National Manufacturing Day Encourages the Next Generation

by Kylie Stanley, PR Technician

Manufacturing Day takes place on the first Friday of every October and this year it’s October 7th. National Manufacturing Day helps show the reality of modern manufacturing careers by encouraging thousands of companies and educational institutions around the nation to open their doors to students, parents, teachers and community leaders.

To celebrate, some manufacturers host in-person events in order to address labor shortages in the industry and inspire a new generation.

Currently, manufacturers are seeking to fill 4 million jobs over the next decade.

Manufacturing Day helps to bring manufacturers together and shine a spotlight on manufacturing careers.

How will you be celebrating Manufacturing Day? 

 

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Marketing Budget’s Share of Company Revenues Almost Cut in Half From 2020

Marketing Budget’s Share of Company Revenues Almost Cut in Half From 2020

By: Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect 

Entering 2021, companies anticipated to have budget growth of more than 5% as they expected to have a swift recovery. A recent report from Gartner reveals that the share of company revenues allocated to marketing expense budgets has fallen drastically this year.

The survey of 400 marketing leaders across 5 global markets found that marketing budgets as a portion of revenue have fallen to 6.4% this year. The previous lowest year was 10.2% back in 2014. From the results we can see five trends happening.

Trend Number One:

The first trend that reflects this decrease is from the downward pressure on marketing spend induced by the pandemic. When budgets are getting cut, marketing budgets are usually the first ones to be on the chopping block.

Trend Number Two:

All nine industries analyzed had cuts in budget as a portion of revenue. Manufacturing experienced the biggest percentage-point drop in revenue allocated to marketing…12.7% in 2020, but only 5.8% for 2021! With the digital enterprise accelerating investments, spending priorities began to shift.

Trend Number Three:

With digital commerce dominating, marketing budgets started to spread across all different channels. 72.2% of investments were split between marketing channels like websites, digital ads and social channels.

Trend Number Four:

A lot of external agency capabilities are now moving to in-house strategic tactics. The three that have moved focus are brand strategy, innovation and technology and marketing strategy development.

Trend Number Five:

Lastly, with the shift to digital commerce that meant companies needed to change their spending on analytics. With having to invest in online programs to fuel digital success, this ended up taking 12.3% of the total budget.

I know manufacturers across the board are struggling with supply chain, labor shortages and other issues, but hard to believe marketing spending dropped so much in just one year.

Where is your company’s marketing budget share trending as a percentage of the company’s revenue?

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What Are the Top Drivers of Brand Trust Among Global Consumers?

What Are the Top Drivers of Brand Trust Among Global Consumers?

by Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect

Fewer than one-quarter of consumers in the U.S. feel they are more in control of their data than they were a year ago

Today, trust can make or break a brand’s reputation. 74% of people drive their brand trust on “respects and protects customer’s data, privacy and security.” This is according to a recent survey from Morning Consult, which analyzed the important elements of brand trust.

The survey looked into 15,000 global consumers in 15 markets in March 2021 and shows us what drives trust among global consumers.

The main drivers of trust come from:

  • Functional
  • Experiential
  • Social
  • Emotional

Here are some key highlights from their survey:

Based on the survey, we can see that at the top we have emotional drivers like, “protects my personal data.” While on the other end, the other top drivers for brand trust are more product-related such as:

  • Good value for the price
  • High quality
  • Products or services that work as advertised

It’s clear that experience and customer service contribute to one’s brand trust.

How does your brand/company perform against these Top 10 drivers?

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Sonnhalter Updates Comprehensive List of Nation’s Vocational Education Programs

Agency updates and improves its list of more than 980 schools and 4,700 technical programs across the country.

CLEVELAND – October 2019 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, updated its free database of vocational education and technical programs in the United States. The current database now lists more than 980 schools and almost 4,700 programs.

Originally launched in 2015, Sonnhalter’s vocational program database contains useful and easy-to-read information about each program, including addresses, phone numbers, websites and more. In addition to its new programs, each state in the database is listed separately, and there is also an updated page for national programs and resources. Other features include concise and easy-to-sort course titles.

The database serves as a tool for companies looking to implement more grassroots campaigns to recruit the next generation of professional tradesmen. The convenient and easy-to-use database is available for download and is designed to be sortable and searchable for a variety of fields, including program type, location, degree type and other important information.

“Sonnhalter understands the growing concerns faced by those in that industry, such as the nation’s skills gap and the struggle to attract young people to the trades after high school,” said Matt Sonnhalter, vision architect at Sonnhalter. “Hopefully, with our latest edition of the vocational education database, companies will have a new tool that will make it easier to reach and inspire the next generation of professional tradesmen.”

To sign up and download Sonnhalter’s updated, comprehensive list of vocational programs in the U.S., visit sonnhalter.com/vocational.

 

About Sonnhalter

Established in 1976, Sonnhalter is the leading B2T marketing communications firm to companies that target professional tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets. Sonnhalter is located in the historic Brownell Building in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Sonnhalter’s brand identity highlights its expertise in marketing to the professional tradesmen. Its tagline, “Not Afraid To Get Our Hands Dirty,” promotes the employees’ willingness to roll up their sleeves and dig deep into clients’ businesses, also, it refers to the market it targets: the tradesmen who work with – and dirty – their hands every day. Sonnhalter developed the acronym “B2T,” which stands for “business-to-tradesmen” to capture the essence of its specialty. For more information, visit the company website at Sonnhalter.com.

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Creativity is the Key

By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter

It took creativity to start your business, and it takes creativity to keep it running every day. So why not apply that same creativity to the greatest challenge facing the manufacturing industry: the lack of skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen?

The time to act is now. Waiting for someone else to plug the hole simply won’t work. Schools’ budgets are squeezed too tight. Government agencies are interested in quick fixes, not long-term solutions. You need to find the next generation of workers.

You have two huge advantages: as a manufacturer you’re used to seeing a problem from all angles and creating a solution. And your jobs are actually cool. They allow people looking for a challenge to use their minds and hands together to build something.

So how do you reach future workers? Show off what you do! Take this example from Birmingham Georgia. A normal company would just see this as another contract. Another job. But BL Harbert saw an opportunity. The Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum is one of the most innovative museums in the world. Why not use it as a draw to show how their skills and abilities help make it that way?

via Alabama News Center

Partnering with Go Build Alabama, they arranged for 120 students to get an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of its museum expansion. Now, we can’t all be working on projects at cool museums, but believe me, much of what you do looks really cool to an outsider, especially when placed into the larger context of what it’s helping to create. I wish I could have seen a CNC machine in action when I was 16 or even a welder or PEX pipe. When you see what a little creativity can do to make the world a better place, or just to improve on an existing solution, you’ve captured someone’s imagination. And when you show them that they, too, can be a part of it, you’ve created a skilled tradesman.

Ready to get started?

Download Sonnhalter’s database of vocational education programs.

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