INDUSTRIAL MARKETING AND ADVERTISING

As Alligator Designs is an aerospace and defence supplier, industrial advertising and marketing campaigns are crucial to help gain clients and promote business. Definition: Also known as business to business or B2B advertising, industrial advertising is the strategy of attracting the attention of another business and convincing that company to purchase the goods and services offered by another business. The key component is to provide something that a particular business needs in order to function. The marketing concept for the business enterprises of industrial buyer is to define the needs of a target market and modify the organizations product or service to satisfy those needs more successfully than its competitors. Main features of the B2B selling process are:

Marketing is one-to-one in nature. It is relatively easy for the seller to identify a prospective customer and build a face-to-face relationship. Highly professional and trained people in buying processes are involved. In many cases, two or three decision makers must approve a purchase plan. Often the buying or selling process is complex, and includes many stages (for example, request for proposal, request for tender, selection process, awarding of tender, contract negotiations, and signing of final contract). Selling activities involve long processes of prospecting, qualifying, wooing, making representations, preparing tenders, developing strategies, and contract negotiations.

Objectives

Create awareness Reach inaccessible places: Advertising in trade journals, business magazines that are
read by R&D Managers, engineers help the companies to reach their target audience, whom they cannot meet during their visit.

Improve sales: Increasing their sales efficiency and effectiveness as people are already
aware of their company, products, etc.

Reduce cost: A single advertising reaches a vast number of people that comes out
cheaper than a single salesperson meeting so many people personally.

SALES PROMOTION
Promotion strategy is used by the industrial marketers to inform, persuade and influence the decision making power of prospective and existing customers. Where, some companies use the strategy for capturing selected markets while others use it to increase or stabilize the sales and to give additional information and added value of their products. Sales promotion is about action. It is about stimulating customers to buy a product. It is not designed to be informative, a role which advertising is much better suited to. NEED FOR SALES PROMOTION a) to introduce a new product in the market b) to influence the public with the help of new uses of the product c) to increase the frequency of purchase by each buyer d) to encourage dealers to stock more goods e) to withstand in the competitive field f) to increase the sales by imparting special training to salesmen and by window display

METHODS
Trade Shows (Exhibition): Trade shows present the manufacturers an occasion to exhibit
and demonstrate their products to a large number of customers in a short period of time. Trade shows are generally organized by trade associations annually at a particular location or at some exhibitions where in companies lease some space to display and demonstrate their products to the potential customers. Trade shows offers several advantages for industrial marketers like: one-to-one contact with the potential buyers and existing customers that increases the awareness on company and its products building database of prospective customers, goodwill and relationship with the potential buyers demonstrating non-portable (bulky) equipment that is otherwise difficult to take to each prospect discovering new and innovative products of competitors

opportunity to get new product ideas due to customer interactions a good break for the newly joined salespersons who get on the job training by interacting with varied customers generating leads for new business

There are certain disadvantages also with trade shows like It is one of the expensive form of promotion it is very difficult to identify the potential customer among the huge audience visiting the exhibition pulling/attracting the customers to visit one place is very difficult

Trade fairs in India (relevant)

1. Aero India (Aero Show), Yelahanka air base-----------once every 2 YEARS 2. DEFENCE EXPO: Indias DEFENCE Technology and Products Exhibition, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi-----------once every 2 YEARS 3. Electronica India, Bangalore: International Conference and Exhibition of Electronic Components, Materials and Production Equipment. -----------once every 2 YEARS 4. IICDES (India International Civil & DEFENCE Equipment & Systems Exhibition & Conference. International DEFENCE & Aerospace Systems, Equipment and Devices for Ground, Air, Naval & Security Forces, besides dual-use, commercial aerospace aviation, airports, Asoka Convention Center, New Delhi-----------once every 2 YEARS 5. INDESEC EXPO : Indias only exhibition and conference dedicated to homeland security. Focused on the buoyant homeland security market in India, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi-----------once every 1 YEAR

6. Productronica India: International Exhibition and Conference for Electronic Production Technologies, New Delhi

CATALOGS AND DATASHEETS: Catalogs are the printed form of direct marketing
promotional tools used by industrial marketers to provide information about their products especially if they have long product lines with different shapes, sizes or other features. The company sales force meets the potential buyers and explains the product features by offering catalogs. Based on the different catalogs collected from different suppliers, a potential buyer compares the features of different products and seeks quotations from the supplier who provides best quality product at economical price.

Hence, a catalog should try to provide all the relevant information that a buyer is seeking from the company about a particular product (specific catalog) or all the products in general (general catalog). A catalog commonly contains information like product specifications, performance data, service requirements, application of products, illustrations and drawings, etc. Catalogs also support the efforts of distributors because it is not always possible for them to carry in inventory all the items manufacturer supplies. Thus, most manufacturers provide their distributors with looseleaf catalogs so that non inventories items can be located and ordered quickly from the catalog. Data sheets provide detailed technical information on such things as product dimensions, efficiencies, performance data, and cost savings and, thus, are an important complement to the personal selling effort Further, buying decisions are often made when a salesperson is not present. When data sheets are prepared so that key selling points and technical information are presented in a clear, persuasive, credible manner they can be powerful sales tools. Data sheets should include enough technical and product performance information to assist customers in their decision making and should be left by sales people with the appropriate decision makers

