Industrial Advertising | Examples, Ideas and Tips

Given the cut-throat competition and the B2B market becoming “BRAND” oriented, Manufacturing and Engineering companies HAVE to consider the prospect of presenting themselves as a “BRAND” in 2023.

What is the goal of Industrial Branding?

The ultimate goal of Industrial Branding is of-course to generate quality leads that would convert into sales. The approach [Strategy] however to achieve this goal is quite different from that of B2C, Retail and FMCG Branding. The purpose of Industrial Branding is not just to improve the Brand awareness but to fortify the “Brand Purpose” of your organization and to elevate the Brand Positioning. With the advent of Digital Marketing, improving the Brand Reach and Brand Awareness has become relatively easy. Industrial Branding is different from B2C and Retail branding and has a much complex and elongated sales funnel. In Industrial Branding, merely reaching out to your target audience is not going to close a sale. The challenge is to strengthen the “Brand Purpose” to win the confidence of your prospective customer. Brand Values and Brand Attributes strengthen the Brand Purpose in Industrial Branding.

Industrial Branding is about the Company and its Products/Services You have to adopt a two-pronged approach while devising a branding strategy for an “Industrial” organization. One to portray your organization as a Brand and second, to advertise your industrial products and services. The basis of such advertising are the brand values of your industrial organization combined with the features and benefits of the products/services.

Who is your target audience and where are they?

Your branding strategy should be centered around your target audience. Before you create the branding strategy for your industrial organization you should understand who your target audience is and their distribution across various marketing platforms. Industrial branding can be categorized under B2B category, the target audience of any company that deals in industrial products and services are engineers, procurement officers, marketing managers and top level executives.

Identifying the Brand Values and Attributes of an Industrial Organization

A brand represents the character of an organization. The brand image is built upon the principles that a business already has. The first step in Industrial Branding is to identify the Brand Values and the Brand Attributes of the Industrial Organization. Brand Values and Attributes play a pivotal role and are at the core of Industrial Branding. Brand values are the guiding principle of your industrial organization while the Brand attributes are your organization’s operating characteristics and personality traits that your audience perceive as an integral part of you. While Brand Values are strictly associated with the organization, Brand Attributes are derived from the organization and its services and products. Brand attributes can be said to the subset of the Brand values. Trust, Reliability, Honesty, Quality, Dedication, Customer Satisfaction etc are Brand Values of any Industrial Organization. Certifications, Quality Standards, Customer Testimonials, Engineer/Employee Testimonials, Manufacturing Methodology, Processes etc. are the Brand Attributes of the Industrial Branding. Brand Personality is also a part of Brand Attributes, from the point-of-view of Industrial Branding – Strength, Ruggedness, Robustness, Scalability.

Industrial Brand Messaging

Based on the values and attributes it is now time to create Brand Message and Brand Tone. Brand Messaging is the delicate art of using the right language and right words to communicate the essence of your organization. In Industrial Branding the messaging is ever more important as it is the decisive factor. Your potential clients are more interested in the brand values which are represented by the culture of your organization, your vision, values and mission. The Brand Attributes can be showcased by client testimonials, how your OWN employees perceive the brand, your achievements, your capabilities, clientele etc. Brand Messaging essentially consists of Value Proposition statements, Brand Positioning and Brand Promise that describe your organization.

Once you have identified the Brand Values/Attributes and crafted the Brand Message for your organization, you can now incorporate them in your advertising and marketing campaigns. Focus on your Employees, let them be your brand ambassadors, let your engineers speak about their experience of working with your organization and how it has helped them.

Testimonials are Essential Part of Branding

Real people with real testimonials, help elevate the client’s confidence in your brand. Incorporate your customer’s testimonials in your brand message. Videos are a good medium to convey testimonials. So reach out to your existing customers and get the valuable information on how your product/service has benefitted them.

Industrial Visual Elements

Visual elements like colors, images, photos play an important role in Industrial Branding. So it is imperative to use the right colors that reflect on the character of the business. The same goes with the logo of your organization. Your logo is your brand ambassador, the logo design and the color scheme should help your audience connect with your Brand. Info-graphics like industrial product photography, presentations, brochures, manufacturing photos, assembly line photos, product/service commissioning photos, etc help reinforce your core business values.

Industrial Logo Design

It is a standard practice to use “Logotypes” in Industrial logo design. You won’t find many “pictorial mark” industrial logos because it is really hard to condense all the attributes of the company and its products in a single image. People remember a company by its name or abbreviation of the name. So it is imperative to use the same “name” in industrial logos.

