Marketing Strategy for Small- to Medium-Sized Manufacturers

The Competitor Matrix—an Easy Way to Make Sense of Competitor Information

Since most SMMs are family-owned and -operated, there is little public information about them other than their websites, brochures, and other sales literature. Websites often describe a firm’s product line, applications, technologies, equipment capacities, markets served, specialized services and capabilities, and so on. But that does not provide insight into the company’s ability to attract and keep customers, how its products and services stack up against other companies’ products, services, pricing, delivery, quality and warranties, and reputation. Nevertheless, websites are a good starting point for “low-hanging fruit” competitor information when developing growth strategies ...