AberdeenGroup research suggests that greater customer expectations, shrinking budgets, and heightened supplier competition has raised the bar on the tools used and ways manufacturers go about managing customer relationships. Here's a look at the data -- and some recommendations for optimizing customer interactions.
Businesses no longer choose manufacturers or plants based solely on lowest pricing, configuration capabilities, location, just-in-time or on-time delivery. AberdeenGroup research suggests that higher customer expectations, shrinking budgets, and increased competition from numerous vendors, all clamoring for a piece of the supply chain production pie, are pressuring marketers to increase their investment in customer-focused processes and technologies.
In short, marketers in manufacturers will need to work faster and more efficiently to capture a greater share of each customer's wallet -- or to be the sole producer of their products.
Marketers in manufacturing industries understand the need to plan effectively. Fully 77% of recent survey respondents* reported that they have a documented marketing strategy process that is regularly reviewed and adjusted to provide a sustainable competitive advantage.
This disciplined approach pays off. Leaders reported an average customer retention rate of 31%, as well as a greater than 15% increase in annual revenues.
Additionally, many manufacturers have invested in various enabling technologies in the last decade. These platforms, applications, and tools include customer relationship management (CRM), marketing resource management, sales force automation, market analytics, and call center solutions -- all implemented with a goal of automating processes, enhancing productivity, and increasing revenues.
However, these changes have been largely incremental, with approximately 52% utilizing one or more of these enabling technologies.
Among senior marketers who reported having these enabling technology tools at their disposal, only 10% have the processes and infrastructure in place to automate and integrate their outbound campaign planning across multiple marketing, trade promotion, advertising, or communications channels.
In fact, 37% of marketers that do integrate their planning processes do so manually.
Aberdeen research suggests that senior marketers in manufacturing still spend much of their planning time e-mailing or sharing printouts of "spreadmarts" in multiple meetings that end with more data being reentered or imported into multiple databases. Informational silos -- whether by product line, brand or by function, such as business development/sales, operations, promotion, advertising or corporate marketing -- reduce productivity and are an impediment to the flow of customer information across the enterprise.
Best-in-Class Leverage Analytics to Understand Customers