Choosing the Right Colors and Typography for the Industrial Logo Design

Typography

The typography used in industrial logos reflect on the character of the company and its products/services. The typography features bold, solid font-style to reflect on the rugged and tough character. Unlike other industries where the logo appears on digital and outdoor marketing platforms, industrial logos are imprinted on metallic parts of the machinery, hence designers prefer to make minimalistic logos for industrial clients.

Colors

Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Grayscale color schemes are preferred while designing Industrial logos. These colors reflect on the serious and safety features of the product and services.

Industrial Video Branding

No other branding medium can convey the Brand Values as effectively as the videos. Industrial videos like product commissioning videos, client testimonial videos, product demo videos, industrial work culture videos etc. convey your brand message more efficiently.

Marketing Collaterals

You have wide variety of marketing collaterals that include brochures, product catalogues design, presentation ppts. It is important to maintain a consistent branding message across all these collaterals to fortify your Brand Purpose. The brand messaging varies from the collateral to collateral as the space varies. In outdoor advertising, the branding space and visibility are inversely proportional. For example a product catalogue is elaborate and can accommodate all the industrial products and services and has enough space to portray all the brand values but has limited reach. While something like an outdoor hoarding has limited space but has far greater reach. So you have to pick the right “core” brand values depending upon the collateral.

Industrial Brochure

An industrial brochure is a document that summarizes your brand and products. It introduces your company to your customer. An industrial brochure comprises many elements like key products, testimonials, verticals you serve, keynotes from key people, certifications and awards, company values and mission statements etc.

Product Catalogue

The catalog is an index of all the products and services offered by the industrial organization. The product catalogue is rich with sharp product images and the technical details about the product and its use.

PPT Presentation

Color and graphic-rich pdf presentations with Well aligned and formatted content, Pie-charts, Statistics, Key Performance Indicators, USPs make the presentations engaging. PPT slides are better option to brochures because they are cost-effective [you don’t have to print them] and they can be shared online. Also unlike brochures, PPTs are highly flexible and can be customized easily. They come in handy in the current situation of COVID-19 pandemic where physical meetings are not feasible.

Advertising Platforms

Once you know the persona of your target audience the next step is to reach out to them. But before that you should know what advertising medium your audience uses. The industrial advertising platforms are physical as well as digital. Physical media includes industry magazines, events and exhibitions, print media, outdoor advertising etc. The digital marketing platforms include industrial website design, Search Engine Optimization [SEO], Paid advertising, Video marketing and Email marketing etc.

Industrial Magazines

Advertising in the relevant media increases the conversion ratio. Industrial Magazines are a good medium where you can put your ad. These magazines are available in physical and digital versions. Here is the list of Industrial Magazines in INDIA.

• Industry Outlook
• Manufacturing Today
• Efficient Manufacturing
• Industrial Automation
• The Machinist
• Industrial Product Review
• Engineering Review
• Industrial India Magazine
• The Machine Maker
• OEM Update

Events and Exhibitions

An event is another great platform to showcase your industrial products and services. Though this particular medium has taken a setback owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, it is bound to make a strong comeback. Events help you interact with your target audience face-to-face – the best way to advertise your product. The Exhibition stall design helps you radiate your brand essence.

Outdoor Advertising

“Bigger is Better” in Outdoor Advertising. Outdoor advertising hoardings have greater reach but then hoardings have lesser attention span and have less advertising space. They are also expensive especially in metro cities like Pune. The trick is to devise a brand message that is engaging and appeals to a variety of target audience. At WDSOFT we design crisp, smart and engaging hoarding ads that draws the attention of the viewer.

Website Design and SEO

Your prospective customers are searching for the industrial products and services you have to offer. Reach out to your target audience by integrating Search Engine Optimization strategy in website design. Industrial Digital marketing begins with a company website. Get a SEO-friendly website designed from an agency that specializes in Industrial branding.

Summary

Branding boosts your potential customer’s confidence in your company, product and services. Though the benefits of industrial branding are not always tangible. It is hard to measure the success of industrial branding because the sales process is much more complex compared to the B2C segment.

Walter Landor has put it aptly “Products are made in the Factory, but Brands are created in the mind.” Even though Industrial companies rely upon more traditional means of marketing and sales, they cannot disregard the importance of “BRAND” any more. In this cut-throat competitive world companies have to adopt an integrated Branding approach that spans across advertising, marketing and sales.

About WDSOFT

We are a Branding Agency based in Pune, providing Advertising and Branding solutions for a wide range of Industries.