Manufacturers: Don’t Be Sneaky

Posted by Laura Bergells

October 3, 2007

sneaky manufacturing This year, I talked to two successful business owners who manufacture terrific products.

For decades, each manufacturer has been successfully selling their products in bulk to wholesalers. The wholesalers, of course, sell the product to retailers. The retailers sell the product to the end customer. This traditional approach has been working well for each manufacturer for years.

Enter the internet. Now, the two manufacturers see retailers selling their products online and think, “Hey — if they’re selling my products online, why shouldn’t I?” So each manufacturer builds a quickie e-commerce site. They think they’re going to make tons of money, because when an end customer buys from them online, they’re making a much bigger margin than their retailers.

The problems: The manufacturers now view their retailers and wholesalers as competition! So instead of valuing their past, current, and future business relationships, the manufacturers try to be sneaky. They launch their website as if they weren’t a manufacturer. They pick a new domain name. They offer no background or competitive advantage. They pose online as a brand new e-retailer for their own product. And because they’re afraid that their retailers or wholesalers might call, they offer no live customer support.

And then the manufacturer wonders: “Why isn’t anybody buying? Where’s that web traffic? Hey, I maybe it’s the price! I can afford to undercut my ‘competition’, so I’ll lower prices!”

Uh-oh! Even with lower prices, there’s still no online buyers. At this point, the two manufacturers called me to “help” them market their internet site.

Don’t call me! If you’re a manufacturer, and you want me to “help” you sneak around on your valued business partners — please don’t call me! If you don’t value the business partners that made you successful, I have a pretty good idea that you’re not going to show me any respect, either!

Putting the “Brand” into Brand-New. It’s clear that these two manufacturers don’t value the enormous effort that their partners put into consumer marketing. There is much more to successful marketing than sticking up a website with low prices. With no trust factors — who is going to buy these products online?

Value your relationships. Your business partners help make you a success. One reason that they are successful is because they have a laser-focus on marketing products to the end-customers. Retailers put effort into building trust with their customers.

A better approach? Help retailers sell your product! Trust sells. Sneaky doesn’t. Value your relationships.

PS - Oh, and by the way — it’s the internet, where research is inevitable. You’re going to get caught. So how will you handle it when you do?