Beauty with Brains

"Challenges in branding Small & Medium Scale Engineering companies."

Since 2002, Virtuosity has been actively engaged in transforming brands of engineering and technology companies from diverse verticals. In the past 18 years, we have gathered a fairly reasonable amount of experience working closely with the directors of these SME's (Small and Medium Scale Enterprises). 

This article is an effort to share insights on challenges in "Branding" engineering or technology companies and simple solutions to overcome them. These insights will also help entrepreneurs from engineering services who are struggling to develop their brand. 

Kindly note that this article is applicable for engineering/technology SMEs who are not only selling products but also providing engineering solutions or services.

Background:

It is observed that most of the engineering SMEs are engaged in a B2B (Business-to-Business) business model. Their target customers are mostly other companies. So either their solutions are ready-to-use products that can be independently used or they become part of an integrated project. 

For example, a vernier calliper is a ready product that is used directly on the shop floor. Whereas a pressure gauge or a pneumatic valve is integrated with an engineering solution.

 Often these engineering companies grow from a small fabrication shop to a mid-size company. Over the years, these companies grow organically from a humble beginning to eventually providing turn-key solutions addressing complex engineering problems. Mostly the reputation of their work speaks for itself to bag for future projects.

The Challenge:

However, after years, gaining their expertise it becomes a challenge when these engineering companies want to scale up. When they want to bag a larger project. Or become a vendor to larger companies. 

It becomes even more challenging when they face new international competitors that are now entering the local markets over the internet with lower MOQs and competitive prices. Logistics has become faster, cheaper and easier. Competition is now growing steeper, multifold, and has gone from local to international at just a few clicks away.

Often the thought of rebranding evolves at such turning points in the course of any engineering company. 

The common approach:

Most of these engineering SMEs adopt conventional marketing methods such as -

1. Word of mouth, banking on their years of reputation
2. Marketing people who are working with them for years together

And the common advertising techniques adopted by many engineering SMEs to support their marketing efforts are -

1. Designing of a website 
2. Doing online campaigns & search engine optimisation - SEO
3. Make a brochure 
4. Register on B2B portals
5. Participate in an exhibition

Very often these marketing and advertising methods are reluctantly adopted in staggered stages. This happens because sometimes they don't have the time or the budget. And a lot of times engineering SMEs don't know how to evaluate the performance of their advertising/marketing efforts. 

Nothing works as expected!

Many of you, especially from engineering companies, must have experienced that despite having a website, doing SEO, online campaigns, nothing helps to easily funnel right clients and close sales.

After futile attempts, it becomes evident that you cannot rely on these tactics. 

Directors are often left feeling that their competitors are competing only on the price point. It starts to paint an ugly picture of a highly competitive market. 

Eventually, they are exhausted from options to win new larger customers. Very often they also begin to doubt themselves. 

The problem is that Branding is often confused with advertising or online marketing. Its scope is merely stripped down to designing a new logo, creating a brochure, creating a new website and do search engine optimisation or ad campaigns. Hence there are preconceptions and misconceptions about branding.

Moreover, the stigma associated with the previous failure of adopting these methods keeps them from exploring any new methods.

Whereas the company has to deep dive into various aspects of brand development to bag larger orders.

Preconceptions & Misconceptions about Branding:

You will often hear Directors of these engineering SMEs say,

"Oh branding, it's not for us. I am not sure if we need it at this point. We are still small and have a focused market. Right now I am pressed on time and budget. Just a simple website and a 2-page brochure will do for me. You see we are not like a retail brand. B2B businesses like ours, don't need branding. We believe in our quality to sell for itself."

I know, most of you may be smiling after reading this. Either you may have said it at some point or you may have heard your boss say it.

It is a misconception that only B2C companies need branding. What about top B2B engineering and technology brands such as Renishaw, Festo, Mitutoyo, Bosch, 3M, ABB, Rockwell Automation, IMI Precision Engineering, Aventics, Thermax, Alfa Laval. Most of them started small. But they grew big because they had the "vision" to become a world-class engineering "Brand". Did they grow without investing time and money into their brand? You will often see these brands presenting themselves nicely at good events or industrial magazines. That does make a positive and lasting impression.

One of my favourite Brands is Festo. I am sure you must have seen the following video. So far it has 756,924 views. They have taken their brand beyond selling a portfolio of products. They give this futuristic & innovative edge to their brand. And if you check their website and YouTube Channel they have been highlighting such innovation since 2006.

Answer to the big and ugly WHY?

I have seen many SME engineering companies stuck in this awful situation where they have everything made but sales are not as expected. 

This happens because of mainly two reasons:-

Reason 1: There is no strategy to it and everything is deployed in a staggered way as and when the company allocates budgets.

Reason 2: Agencies handling your advertising are not from a technical or techno-commercial background. They do not understand the complexities of Branding engineering companies. Hence, the content is not taking your brand beyond displaying your products or solutions.

Mostly it means that either prospective buyers are not recognising you as a "trusted brand" in your vertical or they are not sure whether you can handle the scale of the project and the innovation it requires.

That is because creating a Trusted Brand & allied Brand Strategies for B2B engineering companies is far more complex and go beyond designing a logo, responsive website, a pretty brochure or getting listed on a search engine. 

Probably you will agree that the core of marketing for engineering companies hasn't changed much over the years. Techno commercial marketing for engineering products or solutions is far more complex, challenging and often time-consuming. Sometimes it takes as long as one year or even more to win a single project or to become a trusted supplier/vendor to any large company.

