What’s In an [OEM] Brand

Have you ever noticed that some manufacturing companies continuously stand out as the envy of the industry, the market and your sales team, while others haven’t been noticed much at all since that one decades-old product innovation? What you’re seeing is the difference between being a business and a brand. Inventing a new powertrain technology, safety feature, or even product category will only take you so far, for so long. A brand will build on that pioneering mindset consistently over time and become a mainstay in the industry.

We’ve learned a lot across our years working with manufacturers who have made the choice to connect their business strategy to their brand strategy. The way they differentiate themselves makes a clear case about customer advantage. Here are a few things you can learn from them.

Signs it’s time to focus on your brand

Unfortunately, a lot of businesses (especially those in a dealer-distribution system) have a tendency to deprioritize their brand. They find themselves working harder (entirely through sales activity) and not smarter (with the help of brand marketing to grease the skids). When the brand gets neglected at the top, it can get even messier at the dealer level — creating an inconsistent and confusing buying experience for a customer.

How do you know your brand is in need of care? When it’s time to tend to your company image, it usually starts with a gut feeling — and then is reinforced with evidence from the market. Here are some signals that suggest your brand strategy could use attention through either a rebrand, a reposition or a refresh.

You and others across your business notice:

• Customers don’t ask for us by name.
• Too often we’re competing on price.
• We’re not able to say why our customers should pay more for our products.
• We don’t know how to talk about our company. We don’t have a cohesive story.
• We look dated compared to our competitors – both in our appearance and go-to-market execution — and in how dealers experience us. The identity and messaging that reflected our business well in the 1980s may misrepresent the company today.
• Because we haven’t clarified our brand, sales is defining it — filling it in with their own experience, truth and limited creativity.
• Our customers are getting vastly different experiences depending on which dealer they buy from.
• We talk too much about what we do and not enough about what you get as a customer.
• We’re struggling to compete in new markets or geographies and don’t have connections or legacy employees to get introductions and referrals.
• We’re struggling to compete in new categories – electrification, telematics or mobile service, for example — because we haven’t earned the trust of our primary target.
• We’re bad at naming things.
• It’s hard to make sense of our portfolio of brands and products, particularly after a few acquisitions, when our brands and products no longer feel like part of the same family because they have disparate naming styles and visual appearance.
• We only invest in marketing when we’re losing market share or when there’s excess inventory.

The common objections

Putting in the work to build and maintain a brand is a commitment, and admittedly takes a lot of effort. It’s not dissimilar from the commitment we face as people to start and maintain a fitness routine. In both instances, there are many excuses to not start and not continue — it’s too expensive, we don’t have time, we don’t have someone to guide us, there’s no guarantee it will work. And in both instances, there are many benefits to seeing it through.

These are the most common objections we see from manufacturing companies that are not ready to invest in brand-building and brand awareness.

“We’d rather cut costs than invest more.” There may be more perceived value in cost management, but this strategy rarely results in stronger sales.

“We’re more focused on making sales immediately.” When sales is the organization’s strongest muscle, it’s easy to double-down on this approach. Over time, though, immediate sales and profitability hinders brand recognition and preference for future sales.

“The products sell themselves.” While the product may be seen as a commodity — won exclusively on price and availability — sales in the dealer distribution model are heavily weighted on relationships, experience, and loyalty.

“There’s no ROI in brand awareness campaigns.” In the short-term, this may be true, and it’s a difficult metric to track. But brand building is — and always has been — designed for long-term effects won over time. You’re unlikely to see an immediate shift in customer behavior or sales.

“We can’t invest in more employees to handle brand initiatives.” A strong brand advantage requires a proactive mindset — an ability to see around corners and steer your brand. Many manufacturing companies have a functional marketer on staff, but that person is far removed from the business strategy and by default becomes the reactive toolbox to sales’ requests.

“How can we be expected to create a brand from nothing?” Your brand already exists. The simple truth is that you may need some outside help to expose, define, and crystalize the best of you — but it’s already there.

There may be valid reasoning behind some of these objections, but the truth is that an investment in branding pays dividends from the manufacturer level down to the dealer — and keeps your name front and center in the customer’s minds when it comes time to purchase again.

A strong brand gives you superpowers

As a company with a product being sold in a dealer distribution network, you have two options: 1. Be cheap. 2. Be different. Behind every great brand is a leader and a leadership team willing to take a risk and make the investment so their customers, dealers, employees, industry and community experience the best of them. If you’ve ever worked with or for a strong brand, you have felt the brand act as an accelerant in many areas.

Here are some of the best reasons for investing in brand:

• Perceived Value: Seeing yourself as premium and presenting yourself as such are the first steps in commanding premium pricing. By creating emotional connections with customers, you can turn a simple purchase into a more meaningful experience. This can lead to brand loyalty — and an ability to command higher prices — even for commodities.
• Increased Recognition: A well-defined brand improves visibility and recognition, which can lead to consumer-driven demand at the dealership and more opportunities for collaboration, partnerships, and market expansion.
• Dealer Performance: Your dealers can help steer customers to the best solution. Let that solution be yours. When you do your part to make the simple stuff simple (specifications and trim levels, accessories, photos, etc.) AND arm them with powerful brand insights, like customer testimonials, post-possession owner’s resources and brand story videos about the craftsmanship that went into your product, you are fortifying the experience at the dealership.
• Right-fit Talent: Potential and current employees are drawn to organizations with a strong reputation and a clear point of view on themselves and the industry. They will infer that the outsides match the insides. Studies show that executives are willing to work at these employers of choice for less money because the experience comes with cachet factor.
• Market Entry: Whether it’s expanding into a new market or a new line of business, a respected brand more quickly overcomes barriers to entry because they have a cut-through story and a record of demonstrated excellence in other spaces.
• Resilience to Market Changes: During hard times, like market fluctuations and crisis, the market looks to strong brands to deliver certainty and reliability. Brand loyalty provides a buffer during hard times.
• Spotlight Moments: A compelling brand narrative engages customers and provides context for the company and its products and services. Reputable brands are the first to get noticed at trade shows, be invited to speak on stage at industry events or sought out for front page stories. They have done the self-reflection paired with the industry assessment to offer a valuable perspective that others want to know.

Brand investment goes far beyond naming a product, creating a logo, or launching a clever campaign. Your brand is every interaction someone has with your company — intentional or not. Investing in brand development is an investment in long-term growth.