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Blog Post 8 - Top Suggestions to Management

1.      On-Site SEO

Makita should improve on its on-site SEO. Currently, there are many factors that are leading Makita to not surface in top results on various keyword phrases. As I had discussed before, Makita’s title tag is the same across every page of its website: “MAKITA – Cordless and Corded Power Tools, Power Equipment, Pneumatics, Accessories”. However, this title tag does not cover the vast majority of keywords being searched in Google and other search engines. Many people are going to search for specific products such as “cordless chainsaw” or “hammer drill”, even searching competitor terms as well which is where advertising may come into play. Without properly labeling the title tag appropriately for each individual landing page, Makita is missing out on an important method of obtaining additional traffic.

Another thing Makita is lacking is header tags and main content for various categories that can help in search. I believe that in addition to having the product filters, there should be some type of text that is filtered in alongside the products to help with search relevance. Makita could also improve on its URLs, particularly the target keyword phrases in the various landing page URLs.

2.      Off-Site SEO

In terms of off-site SEO, Makita could do better with the number of links to its website. I believe Makita could better partner with influencers and media sites to have mutual linking between their sites. There are many influencers out there such as Built by Stevie which can help increase links and awareness to the Makita brand.

Although Makita is doing great in terms of content marketing with its new Rule the Outdoors campaign, I feel there is room for improvement in all other categories of power tools. Makita needs to create more video content that is interesting and appealing to the end user of Makita tools. I’m not talking about videos that describe the features and details of a product. I believe Makita needs to create more content surrounding its battery platform and the reasons why it is the best. Additionally, Makita could create how-to videos for many of its products accessories such as “How to load line into a string trimmer head” or “How to install a bar chain on a chain saw”.

3.      Web Site Layout, especially homepage

As discussed in the prior blog post, I believe that the homepage of Makita’s website can be significantly improved. It looks great, but functionality wise, it needs improvement. Shoppers do not want to click on one link, bounce, and then click on a different link that leads them to the same page they just bounced from. There should not be so many duplicate links on the same homepage, in my opinion.

Additionally, I feel there could be a smaller RTO tile on the homepage to accommodate for a set of tiles that put emphasis on other focus categories.

4.      Google Advertising

Currently, it appears that Makita is not advertising on Google. If you search for various power tool categories or for Makita-branded keywords, the only results that show up are Amazon results as well as shopping results from Makita’s distributors. If Makita invested some money in Google advertising to assist in boosting its focus categories, it could really take some share of the power tool market.

5.      Invest in Analytics

Alongside the suggestion for Google advertising comes a need for investment in analytics. Advertising is wasted without analytics to discover what a brand is doing correctly and incorrectly. There needs to be constant A/B testing of content, and I don’t believe Makita is currently doing any of this.

 The above five things are the most important suggestions I have for Makita management. I understand some come with an added cost or effort, but it will definitely pay off in both the short- and long-term.

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Blog Post 7 - Web Design Evaluation

According to Steve Krug, “websites should be designed so that average users (and ideally, below-average users) can find what they’re looking for or accomplish what they want without too much thought or work and without making too many wrong clicks.” Typically, I believe Makita does this very well with the navigation of their home page and various categories and subcategories.

Unfortunately, for the new Rule the Outdoors Campaign, I personally feel the homepage of the website is not great in terms of user experience. The main Rule the Outdoors (RTO) image tile takes up the entirety of the browser window at full screen on 100% zoom (image shown below).

Immediately below this full-size image are four other tiles discussing the promotional material of this RTO campaign. I have zoomed in on these images to make them clearer.

Next on the page is a featured products tile that allows users to explore the four promotional outdoor power equipment (OPE) kits which have extra batteries.

Lastly, there is another link to the 2 free batteries promotions.

This entire layout is extremely repetitive and can easily cause shopper frustration. The first image links to a landing page talking about the benefits of cordless and Makita’s OPE product line, and this is great.  The landing page even includes an extended 2-minute version of the television commercial which only runs 15 seconds or 30 seconds.  The first image tile of the four below the main image links to the television commercial video as a YouTube embed link. The sole purpose of this YouTube embed link – get more YouTube views. Honestly, I think this could be better implemented. The second image tile links to the four promotional OPE kits which were already included on the first link. The cordless advantage image links to the same location as the main image that took up the entirety of the above the fold content. The final image is necessary because it shows where shoppers can find the product in dealer brick and mortar stores. Then, Makita puts another link to the four promotional models and another promotional link again to the kits with free batteries.

