The second-quarter Business Outlook Survey released recently by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce showed that many businesses are pessimistic about their prospects. However, the story was different in manufacturing: While 50 percent of companies overall predicted that sales for the second quarter will be down this year, 68 percent of manufacturers forecasted solid growth.
Why are manufacturers feeling more optimistic – even as they face intensifying global competition? A 2007 study of the North American Tool Making Industry, which Scheibel Halaska was commissioned to conduct, provides some insight. The 400 online respondents and more than 40 personal interviewees concurred that companies adapting to industry’s evolution are not only surviving, but growing.
Today’s more savvy manufacturers are leveraging advanced engineering capabilities and deep vertical market expertise to design products and services that are increasingly relevant in today’s fast-moving market. Just as important, they’re building strong brands that highlight these advantages.
What about your company? Whether your competition is in China or down the street, it’s no longer enough just to own a market niche, a unique technology or a special price-value relationship. For a sustainable competitive edge, you’ve got to exploit what you’re good at by using ongoing, brand-based communications to differentiate your company.
There are good examples of strong manufacturing brands locally. Consider Poblocki Sign Co. Poblocki has a long tradition of handling every aspect of the most difficult signage projects – whether it’s engineering and design challenges, complicated wayfinding, tight deadlines,or construction and installation of large, high-profile signs such as those on Miller Park, Lambeau Field, the forthcoming Harley Davidson Museum and other landmarks.
The new Poblocki tagline, “Challenge us,” conveys the capability and assured attitude on which the company thrives. It not only establishes its leadership position; it’s also a rallying cry for employee mobilization and morale. Through an integrated, brand-based marketing program, the Poblocki positioning is now clearly carried through everything the company communicates, from web site to employee newsletters to advertising.
Companies such as Poblocki are out ahead of many small and mid-size manufacturers that are still struggling to make the shift from sales to marketing. For these other companies, marketing materials tend to state the obvious, describing features and benefits that do little to demonstrate why a customer should choose Company X and its products and services over any of its competitors.
That’s why, in your marketplace, chances are there’s a huge opportunity to use strategic, brand-based marketing communications to get ahead. This doesn’t mean marketing trumps sales; it means a strategic marketing program can accelerate sales. It’s about focusing on who you are and who your customers should be, then going after those customers by differentiating yourself from the competition.
In today’s uncertain market, there will continue to be winners and losers, as the MMAC survey suggests. The more positive outlook lies with those who are not only building unique competencies, but exploiting them. Will your company be among those that are positioned to win?
