An OPE equipment dealer recently responded in a survey that the brand he was going to focus on building first in 2008 was his own company brand.
I don’t think he meant he was going to ignore the products he sold and the revenue and customers those product brands brought into his business. But he did realize that the most powerful, stable and enduring brand he had to sell was his business brand – what his company name and reputation meant to the people and potential customers living in his local community.
Product lines can come and go. But a business image, positive or negative, endures. And if that image isn’t as strong or stronger than the product brands being sold, getting a consumer to walk in the front door for the first time and then retain them as a customer becomes much harder.
It doesn’t necessarily take a lot of money to build your business’s brand. Customer perception of your business or more importantly – customer trust in your business can make all the difference in building your business reputation.
Once your customer has reason to trust you, your judgment, your knowledge and your service, he is yours for as long you meet his needs and exceed his expectations.
Remember, the value of a customer is not what he buys when he walks in your door for the first time, but the total of what he buys over a lifetime of coming into your store. Customer retention is the lifeblood of your business.
You have a lot of advantages in gaining or retaining customers that a larger company doesn’t have. Those advantages don’t necessarily cost a lot of money either. Use them every day. Think about them every day. Tell your customers about them every day. You have a lot to talk about.
Here’s a quote from the mother of Denzel Washington that sums up life pretty well: “Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.” That should be the primary reason we get up and go to work every day.
Snapper, owned by the Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group LLC, will soon be selling their brand of outdoor power equipment in Sears.
The primary and long-time supplier of outdoor power equipment to Sears currently is the consumer products division of Husqvarna (you might remember its predecessors including Roper, American Yard Products, then Frigidaire Home Products, and Husqvarna Outdoor Products.)
In 2007, Husqvarna Consumer Products used Briggs & Stratton manufactured engines almost exclusively on its Craftsman branded mowers sold at Sears.
Briggs & Stratton decided some time ago that one way to respond to the manufacturing threat from China was to change their business model of being an engine producer selling to end-product OEM’s and become an integrated low-cost producer of quality products in each market they serve. That strategy resulted in Briggs buying the small generator division of Generac and Simplicity, Snapper and many of the assets of Murray.
(I just read the most recent issue (Vol. 118) of OPEESA’s “OPE-In-The-Know, The Business of OPE” newsletter and found more information about this interesting strategy. You can request a copy at opeintheknow@yahoo.com .)
The risk to Briggs will be to keep most of their current engine customers like Husqvarna Consumer Products happy, while at the same time competing with them for end-product placement at national retailers like Sears.
This will be an interesting story to watch as it unfolds.
Domestic OPE engine and product manufacturers have no choice – they must change the way they do business to compete against and in the global marketplace. Briggs & Stratton appears to be one of several manufacturers leading the way.
Who wins and who loses may come down to who makes the best decisions on how to respond to the ever-changing business environment. Stay tuned.
I don’t think he meant he was going to ignore the products he sold and the revenue and customers those product brands brought into his business. But he did realize that the most powerful, stable and enduring brand he had to sell was his business brand – what his company name and reputation meant to the people and potential customers living in his local community.
Product lines can come and go. But a business image, positive or negative, endures. And if that image isn’t as strong or stronger than the product brands being sold, getting a consumer to walk in the front door for the first time and then retain them as a customer becomes much harder.
It doesn’t necessarily take a lot of money to build your business’s brand. Customer perception of your business or more importantly – customer trust in your business can make all the difference in building your business reputation.
Once your customer has reason to trust you, your judgment, your knowledge and your service, he is yours for as long you meet his needs and exceed his expectations.
Remember, the value of a customer is not what he buys when he walks in your door for the first time, but the total of what he buys over a lifetime of coming into your store. Customer retention is the lifeblood of your business.
You have a lot of advantages in gaining or retaining customers that a larger company doesn’t have. Those advantages don’t necessarily cost a lot of money either. Use them every day. Think about them every day. Tell your customers about them every day. You have a lot to talk about.
Here’s a quote from the mother of Denzel Washington that sums up life pretty well: “Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.” That should be the primary reason we get up and go to work every day.
Snapper, owned by the Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group LLC, will soon be selling their brand of outdoor power equipment in Sears.
The primary and long-time supplier of outdoor power equipment to Sears currently is the consumer products division of Husqvarna (you might remember its predecessors including Roper, American Yard Products, then Frigidaire Home Products, and Husqvarna Outdoor Products.)
In 2007, Husqvarna Consumer Products used Briggs & Stratton manufactured engines almost exclusively on its Craftsman branded mowers sold at Sears.
Briggs & Stratton decided some time ago that one way to respond to the manufacturing threat from China was to change their business model of being an engine producer selling to end-product OEM’s and become an integrated low-cost producer of quality products in each market they serve. That strategy resulted in Briggs buying the small generator division of Generac and Simplicity, Snapper and many of the assets of Murray.
(I just read the most recent issue (Vol. 118) of OPEESA’s “OPE-In-The-Know, The Business of OPE” newsletter and found more information about this interesting strategy. You can request a copy at opeintheknow@yahoo.com .)
The risk to Briggs will be to keep most of their current engine customers like Husqvarna Consumer Products happy, while at the same time competing with them for end-product placement at national retailers like Sears.
This will be an interesting story to watch as it unfolds.
Domestic OPE engine and product manufacturers have no choice – they must change the way they do business to compete against and in the global marketplace. Briggs & Stratton appears to be one of several manufacturers leading the way.
Who wins and who loses may come down to who makes the best decisions on how to respond to the ever-changing business environment. Stay tuned.
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