Logistics Market Segments – The Niches Have Deep Pockets
One of the best ways to increase your sales is by getting in a specific logistics market segment. Ideally, you already have some customers in a specific logistics market segment that you would like to develop
When you pick a segment, it empowers you and your company to customize both your service offering and your marketing to your preferred market segment. To illustrate this point, see the example below.
Logistics Marketing Segment – Food and Beverage
Let us assume that you are a master of the food and beverage vertical. From experience and communication with customers, you learn food safety is the most important concern, so you study the Food Safety Modernization Act and find carriers that master sanitary transportation of food. Perhaps, you also learn that many of your customers are members of Food Shippers of America so you join the association, attend the conferences, and become an expert in food and beverage transportation. Based on your experience and expertise in food and beverage transport, you begin creating your services to better serve your food shippers.
As you gain your food and beverage customer list and customize your service offering to be a better service provider, your marketing team goes to work developing content marketing (podcasts, webinars, articles, and white papers) targeted at food shippers.
As you learn more about shipping food and beverage, your experience and expertise help you gain the food shippers. When you communicate to food shippers, you understand their industry, their challenges, and your confidence shows. Shippers want to work with experts – not salespeople so become that expert they are looking for.
Below are some typical logistics market segments along with some of the bigger companies in each space.
Logistics Market Segments
Automotive
- General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Fiat Chrysler, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Magna, TRW, Continental, Denso, Johnson Controls
Chemical and Plastics
- DowDupont, BASF, ExxonMobil Chemical, LG Chem, Bayer, Sumitomo Chemical, Hanwool Corporation, Lyondellbasell, Ihne & Tesch GmbH, Matsui Technologies India, SABIC
Industrial and Manufacturing
- Siemens, General Electric, Bosch, Hitachi, Boeing, ArcelorMittal, Airbus, United Technologies Caterpillar, Samsung Electronics
Government & Defense
- Department of Defense, General Services Administration, Federal Emergency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, state, county, and local government
Energy and Petrochemicals
- Aramco, Holly Frontier Corporation, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Phillips, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Siemens AG, Vestas
Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)
- Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Unilever, AB InBev, L’Oréal, The Coca-Cola Company, Mondelez International, Kraft Heinz, Heineken
Furniture
- Ashley Furniture Industries, IKEA, Williams-Sonoma, Berkshire Hathaway Furniture, Steelcase, Rooms To Go, TJX, HNI, Herman Miller
Food and Beverage
- Conagra, PepsiCo, Kellogg, The Coca-Cola Company, Campbell Soup, Kroger, General Mills, Hershey, Starbucks, Kraft Heinz, Tyson, Cargill
Appliances
- GE, Oreck, Whirlpool, LG, Samsung, Frigidaire, Bosch, KitchenAid, Miele
Electronics
- Samsung Electronics, Foxconn, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, Panasonic, Microsoft, Motorola
Health, Pharma, Life Sciences
- Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck, AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Biogen, Abbott Laboratories, Stryker, Regeneron, Ascension Health, Community Health Systems, Catholic Health, Puritan’s Pride, Sanofi, Novartis
Retail and e-Commerce
- Amazon, Walmart, The Kroger Co, Amazon, Costco, The Home Depot, Walgreens, CVS Health Corporation, Target, Lowe’s Companies, Albertsons Companies, Apple Stores, Best Buy, McDonald’s
Pick Your Niche
There isn’t one right way to build your logistics marketing segments. It can be difficult to stick to which categories to add and where to place a company, but that’s not where the value is added. The real value is added when you become an expert in a specific niche. For an example of how to create and develop logistics market segments, check out C.H. Robinson’s approach: Industries