All-in-all, it is just a bunch of repetition to bring as much awareness to this campaign as possible – but at the expense of the shopper experience.

Something Makita has always done well is their navigation pane. This is the section where shoppers can easily find what they are looking for. It is obvious which text is clickable, there are no additional distractions, and the format is great for quickly scanning and finding what you need as a shopper. Once you click into a sub-category, each page has a very conversion-centered design. Shoppers can filter product categories to find exactly what they are looking for. The downside of these pages is that if you filter too quickly before the page loads, the filters do not properly work.

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Blog Post 6 - Social Media Evaluation

Makita has been running numerous social media accounts for several years now including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I was unable to uncover any Snapchat or Pinterest accounts for Makita, however.

Makita’s social media activity is very similar across all social media sites that it is active across. Generally, if you look at its Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, all recent posts revolve around new products and solutions (image below) as well as around its recent national media campaign called Rule the Outdoors. Consistency across all its social media platforms are key in getting the message across to its users.

New Product Post on Instagram

Things that Makita does well on its social media include high-quality imagery, keyword-rich text, and perhaps most importantly, high-quality lead-generating video content…the same video content which is being shown across national television channels such as ESPN, Discovery Channel, and others. Some of these ads link directly to a Makita site landing page which talks about the benefits of the cordless system and each outdoor power tool, while others link directly to the YouTube commercial, and yet others link to the promotional landing page on Makita’s site discussing the extra batteries in each outdoor power equipment focus kit for a limited time. This is great because it will provide Makita with a ton of data in terms of which implementations work the best and whether conversions are driven by video views, promotional content, or the messaging surrounding the battery platform.

Although Makita does some of these things very well, I believe there is room for improvement in two areas: customer experience and keyword search optimization. Let me start with keyword optimization. On some of the Rule the Outdoors campaigns, there are hashtags such as “#ruletheoutdoors”, “#lxtadvantage”, “#ope”, “#outdoorpowerequipment”, and more. Unfortunately, although these are great, they are very specific to Makita and not broad enough to capture organic interest in the product. In other words, many of these terms, with the exception of “ope” and “outdoor power equipment” are branded terms in a sense. Makita needs to go after some broader terms which people will find when searching for products without a particular company in mind. String trimmer, for example, is a great keyword which should be used on some of these hashtags.

It appears that Makita has a decent following with many customers asking questions about the products and showing great interest within the posts on each social media account. It also appears that Makita is following some of the best practices of social media responses. For example, when people get off topic about products and just start bashing the brand for no reason, Makita either does not respond or might have contacted these people directly through direct messages to address their concerns rather than start a public argument for the whole world to see.

Below are some of the posts and advertisements seen across Makita’s social media accounts, including a link to several pages surrounding their Rule the Outdoors campaign.

Makita Rule the Outdoors OPE Video – Full Version

30 Second Commercial Video

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Blog Post 5 - Digital Advertising Plan

If Makita had $1,000 to spend on Google Advertisements, I would most likely spend it all on the Display Network rather than the Search Network. The reason for this decision is mostly because $1,000 is not very much to spend, especially in the Tools industry. Typically, Google campaigns average $10,000 to $20,000 per month. As such, I would pick a focused message for the Display Ad such as “One Battery, Endless Possibilities” and link the ad to a landing page on Makita’s website that discusses the significance of Makita’s one battery offering and why it is beneficial to the consumer. The below chart gives a general idea of what it would cost per click for a power tools campaign, which I assume would fit more in the Home Goods space or the Industrial Services space. As such, my estimate based on the data provided is that a CPC campaign on the Search network would cost approximately $2.50 per click with a higher CTR and would quickly spend the budget, not generating a large impact. On the Display Network, it would probably cost approximately $0.65 per click which would allow for around 1,538 clicks. At an average CTR of 0.35% which was seen in 2018 across Google’s Display Network, this would be an approximate 439,428 impressions. If you compare an average CPM of $2.80 per thousand impressions and back out the 439,428 impressions, you could end up spending $1,230 on a CPM bid of $2.80. As such, a CPC click will most likely be the better option in this case.

