Pivoting Strategy And Messaging In Additive Manufacturing During Crisis And For Reentry

The race to keep up with testing, protecting against, and treating COVID-19 has placed manufacturing in the spotlight. Significantly, the fast response times possible with newer digital manufacturing technologies have focused that spotlight squarely on additive manufacturing (3-D printing).

Fast turnaround, stop-gap supply chain solution, and design and production agility have seen 3-D printing become a widely used technology in addressing the needs of pandemic. From nasopharyngeal (NP) test swabs to mass amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the existing daily needs of a growing sector of manufacturing, 3-D printing has been stepping up to the plate with viable solutions.

Those steps have been, though, to an extent fraught with caution. While the tight-knit 3-D printing industry has long been touting benefits of freedom of design, rapid iteration, speed to market, and, increasingly, end-use production at low and mid volumes, much of that messaging has until now been kept relatively within that still-nascent industry. Popular public perception of 3-D printing peaked with the desktop 3-D printer rise and fall of the mid-2010s, when that sector failed to live up to over-hyped claims. The industry continued to grow, though, in terms of both capabilities and size; as of 2019, 3-D printing as an industry was nearing a $12 billion valuation

With 3-D printing back in the public eye, the technology has been getting something of a second first impression. And this time, the industry is more prepared.

Major considerations abound, though, as business strategies that have been proving effective in growing the additive manufacturing industry must now pivot to adapt to changing times.

How does a company internally adjust its strategy — and then how do they communicate that externally without veering into tone-deaf territory?

Beyond products manufactured specifically to address COVID-19, there also needs to be consideration for ongoing “business as usual”: planned product launches and market introductions. How does a company approach marketing and selling their products as normal when times are anything but?

I’ve been speaking with communications experts for their insights into how best a business can remain relevant, operating effectively to address pandemic-driven needs as well as preparing for reentry into more “normal” market conditions (whatever those might look like in the next few years).

To really get into the heart of what this might mean, I spoke with an expert who has extensive senior communications experience in both agency and in-house work for her insights into what manufacturing companies are thinking right now. Lynda McKinney, currently the Head of Global Communications at Boston-based 3-D printing unicorn Desktop Metal, dug into the idea of “rewriting crisis conversations in real time.”

Selling During The Time Of COVID-19

She began by laying out some of the initial questions for normal operations:

“We’re thinking through: Is this what people want right now? Do people want to hear these pitches? It’s important to not become tone deaf: Is this important, am I helping? If not, it’s okay to be quiet right now,” McKinney said. “If brands can’t be helpful right now, it’s okay to — not go fully dark, but be careful how much social media you’re doing, how much advertising, and think are these messages people need to be hearing right now, or is it something that could be delayed a bit?”

Many product launches have been pushed back or, rather than announced with fanfare at a trade show, gone virtual. There is of course a place for business-as-usual as companies do continue to operate and planned introductions continue to roll out to meet existing as well as the many new demands.

But these launches have been totally replanned — at least, the successful ones. More than just a pivot to a virtual arena, these launches need to be made in tune with the current environment and the mood of 2020.

So far as new products introduced but not shipping before the pandemic hit, strategies are tackled on a case-by-case basis. This was proven out directly for Desktop Metal, as McKinney recently facilitated a conversation with that company’s executives where we discussed some of their new-to-market introductions. While the Desktop Metal Shop System, introduced in November, is still on track to ship this autumn per Co-Founder and CTO Jonah Myerberg, for example, VP of Business Development Arjun Aggarwal explained that the new Fiber systems, originally planned to ship this spring, have been pushed back to the autumn. Through all of this, as well, Desktop Metal has been involved in efforts to counter the spread of COVID-19, offering its metal 3-D printing capabilities to help as well as becoming involved outside its metal wheelhouse in a consortium to 3-D print NP testing swabs.

