How Woden Uncovered the Missing “Element” in Newcastle Systems’ Positioning
The world’s most demanding logistics companies—Amazon, Walmart, TJX, and more—have relied on Newcastle Systems’ mobile-powered workstations for decades. The brand’s reputation for flexibility, durability, and hands-on support won it fans across warehousing and manufacturing.
When logistics operations rapidly expanded during COVID-19, Newcastle took off right alongside them. But when the pandemic subsided, so did Newcastle’s rapid growth. Newcastle engaged Woden to develop a strategic narrative that repositioned mobile power as essential to logistics operations.
Woden’s StoryKernel reframed the entire category: “The Human Element of Automation.” Newcastle evolved from competing with automation to being part of it. The story positioned Newcastle as indispensable to the future of the warehouse, leading to an acquisition by TouchPoint, Inc.
Woden helped us uncover, define, and reframe our company narrative through a detailed process…We’re impressed with their creative insight and willingness to immerse themselves in our business.
THE CHALLENGE
Newcastle Systems was founded to provide practical, human-centered solutions for warehouse workers. From its earliest days, the company grew around a simple promise of saving steps on the warehouse floor by providing mobile-powered solutions. The company grew rapidly through word of mouth alongside the expansion in the logistics market.
This trend reached its apex during the COVID-19 pandemic, when brands rushed to make investments that kept up with exploding demand in the logistics operations industry. But as the pandemic subsided, focus shifted from the worker to robotics: vendors promising to deliver fully autonomous operations.
Prospects increasingly began associating Newcastle’s historic promise of worker productivity with robotics, asking the question of whether mobile-powered workstations were still relevant. Newcastle came to Woden with a clear ask: Develop a story that allows us to compete—and win—head-to-head against the new robotics and automation vendors entering the market.
WODEN’S SOLUTION
Woden’s early conversations with Newcastle’s customers and strategic partners revealed a striking insight: the robotics and fully automated solutions that were buzzing in the market were out of reach for most buyers. Few brands could make the leap to these solutions and were letting valuable productivity gains pass them by in pursuit of perfection.
Woden brought a novel approach to Newcastle: instead of selling against automation, position yourself as the most important part of it. In doing so, offer a way for prospects and customers to capture the gains of automation within reach.
The belief that “the future counts on productivity found in unexpected places” formed the foundation of Newcastle’s StoryKernel. This strategic narrative shifted buyers’ focus to the people already in their organizations and the ability to unlock potential within them.
To drive the StoryKernel into the market, Woden developed Newcastle’s new positioning: “The Human Element of Automation.”
The narrative shifted the status quo away from full automation and towards a more human-centric journey that leads toward it. The story centered on a promise to capture many of the gains of full automation on a shorter timetable while working through the people already core to the operation.
Newcastle used an on-site StorySeminar to fully engage the sales, marketing, and customer support teams with a go-to-market strategy built on the strategic narrative. Woden’s co-creation approach helped each seller and marketer develop buy-in with the story and discover how to share it in their own words.
This alignment fed directly into the StoryGuide, which codified the framework Newcastle now uses to reach each buyer at the right time with the right component of their story to pull them through the buying journey.
The impact was immediate: face-to-face with clients at their locations or at tradeshows, the Newcastle team was equipped to shift buyers’ focus away from the status quo they’d accepted of automation to a new view that was more accessible and more impactful. Ongoing work in StoryAccelerator has ensured the team continues to deepen its ability to share the story in-market.
THE MAKING OF AN ESSENTIAL BRAND
Newcastle’s strategic narrative took them from another mobile-powered workstation to a category of one: “the human element of automation.” The StoryKernel restored Newcastle’s growth trajectory and helped it get acquired by TouchPoint, which will unlock the enduring value of a now generational business.
When a company discovers how to share a story only they can tell, it creates an opportunity to redefine a category, challenge the status quo, and pull new buyers towards them more efficiently than ever. For workers and warehouses everywhere, Newcastle is delivering a human element of automation that is leading to unexpected—and incredible—productivity.