Since 450k impressions are not very many impressions when targeting a large segment of shoppers, I would prefer to run a remarketing campaign and reach a more targeted audience. I may try to target customers who have purchased a Makita corded or gas-powered tool in the past and try to get them on the cordless platform. Or I may try to target customers who have browsed Makita or competitor products but have not made a purchase. This would narrow my audience and make my targeting more effective with the limited budget.

Lastly, I might decide to test mobile display ads. I understand the textbook states that mobile bounce rates are much higher, and conversions are low in many cases; however, we have heard the opposite in our own reading. It would be worth running a campaign on mobile with a mobile downwards bid adjustment for a portion of our budget to see if we receive better or worse conversion rates on mobile platforms.

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MKT 151 Blog Post 4: Landing Page Evaluation

The URL target keywords throughout various landing pages on the site can be significantly optimized for better search ranking. As an example, take a look at Makita’s LXT X2 landing page. The target keyword is “lxtx2” which is not going to surface very many search results for several reasons. Firstly, only customers who already know about Makita might search for either “LXT” or for “X2”, because LXT® is a registered trademark technology of Makita’s and X2 means two 18-volt batteries operating in tandem to provide 36-volts of power. As such, if Makita wants to bring awareness to the LXT Advantage and X2 power advantages, the company should be targeting slightly broader, non-branded keywords as provided in the below suggested URLs:

              www.makitatools.com/18v-and-36v-cordless-power-tools-lxt-x2-innovation

              www.makitatools.com/cordless-power-tool-innovation

              www.makitatools.com/lithium-ion-cordless-tools

These are just a few suggestions for better use of URL target keywords.

I feel that the category landing pages are packed with visually stunning content and decent keyword usage, with a few examples shown below. However, sub-category landing pages, as discussed previously, are mostly product dumps. These pages could potentially be optimized by providing tool category information before or after the product grids.

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MKT 151 Blog Post 3: SEO Evaluation

Using SEO Site Checkup’s report for the main landing page at https://makitatools.com, I found some interesting and slightly disturbing information regarding search optimization. First and foremost, the meta description (shown below), is extremely repetitive. It states that Makita is the leader in cordless. Then it states that Makita is best in class for cordless power tool technology. Lastly, it states again that Makita is a leader in power tool technology for the professional. All three of these statements are the exact same thing, stated with different wording and are quite frankly a waste of space that could be better used to help with keyword ranking. Better use of space would be something along the lines of “Makita USA: The best in class leader in cordless power tool technology for the professional”, which only uses 91 characters and leaves room for an additional 69 characters of space. Imagine how many additional keywords can be targeted with 69 characters of space!

Also concerning is the use of header tags on the homepage of Makita’s website. As indicated below, the only H1 header tag used (which is most important in search relevance) is the “New Release” H1 heading. However, this H1 heading does not say anything about the content on the page and will not help the page surface higher in search results. “New Release” would be a better H2 header tag with “Cordless Power Tools for the Professional” as an H1 header tag.

The URL and the targeted keyword phrases within the URLs within Makita’s website are better than the above-mentioned concerns. However, the URLs and title tags can all benefit from keyword optimization. As mentioned in Blog Post 2, the title tag is the same whether you are clicked into the Benchtop Tools subcategory or whether you are on the Accessories subcategory. Unfortunately, this title tag does not represent all subcategories of tools which means that sub-category landing pages will not be keyword optimized for search results.

Another area that can use improvement is the image alt text and file name optimization. According to SEO Site Checker, the webpage is not using the alt attribute for image tags. Thus, if an image fails to load on certain browsers or devices, there is no indication of what was intended to fill the space that is now empty on a user’s navigation of the webpage.

A positive of Makita’s website is that there are short load times. According to SEO Site Checker, the compression that the webpage is using (gzip compression), along with the HTML size of the page is helping result in a site load of just around 2 seconds which is under the suggested 5-second load speed. This data is shown in the below screenshot.

Poor security is not an issue with Makita’s website since the secure-socket layer is being utilized on the website (i.e. the “s” in https is being utilized). This indicates to browsers of the site that their browsing experience is secure.

