements, and charts. The book allowed Harkness to have an across the board more unified regional and international presence.