Made,More,Than,Manufacturing,S marketing Made in More Than a Manufacturing Statement
Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t
Imagine that I told you of a product, but that it was one about which I knew nearly nothing: I didn't know what its price was, what any of its unique features were or even what type of product it was. But imagine I did know the product's country of origin. Let's, just for fun, say the product was from Switzerland. Now, what would your impression of this product be? I bet, even now, as part of this hypothetical situation I'm posing, be able to tell me something the mystery product's likely price level, its probable quality and the reputation it most likely enjoyed. Such assumptions would be inspired by the preconceptions you, as a consumer, hold about the country in question. Country branding means much more than adhering a "Made in XXX" label to a product. Origin constitutes an important piece of branding which, in many cases, can be so influential that it overtakes the brand's other reputation builders.If I were to tell you that the next supercar were to come from Germany, you probably wouldn't be surprised. You would probably be immediately curious about it, expecting the fictional vehicle to be of high engineering and design quality, expensive and solid. Now imagine I did surprise you by revealing that the forthcoming supercar was actually to be a product of Greece. Your impressions of the likely product would be totally changed, your assumptions inspired by the apparent personality the country of origin communicates to your perceptions.Have you ever wondered why every perfume bottle is accompanied by packaging that bears the banner "Paris, Milan, New York, Rome, London"? I'm sure you don't really expect the perfume to be produced all those places. Now imagine the perfume's catalogue of cities read something like "Prague, Helsinki, Melbourne, Seattle, Oslo, Auckland". I guarantee your first impressions of both versions of the same article would be coloured by the suppositions you made about their two proclamations of notional affiliation. Quite ironic when none of us believe for a minute that any of the cited locales have anything to do with the product's manufacture.I can't stop thinking about how valuable some countries are for their manufacturers. A high-tech brand coming from Japan makes sense for most of us. I'm convinced the promotional task for a high-tech brand in, say, the USA, would be a substantially easier one if the product hailed from Japan than it would be if its label read "Made in Iceland". Why? Because the country establishes the brand's initial reputation. Conversely, brands themselves can create countries' reputations. Let's consider Finland. If I asked you to respond to the notion of Finland ten years ago you'd probably have said things like "cold", "midnight sun", and so on. Today you're likely to think of high-tech mobile phone technology when you think of Finland. And this huge mind shift is purely thanks to Nokia (which, by the way, was a chainsaw manufacturer just twenty years ago).So, you can claim that brands create countries' reputations and that countries create brands' reputations. This is a very interesting piece of theory to keep in mind for when you next find the opportunity to create a new brand from scratch. The theory should not only make you consider what values your brand should stand for, but also where it should be manufactured and where it should be perceived as being manufactured. Having the wrong country label on your package won't destroy your brand, but I'm convinced that having the right "Made in" label will save you a substantial amount of marketing money.
Made,More,Than,Manufacturing,S