Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/873071
THE TIMES, THEY ARE A CHANGIN' "Ten years ago, it wasn't as easy to be constantly in front of your clientele without ultra- expensive campaigns," shared Caleb Messer, Vice President of Sales at GME Supply/Columbia Safety & Industrial Supply in Columbia, MO. "The largest difference today is social media. Now, organic interaction between consumers and suppliers is documented, publicly visible, and peer-reviewed. Even if there's no direct strategy to monetize social media efforts, they're an important part of your company's brand deployment efforts." Ed Crawford, President of AD's Electrical Division, agreed, adding that "it's easy to be lulled into the false belief that social media and eCommerce are simply not the way we do business, but they are. We're in the relationship business, the people business, and there's an entire generation of key decision makers who will only communicate through digital platforms". Duane Siders, CMO and Senior Vice President of Sales at National Safety Apparel in Cleveland, OH, agreed that the landscape has changed significantly. "Ten years is a lifetime in marketing," he said. "About three years ago, we noticed that brand awareness has become more critical than ever before due to the exponential increase of online sales and the consolidation of manufacturers and distributors." A decade ago at New York City- based GoodMart, LLC, "we didn't have a Facebook page and Google didn't display reviews from Facebook or other social media within search results for our brand," said CEO Max Hoover. "At that time, the extent of our online brand awareness campaigns consisted of e-mail marketing and search engine positioning and social media didn't play any role in our brand awareness initiatives." Flash forward to today, where manufacturers who attend Lunch continued on page 38 S tr on g R o o t s , S tr on g B ran ch e s Caleb Messer Vice President of Sales GME Supply/Columbia Safety & Industrial Supply Ed Crawford President U.S. & Latin America Electrical Divisions AD B uil din g a S olid B r an d in a Digi t al Wo r l d #ADSTRONG | AD Today 2017 | 37 Alana Parker President/Owner Rocket City Drywall & Supply, Inc. " The largest difference today is social media. Now, organic interaction between consumers and suppliers is documented, publicly visible, and peer- reviewed. Even if there's no direct strategy to monetize social media efforts, they're an important part of your company's brand deployment efforts." — Caleb Messer, GME Supply/Columbia Safety & Industrial Supply