Textile Industry Marketing Plan
A marketing plan for a textile industry company sets forth a specific market strategy that identifies marketing goals and objectives with time-specific actions for achieving them. The textile industry includes the design and manufacturing of textiles and other fabrics. Distribution channels include manufacturers, importers and retailers. As a result of the wide scope of distribution channels, as well as the variety of product and service segments, each marketing plan will vary widely, and will be particularly tailored to each company's goals and objectives.
Marketing plan goals should align with a company's overall business goals and objectives. The lack of a clear marketing goal can derail the best efforts before any action is put into place, writes David Meerman Scott, author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR." Profitable revenue growth is the most important goal of any for-profit business enterprise. An example of a clear marketing goal for a textile manufacturer might be to develop export sales to Canada as 5 percent of the company's gross revenues.
Not all customers are the same. A target market represents a specific type of buyer that a company has identified as potentially interested in the company's product or service. A target market can represent an identified niche. For example, a small manufacturer might tailor its design and production outputs to the home textiles market, which represents a relatively large market segment. The manufacturer can also tailor its productions to environmentally conscious consumers, similar to Europe's Ecolabel textile products. In such a case, the manufacturer can then market products to both general retailers in the household textile market and retailers in the niche environmental products market.
A marketing goal should be followed by specific actions towards achieving the goal. It should set forth the specific actions required to gain new customers and retain existing customers. For example, a textile industry manufacturer's business goal might be to increase its year-over-year sales by 15 percent. Specific related actions in a marketing plan might include increasing the number of industry trade shows, exhibitions, fairs and conferences the company attends in order to identify specific outlets, such as the International Exhibition on Textile Industry held annually in China. Greater profit can also be achieved by reducing production costs. Specific actions to this end might include decreasing the cost of textile chemicals, dyeing and finishing supplies by requesting proposals from alternative vendor sources.
New media has created new options for marketing plans. In addition to traditional marketing plan strategies – such as attending trade shows and advertising in traditional media – companies are now using social media, online videos and viral marketing tools to achieve marketing goals. "Marketing is more than just advertising. PR is for more than just a mainstream media audience," writes Scott. Scott argues that marketing plans should shift from simple "mainstream marketing to the masses" to targeting strategies that reach audiences through the Internet. With marketing budgets under greater scrutiny, B2B textile industry companies can benefit from the increasing use of new media outlets to stay competitive and lower marketing costs.
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by statistical agencies to classify business markets. The NAICS segments textile industry production into categories such as carpets and rugs, knit outerwear and broadwoven fabric. An understanding of NAICS categories for the apparel industry is important when developing textile industry marketing plans. It is especially helpful for market researchers using industry data made available through resources such as the U.S. Census Bureau's current industrial reports.