Marketing Plans Michigan

CASE STUDY 2: MANUFACTURING COMPANY

The Client:

A mid–sized non–ferrous metal forging plant (primarily copper alloys) who sells product worldwide into 9 specific industries ranging from high technology to industrial and even research applications.

The Challenge:

There is no doubt that this company knew what they were doing‚ having been in business for over 60 years‚ surviving many ups and downs in the manufacturing sector. They have superior expertise in providing quality products‚ in fact their quality record‚ as much as we could determine‚ was unmatched in their industry providing quality parts 99.8% of the time.

The problem however was that most of the industries that they serviced were either stagnant or declining for a number of reasons. In some cases‚ newer technology was making existing methods obsolete‚ while in other cases they couldn’t seem to break into some of the accounts that were being serviced by their competition.

The use of traditional “sales rep” networks was becoming more expensive to manage effectively and because of increased competition the traditional selling methods were just not working any more. Further‚ lead sources that had been effective in the past‚ like the Thomas Register were changing their delivery mediums from printed catalogs to online application (Thomasnet).

So‚ our challenges were many:

First‚ we needed to provide new sources for lead generation.
Second we needed to provide support to the sales force in infiltrating specifics areas that were identified
And third and maybe most importantly‚ we needed to develop a Strategic Message that could be used company–wide to effectively communicate with their customers and prospects.

The Solution:

As with all of our clients we started by finding out what they did well and put together evidence that would support the claims that needed to be made to accomplish our objectives. In this case we were dealing with non–traditional products and to us that meant a non–traditional marketing approach.

We developed a Strategic Message that identified their Unique Selling Proposition and included a focus on the quality record mentioned above. Delivery times are typically an important issue in the manufacturing realm‚ however because of capacity issues‚ these were slipping and we needed to find a way to bring them back in line‚ so that we could taut a good record.

Through talking to the customers we were able to verify the need to address this issue and we knew that changes needed to be made in order show success. This company innovated or made a change to favorably impact their delivery times. This change was a seemingly simple one: to add a second shift to the forging crew.

Although this seemed simple‚ it took the better part of 9 months to not only hire this crew‚ but bring them up to speed so that they were producing effective results.

Next‚ we developed a brand new website that was very specific about the niche offerings for each of the 9 industries. Not only were we able to clearly communicate each niche‚ but we were also able to show the advantages of working with this company to their customers and prospects.

We not only produced a campaign to maximize their Search Engine Optimization (SEO)‚ but also implemented a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign to drive traffic to their site.

To this day‚ they continue to conduct on–going customer surveys on a monthly basis to constantly monitor customer satisfaction and respond to the feedback that they get. In one instance a survey showed a less than satisfactory result‚ but by being able to act quickly‚ they were able to resolve the customer concern almost immediately and avoid a potential long term problem or worse‚ the loss of a customer.

The Result:

In this last year (2006) there has been a sales increase by 60%‚ some of this due to the use of the Educational Marketing System (EMS)™‚ some due to the increase in raw material costs and some due to general increases in one of the high technology industries.

But for us‚ here’s the good news:

They average 2 new customers per month from internet
90% of all new customers come from Marketing activities
They have received over $500‚000 in new business in 2006 alone‚ directly attributed to these marketing activities

This is what they had to say:

“Not only did the process of implementing marketing not disrupt any of our systems‚ but through an innovation to our website‚ we saw dramatic results in our quote requests. The number of quotes increased from 2% to 13% and those quoted were 41% more targeted to what the prospect ultimately needed. The client research even opened our eyes to the actual client values as quality‚ delivery‚ and price‚ in that order. We were quite surprised that our original perception was incorrect.

Needless to say‚ I am delighted to recommend the system that Luftig & Warren International uses. Their scientific approach to assessing‚ addressing‚ and testing what the clients really want not only makes sense‚ but genuinely works. We look forward to the next steps in our marketing endeavors.”