Makita is not currently spending money on Google advertisements nor on Google shopping ads; however, there is some off-site SEO in terms of writing copy that is helping Makita in search. Although it might not be called an ad extension, it is similar in the way it is laid out as shown below.

The main content on not only Makita’s pages but also on competitor pages is very lacking in terms of search optimization. Makita and its competitors have search dropdowns that are filled with product dumps, or product grids. In other words, each category in a dropdown menu leads to a product filter with little to no information. I feel that there is a missed opportunity here to help surface sub-category landing pages (even if they are product dumps). My only concern is that by enhancing keyword optimization, it may require individual landing pages for each product filter which could increase load time significantly and result in higher bounce rates. This is something I would need to have a deeper web design or coding experience with in order to make intelligent, informed suggestions to our web team.

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MKT 151 Blog Post 2: Brand Site Evaluation

 Makita’s homepage has recently had a compelling design; however, the current setup is not (in my opinion) ideal. The below image shows that the newly released pneumatic nailer takes up the entire above-the-fold space.

Meanwhile, important and featured sub-categories of tools are below-the-fold (as seen below):

One of the most interesting landing pages on the site is This ImpactX Landing Page; however, I am unsure if it is set up for conversion. Yes, it looks amazing. But are the unique and interactive elements engaging enough to keep shoppers scrolling through the page to find information? Or are customers going to bounce due to lack of information in above-the-fold placement? These are questions that will need further research to understand and optimize where necessary.

The categorization drop-down menus at the top of the homepage provide easy navigation for customers, although they could use keyword optimization in both title tags and in URL keyword phrases. Unfortunately, I believe the title tags are not optimized properly. For example, when you click into Power Tools > Tools By Type > Drills & Fastening, the title tag is the same title tag used for Tools By Type > Cordless, Tools By Type > Benchtop, Tools By Type > Concrete, and all other sub-categories within the Tools By Type section of the drop down menu. This referenced title tag is “MAKITA - Cordless and Corded Power Tools, Power Equipment, Pneumatics, Accessories”. This is unfortunate SEO practice because the landing page for Benchtop tools or for Drills and Fastening is not optimized for search. Only certain sub-categories such as pneumatics and accessories are optimized for search. This will be discussed in further detail in the next blog post. 

The overall appearance and functionality of the Makita website are great; however, the search optimization can benefit from significant improvements.

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Post 13: Promotion

Makita’s social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram are just a few of its touch points for customers to learn about and interact with the brand. There are numerous promotion strategies that Makita employs through social media. There was recently a GIE Expo for lawn and garden products for which Makita was in attendance and had displays and demos set up. Makita streamed part of its demo on Facebook Live. Many of Makita’s promotions on Instagram are not deal-specific. In other words, Makita might promote a specific category of tools or an event, rather than deal savings on a product. A few examples of currently active promotions are shown below as of the time of this writing:

Personal selling is a strategy employed by sales reps in the field; however, I do not have much knowledge about this process, as I am in the eCommerce field at Makita. The promotion strategies that I employ personally for Makita on Amazon include campaign management through Amazon’s Advertising Console (formerly Amazon Marketing Services, or AMS). The advertising campaigns that I specifically manage are pay per click advertising, where the cost to Makita is based on a cost per click on each advertisement (usually calculated at a keyword level).

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Post 12: Place (Distribution)

Again, sources for any of the following data are hard to find and most of this is personal knowledge from working at Makita.

Makita seems to be using a multiple distribution strategy in a sense, although it is not really Makita that employs this strategy. Being that Makita is only a B2B company and does not employ direct channel distribution strategies, it is really Makita’s distributors that are employing multiple distribution strategies. Think of Home Depot or CPO Commerce who sell both in brick and mortar stores as well as in the online, or dot-com, world. Makita also has reverse channel distribution strategies in play for when distributors need to return product. There can be a variety of reasons for returning product from defects to shipping damage to product not being delivered on time. Makita mostly employs selective distribution in that only certain distributors or retailers are chosen to distribute Makita’s products based on some set of requirements. For example, Makita has specific requirements for dealers to become authorized online dealers. Additionally, think of Makita selling in Home Depot, but not in Lowe’s. There are very few instances where exclusive distribution may be a strategic decision for Makita.

