Moving Online

It was long believed that internet marketing and social media would be reserved for business to consumer marketing. However, the internet has seen growth in B2B or business-to-business marketing, especially in manufacturing. In fact, one company in Michigan has made huge strides for more exposure using online marketing tactics. JC Gibbons Manufacturing Inc. is a screw machine product and precision CNC machining company in Livonia, Michigan. Since 1959, the company's name steadily grew in the industry by word of mouth, and today they hold a lot of brand equity. However, the company took a hard hit like others in a fledgling economy. The automotive industry was contracting, and many companies like JC Gibbons struggled to recover. In fact, 70% of the company's work was for the automotive industry. With the help of MMTC, the company was able to diversify by finding work in other industries such as electrical, HVAC, oil, and medical devices. Even with aggressive diversification, many companies like JC Gibbons stil
l fought outsourcing to Asian countries, but American industry is starting to see production work moving back to the U.S. This is supported by movements in JIT (Just-In-Time) and other Lean manufacturing principles, not to mention the reduction in lead time and quality control. However, it is the internet that is the antidote to traditional marketing strategies in attracting a new customer base.

Social Media

There is a lot of value added when you can stay in contact with your customers easily over the internet. JC Gibbons believes that customer service is the cornerstone of attracting and retaining customers. The company not only updated their website, but they added many of the social media accounts that many individuals use. LinkedIn is likely the leading professional networking website for everything from finding your coworkers online to making connections with other professionals in the same field or industry. JC Gibbons created an account to connect with their customers who are already on the site. It has been a great way to establish credibility with those who are seeking the very services that the firm offers. Additionally, the company created a YouTube channel where they have just begun to post videos showing manufacturing processes. Understanding the machining process around CNC machining and screw machining can be difficult without media, and this outlet helps educate customers about how these services actually work. In addition to these platforms, JC Gibbons added a Facebook page to provide customer service, Twitter to publish announcements and links to company news, and a CNC machining blog and screw machine products blog to discuss what is happening at the company and in the industry. All of these sites provide an easy way to keep current and potential customers informed about the latest offers, and they all provide links to the other accounts, which makes it easier to stay in touch.

As the social graph grows, even large corporations will move steadily towards adopting social media and internet marketing strategies. JC Gibbons feels it is important to stay in contact with customers, much in the same way that consumer brands keep in constant contact with their customer base. For a company that is focused on customer service, internet communications provides a cost effective way to stay in touch and to find potential leads online. They believe that other manufacturers like them should embrace this technology, and although they aren’t a business to consumer marketing company, social media can still be used to communicate with society. This would be especially true in issues where the environment or topics like employment are an on the docket.

The Example

Case studies such as this one concerning a parts manufacture are great examples that can be a model for any company and nearly industry. That being said, there are plenty of professionals that can help get a company into the online realm. I would challenge business managers and owners to look inside their organizations for the talent that can get them there. It is the philosophy of multiple hats, where companies start to realize that the people they employee could have skill sets in other areas such as Internet marketing. Not that a company should do this immediately, but for those companies with limited time and resources, going the internal route could help an Internet presence come to fruition.

Devin Pringle is the author of this article on Screw machine products. Find more information on Precision cnc machining here.