In the food industry manufacturers are having a wonderful time creating the product, getting it approved and equipped with many certifications, brand books and, finally, successfully selling it! Usually, products are rapidly flying out of the manufacturing plants, right on the retail shelves, and directly into the shopping carts! Yes, that’s true –… in the 1980’s.
In 2018, people are neither that hungry nor manufacturer’s sales are that successful! Unfortunately, loads of manufacturers still use the reality from the deficit time to get their products on the market. Meanwhile, the market is abundant of products alike.
What’s more, the belief in the old reality is accompanied by personal bias, such as: confirmation bias, where regardless any information, manufacturer emphasizes the greatness of the product as it is, if not “the best” there is on the market is abundant of products alike.
What’s more, the belief in the old reality is accompanied by personal bias, such as: confirmation bias, where regardless any information, manufacturer emphasizes the greatness of the product as it is, if not “the best” there is on the market!
Often, this is a result of many precedent actions, that ultimately lead to such bias:
Product Development Process. Manufacturers invest many resources to engage in this “divine-like” creation process. Product concept ideas are created in front of the desktop while brushing in Adobe Illustrator. Packaging design is created while brainstorming in the office with a design guru. And the communication is drafted to express what the manufacturer thinks about his own company and product. In this way, most of the products are created in isolation from the real market context. Finally, the product might look very good in your manufacturing warehouse, but will it look as good in the consumer shopping cart?
Resource allocation failure. Often, I hear that manufacturers invest a lot of funds into their steel machines to manufacture the product better, faster or more. Irresistibly, that makes balance sheet look wonderful now, but what part of funds is allocated to sell the product on the market? The common mistake here is: to invest millions in steel machines to manufacture products that look good in a warehouse, without having enough funds to further allocate them for the new market entry. As a result, you might have the most innovative manufacturing processes, but consumer doesn’t buy your process, he buys the product.
Manufacturers must manufacture, not sell. Often manufacturing managers assume the role of a sales person. As a result, he tries to sell a product just to any middle man, who might be interested in taking the product on the market. However, manufacturers are there to produce the product, while sales people are a whole separate function. The manufacturer’s “parent-like” attitude and bias towards the product clouds objectivity of the product improvement and fails a successful sales deal to get to the target market. Manufacturer does not have to take care of sales, he must produce the product that WILL sell!
Finally, any product is a constant improvement subject to bring the best value to the market. And this main purpose must be accompanied by proper investment budgets to open new markets for their products.
But the reality is far from that. Most often manufacturers put out the answers as “we don’t have money to invest in sales”,
my question is then: “Do you have money not to sell?”
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