Maintaining industrial marketing momentum
In the 35 plus years I have been in marketing, I have spent most of that time working with manufacturers. I have also seen many periods of uncertainty in the market, such as we are in currently. Often, manufacturers stop marketing efforts during these times, resulting in long ranging negative impacts. Let’s look at the questions manufacturers need to consider before putting the brakes the industrial marketing momentum they have attained.
Does stopping make sense?
Whether it’s an economic downturn, world crises, turbulent politics, or industry strikes, each can adversely affect a manufacturer’s bottom line. With withering sales, the first reaction is reducing marketing costs; and the first to suffer the axe is marketing. While this might be the easiest cut, you are basically cutting the area of operations that brings in new sales.
Adjustment or abandonment?
Instead of major reductions that hinder industrial marketing momentum, consider making strategic adjustments. Review your sales and marketing program for underperforming areas that can be put on hold but keep the tactics that are working. With this approach, you can maintain sales and marketing efforts that are producing a return on investment. Remember, these strategies grew your company to where it is today. Abandoning them when you face factors beyond your control can cause harm to your business that take years to overcome.
Are you considering the competition?
Another factor to evaluate is your competition. If they continue to market when you stop, they will be gaining whatever market share that’s available. There have been many times I’ve seen clients halt industrial marketing momentum never to recover it. Building a brand takes far more time, effort, and investment than to maintain it. Do not make the error that an established brand, even one decades old, can’t be lost. I have seen the market mistakenly think clients have gone out of business when they have stopped marketing while competitors continued.
Why maintain industrial marketing momentum?
In the end, the short-term savings in uncertain times won’t outweigh long-term damage to your brand and reputation. Of course, you need to adjust budgets to compensate for reduced sales. But simply stopping marketing is not a strategy that will deliver positive results in the end.
About the Author
Paul Kowalski (or Pappy as he is called around the office) spent over two decades working at other agencies before opening Conach Marketing Group in 2008. The early part of his career was working with Fortune 500 clients at different agencies. However, working with smaller clients was his preference. This choice was because of the impact on a client’s business growth and forming closer, personal relationships.
About Conach
When he was creating Conach, his goal was to bring those Fortune 500 strategies along with years of B2B marketing experience to small business marketing clients. As a result of focusing on business to business marketing, Conach specializes in construction marketing, financial marketing, and industrial marketing. Even though we are in Mid-Michigan, Conach provides marketing services to clients across the country.
For more information, visit conachmarketing.com or contact us or call 989.401.3202.