The market
Until the early 1990s Poles used traditional mortars for laying ceramic tiles, consisting of a mixture of cement, lime, sand and water, where the major component was sand. The ready-to-use mixes popularised in Western Europe in the 1960s reached Poland with a thirty-year delay. The obstacle in their way to the Polish market was the high price in relation to traditional materials and the shortage of foreign currency that could be used to buy foreign adhesives and mortars.

As a result of the economic transition, Poles grew wealthier, which, amongst others, brought a fashion for ceramic tiles and, consequently, a demand for building chemicals. Because of the lack of domestic production, the demand was satisfied by growing imports, chiefly from Germany. So, the Polish market would have been heaven for western concerns but for the emergence of ATLAS.

On arriving at the decision to manufacture a Polish adhesive, ATLAS had to overcome two obstacles: quality and demand. Quality was an obvious and unquestionable matter - a Polish adhesive had to be at least as good as the imported products. The demand barrier was connected with the building habits of Poles. To establish a market presence, the company had to change the old habits, demonstrating the superiority of adhesive mortars over the traditional cement-lime mortar and, as a result, create a demand for modern technologies.

The educational process has taken several yeas and continues to date. But today, the creators of ATLAS can say without false modesty that they have succeeded in changing the buidling habits of their fellow countrymen. According to SMG/KRC study, in 2000 nearly 73% of Poles made building repairs using the products of the building chemistry industry. ATLAS turned out to be the brand that not only captured the market, but it also changed the style of life, by introducing modern building technologies. In that period, ATLAS became a perfect example of dynamic and rational growth, and secured its position as the leader on the Polish market of building chemistry, as its share is estimated at 60%.

Beside ATLAS, the main players on the market are: Henkel (20%) and Erbak (7%). The remaining proportion (around 13%) consists of several foreign companies and ca. 130 small domestic firms, operating locally on a small scale. Import of building chemistry to the Polish market products is now negligible and does not exceed 1 - 2% of the market.

In the ATLAS' owners view, one of their greatest achievements, on a scale going beyond a purely business perspective, is the fact that they forced the western competitors to build factories in Poland. Building mortars are heavy and relatively cheap, so it is not cost-effective to transport it at large distances. Thus, the foreign competitors had to build their plants, employ workers and pay taxes in our country.

History
We could say that if the 1989-90 reforms had not cause the collapse of numerous businesses in Łódź, the three engineers - an architect, a civil engineer and an electrical engineer - would probably still be making comfortable living by designing houses. Instead, they had to look for a new occupation. Once, a torn bag with some scattered tile adhesive caught their eye. Compared to the traditional mortar, the adhesive was excellent, as all you had to do was to add some water to the mix. The tiles did not slip off during laying and the adhesive was easy to store. The three engineers thought, 'Well, why not make something like that in Poland?'

They worked on the formula for three months, with the assistance of a specialist from the Department of Construction Physics and Building Materials at the Technical University of Łódź.

They started to mix in a garage, in a borrowed concrete mixer. They mixed cement, lime and 'the extra stuff', that is, chemicals. They had to cover the mixer with a laundry boiler lid to stop the mix generating huge clouds of dust. But the mixing produced results. It was in 1991; they named their company ATLAS.

For the first two years the three company founders supervised both the production and the sales. They did not bother to think about real marketing, because they had to catch up on the backlog of orders and nobody had time for this. And then, unexpectedly, reinforcements arrived from Gdańsk - two specialists, who had already introduced a company from the same line of business onto the market, with success.

They explained that they had seen a bag with adhesive in a wholesale outlet, with the label written in German, to make it appear imported. But the label also said: Hergestellt in Polen (Manufactured in Poland) and a Łódź telephone number. They thought the idea to be rather devious but decent, so they called the number. The company was ATLAS. The owners bought a crate of sparkling wine and a crate of grapes to greet the visitors from Gdańsk. When they were finishing the first crate in the small hours, all had been decided. The form of their future co-operation, the shares of the individual people in the next enterprises, the division of responsibility. What they managed to decide nearly twenty years ago, is still much the same today.

The first step in creating the ATLAS brand was to build a strong product brand. A strong product brand means a top quality product and the customers' unshakeable conviction of its great value. But there are thousands of good brands and products and only some of them manage to stand out. The creators of the ATLAS brand decided to make it different from others by making a reference to national ideas and values. In their attempt to promote the brand in this way, they reached for methods and tools that were rarely used in building a brand image, especially for mass products, and technical ones. It was quite a risky move, but the choice of strategy proved extremely good.

The domestic market of building materials and all Polish buyers approved of the basic leitmotiv of the brand "I Love Poland!" suggesting - "and I'm proud of it". It could partly be explained by the need for recognition of the local activity, especially gained in competition with foreign brands and manufacturers - a need that is natural for all nations, but, in the case of Poles, concealed and pushed into the subconscious. Building a national brand, Polish through and through, brought much better effects than building the brand of a product with an exclusively technical and practical image.

