Debar
Written by Gary Pattison
Rebranding a leading bi-fold door solutions specialist to compete on the global stage
Debar is a UK-based specialist designer and manufacturer of bi-fold door systems and hardware, made up of over 100 employees and headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
With 30 years of industry expertise behind them, Debar focuses on engineering high-performance bi-fold solutions. They offer both bespoke, custom-designed systems and off-the-shelf products that can be supplied ready to install or licensed for partner branding. One of their specialist solutions was the Adjustmaster Pro, a simple fix to dropped doors, a common issue seen in the bi-fold door industries.
Despite already being a strong brand within the UK, Debar wanted to propel their global footprint, securing more partnerships with systems houses, extruders and fabricators across the world with their comprehensive range of bi-fold door system solutions.
Debar turned to Fantastic Media to strengthen its brand positioning, create a modern digital presence, and implement an integrated marketing plan to launch Debar onto the global stage.
The Challenge.
Fantastic Media was tasked with reviewing and strengthening Debar’s brand position. It needed to clearly communicate the company’s expertise, quality, and value to both existing and prospective customers.
This included evaluating Debar’s website to improve how its products, systems, and technical capability are presented. Fantastic was also tasked with developing targeted brand and marketing recommendations to support growth.
A key challenge was to reinforce Debar’s reputation as a trusted manufacturing partner. Identifying opportunities to promote key innovations, such as the AdjustMaster Pro, and deliver measurable outcomes that support long-term business growth.
The Research.
To build a strategy tailored to Debar, we took a deep dive into Debar’s existing brand and business model through our INSIGHT process. Over six weeks, we analysed where we could improve their current brand and marketing activity. This meant reviewing key competitors within the bi-fold door hardware and systems market, and considered customer behaviour across the manufacturing and fabrication sectors. Key findings included:
- The opportunity to improve the visibility of Debar’s strong global reputation for manufacturing expertise
- Build on British quality in relevant trade media publications and online
- Debar’s capabilities weren’t very clear, so a new, SEO-optimised website could better showcase its full range of services, and innovative bi-fold system solutions.
- Underutilised digital channels and a limited LinkedIn presence restricted Debar’s global brand awareness and ability to promote core solutions
The Big Idea.
We found that Debar wasn’t promoting its expertise and legacy in manufacturing, which was damaging their awareness and authority within the industry. It was important that we changed their positioning against key competitors in the market. We worked on their list of competitors to truly crack new international markets.
We proposed a change to Debar’s brand by clearly communicating its decades of manufacturing expertise. By highlighting their commitment to innovation, we could give greater prominence to one of its key products through the renaming of the Glass Adjuster to Adjustmaster Pro. The refreshed positioning focused on elevating the product’s professional, high-performance credentials and aligning it more closely with Debar’s global reputation for precision and British-made quality.
The Activity.
To turn this work into reality, we recommended a list of activities:
- A Refined Website Experience: improved navigation, clearer product and technical content, and a more intuitive user journey to better showcase Debar’s systems, hardware, and expertise.
- Premium Brand Positioning: design and messaging that reinforced Debar’s engineering-led identity, quality standards, and innovation, while highlighting the people and expertise behind the business.
- LinkedIn Advertising: targeted campaigns aimed at key decision-makers within the fenestration, manufacturing, and construction sectors, segmented into regions around the world, and optimised for local languages.
- Optimised PPC Campaigns: restructured with improved keyword strategy, negative keyword filtering, and focused targeting to maximise return on ad spend.
- Remarketing Activity: designed to keep Debar front-of-mind with potential customers and increase awareness of key products, including Adjustmaster Pro.
- PR/Website Content: build Debar’s presence in both regional and trade media, and enhance their new website with SEO-optimised blogs and case studies.
- Strategic Email Marketing: regular campaigns focused on product innovation, technical insight, and application benefits to build trust, support retention, and encourage repeat business.
- Design & Creative Work: create a bank of printed/downloadable assets which can be utilised at trade shows, customer visits and on the website, as well as scheduling filming days to capture updated footage
- Consistent Organic Social Media: structured organic social media planning to enhance the brand messaging, reach an even broader audience organically, and shine a spotlight on the team behind Debar and their work around the world.
- Dedicated Account Management: assign a dedicated accounts team, each with their own expertise, to manage and grow the brand on the global scale
The Results.
After the first three months, the refined brand positioning and updated website has already delivered positive results:
- A stronger platform that better reflected Debar’s engineering expertise, quality standards, and global growth ambitions.
- Improved SEO performance helped to generate 22,177 website users and 223 contact forms
- Optimised paid campaigns increased qualified traffic, generating over 867,000 impressions, 8,000 clicks and an average 7% CTR where we received relevant enquiries from fabricators, systems houses, and industry stakeholders.
“Working alongside Fantastic Media has truly opened our eyes to the world of marketing and how it can elevate your brand. The team not only delivered a brilliant new website, they’ve also built a comprehensive strategy to take our marketing to the next level, enabling us to kick start conversations with key prospects around the world.”
Lee Davies, Managing Director at Debar
“Our INSIGHT process allows us to take a deep, strategic view of Debar, analysing its role within the bi-fold door engineering sector, its competitive environment and its current brand positioning. This insight gives us a strong foundation to develop brand-led strategic recommendations, supported by the right tactical activity to drive growth across the globe.
It highlights the power of strong partnerships and collaboration in building meaningful brands within manufacturing, and we’re looking forward to working closely with the Debar team on a long-term basis.”
Gary Pattison, Director of Strategy, Fantastic Media
