Humanizing Your Manufacturing Brand

Competition in the manufacturing industry is strong, yet many manufacturers convey information about their brands in similar, highly impersonal ways. While it’s important to convey your technical capabilities and show off your products, you also need to give potential customers a reason to choose you when other companies offer the same things. One of the best ways to differentiate yourself from the crowd is to bring a human element to your branding.

Every manufacturing company has a unique “personality” influenced by its goals, staff, history and advantages. When you use marketing to express your brand’s personality, you build stronger connections with potential customers. As a result, humanizing your manufacturing brand can help you gain new customers and retain loyal ones, even as low-wage competitors vie for their attention.

What Does It Mean to Humanize Your Brand?

Humanization is a popular strategy in marketing used to engage consumers in a market increasingly saturated with information and advertising. Humanizing your brand means to shift your marketing focus from your products to your people — instead of drowning customers in details about your facility, prices or capabilities, reach out to them and show how your business impacts people.

When humanizing your brand, you want potential customers to see your company as a person or group of people. Some elements that produce this effect include:

• Stories about your company and your customers
• Content featuring a consistent, informal voice
• An explicit dedication to a value, such as cooperation

How Can You Humanize Your Brand Through Marketing?

Now that you know why you should humanize your manufacturing brand and what it means to do so, let’s take a look at some specific strategies you can use to bring personality to your marketing:

• Focus on your workers: A successful manufacturing company cannot exist without the dedication and knowledge of its workers. Show potential customers what makes your team special by telling stories about your staff through images, written content or video. You can also ask workers to get involved by filming a personalized tour of the facility, planning company events or sharing their expertise with readers on your website.
• Connect on social media: To humanize your brand, use your social media channels to connect with customers and provide value, not just advertisements. Discuss industry-relevant news stories, give professional advice and share real-time information about your current projects.
• Find out what your customers want: Listening to your customers demonstrates that you care about their needs as well as your own. Accept feedback graciously, use surveys to improve your marketing and make your website easy for the user to navigate.

Talk to MANTEC About Improving Your Branding

Humanizing your manufacturing brand can take your company’s marketing to the next level. If you’d like to learn more about creating a marketing strategy for your manufacturing brand, MANTEC can help. As a non-profit consulting firm, we’re dedicated to assisting South Central Pennsylvania manufacturers succeed in all aspects of business. Contact us today to learn how our sales and marketing solutions could provide a high return on your investment.