The Product
ATLAS began with a popular tile adhesive. Today the ATLAS range consists of more than a hundred products, including technological systems composed of multiple products complementing each other. Investing in product quality and new technology has always been part of the ATLAS founders' strategy. That is why ATLAS group uses computer-controlled production processes, and automated production lines, while the quality management is proved by an international certificate of quality according to ISO 9001: 2000. The most important ATLAS product groups include: materials for laying ceramic and stone tiles; primers, cleaners and protecting materials; ready-to-use building mortars; insulating and sealing materials; stuccoes and jointless thermal insulation systems; floors and self-levelling subfloors; paints and plaster-based products.

In order to build a brand one needs a good product and a clear idea for marketing the product. Classical brands used to be built on the basis of a clearly defined function of a product or service. And even though the importance of emotional aspects in branding was recognised by ATLAS from the start, the brand was initially created above all as a functional brand. ATLAS products "just make building work faster and easier." In the company catalogues, instructions and leaflets, as well as many advertisements, this function has always been the principal matter in brand promotion.

The problem with a functional brand is the danger that someone else might try to carry out the same function in a better or cheaper way. That is why it was decided to reinforce the ATLAS brand by supplementing it with an extensive service package involving building consultancy. This way an added value was created for the buyers of ATLAS products.

The building advisory centre network covers the entire country and reaches beyond it, as ATLAS specialists also work in Russia and the Czech Republic. The engineers from ATLAS Building Advisory Centres are ready to advise and help anybody who uses ATLAS products in building or repair work - individual investors and building companies, developers and architects.

Not only do they solve technical problems experienced by the customers, but they also promote modern solutions in the building industry: they organise presentations of new products and technologies and trainings for contractors. After a few years, the work of the advisors was supported by the activity of the ATLAS Academy of Skills, where several thousand people have already been trained. ATLAS' advice is also available on the website www.atlas.com.pl.

Another idea is the monthly 'Building Atlas', aimed at the future customers of ATLAS, handed out free to the students of the final year in building secondary schools throughout Poland. The magazine, presenting the latest technologies, is designed as a supplement of school textbooks on building materials. The present students, who will surely reinforce building crews soon, know ATLAS to be a reliable brand that you can trust. Thus, education as part of marketing, has proved to be highly effective in the process of brand building.

Promotion
When asked what ATLAS makes them think of, Polish users answer without hesitation: the stork. The stork has become the most recognisable symbol of the firm and, beside the brand name and the white-and-red colours, constitutes its identification mark. When the long-beaked bird was suggested as an idea for promoting the company, it seemed to go far beyond the limits of classical marketing and break all conventions. It simply appeared to be something absurd and incongruous, as any connection between tile adhesive and a stork is virtually impossible to find. Nevertheless, the idea was implemented with absolute consistency and, in the long run, it turned out to be an extremely useful marketing tool.

The strategy selected assumed that a brand describing itself as national has to react quickly to the current affairs that are important to Poles. It was also vital to answer the question: what is the ATLAS brand, what are the company's principles, what really matters to it? Therefore, from the very beginning ATLAS made sure that the advertising campaigns made a reference to the current affairs, often the ones from the front pages of newspapers. "Won in 48 voivodships" announced the advertisement on the front page of "Gazeta Wyborcza" published on the day after the presidential election, in fact describing the sales of ATLAS products. Or the ATLAS clock on TV, which strikes midnight a few minutes before the actual beginning of the New Year with the slogan "Always a step ahead the competition!".

The same reference to the values that matter to Poles is used while developing TV advertising campaigns. The commercial "Airborne Cavalry" referred to the ideas associated with Polish Army, which enjoys respect and recognition among Polish people. Uniform and Army constitute a particularly familiar idea for Poles, sometimes sentimental and nostalgic, associated with memories from the youth. Thus, nobody was surprised by the popularity of the film, where the army training (a pun, since the Polish words for "mortar" and "training" are the same: "zaprawa"), often giving a hard time to young soldiers, was combined with a commercial of the ATLAS adhesive, and the whole was commented by the platoon commander: "Soldiers! The most important f…ing thing is the training!" Indeed, its quality is the most important for ATLAS, although the opinion of every single customer and his perception of the brand, as expressed by the purchasing behaviour, is of no lesser significance.

Another suitable theme for promoting the national character of the brand was the campaign connected with Poland's accession to the European Union. A cartoon was prepared and broadcast on this occasion, titled "a Wandering Pole", where a young Pole with a bag of ATLAS adhesive under his arm travels across the countries of Europe. He builds things and lays tiles everywhere on his way, singing to the tune of the Ode to Joy (the anthem of the European Union), "serving as a model for all".

Values of the Brand
The ATLAS brand means modern mortars that make building work faster and easier. Its high customer approval rate was determined by the top technical quality of the product, as well as the emotional connotation of the brand, built as a national and familiar brand. The reliability of the brand is additionally supported by the image of the company - a leader of the economic transformation in the Third Republic of Poland, an honest and responsible corporation.