Should Marketing Matter To You?
We all know what sales is, but what is marketing, really? Marketing is a broad, challenging and often misunderstood function. To many, it’s a logo and brochures, television commercials or a website. But marketing is much more than these individual elements; it’s an investment that generates demand and drives sales, profits and growth.
“No management discipline is more important for the small manufacturer than marketing. Companies that are successful today have defined how to differentiate themselves and figured out how to bring what is different to the market in a more appealing, user-friendly way with superior customer service. It’s easy for a small manufacturer to get caught up in day-to-day operations and not devote enough time and energy to marketing. A company needs to market and brand itself. We urge the MEP centers to spend more time teaching small manufacturers how to market themselves.”
*Source: Interview with Albert A. Frink, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing and Services, The Future Success of Small and Medium Manufacturers: Challenges and Policy Issues, by The Manufacturing Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers and RSM McGladrey, Inc., 2006
MARKETING:
SCMEP’s Marketing Top-Line Growth services help companies:
- Align goals and capabilities with market opportunities, and develop a roadmap outlining marketing strategies, tactics and activities
- Design a customized strategic approach to improve market penetration and increase customer diversification by boosting the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing and sales
- Improve sales capabilities, execution and accountability through monitoring, measuring and rewarding the effective performance of activities key to account development and management
- Create a positioning and branded identity and develop communications assets (website, brochures, etc.) that convey the company’s key marketing messages
- Take full advantage of online opportunities (website design/redesign, search engine marketing, e-mail, etc.) to inform, persuade and interact with target customers