Manufacturing is a uniquely intricate and interconnected ecosystem. It’s a network of supplier and partner relationships that come together to deliver the components, technologies and completed goods that shape our lives; everything from healthcare to automotive to energy supply and technology.
The manufacturing businesses that make up this ecosystem have many different priorities when they transact with one another. Their success has always depended on operational efficiency, on compliance and safety, and on securing competitive pricing. Today, though, there’s a new imperative shaping their decisions. Manufacturing buyers and businesses don’t just need suppliers. They need innovation partners.
LinkedIn has partnered with GWI for an in-depth survey of 1,767 B2B manufacturing buyers worldwide. In our new report, The Innovation Imperative for Manufacturing Marketers, we explain how the need to keep pace with disruption and emerging technologies is reshaping how buyers choose the businesses that they’ll work with.
The Challenges of Emerging Manufacturing Technology
The challenge that manufacturing buyers face is that 86% of them want to be seen as technology leaders, but 53% say they are struggling to keep pace with technological change. The rapid rise of robotics, automation, AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) makes choosing the right suppliers an essential element in future-proofing business strategy. However, there’s a problem: 55% of manufacturing buyers admit that they struggle to tell vendors apart.
The innovation imperative in manufacturing therefore creates both challenges and opportunities for marketers. Those that develop effective strategies for differentiating their brands, explaining their solutions and building awareness and trust, have a great deal to gain. Those that struggle to do so, risk falling behind. After all, technology expertise and innovative products and services are now rated as the most important characteristics when researching manufacturing vendors, and brand trust rivals price when it comes to making final decisions at the point of purchase.
The Innovation Imperative for Manufacturing Marketers analyzes the factors transforming manufacturing purchases – and how marketers can respond by establishing their brands as trusted innovation partners:
- 60% of buyers would like to work with new manufacturing vendors, but 53% struggle to find them
- 84% of manufacturing buyers have more budget to spend and 78% have larger buying groups involved in deciding how to invest it
- 36% of manufacturing buyers always discuss the ads they see from vendors with their colleagues
- 45% use information they find on social media to guide their purchase decisions
Discover how to build the brand trust that you need to position your manufacturing business as a trusted innovation partner The Innovation Imperative for Manufacturing Marketers is available for download now.