Promotional Letter: This is one of the effective forms of promotion where in personalized
letters are sent to individual customers along with catalogs and coupons giving technical specifications about an existing or new product which are to be launched. Letters to customers at regular periods is a good way of keeping in touch with them particularly in case of products that are purchased infrequently. The cost of promotional letter is very less compared to the personal visits made by the sales force and it also receives good attention. Since good correspondence and writings skills are the requisite for this, there should be special correspondence section who can take advise from salesperson regarding the kind of letters to be sent and to whom it should be addressed

SEMINARS: Seminars are conducted by the industrial marketers by making audio-video

presentation through the technical experts of the company. The seminar is followed by a question and answer session for the benefit of buying organizations where technical information is provided to them relating to their nature of activity. This helps in creating a

favorable image about the company and also to establish new contacts with various technical people from the buying organization

PROMOTIONAL NOVELTIES: These are the small gift items given by the company to
existing and potential customers with their company name and logo printed on it. The common promotional novelties include diaries, key chains, calendars, pens, bags etc. Promotional novelties should be generally inexpensive, unusual and eye-catching, useful to the customers and have multiple impacts. Promotional novelties are offered according to the type of customers - costly for senior management, medium for middle management and low cost for junior management positions.

General Business and Trade Publications: General business and trade p u b l i c a t i o n s a r e

c l a s s i f i e d a s e i t h e r h o r i z o n t a l o r v e r t i c a l . H o r i z o n t a l publications deal with specific functions, tasks, or technologies and cut across industry lines. Vertical publications are directed toward a specific industry and may be read by almost anyone from the person on the assembly line to the company president. Examples: 1. FORCE DEFENCE MAGAZINE 2. INDIAN DEFENCE REVIEW (IDR) 3. DEFENCE AND SECURITY ALERT (DSA) 4. DEFENCE AND SECURITY OF INDIA (DSI) 5. INDIA STRATEGIC 6. INDIAN MILITARY REVIEW 7. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS SOURCE 8. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT FINDER 9. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT PURCHASE 10. ENGINEERING REVIEW 11. NATIONAL PRODUCT NEWS 12. INDIAN DEFENCE NEWSLETTER 13. DEFENCE NOW

PUBLIC RELATIONS
PR (public relations) is "the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics. For your PR strategy a good place to start is with your marketing plan Determine which industry players you want to have a favorable view of you. Determine how your product/service improves and/or enhances the market over and above what's currently available. Lay out a list of media that reach your targeted industry players. Set up an editorial calendar of news releases to get coverage in the appropriate media outlets. You want your PR strategy to closely shadow your marketing. PR tools include: publicity events, interviews, whitepapers , speeches, magazines, eBooks, developing a rapport with media contacts, online courses, press releases, email newsletters, collateral literature (such as slicks, brochures) for both online and offline use.

Also, think of key events that are coming up that will be of interest to your clients a key government report, a big industry event etc. And time your news releases with comments that coincide with those events to publications that will be writing them up but you need to be well prepared and quick off the mark to do this, but it can be highly effective in getting coverage. PR is intended to increase brand awareness through tactics that are free publicity (or little cost) for your company. Key components: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Outstanding content that is credible and newsworthy, Knowledge of your industry, Knowing journalists and especially editors, Pairing PR with advertising and editorial content, establishing talking points, etc. Two things that help with B2B strategies are testimonials and case studies. Businesses love to know that other businesses have bought your product, used it successfully. Put those two items at the top of your tactical plan.

Monitor and Evaluate: Many people forget this step, but you'll want to find a good way to evaluate the campaign, so that you know that it's working properly for you. First set your goals and expectations then monitor your results. Google Alerts come in handy to help you monitoring any news, positive or negative.

To show Return On Investment, your challenge as a marketing manager is to define how your PR efforts helped win or sustain business. If you don't have a marketing plan, it's going to be hard to show how PR helped your business (and to justify the expense). Which channels you should use depends on your audience and budget

DIRECT MARKETING
Direct mails: Though this is one of the cheapest tools used by the industrial marketers, they should be careful about the selection of target audience as wrong identification would waste the entire efforts. Even the prospects correct contact details should be available to avoid wastage of mails. Generally, mailing lists are obtained by companies from websites, telephone companies, trade publications, mailing list brokers, industrial directories, companys database etc. Telemarketing: In this process, prospective customers are contacted through telephone and provided with all the required information and then converted to sales lead depending on their interest towards the company product Online marketing channels

With our free newsletter we will keep you informed about new products, reference projects and events. Alligator Designs newsletter is a platform to bring cross-

Newsletters:

organizational focus and visibility to the goals and achievements of our industrial development. It will be published regularly on our website, as well as be available in hard-copy, and will act as a means for the Organization to communicate institutional achievements to key stakeholders. The magazine website includes additional material and relevant links, and provides a platform for discussion and debate about the intersection of industry and development. An e-Newsletter is an HTML email that allows companies to submit corporate correspondence to their clients on a continual basis using an email or e-Newsletter system. It can be used to get the word out about any topic you choose! Most newsworthy items include:

announcements press releases product launches coupons, sales, and special promotions