Manufacturing
INDUSTRY FACTSHEET Industry Overview Major manufactured products consist of transportation equipment, computers and electronics, chemicals, machinery, food and products made of plastic, metal and paper. Demand depends entirely on consumer spending. And profitability of individual manufacturing companies is determined on efficient production and distribution. The larger companies in this sector often have large economies of scale in purchasing, production and marketing. Subsequently, the smaller manufacturing companies are able to compete by producing specialized products. Most manufacturers sell to wholesalers, so developing and maintaining long-term relationships with repeat customers are central goals to marketing and sales initiatives. Additionally, although pricing is important, product quality and timely delivery are often more crucial. Price pressures, for instance, are high for North American based manufacturers that compete with lower-cost foreign producers. As a result, these manufacturers are increasingly setting their sights on specialty products that have a low-labor, but high technology content.
Business Challenges Dependent on Consumer Spending: Production in the manufacturing industry is determined by consumer spending, which can rapidly change during economic slowdown. Extensive Government Regulation: In an effort to protect workers and prevent pollution, all levels of government across the globe regulate the many activities of manufacturing companies. These regulations can often add to the cost of production, as well as affect imports and exports of many raw material and manufactured products. Volatile Energy, Raw Material Costs: Frequent changes in prices for energy and raw materials is a direct result of a scarcity of resources and long supply routes. For example, crude oil and natural gas prices can change more than 30 percent annually.
Industry Opportunities Business-to-Business Internet Communication: Many manufacturers have cut delivery time and bypassed distributors by ordering parts and products through Internet sites. Internet auction sites enable suppliers to bid to fill supply contracts. The success of Internet-based procurement is tied to the enhancement of logistics networks, so suppliers can essentially keep delivery costs low. Improved Logistics: Many manufacturers invest in distribution technology and better logistics communication in an effort to minimize inventories and speed distribution. Such enhancements include satellite communication links with delivery trucks, cargo containers with communication capabilities, specialized cargo ships that can be unloaded in less time and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which allow individual products to be tracked. Ultimately, superior communication between suppliers and manufacturers eases productions scheduling and product flow. Copyright Š 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.
Manufacturing
INDUSTRY FACTSHEET Green Manufacturing Practices: Along with investing in overall energy efficiency, manufacturers are also redesigning plants and entire processes in order to reduce emissions and the company’s carbon footprint. These types of green investments can provide an attractive return and allow the company to promote a positive environmental message to consumers and investors.
Digital Marketing Trends Marketing Budget Changes Despite the economic challenges of recent years, B2B marketers worldwide from various industries have increased their marketing budgets for 2011. Specifically, those within the manufacturing industry increased their marketing spending in 2011 by 4.3%. Other industries mentioned in the study include business and professional services, hightech products, finance and insurance companies as well as high-tech services, all of which increased their marketing budgets this year.
Social Media Usage Among Manufacturing Companies The manufacturing industry is starting to tap into the use of social media as part of their marketing strategies. In 2010, 45% of companies in the manufacturing industry said they were currently using social media. Meanwhile, 19% of manufacturing companies have plans to integrate social media in the near future to reach customers and extend the reach of their messages. Though 32% of respondents said they currently do not use social media or have no plans of using it, experts predict this will change as the popularity of social media continues to grow.
Planned Change in the Use of Social Media The majority of manufacturing companies worldwide plan to somewhat increase the use of social media for product innovation (58% of respondents). Meanwhile 32% of manufacturing companies worldwide plan to significantly increase their use of social media in order to promote product innovation in 2011. Approximately 8% of respondents said they don’t plan on implementing any changes in how they use social media for product innovation purposes, while 3% are unsure about any planned changes for social media usage.
Copyright Š 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.
Manufacturing
INDUSTRY FACTSHEET Timeframe for Social Media Usage According to eMarketer, 15% of worldwide manufacturing companies planned to use social media in less than 6 months of Q2 2010 in order to promote product innovation. Twenty-two percent of respondents said they would use social media between 6-12 months of the second quarter of 2010 to promote product innovation. The same percentage of manufacturing companies around the world (22%) said they would use social media within 12 months or beyond of Q2 2010 to add further innovation to their products. Only a small segment of respondents (6%) said they didn’t know the estimated timeframe for using social media for product innovation.
Digital Marketing Opportunities Immediate Areas of Focus for Social and Mobile When we look at the latest digital marketing opportunities of social media and mobile for the manufacturing sector, their main considerations and focus should be on how they can use these technologies to help with faster time-tomarket for their products, generate more product ideas and innovations and better quality product ideas. On the social front, manufacturing companies are leveraging social technologies like blogs, LinkedIn, and forums to help them gather product feedback from their consumers and YouTube to help demonstrate new product launches and features via videos. On the mobile front, companies in the manufacturing sector are mostly concerned with how they can automate manual processes to boost service productivity by enabling company executives to view on-the-fly performance and production metrics, operations personnel to receive real-time alerts on production problems and allow the ability for suppliers to receive notifications of any problem resolution reports that can be created instantaneously onsite. When it comes to social technologies and mobile marketing, below is where we see the majority of manufacturing companies making considerations from a strategy standpoint.
Social Technologies Blog
Twitter LinkedIn YouTube News Feeds/ Social Alerts
Social Bookmarking
Copyright Š 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.
Forums
Review Sites
Manufacturing
INDUSTRY FACTSHEET Mobile Marketing Mobile Site
Mobile Local Search
Mobile Ads/ Text
Mobile Apps
Popular Pay-Per-Click Keywords Keyword manufacturing lean manufacturing car manufacturers manufacturing process manufacturing consent manufacturing jobs contract manufacturing manufacturing companies clothing manufacturers manufacturing engineering hammond manufacturing goodman manufacturing manufacturing processes china manufacturing computer aided manufacturing flexible manufacturing system chinese manufacturers manufacturing industry manufacturing technology cement manufacturing process
Advertiser Competition 0.12 0.49 0.29 0.1 0.04 0.46 0.46 0.31 0.78 0.12 0.32 0.56 0.27 0.71 0.08 0.02 0.91 0.09 0.15 0.32
Global Monthly Searches 49500 49500 8100 8100 6600 6600 5400 5400 4400 4400 4400 3600 3600 2900 2900 2900 2900 2400 2400 2400
Copyright Š 2011 by Research and Management. All rights reserved.
Estimated Cost per Click 1.55 2.85 3.42 0.79 2.33 0.57 3.84 1.52 0.8 1.35 1.87 2.11 1.94 1.85 2.76 3.02 1.19 1.07 1.24 0.8