Marketing for Manufacturers: W hat Todays CEO Needs to Know Agenda - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Marketing for Manufacturers: W hat Today’s CEO Needs to Know

Agenda

• Introduction
• Marketing in Manufacturing Today: Key trends
• Marketing Effectiveness Research & Where You

Stand

• Your Brand: A Company’s Most Important Asset
• Today’s Marketing Fundamentals

About Trefoil Group

• Full service strategic marketing communications

firm

– Business/ strategic counselors – Solid understanding of both traditional and new mediums – Experience in attracting both customers and talent

• B2B with 20 years of experience in manufacturing

– Niche focus in plastics – Launching the Dream It. Do It. Wisconsin Campaign

Our Three Critical Success Factors

• Partner with business leaders to distill complex

environments and issues to advance their visions

• Create meaningful differentiation through brand-based

communications, grounded in research

• Integrate communications to reach target audiences

wherever they are – with information they care about

Marketing in Manufacturing Today: Key Trends

Marketing in Manufacturing Today

• New opportunities. New technologies. New tools.

– You can reach targets more easily & directly than ever before

• Expanded focus

– From lead generation to lead nurturing – Attracting talent as well as customers

• Customer penetration strategies are critical

– OEM decision makers are changing chairs and focus

• Brand-based communications to create

differentiation with customers & recruits

Key Findings: 2 0 1 1 Marketing Effectiveness Research

• Conducted in partnership

with Plastics News – A significant shift: companies are investing more in marketing than in sales – Feet on the street no longer enough:

• 50% report sales are

reaching less than 50%

• f their targets

52.90 % 24.20 % Increased marketing efforts Increased investments in the sales force

Key Findings: 2 0 1 1 Marketing Effectiveness Research

• 72% of respondents claim unique expertise (in

what they do or how they do it), but don’t communicate it well

Sales conversations Internal communications Website/ online presence Marketing materials

44.10% 35.90% 23.50% 28.80% 22.90% 20.30% 10.10% 5.60% Above Average Excellent

W here You Stand

• 73% of you believe you have a differentiating
• ffer, but don’t communicate it well either

Sales tools Internal comms. Company website Digital marketing Customer comms. Social media

55% 36% 55% 9% 9% 27% 9% Above average Excellent

• 72% say recruitment is critical to success, but

don’t know how to reach younger audiences

Key Findings: 2 0 1 1 Marketing Effectiveness Research

Recruiting and retaining talent Equipping employees to be brand ambassadors Getting your message out via new mediums Using social marketing effectively

71.60% 59.80% 48.10% 39.60% 40.50% 31.70% 20.60% 18.70%

Important/ very important to future success Ranked themselves as very good or excellent at the following

• 100% of you believe recruiting and retaining

talent is very important or important to success, but don’t know how to reach younger audiences

W here You Stand

Recruiting and retaining talent Equipping employees to be brand ambassadors Getting your message out via new mediums Using social marketing effectively

100% 73% 45% 36% 55% 55% 36% 27%

Important/ very important to future success Ranked as excellent/ above average

• The risks: You can increase investments without

a correlating ROI

– Absent a strategic, brand-based approach (that includes measurements) it is an expense, not an investment

• Marketing savvy, yet inferior competitors, can

beat you more easily than ever before

• The opportunity: To connect marketing to the

goals and objectives of the business, creating measurable ROI – and a competitive advantage

W hat This Means to You as the CEO

• Be strategic in aligning marketing with sales

strategies

• Move the needle from lead generation to lead

nurturing

• Create meaningful differentiation that speaks to

both customers and recruits

• Own the leadership position where you can
• Integrate programs to include face-to-face,

digital, PR and social media

• Equip your employees to be brand ambassadors

in your marketplace and your communities

The More Specific Opportunity

W here the Journey Begins: Your Com pany’s Brand

Your Com pany’s Brand

• The brand is a company’s most important, yet

most overlooked asset

– As important in B2B as it is in B2C – Crucial in both customer and talent acquisition

• Your brand is what you want people to think

about you

Your com pany = X

B2 B Branding Exam ple

Moving | Building | Powering | Curing

Your Com pany’s Brand

Com m on Branding Pitfalls

• Basing your brand on the category you’re in

– Leading Plastics Injection Molders – Thermoforming Experts

• Staking your claim to entry level attributes

– Solutions Provider – Meeting or exceeding customer expectations

• Relying on internal perceptions of your value
• Mimicking what your competitors do and say

Your Com pany’s Brand

• Good Brands:

– Establish relevance, personality and connect emotionally – Specify the company's value proposition – Change the conversation – Reposition the competition as followers – Drive perceptions externally and the culture internally – Differentiate the company for a competitive advantage

Your Com pany’s Brand

• Strong Brands Produce ROI By:

– Sustaining differentiation in a crowded marketplace – Supporting premium pricing/ guarding against price-based competition – Accelerating entry into new markets – Recruiting and retaining top talent – Increasing enterprise value

Your Com pany’s Brand

• Discover Your Brand

– Answer key questions:

• What do you do better than anyone else?
• How does this align with what your audiences care

about today and in the future?

– Conduct research – information today is easy & fast

• Internal interviews with leadership, sales and others
• External research with customers, suppliers, industry

experts

Your Com pany’s Brand

• Discover Your Brand

– Look at your competitors

• Your value is a relative assessment against the value

I can get somewhere else

– Be different. Not the same.

• Understand what your competitors are saying and

determine the opportunity to say something better

• If everything else is equal, all that’s left is price

– Remember, if you don’t tell your story, someone else will tell it for you

Create a Story People W ant to Be Part Of

Create a Story People W ant to Be Part Of

Create a Story People W ant to Be Part Of

Create a Story People W ant to Be Part Of

The New Marketing Fundam entals

The New Fundam entals

• Your W ebsite: The # 1 B2 B Marketing Tool

– Create your website as a marketing portal

• Hub for both outbound and inbound marketing
• Make it engaging and easy to navigate
• Optimize your site for easy search engine

discovery

• Use on-line newsrooms to build awareness and

leadership reputation

• Use microsites and landing pages to reach

specific target audiences with audience-specific messaging and to increase quality content for search engines to index

The New Fundam entals

The New Fundam entals

The New Fundam entals

The New Fundam entals

The New Fundam entals

• Create a robust online presence:

– Customers are now their own gatekeepers

• Active users of websites, social networks, search

engines, product/ company reviews, news venues, industry bloggers

– Video, frequently updated content and strong search optimization can immediately impact search engines – Job seekers are online and actively searching. Be where they’re looking with information they care about

The New Fundam entals

• Make m arketing com m unications your

supplem ental sales force – Deepen relationships, keep prospects warm, free sales to focus on more productive prospect engagement. – Use tools to help navigate this new buying cycle

• Lead nurturing software
• Content that’s relevant, meaningful and customized

The New Fundam entals

The New Fundam entals

• Ow n the leadership position through

strategic PR

– Position business executives as thought leaders through

• Leadership positions in industry and local organizations
• Becoming a voice for your industry

– Raising awareness and providing analysis of industry trends and topics – Demonstrate expertise and capabilities through – Leveraging PR successes to:

• Build reputation with current and prospective customers
• Build a sense of pride and commitment internally

Build Your Reputation as an I ndustry Leader

Build Your Reputation as a Local Leader

Use PR to Connect w ith Key Audiences

The New Fundam entals

• Equip Your Em ployees to Be Am bassadors

– Provide consistent messaging that they can take to the marketplace – Empower them to be confident in all their external communications, hold the promise of your brand – Distribute internal communications – Reward and recognize top performers