Tailored Performance Fluids
How a private-label fluids maker wrote its message first, then built a website that stopped the price comparison and sold exclusivity instead.
13
pages of new copy
5
page templates
12
custom graphics
3
interactive tools
Overview
Tailored Performance Fluids makes private-label metalworking fluids for distributors. A distributor gets an exclusive product with its own name on it. TPF handles the formulation, compliance, and logistics behind the product.
Before the rebuild, TPF was compared to competitors on a product-to-product basis, and product-to-product means price. The new site changes what gets compared. It leads with one idea, that an exclusive product shifts the conversation from price to value, and organizes everything around the industries a distributor sells into. Strategy came first, and the website was built to carry it.
The challenge: a strong offer nobody had put into words
TPF had never written down who it sells to or why a distributor should buy. There was no defined customer, no map of how a distributor decides, and no answer to the first question a distributor’s salesperson asks: Why would I sell an in-house brand instead of the name everyone already knows?
The old site described the fluids. It said nothing about what owning a brand does to a distributor’s margin or sales conversation. So TPF’s real advantage, exclusivity, never came up, and the comparison defaulted to price.
TPF also operates alongside a sister company in the same market, so the positioning had to make TPF distinct without competing with it.
The approach: write the message, then build the site
We didn’t open a design file for weeks. The first phase was strategy following the StoryBrand principle that the customer is the hero and the brand is the guide.
With TPF’s leadership, we defined the core customer and the main variations on it, ran a positioning and brand narrative workshop, built the messaging framework, and mapped what a distributor needs to hear at each stage, from noticing thin margins to signing a private-label agreement. We finished with a review of TPF’s current channels and where the growth was.
Then we built the site on that message: five page templates, twelve custom graphics, three interactive tools including an ROI calculator, and thirteen pages of search-optimized copy.
01
The positioning line
Simple, Scalable, Strategic. Three words that describe a partner, not a product.
02
The sales line
One sentence on the homepage does most of the work: When the product is exclusive to your business, the conversation shifts from price to value. It gives a distributor’s salesperson the answer they never had.
03
Industry pages
The site is organized by the industries TPF serves (defense, medical devices, energy, automotive, heavy industry, and precision manufacturing), so a visitor lands in their own market instead of a product list.
04
The ROI calculator
A distributor can model what an in-house brand does to its margin before talking to anyone.
05
The copy
Thirteen pages, written for search and built on the messaging framework, so the words that rank are the same words that sell.
The results
We left performance metrics out on purpose. The site launched in August 2026, and the CEO and the marketing VP saw it the first morning and approved it. The marketing VP’s one note was to add more gold.
TPF now has a message its own team and its distributors’ salespeople can repeat. Early sales-enablement emails to distributor sales teams have already lifted in-house brand sales, which is the behavior the messaging was written to produce.
TPF has kept Rocketship onboard past launch for ongoing marketing on the same strategy: distributor marketing, sales enablement for distributor sales teams, outreach to brand owners and chemical managers, and continued brand work.
What this means for you
If your sales calls keep ending on price, the problem is positioning. Nobody has written down why you’re different in words a buyer can repeat.
Get the message right and your website stops being a catalog and becomes a sales argument your whole channel can use. Redesign without it and you’ll like the new look and keep losing the same calls.
The method: define the customer, run the narrative workshop, build the messaging framework, map the buyer journey, and then build the site. That is the StoryBrand BrandScript applied to a B2B manufacturer.
Questions buyers ask about this work
What is a messaging strategy, and why does it come before the website?
A messaging strategy is a plan for what you say, who you say it to, and how you say it. It defines who you serve, what problem you solve, and the words you use at each stage of the buyer’s journey. It comes first because the website exists to carry that message. Without it, you’re designing around a blank.
What is StoryBrand, and does it work for industrial B2B?
StoryBrand is Donald Miller’s framework for positioning the customer as the hero of their story and your brand as the guide. It works in industrial B2B because buyers there get spec sheets from everyone and a clear story from almost no one.
How do you stop competing on price in a commodity category?
Change what’s being compared. TPF stopped selling fluids against fluids and started selling a brand the distributor owns. An exclusive product gets compared based on what it does for the business, not on a price sheet.
How long does a strategy-plus-website project take?
Plan in months. TPF ran strategy first, then design and development, then launch and a support period.
What is a buyer journey map?
A buyer journey map lays out the stages a customer moves through, from first noticing a problem to signing, and names the message and content they need at each stage.
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