The Business Leadership team of a manufacturing company told us that customers saw them as innovative, technological leaders in their industry, first to market with new products, superior quality and supplier of first choice. Their website and brochures highlighted all these above points.

We interviewed customers, distributors, preferred suppliers and each department to gain a deeper understanding.

The reality was far from the management team’s perception. They were not seen as an innovative company at all. Rather they had a reputation of launching me too products; copying products their competitors sold and then reducing the price significantly to win the business.

Their pricing was based on cost- plus and they had a major focus on reducing production costs. Thus any savings were passed onto customers.

To make matters worse, offering at least a 20% discount was common practice and (unknowingly) they had brought the market price down significantly.

Is your company innovative and offering the lowest prices?