There may never be a better time to be a manufacturer or private-label brand. As recently as 10 years ago, if you created your own brand of products, you likely sold them through a multi-level distribution channel. Once you achieved a high enough sales volume, you may have been able to negotiate deals directly with global retailers.
Your investments in your brand were typically in collateral, print or other forms of traditional media advertising, and public relations. The real selling and merchandising typically rested with your reseller channels.
What a difference ecommerce has made. Todays brand manufacturers may still sell through traditional channels. But they also have many other sales and marketing channels available. Most are very low risk and require limited investment.
Customers are now accustomed to shopping online. They do extensive research, visit many different websites, comparison shop, check on what friends are buying, and look at a wide variety of products before making buying decisions. As a result, we are seeing a high growth in so-called lifestyle brands that appeal to high-income buyers.
Instead of simply buying a functional bag, water bottle, or pair of socks, buyers increasingly seek specialized, premium products. Well-conceived brands appeal to those buyers by associating their products with a particular lifestyle outdoorsy, rugged, athletic, fashionable. These niche products tend to have more limited distribution and a more customized appeal.
As a result, there is a resurgence of Made in the USA manufacturing startups that target the lifestyle market with niche products. If you manufacture your own products or have the ability to private label goods, take advantage of the tremendous growth opportunities available in various ecommerce channels to reach those lifestyle buyers.
Fundraising Opportunities
If you manufacture a product, you can raise money on many different crowdfunding sites, where participants make a donation, not an investment or a purchase. There is a risk they will not receive their expected reward, which in most cases is the products the company makes. With any crowdfunding campaign, you explain your product offering, your planned use of funds, and your rewards for contributing to the campaign.
Marketplaces. If you control your brand, consider selling on marketplaces, including Amazon. As a small brand, you will reach a very limited market by relying on your own ecommerce site. Selling on mass-market sites like Sears, Rakuten, and Amazon will expose your products to a much larger audience. There are also specialized marketplaces like Zazzle.com that are well suited for niche and custom manufactured products.
To reach global markets, consider marketplaces. If you use Fulfillment by Amazon in other countries, you will eliminate the worry about expensive overseas shipping, VAT taxes, and other customs issues. This is a fast path to global expansion for many manufacturers.
Admittedly, some products may not fit mass-market sites. But even high-income, lifestyle buyers also shop there. You may pull in a whole new set of buyers. Worried about diminishing the value of your brand? Its possible, but unlikely given the variety of products being sold through marketplaces today.
Online hybrids. There are some significant newer pure-play online retailers that I classify as hybrids. They have marketplace characteristics, social-shopping features, and traditional reseller tendencies with a little affiliate marketing thrown in. These hybrids include Fancy.com, Fab.com, and Wanelo.com. You can set up your own store within Fancy.com and Wanelo.com. You can run your own sale in Fab.com. All three appeal to lifestyle and fashion-oriented buyers. Fancy.com features more small brands than the others.
Multichannel Sales Options
Most manufacturers should consider a true multichannel strategy. Ive recently spoken with several small startup entrepreneurs that are growing multiple channels simultaneously.
Thompson Tee sells sweat-proof tee shirts to the small segment of consumers that sweats profusely. It operates a highly successful online store, sells in marketplaces, and pursues a big-box retailer strategy.
Marketing Channels
Much has been written about how brands are using various social media and digital marketing channels. Heres a quick review.
Social media. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Flicker, and others can deliver your brand message and communicate with customers and prospects.
Email marketing delivers messaging and make promotional offers.
Search marketing reaches new audiences for your products.
Comparison shopping engines also reaches new audiences.
Remarketing targets shoppers who have visited your online store.
Affiliate marketing reaches target markets through content networks.
The benefit of these marketing channels for smaller manufacturers is that you can make targeted investments, test your results, and either exit quickly or scale up based without breaking the bank. Make a staged plan and try them all.
As a brand manufacturer, you control your product mix, pricing, branding, and channel decisions. This allows you to potentially sell at higher margins and experiment much more with different channel mixes.
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