“Creating Consistency”

Thomas McShane started the marketing department at City Electric Supply (CES) 10 years ago. He took a team of two graphic designers and a single application developer and transformed it into a full-blown, turn-key strategic marketing team of nearly 40 talented individuals. That transformation generated a positive impact on both customer and employee brand awareness.

McShane's first undertaking was to create consistency within the brand, which resulted in a total rebrand across their 368 branch locations at the time. McShane worked closely with the team to establish employee uniforms and corporate signage, for which his team managed the rollout.

They celebrated the rebrand with an award-winning customer awareness campaign called "ReBrand, FreeBrand," a campaign that awarded five winning customers a complete rebrand of their own business.

Thomas also pioneered the CES Orientation Program, CES North American Conferences, and Events. He played an integral part in its design and visual storytelling at their renovated headquarters in Dallas, Texas. McShane grew from marketing manager to CMO for City Electric Supply while the business expanded from 368 to over 670 branch locations in North America; revenue grew over 150% in that same time.

McShane credits colleagues, friends, and family members for having a positive impact on his career. “I like to believe that one of my strongest traits is leading with empathy,” says McShane, which is a trait he claims to have picked up from his father, Frank McShane, and his first manager, Gino Colon. “They both have such a way with people; they inspire and encourage people to want to be the best version of themselves,” he said. Another individual that inspired McShane was his granddad, Keith, an incredibly hardworking and talented carpenter. “Everything he created was built with purpose and attention to detail, and each element was thoroughly planned; I guess that led me to lean deeper into creative storytelling,” adds McShane. Finally, anyone who knows Thomas McShane can tell you about the massive admiration he has for Walt Disney. “His ingenuity and creativity has inspired generations,” says McShane. “One person touched and changed millions lives and continues to each day through his legacy – I find his life and work tremendously fascinating.”

"A year where products were harder to source than ever before and although like everyone, CES endured its fair share of challenges, our incredible 35% growth year to date is driven by our team's resourcefulness to go above and beyond in providing incredible service to our customers."

CES has been dedicated to providing the best service and support for customers in the residential, commercial, and industrial markets since 1983. “Simple: the team members,” elucidates McShane. “Our teams around North America are driven by service and customer support. Our success as a business comes from empowering those team members at the local level to make decisions that best serve their local customers.”

According to McShane, never has that benefit been more visible than during 2021. “A year where products were harder to source than ever before and although like everyone, CES endured its fair share of challenges, our incredible 35% growth year to date is driven by our team's resourcefulness to go above and beyond in providing incredible service to our customers.”

For the team members not working in the branch network, providing business solutions that positively impact the business and support the local CES branch teams stands as a top priority.

CES has a variety of competitors; it competes with many national electrical distributors in North America, big-box retailers, local/regional players with a handful of locations each, and the newer emerging businesses to the market.

“Given the breadth of competition, our key strategy to outperform or thwart that competition is to simply out service them,” explains McShane. “For years, we’ve referred to ourselves as a people business first and that mentality breeds a culture of service. In some areas of competition, that is easier for us than most because of the local autonomy we provide our branch teams and managers — they are empowered to make local decisions that impact their local customers.”

And that empowerment is one of the company’s most vital differentiating factors. “If we can continue to serve our customers the way we currently do and provide and evolve the tools that enable them to send us an order in a way that works best for them, it is our best go-to-market strategy. That, of course, is all driven at the local level of our business,” he adds.. IE