Intergage recently co-hosted an online Directors’ Forum with The Manufacturer, bringing together manufacturing business owners to discuss their challenges, as well as how the industry plans to evolve and move forward, despite these uncertain times.
This gathering has informed the Marketing In Manufacturing Survey (sponsored by Intergage and The Manufacturer) which will measure the industry’s attitudes towards marketing and business development.
The overwhelming consensus in the Forum was that reinvesting cash into businesses is what will keep the supply chain alive. Investments in new technology, marketing, people and skills will allow businesses to take advantage of growth on the other side of the current, unprecedented climate.
Those who don’t make these investments are adapting at a slower rate than the world around. As a result, they’re already behind the curve.
The group referred to this previous blog covering a Harvard Business Review report based on a study of almost 5,000 businesses during and after previous recessions. The report clearly demonstrates an average of 37% top- and bottom-line growth for businesses that balanced marketing and reinvestment costs with conserving cash and enhancing processes.
In the manufacturing industry, winning market share is key. Not investing in business growth and marketing will risk businesses being disrupted – or worse – completely displaced in the market. This is something The Manufacturer has previously touched on.
On the other side of the coin, manufacturers are faced with walking a tightrope between reinvesting and conserving cash. One member of the forum felt that messaging needed to change at a government level. While businesses should be conserving cash, they shouldn’t curb spending on business development and things that will add value.
There were also clear frustrations amongst the group regarding the UK government’s ignorance of the challenges faced by manufacturers, such as the effects that Brexit will have on the industry.
In the last six months, business have needed to be more agile than ever, adapting to new ways of working and, in some cases, adapting to new demands in the market.
The group was split between feeling a sense of opportunity and threat when it came to working virtually.
While some felt there had been an increase in productivity due to a decreased need to travel, others felt that working virtually could jeopardise building new relationships. However, all agreed that a blend of offline and online working would ultimately allow businesses to succeed and potentially improve processes.
There is also money to be saved in taking a more virtual approach to working. A recent report found that by the last week of March alone, travel expense claims alone were down by 40% year-on-year.
So, does that mean industrial business now have more opportunity to invest in digital and inbound marketing?
That’s exactly what the Marketing in Manufacturing survey aims to find out!
The Marketing in Manufacturing Survey will reveal how industrial businesses plan to use marketing and business development to boost growth and become more progressive.
Exclusive insights will be shared with those who take part first and then with a wider audience in a report set to be published in September 2020 revealing: