Welcome to a series of 3 posts on the importance of how a company does things.

Like our interactions with other individuals we find there are companies we like to deal with and others we don’t. This is simply a matter of treating people decently – as you would wish to be treated yourself.

An area I have noticed personally in recent times is Resentful versus willing service. We have all probably dealt with a company where the individual gives the impression they would rather be somewhere else – the counter attendant more interested in chatting to a friend than serving a customer. But what about the companies whose ethos seems to be – we write our procedures to protect us and don’t care if it makes it difficult for customers once we have their money.

Consider the humble call centre and the joy of dealing with one that is fully staffed (no waiting, no muzak), by cheerful people speaking clearly over a good phone system (short menus, clear lines) – who are permitted the time to actually sort the problem and not bound to a corporate script (not discernibly) and well trained and experienced, not cut price people trying their best and frequently failing for lack of allocated corporate resources.

How does your company measure up? Have you ever used “phantom shopper” techniques or follow up interviews to more carefully understand your customers experience?

From time to time I see in the SEO related newsletters and am told by individuals that the best web traffic and web presence information is provided by Google Analytics and further that an in-depth understanding of the black box algorithm they use is vital to marketing on the web.

These same people sometimes go on to decry simpler approaches like doing a search to find out what happens. This on the basis that Google reports are so regionalised and so personalised that a search by one person is not relevant to a search by someone else.

Well, personally I like the simple direct and scientific approach of try it and see – and our research shows that in practical terms it makes very little difference in the national industrial marketplace.

True, if you are selling locally then a search outside your area may not throw up the same as at your own desk – but that is about it.

Personally I would rather spend my time and effort on doing what works than speculating on what Google may or may not be thinking.

An understanding of the principles by which publishers work, of which Google is just a recent varient, leads us to the conclusion – they need valuable content which they can use as bait to create an audience whose attention they can sell to advertisers.

If we as marketeers stop trying to game the system, then they will do their job and we will benefit from it along with their readers.

The “gamers”, however reputable, simply muddy the waters and make life more complicated for everyone else by creating marketing fashions designed to manipulate the system. Far better, I would suggest, to ignore the gaming and manipulating and to stick to the fundamental principles of a simple long-term plan that just keeps working through all the fashions.

Call us to see how you can use online marketing in your business

I may be getting a bit New Age here, but stay with me. In the same way that a human being is defined by such things as DNA and experience, surely a company is defined by the personalities of the people involved, their structure/relationships and experiences with customers, suppliers, consultants etc.

So company development in one sense is determined by its history (or that of its participants) and it follows that if the internal relationship works well then the company will be able to operate optimally – whatever that may be. So optimal operation may be different for each group of people. We can of course (and do) change the people involved.

We can perhaps look at such a company – its behaviour in the market etc. and consider how it is presently sub-optimal, can we make changes that will positively benefit the company without destroying its inner operation – but actually enhance it?

I would suggest that for many companies one such change would be to grow a marketing function either by internal growth/import or externally by bolting on a consultancy/agency who can work in a compatible way with the company.

Generally what is required is a way to evolve the company – other times such a move may be intended to deliberately provoke change which can develop into the “next stage” of company growth or kick it out of a rut.

So it may well be that to reach its optimal potential a company needs to stimulate new relationships and a serious marketing program is one well proven way to do this.

Active and successful marketing leads to a pull through effect on everyone – sales, distribution, warehousing, manufacturing, accounts, executives, suppliers – an effect that stimulates everyone in the chain, and focusses individuals to do more interesting things better.

Interestingly, while good marketing brings new customers it also stimulates existing customers perhaps to develop new products of their own based on new ideas from their more active supplier.

So in developing a presently sub-optimal part of its own structure a company can also directly stimulate its own customers to develop themselves.

A win-win virtuous circle!

Perhaps sales people are drawn to social networking – but I believe engineers are more interested in solving problems. I have been interested in the application of social media to the industrial arena and my (very subjective) observations have led me to the following thoughts about the engagement of engineers (or lack of it) in social media.

Do we really all want to “join” groups – aren’t we already in a group of manufacturing engineers and related people? In particular we are in the group of our own company, our customers and suppliers. But I think we do want to stay connected with others, where we can dip in and out.

Social Media for engineers – essentially we want to put out a question and get a solution. The truth is it is social but in a solution based way. Like the current offering of niche “consultation based” exhibitions where visitors are encouraged to bring their problems as physical components, pictures, drawings, sketches or word concepts.

So social media for industrial manufacturing is alive and well at exhibitions and on the net – it just looks different to B2C social media – because it has a different role.

Call us – to see how you can use online marketing in your business.

I put this Whitepaper together from thoughts, gathered over 30 years in marketing, about the validity of the concept that having a “competitive account” debars an agency from new business. Derived from personal observation and experience, Ian argues that this is based on illusion and there is much to be gained from working with a specialist marketing agency.