Even a small standard engineering product is thoroughly examined before being ordered. Every time the engineering companies have to prove their mettle to their buyers. The level of scrutiny from the buyer's side increases if the offered engineering solutions are custom made. Buyers will normally check,

1. Design Skills
2. Engineering Capabilities
3. Infrastructure
4. Quality standards & reliability
5. Awards & Accreditation 
6. Clients and Exports
7. After-sales support and maintenance

The buyers have to scrutinise because many lives depend on it. For example, a simple $10 gas gasket can cause hazardous accidents, enormous loss of life and property. A simple failure of a bearing can trigger a cascading effect to stop an entire production line which could result in the loss of millions of dollars.

I will give you another good example of how gaining "Trust" is a difficult factor to win by a mere good looking logo or product photos. Of course, here I do not contradict that a good logo can help increase recollection value.

Example - When you visit any famous eCommerce portal, even if you see the "Trusted seal" next to a seller, do you feel comfortable making a purchase instantly? You may shortlist them. But you will still check for "customer reviews"? Then you might even check the sellers' website to check their authenticity. Once you are satisfied you will make that purchase. This is ok for a retail product. Now imagine how difficult it gets for an engineering company.

So an engineering brand needs to reflect all the aspects to establish a trust factor other than aesthetic elements? 

Are you taking your brand beyond those aesthetic realms? 

Is your Brand conveying Emotion and Intelligence? 

Form a Culture within the organisation to reflect emotional quotient and intelligence.

Beyond creating an aesthetic value for your engineering Brand, the Brand has to create a culture to reflect the emotional quotient and intellectual qualities of your organisation. Usually, it starts from within the organisation. And it has to be communicated outside the organisation while interacting with your audience at different touch-points. Forming this culture is very difficult but crucial. That is how you can build confidence and trust in your brand. This will separate you from the rest of the competition.

That's why I call an engineering brand as "Beauty with Brains".

Extracting out an emotional and intellectual differentiator is the most challenging part of the Branding process of any engineering company. It has to reflect everywhere in your language, behaviour, content, photos, videos, etc. The medium can be anything from your website to brochures or even participation in an event.

This cannot be done overnight, it is a continuous process. I have normally experienced that it takes at least a year to reach your first milestone in the branding process.

A few questions that can set you in the right direction.

1. Have you poured enough of your own time to create value in your content that will portray that emotion and intellect? 
2. Is your content strategically translating the technical differentiator of your product/solution? 
3. Is the content highlighting your years of legacy in building quality products/solutions that you are offering?
4. Have you made your content interesting enough to generate curiosity in the minds of your target audience or is it creating a monologue?
5. Do you have a sales pitch? Have you considered how you will use that sales pitch at different touch-points while interacting with your clients? 
6. Has your content gone dry? Have you thought of various ways to present your products/solutions to captivate the interest of your audience?
7. Is your brand touching the hearts? Is it talking about how your brand is making their life easier? or How innovative it is?

Yes! Successful engineering brands give deep thought to each of these aspects which helps them to grow bigger. They have gone beyond designing or advertising platforms. There is certainly a deeper sense of emotion and intelligence they cultivate while building their brand.

Branding is a culture.

I have observed that most SMEs get into trouble because of procrastination. They know and they want to work on their brands but they don't know "how" and "when". They don't know "who" are the right people who can help them. They are so busy in their daily routine that they cannot think of anything else. Hence mostly "Branding" is outsourced to a design/advertising agency. You need to understand that designing is a mere process. However, branding has to be cultivated within the organisation as a culture. Advertising and its platforms, on the other hand, provide you a medium to convey that message about your organisational culture to your audiences.

The following are a few helpful tips to start working on your brand.

1. The Mindset of the Director plays an important role in making or breaking their brand. You need to have a positive and dynamic attitude when you want to shake your organisation to build a brand out of it. Probably the rest of your team has gone into a slumber. Its time to shake things up and bring some new excitement into your organisation. Ask your team to proactively participate.  
2. Passion and a Vision for a larger picture:  If the entrepreneur is passionate enough to envision building a world-class "Brand", then so shall it be. Find passion in what you are doing and build a larger picture of your enterprise. 
3. Time is an investment one has to make to achieve extraordinary results. Consider "Branding" as your new self-improvement project. Treat it like an exercise. Allot a time slot and isolate yourself every day to work on your project. The best way is to put a simple reminder on your phone. Once you become habitual in a week or so, you will love it. You will rediscover your pioneering spirit just like when you started your company. 
4. Hire a Brand Specialist who has already done it for numerous other engineering companies. A combination of skills in techno-commercial marketing, graphic and web tools, technical content writing will surely help. Only design skills or writing skills are not sufficient.
5. Budget is always a constrain for SMEs. Even if the turnover is large, their profit margins are slim. Additionally, the cost of the infrastructure, machines and skilled workforce usually keep the owners on their toes. It is very difficult to juggle between customer credits and cash credits of the banks. However, if you want to scale up and bring about a substantial change, consider branding as an investment into your company, not an expense. Because machines depreciate over the years but a good brand can only appreciate as years pass by. Besides after working for so many years at least now is the right time to capitalise on what you have worked for. 

I hope this was insightful for you and you will be able to see some case studies on how we have transformed SMEs.

Baker Gauges https://www.virtuosity.asia/baker-gauges

Agro Tech company https://www.virtuosity.asia/agroripe

Jatayu, a street cleaning machine https://www.virtuosity.asia/spruce-up

Food Processing https://www.virtuosity.asia/mfoods

Thank you for taking out time to read this article. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to write to us at info@virtuosity.asia.

www.virtuosity.asia | www.instagram.com/brandguruji | www.youtube.com/virtuosity

The copyrights of the mentioned Brands belong to the respective Brand owners. Photo Credit: Image by alan9187 from Pixabay