A novel venture aims to foster creativity and initiate business relationships in a market and business sector that could use some of both. Manufacturing remains viable in the Rust Belt, but as in any industry, innovations require a shifting focus on production, skill sets, and customer outreach. That is the pitch for The Manufacturing Mart, a Cleveland-based operation that aims to provide a location and an atmosphere where manufacturers can put ideas into action.
The Manufacturing Mart identifies itself as a unifying and “driving force between job shops and OEMs,” offering know-how in marketing, business building, and networking that can be used to improve clients’ competitiveness.
"The Manufacturing Mart provides order-generating services that grow business by establishing a job shop or OEM as the expert in a particular field or trade skill," according to Manufacturing Mart president and founder Mary Kaye Denning. "We deliver this through high-impact marketing built on sustainable, world-class business practices."
Job shops and machine shops must be prepared to recognize timely trends, the venture states, ready their team, and present themselves as the most competent supplier for purchasers. OEMs must build relationships with flexible, time-responsive and delivery-focused suppliers who can guarantee their product.
Both groups need support in relationship-building, according to Manufacturing Mart, which sees itself as “a conduit” able to bridge communication gaps and set both parties on a course for success.
"We communicate your public value-add through strategic planning and targeted public relations," according to Denning. "The Manufacturing Mart participates in manufacturing trade shows around the country, hosts networking events at The Mart and publishes social media news that reinforces you as an expert and a loyal solutions-provider. Simultaneously, an on-site concierge matches exhibitors with new business opportunities, creating demand for your sales team and your core competency."
Other strategic services include “targeted lead generation”; “new market development”; a location for displaying, networking, and inventing; and “new product development,” with on-site engineering and 3D tools for design and prototyping, so entrepreneur and inventors can turn ideas into manufacture-able products.
