The advent of the internet over the last two decades has fundamentally changed what American manufacturers need to do in order to survive. No longer is the quality of the goods an absolute in terms of how designers and businesses choose to work with you. Instead, the growth and success of a manufacturer now often depends more on their ability to market themselves to potential customers than it does the quality of the product they make.
So, while this doesn’t mean manufacturers can slouch in their focus on producing quality goods, it does signify that change is necessary to survive. And as an industry devoted solely to keeping up with changing tastes, styles, and fads, what better place to draw inspiration from than the service industry.
Here are four cues manufacturers can take from the service industry to keep their edge in an increasingly competitive and evolving marketplace:
1. Make Yourself Known
As a manufacturer of leathers goods, an old industry adage has been “the material sells itself.” And generally, the best marketing occurred when a potential customer had the physical product in hand and could feel the quality and craftsmanship of the material.
Today, however, that strategy is no longer enough for the average manufacturer. Branding has superseded physical goods as the essential marketing tool for successful companies. The ability to package ones capabilities and qualities into easily digestible snippets of information allows for potential customers to become acquainted with a business without ever needing to see a physical example of what a company can produce.
Manufacturers can – and should – leverage marketing and branding firms in a similar fashion to their service industry counterparts to put their name in front of potential customers.
[ctt tweet=”Manufacturers can & should, leverage marketing and branding firms in a similar fashion to their service industry counterparts. @MakersRow” coverup=”esX6H”]
2. Choose A Target Audience
Important as it is to curate your image as a manufacturer, it’s just as necessary to make sure that your branding actually reaches the customers you want to work with.
In the food and fashion industries, restaurants and clothing stores will gear marketing strategies towards specific demographics, aiming to attract customers based on taste, socio-economic status, location, or any slew of other criteria. Similarly, as a manufacturer, it’s imperative to impress upon potential clients the specific qualities you want to emphasize.
By choosing what aspects of your own business to highlight – such as capabilities, production speed, environmental or social benefits, work ethic, ingenuity, etc. – you are filtering out potential clients who are looking for just your kind of manufacturer.
3. Customer Relations Are Key
Perhaps the most significant lesson manufacturers can learn from the service industry is just how much focus should be placed on customer relations to drive interest and sales among current and potential partners.
Where many retailers find an edge over competition is often not in the quality or perceived value of the goods sold, but rather in the actual ease, simplicity, and thoroughness of the interaction itself. The same holds true for manufacturers; the ability to inform clients of project timeframes, make them aware of potential delays, or even just be available to answer questions about the production process, can frequently mean the difference between a customer choosing to work with you over a competitor.
Keeping in touch with your current or potential clients not only gives them the confidence in your honesty and work ethic – building trust and allowing them to depend on your capabilities – but also gives you a means to put out fires before problems in your process become disasters for them.
4. Manufacturing With A Modern Edge
First and foremost, a manufacturer should always be working to maintain and improve the quality, speed, and/or capacity of their facilities. But, in an economy where the production of almost everything has moved overseas or across the border, small manufacturers face an uphill battle just reaching potential customers, let alone remaining competitive with foreign companies that utilize lower wages or can circumvent regulations.
[ctt tweet=”A manufacturer should always be working to maintain & improve the quality, speed, or capacity of their facilities. @MakersRow” coverup=”UvfKz”]
However, by using these four habits of the service industry, small manufacturers can offer a more succinct, targeted image to potential customers and maintain a stronger, more thorough connection to keep current clients informed.
Not only will these tactics set a manufacturer apart from its rivals, but it will also keep them viable and competitive in the current economy. Let us know in the comments how you stand out in the industry!
0 thoughts on “4 Cues Manufacturers Should Take From the Service Industry”
This is a great article. I especially agreed with/liked #1…as a USA manufacturer it is so important to communicate the value you can bring to a potential customer and provide reasons why they should do business with you versus another (possibly overseas) competitor.
This is great, however, it won’t work until systems are in place to make manufacturing more transparent, cost effective and accessible to smaller brands. Despite all that Maker’s Row has done to create transparency, the industry still
operates in a 1960’s mentality–an odd match in today’s digital world. Last time I checked its fairly difficult to send a Telex from an iPhone.
Much innovation is needed, really a reinvention to be honest, of what manufacturing in this country means and how it works. This reinvention means competing on price, customer service and low minimums and shifting toward sustainability.
It pays very little benefit for most contractors to work, let alone talk, with smaller brands/manufacturers—it simply doesn’t fit their business model. They make money on quantity and efficiency and the ones that have survived the 1990’s mass exodus by some miracle of the NAFTA/MFA gods are able to squeeze out a few nickels to call profit. Most contractors worth their electricity bill already have enough clients (large ones) to keep them afloat. If they do work with smaller brands, it is to fill the cracks in between seasonal production runs of the big guys-at that point the production staff don’t care, bonus and overtime season is over, and quality and deadlines go out the door. Contracotrs are not in the business of hand-holding and dream making, why market to the public? Why brand?
The service industry does a great job with branding, outreach, etc. but the successful companies also follow-up with results and can solve problems–the apparel manufacturing world is not equipped to solve many of today’s problems, pain points, etc. especially for small emerging brands and designers.
Larger brands and established manufacturers know who all the quality contractors are and it is in their interest to keep them a secret—and for that same reason, its in the contractors interest to be off the radar. Even if you do get an address, call them on the phone, the real challenge is not navigating your way there (Google Maps is good for that), its navigating once inside.
There are contractors out there, many of which are on Maker’s Row, that are eager for a new model and are working hard to change the industry by working with smaller brands and rethinking design, sourcing and production. Much appreciation to all those courageos enough to think differnely.
At the Portland Apparel Lab (PAL), we are rethinking business strategy, product development, marketing, sales and finance to lower the economic, geographic and psychological cost barrier-to-entry young brands face when trying to break into an industry that thrives on opacity, on exclusivity and is designed for larger brands with lot’s of capital, quantity requirements, distribution and relationships to dominate and control market share.
Organizations like Pratt’s Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator, Manufacture New York, Factory 45, and PAL are setting out to change the game. Actually,
e-commence changed the game, the manufacturing revolution will reinvent the it. The future of fashion will be a lot different after it is disrupted.
We invite you to learn more about PAL, http://www.portlandapparellab.com/about.
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