Research: Competition

In my last post, I talked about the products McDowell & Company manufactures and discussed its values and attitudes. Now for the next step in creating an effective logo, researching the competition and its visual strategy but it might not be that easy.

The manufacturing and sealing field is very different from any other field because your competitors could be your customers and/or your suppliers. When you are a manufacturing company you create a small part of a product that needs all these other parts to be a complete finished product. So the line of competition is very thin because no two manufacturing companies are the same. Some are just suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, or a combination of both. All these factors make it difficult to define which companies are competition.

Another factor that makes it difficult to research competitor’s visual strategy is the lack of visual strategy in the B2B (business-to-business) world. B2B companies rely more on personal relationships and communication to attract customers than visual strategy. But, that does not mean visual strategy and logos are not important. I think since there aren’t strong visual strategies from manufacturing companies it is a great way to create a competitive advantage.

McDowell & Companies image and message could differ from its competitors by creating good visual communication tools that make it easier for customers to understand McDowell & Company’s vision.