Many years ago when I worked in the motor industry it was considered that a car company would not use an advertising agency that was already working for another car company, generally on the basis of some vague ill-defined suspicion – or simple exercise of power for its own sake – much publicised power plays took place around this approach – with occasionally an agency switching from one account to a more lucrative/more prestigious one.  All the while this was going on the design agencies, like Pininfarina and the engineering consultancies like Ricardo, had for years been beneficially and securely working for many different car and engine manufacturing companies – even in some cases one car company e.g. Porsche or Lotus, designing major parts of vehicles for another manufacturer. This spread eventually to the advertising scene where it became recognised that specialist expertise is the important factor and can be accommodated quite comfortably.

Having worked over nearly 20 years for industrial component companies that consider themselves to be “competitive accounts” – and done so to the benefit of all – I still from time to time come across the objection that having “competitive accounts” debars an agency from other work. Needless to say experience has shown that specialisation and commitment in industrial marketing deliver substantial benefits – contact me to see how we can deliver those benefits for your company.

Read the full paper here.

Striving for perfection is a good thing but frequently over-rated – especially on limited resources and against a tight deadline when micro management in marketing is not appropriate. This is not a life critical area, nor is it Formula 1 racing – it is an introductory chat about a possibility – and while it is a good thing to understand what you are doing and why – how it works – a driven quest for unachievable and undefinable and unnecessary “perfection” can definitely get in the way.

In marketing as often elsewhere in life – The Big Picture – with occasional micro viewings gives a better more cost-effective overall result – even if each component is not theoretically as refined as it could be.

So let us be aware of the 80:20 rule: Let’s achieve 80% of the effect for 20% of the cost and do things now, not in 6 or 12 months’ time. The extra value of that additional 6 or 12 months activity will outweigh the possible benefit of a delayed but “perfect” campaign – that is cost effective marketing.

So call us to see how you can use online marketing in your business.

Teamwork and being a team player is a concept much used in business of all types and it seems to me that this applies especially to supplier agencies in the service industries such as marketing.

Some teams operate with strong directive leadership and firmly marked boundaries, others with quite considerable overlap in the way people and companies are expected to fit in. All teams however rely on flexibility and willingness:

– flexibility to work out of too tightly defined roles on a continuing basis and to consider what is going on for other players in the team.

– willingness to do this by keeping in touch so that impending direction changes are spotted before they occur.

A bit like a VEN diagram, the relationships overlap and in the area of SMEs this overlap between client and agency can be substantial. Willingness to share the pain and the benefits is vital in modern business, willingness to understand what is going on – and on a daily basis to take responsibility for pro-active participation is just part of the service.

It used to be said that service was an old fashioned concept no longer understood – actually I believe it is more important than ever and relied on extensively to keep SMEs operating successfully.

What opportunities exist for UK manufacturing at this time? Well we have discussed reshoring of production which is certainly one opportunity – but the UK has long been a centre of design and development which is where another opportunity presents.

The world of product 3D printing – additive manufacturing – creates a situation where products may be developed in small specialist engineering design teams and then put into production at the most appropriate facility with regard to quality and cost constraints.

Clearly additive manufacturing itself presents a further opportunity in the output of small quantity specialist items at very high speed. Need a one-off item today – then design it and print it – today.

Constraints of the technology are still quite limiting for in-service parts, but it is very early days and the capability is developing rapidly. Small additive manufacturing units themselves present an opportunity – for example a distributor of volume products may identify a specialist UK demand, e.g. for an old imperial based component or a UK colour or material which the big production facilities cannot provide in small quantities at competitive cost. Then such a distributor could perhaps develop the product themselves without traditional manufacturing investments in machines and skill sets, in a way that enhances their UK business.

Call us – to see how you can use online marketing in your business.

In the past 30 years marketing for industrial companies has changed out of all recognition – there are now so many more opportunities for a small to medium sized company to promote themselves than ever before and at low cost – so that now there is no reason not to successfully promote a company of any size – thanks largely to the internet and digital technology.

For those running such small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) this perhaps offers a somewhat confusing range of little understood activities, with the attendant question of “what will it cost?” always in our minds – and the implied fear that it will be more than can be afforded, that we might “get ripped off” or committed to something which we cannot get out of.

So let’s have a serious grown up conversation about marketing – let us understand that it is not difficult to understand marketing – at least no more so than some of the products that are in the industrial/manufacturing arena – much less so than some! Let us also understand that today it is both relatively inexpensive and measurable – as well as being highly desirable.

The way we approach marketing can be similar to the way we approach any technical subject and as in any supplier/client relationship it depends primarily on trust – given this and a willingness to go through an appropriate learning curve a great deal can be achieved to help grow small companies into much bigger ones and to buffer them to some extent against the downturns that occur.

Call us now to find out how and get TIMA on your team!