A Pivot In Messaging

Looking beyond her current company, and indeed beyond 3-D printing, McKinney pointed to other examples of companies serving as excellent examples of appropriately rethought messaging.

Dyson, which in March turned to manufacturing ventilators, offers a shining example here.

“Look at the purpose of Dyson; part of what they built their DNA on is inspiring the next generation. For a company like Dyson to use that purpose and turn to internal engineers and say there’s opportunity here to restructure and redesign a whole new ventilator that’s helping in this pandemic…that’s a really great way of linking purpose to what they can do in the moment, showing that they care and they can help,” McKinney said.

Tracing back to that DNA is telling for a company’s response just now. Those organizations built on innovation and inspiration are proving out their mission statements through their responses — and that comes down to leadership.

“I think it’s a time for leadership to not just lead the company but to be kind of — a chief empathy officer. They can show how much leadership cares about their people, their customers, and again the purpose of the company,” McKinney said.

Here she pointed to Marriott’s CEO, Arne Sorenson, whose mid-March video speaking to hotel associates has been widely lauded as authentic, emotional leadership. Here he exemplifies his role as a CEO: not just a chief executive officer but, through his candor and vulnerability, a chief empathy officer, as McKinney put it.

“The gist is first be sure everyone is safe and well; trust is the most valuable currency and the one that costs you the least,” McKinney said of Sorenson’s video. “He is vulnerable in explaining what Marriott needs to do in the moment because people aren’t using their sites for travel, hospitality, or conventions, so he needed to deliver a message, but did so with empathy. This became in the communications world an example of how to lead in this very difficult time.”

Collective Crisis — And Beyond

From 3-D printing to vacuum production to hospitality, this crisis has truly impacted effectively every business segment. This, as so many have said, is unprecedented in modern times, especially at such a scale.

“Crisis happens all the time, but never collectively,” McKinney mused. “For it to take place on a global scale is expanding all of the communications industry, and helping organizations not only get through it — but looking toward the end, how do they thrive?”

In conversations with her colleagues, McKinney has discovered several running themes. Of critical importance is a baseline in communications at any time: understanding audiences.

“This is not a time to sell, it’s a time to listen, a time to care, to offer help,” she said. “If you think about it, communications and companies have a variety of audiences: stakeholders, employees, customers, prospects — and as a brand the world looks at them in a certain way. This is a time when communications really needs to listen, care, and offer help… You have to find a way to link your company to what the world needs today.”

Sometimes what the world needs is PPE, or testing equipment, or ventilators. But as traditional manufacturing ramps up and infection rates begin thankfully to decline, those needs are already changing.

“Everyone is remote these days; perhaps this is a time for a company to step back and say we’re putting out information that is educational. While everybody is working from home, taking a step back and offering webinars, virtual events, and deeper content will help potential customers learn about the industry in their own way, on their own time, to digest the information in a much more educational way. Here, we’re not looking to sell; we’re looking to teach,” McKinney said.

Such a step toward information will also help set an organization up for reentry into the market, she added.

Reentry into the market with standard offerings and operations — for 3-D printers that might mean aerospace parts for a revitalized aerospace industry when air travel comes back into daily life, or it may mean increased stereolithography offerings in the dental field as regular dentistry operations resume — is of less immediate-term focus, but increasingly is a near-term concern.

Communications, marketing, and sales teams are now discussing how they might position themselves on these normal-but-new markets.

“Do we have to refresh? What do we have to do as a company with our products and our messaging when that time comes that we’re able to bring the business back to where it was? Have expectations changed, has the world changed? Are we ready for that restart?” McKinney laid out some of the biggest questions for such team conversations.

The answer to many of these comes down to one primary idea: flexibility.

“There are a lot of learnings right now, across all aspects of the business from sales to marketing to customer support and finance,” McKinney said. “Everyone is learning in real time and it will be important that each of those functions get together and share those learnings, and it will frame up how that company can reenter into the marketplace.”

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