Gene Ely, former heavy-duty marketing consultant and heavy aftermarket key account manager for Triangle Suspension Systems, Inc., has published the first-ever heavy duty marketing textbook style volume that is specific to the North American Commercial Vehicle (CV) and equipment marketplace.
He states the reasons for the textbook is because of major changes as a result of the Internet’s “Information Explosion” that have evolved into The New Customer-Centric Demand Generation. Ely says we have become an information-rich and time-poor society that has reshaped the way we prefer to receive our information delivery.
Combined with that, there’s been a major transition in generational demographics, as well as psychographics.
Moreover, this industry-changing digital transformation and demographic shift means the familiar generational behaviors of the now-aging dominant generation are transforming, as well. Ely says the result is that new demographics and psychographics are firmly in place — GenXers, millennials, and GenZers, now include a blend of four entirely different and very diverse generations that have become pervasive throughout the entire industr y.
Baby Boomers (ages 55-73) 41 million, GenX (ages 39-54) 53 million, Millennials (ages 23-38) 56 million, and Generation Z (ages 22 and under) … the new generation of diesel service techs and CDL drivers. This vivid population split of 109 million digital savvy ages 23 to 54, as opposed to 41 million who are aging out of the workspace is proof-positive of the shift to The New Customer-Centric Demand Generation.
Ely says you might be surprised to know this customer movement presided over a major Business-to-Business (B2B) customer revolution marvel that’s on par with the development of the electric and autonomous truck.
The upshot is that heavy-duty marketers have long-practiced traditional “Inside-Out” about-us website communication that have focused on Us, Our Company, and a belief that a company’s over-arching reflection of its superior capabilities would somehow prevail.
However, Ely says the new blended generational audiences prefer an “Outside-In” customer-centric type of communications that are engaging, experiential, informational, quick and accurate information, long before they ever see a salesperson.
So, Ely says throughout his text when discussing terms like digital, blogs, links, videos, webinars, white papers, content marketing, social, engagement, and experiential marketing, he says readers are surrounded by live examples all across all truck, trailer, and heavy equipment media and their on-line magazines.
Samples like first-hand media involvement with marketing automation in the digital era, he says. They have set the pace for new communication engagement and experiential marketing such as, product announcements with sponsored links, blogs, infomercials, videos, webinars, case studies, white papers, e-books, infographics, webinars, resource libraries, email marketing, vocational targeting many other real digital examples.
It’s obvious, then, that simply migrating current heavy-duty websites to marketing automation that house and contain engagement and experiential communications is not a viable option, Ely says.
Instead, he says The Heavy Duty Marketing Academy Textbook is a strategic resource that demonstrates the need for strategic thinking, the art of positioning, the absolute for branding, developing a services marketing culture, and how to put it all together with marketing automation. Ely says The Heavy Duty Marketing Academy Textbook if full of traditional marketing examples that are no longer appropriate, and new ideas on how to formulate your own individual communications platform of the future.
For interested parties, Ely says both Kindle and print editions are available at Amazon bookstore: The Heavy Duty Marketing Academy textbook.
Additional information, blogs and upcoming webinars are also available at the Heavy Duty Marketing website.
