Crescent Tools, part of Apex Tool Group, has announced a new brand identity, focusing on a new tagline – “Trusted by the Trades.”
Crescent’s announcement follows a similar one by Gearwrench, also an Apex Tool Group brand. Gearwrench launched their own new brand identity in October.
Additionally, 4 other Apex Tool Group brands will now share Crescent branding:
- Lufkin – tape measures, rules, and wheels
- Wiss – snips, scissors, shears, knives, and other such tools
- Nicholson – files and saws
- H.K. Porter – bolt cutters
The brands will be known as Crescent/Lufkin, Crescent/Wiss, Crescent/Nicholson, and Crescent/H.K. Porter. The addition of these 4 brands will greatly boost Crescent Tools’ product selection. Press materials say:
This expansion will give our customers a wider selection of quality products from which to choose, all under the Crescent name.
I asked my media contact a short but big question, but haven’t heard back yet.
Why?
Press materials are calling this a major expansion, and it does look to be just that. They also said that:
A substantial marketing initiative for the brand is planned for 2018, including a comprehensive multi‑media advertising campaign and a potential partnership with NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing. This investment will provide additional energy to the brand and demonstrate that Crescent is committed to continued growth.
Hmm, an advertising campaign? Dear Crescent: You have my phone number, right?
The new logo looks… okay. I don’t love it, but it could grow on me.
Going back to the WHY? part, they might be keeping the official explanation private. My gut feeling says that the heads of Crescent, Gearwrench, and Apex Tool Group’s other tool brands are looking at what’s happening, and what’s to come. Dewalt and Milwaukee hand tools line the shelves at Home Depot, and Craftsman tools are coming to Lowes.
If Crescent and their new sub-brands are losing market share in retail spaces, professional spaces, and industrial spaces, then this could be a pivotal move for them to start reversing that.
On the surface, this looks to be a marketing shift, but I’d like to believe that there will be new tools coming down the pipeline as well. Time will tell.
Are they packaging brands together for growth, or a sale? In this day and age, anything is possible. While it would be unexpected at the moment, it wouldn’t be outrageous for a larger tool brand to want to snatch up Crescent Tools and their new sub-brands.