The concept of industrial marketing emerged in the 1980s when businesses identified the need to sell products to other businesses. Today, many industries create products solely for another business such as large-scale manufacturing machinery. A vast number of companies the world over are establishing specialised industrial marketing divisions to expedite their sales and further grow their businesses, and African manufacturers must follow suit if they too are to reap the returns offered by this on point marketing phenomenon.

Industrial marketing enables manufacturers to forge long-term relationships with their clients. Many African industrialists have successfully created significant business empires and now have capacity to accept large orders from other small manufacturers, thereby attaining lucrative contracts. Traditional B2B industrial marketing methods have been replaced by more advanced techniques, the greater part involving employing technologies to market products to other businesses.

In this regard, African manufactures need to redirect their focus on becoming technologically adept in conducting industrial marketing. Nowadays, potential clients search for a company’s products online before reaching out and negotiating sale agreements. Therefore, a strong online presence can give manufacturers involved in digital marketing a competitive edge over their offline counterparts. 

Communication plays an instrumental role in bridging the trust deficit so that a mutually beneficial and constructive relationship can be built between a business and its potential clients.

Today, brand managers have an important responsibility to strategically craft the image of the company and its products by employing innovative policies. Industrial marketing in the 21st century is altogether a foreign concept where brand managers must acquire the skills necessary to manage the company’s social media presence, whilst working in partnership with various in-house and outsourced advertising partners. 

Notwithstanding, industrial marketing requires a dexterous skill set involving intricate components of marketing, sales, and corporate management. From inception, a client’s order undergoes a complicated process of review and analysis after which a calculated decision is made.

It remains crucial that industrialists pay heed to formulating a unique marketing plan for each of its products, implying that no two products of a manufacturing entity can employ the same industrial marketing strategy.  

With such demanding, yet essential procedures, it remains vital that African manufacturers pay close attention to learning and adopting the intricacies of industrial marketing. The Manufacturing Indaba 2019 is an invaluable opportunity for African industrialists looking to enhance their knowledge about the latest trends within the industrial marketing sphere and implement these newly acquired skills.

The event is set to empower manufacturers to capitalise on the power of the digital realm to increase their brand visibility and ultimately garner a larger client base.  

This two-day conference, attended by industrialists, technological experts, high-level executives and government officials from across the African continent, is to be hosted in the heart of Johannesburg, South Africa on 25th and 26th June 2019. This premier event not only plans to explore novel industrial marketing concepts and strategies being implemented worldwide, but to unpack practical industrial marketing case studies relevant to Africa’s economic landscape through thought-provoking and engaging debates and plenary sessions.

Keeping abreast of innovative methodologies and technologies is imperative to achieving and maintaining a competitive manufacturing environment on both a local and global scale, and the upcoming Manufacturing Indaba intends to enlighten the attending industrialists on how to do so.