Made2Manage Systems, Indianapolis, will start a three-month marketing campaign next week built solely around three print ads that will run in trade publications.
The ads are designed to help raise awareness of the brand name and to drive people to its Web site.
Made2Manage creates and delivers back-office business management solutions designed to help manufacturers reduce costs. It offers integrated solutions and e-business tools for all business processes, from selling and design to manufacturing and distribution.
The theme of the campaign — “The Scary, Scary Future of Manufacturing” — is designed to make manufacturers believe they may not be completely prepared to conduct business in the not-too-distant, “totally electronic future.”
“This group of people we are going after is also a little more conservative than most companies in the IT field,” said David Koch, vice president of marketing at Made2Manage. “So we are trying to get them to react to this campaign by planting a seed of doubt in their mind which may make them more receptive to trying the technology.
“We are not trying to reteach them, or [trying] to tell them how they can run their business in a better fashion. But we want them to see that all we want to do is be their partner and assist them.”
Made2Manage will run the ads during the next three months in Manufacturing Systems and Industry Week. The advertising agency Bradley and Montgomery, Indianapolis, created the ads.
Each ad will use different artwork to help convey the message that e-commerce eventually will be called commerce and that the ability to operate in the electronic world will become increasingly important. Each ad will contain different text accompanying the artwork and will discuss what Made2Manage can do to help businesses make the transition to e-commerce easier.
According to Koch, the publications reach nearly 350,000 decision makers, many of whom are chief information officers and CEOs, at small to mid-sized manufacturers nationwide.
“We can’t explain our entire business in one ad, so the goal is to get them back to the site where they can get more info on us,” he said.
The ads include the company’s Web address and a toll-free number. Koch said respondents will not be asked to register at the site. There will be some pre-qualifying to determine which part of the sales force it should direct respondents to.
Koch said that if the first three ads are successful, three more — which are in development — will be put into circulation, extending the campaign for another three months.
“Or, if these three ads prove to be highly successful, or one of them more so than the other, we will continue to run those three, or just the most successful one, for another three months,” he said.
