Has a customer ever said to you, “I don’t see any difference between your company and (name your biggest competitor)?” You’re suffering from the me-too blues. It’s the disease that strikes virtually every company that fails to define its identity in the marketplace. Although it hits businesses of all types, industrial distributors are particularly susceptible to the me-too blues.

Unlike their consumer and retail counterparts, most industrial distributors have failed to recognize that brand image is one of their most valued assets. In fact, most business-to-business industrial companies (manufacturers included) believe customers buy product features and benefits, not brand image.

To fend off a fatal case of the me-too blues, you need to build an image for your company beyond your products and services. You need a brand, or what Mitchell Goozé of Customer Manufacturing Group calls a “mind-trigger,” that reminds customers of the value they can acquire from your goods and services.

A few companies in our channel have achieved the mind-trigger reaction.

Milwaukee Electric Tool, for example, has built a reputation for “nothing but heavy duty” and even established a Heavy Duty Club for Milwaukee Electric tool owners and users that’s growing in popularity. The Champion-DeArment Tool Company was so successful in building the Channellock brand that the company ultimately changed its name to Channellock Inc.

Grainger has, by far, the strongest brand recognition of any industrial distributor. Because customers believe Grainger can get them what they need when they need it, you can find a Grainger catalog in virtually every purchasing agent’s office in North America.

Strong brands don’t happen by accident. They take hard work, strategic thinking and careful planning to develop. Perhaps most important, they require an understanding of what customers want. 

What is valuable about your company? Why do your customers care? What’s different about your company? Find the answers to these questions and you’ve found the core of your brand identity.

This editorial appeared in the March/April 2002 issue of Progressive Distributor magazine. Copyright 2002.