SecurTek emphasizes lifestyle in alarm marketing campaign this spring

YORKTON, Saskatchewan--SecurTek, a full-service alarm company with retail and wholesale monitoring, unveiled in May a new marketing campaign to provide home automation lifestyle security packages, such as notification of when children arrive home or septic tanks near their capacity. The move is aimed at providing added value for a dealer's sell and moving beyond traditional security applications. Customers assume alarm companies just protect the perimeters said Daryl Silzer, who joined the company in August 2005 as chief executive officer and president. "The company probably undersells the lifestyle enhancements we can bring to homes," he said. With that in mind, the company analyzed its attrition rates, and saw that customers over time start to wonder about the value of their alarm systems. "We are trying to do more things to minimize churn as the system becomes part of their lifestyle," he said. For example, alarm panels "can leave e-mail for your children to do tasks when they get home or provide notification that they have arrived home safety." By providing added benefits that cater to specific lifestyles for customers, the company is offering an alarm system that protects, but also includes those everyday uses that are part of a customer's routine. Its 100 authorized retail dealers across Canada can pitch specific packages, known as Cabin, Pet Friendly, Environmental, Advance, Safety and Alert, depending on customer' needs. "We want to make your vacation property more user-friendly to use by adjusting your thermostat and bringing the temperature up, so it's warm when you get there," he added by way of example. "We found functionality in our software and system that we have not taken advantage of," Silzer said. With help from marketing, "we looked for ways to bring those options to market and sell those as lifestyle enhancements." This is a move to get away from selling only two doors and a motion detector, said Leanne Woodhouse, marketing manager at the company. "We really want to focus on safety for our customers and concentrating on what their needs are and desires. The customers ask, 'Why get a system installed in first place?' and we ask, 'How can we make that system a part of their life?'" Woodhouse said.