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Post 11: Trends / Pricing

There is not much data online regarding Makita’s tools costs and how it sets its prices; however, from working at Makita, I do have some information I can provide. Makita seems to use a fixed cost for each of its products and then uses markup pricing to sell its tools to distributors. It then sets MAP policies on many of its products (although not all of them) to allow distributors to make their margins on the product as well.

Amazon has been stating that many companies are moving to direct imports of goods, and Makita is one of the slower companies to get on board with this program. I see this as a potential threat to Makita if the company does not at least test the program with a few products to see how it might help with Makita’s margins. With the Amazon Business online site, Amazon also asks Makita to provide pallets of tools at a quantity discount which would allow Amazon’s system to determine whether to buy product in larger quantities for price savings if demand is high. Unfortunately, this is also a program that Makita has not yet begun to utilize.

Makita also offers rebate programs for its distributors. If they meet certain growth goals through overall purchases or category based purchases, they receive Co-Op dollars to spend the following year. These are also known as VIR, or Volume Incentive Rebates. I do not believe Makita has utilized variable pricing, although it seems to be a growing industry.

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Post 10: Services

Makita offers several services to its customers ranging from customer service to product repairs and warranty coverage through service centers (Makita, 2018). These services are intangible in that they differ from the product offerings themselves. In fact, these services are in place so that customers can receive support if their products suffer damage or unexpected failures. There is probably some heterogeneity in the customer service portion of Makita’s services as in most customer service departments, as there can be variability in the service that a customer may be provided depending on the person handling such services.

Makita is known to have reliability in its repair services – so much so, that companies such as CPO Outlets purchase the refurbished product and sell it under their Reconditioned Tools brands (CPO, 2018).

 Makita U.S.A., Inc. (2018). Service Centers. Retrieved on November 21, 2018 from https://www.makitatools.com/service/service-centers

Makita U.S.A., Inc. (2018). Warranty. Retrieved on November 21, 2018 from https://www.makitatools.com/service/warranty

CPO Commerce, LLC. (2018). Reconditioned Tools. Retrieved on November 21, 2018 from https://www.cpooutlets.com/reconditioned/reconditioned,default,sc.html

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Post 9: Brand Detail

Makita is a company whose brand is a manufacturer’s brand; in other words, Makita is the brand name of the manufacturer itself and all its products take the brand name of the manufacturer (Makita, 2018). Some of Makita’s distributors have participated in co-branding. This has been the case of CPO Outlets when promoting JET products in the past. If you ever see a message from a company like CPO reading, “Purchase $1,000.00 in JET products to receive $100.00 off Makita”, you are looking at a co-branded promotion, and this is usually a very limited time offer.

Makita has trademarks on many technologies that it has been the innovative leader in researching and adding to its tools for customers. Some of these technologies are listed at this link and below: https://www.makitatools.com/innovation (Makita, 2018).

Although Makita does not do so, some of its competitors (such as Stanley Black and Decker) do participate in family branding. Think of Stanley Black and Decker’s various lines from Power Tools to Kitchen Products to Children’s Toys, etc.

Makita U.S.A., Inc. (2018). About Us. Retrieved on November 21, 2018 from https://www.makitatools.com/company/about-us

Makita U.S.A., Inc. (2018). Makita® Innovation. Retrieved on November 21, 2018 from https://www.makitatools.com/innovation

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Post 7: Packaging

Makita provides consistent content marketing with its tool packaging through various means including but not limited to its use of high quality tool imagery, feature callouts, and technology benefits on all of its product packaging. This not only provides visually attention-grabbing packaging, but also allows shoppers to take in product information quickly through graphics and quick call outs to features included in its tools. The imagery and the feature call-outs are consistent across its packaging, providing a similar shopping experience across its entire product line. Examples of packaging are shown below.

Home Depot Aisle End-Cap Showing Makita Packaging

Packaging Shows Battery Charge Time & Technology in Tool: Max Torque & Lithium-Ion Technology

Packaging Displays Call-Outs as White Lines Pointing to Parts of the Tool and Describing Features

Packaging Illustrates Features with Zoomed-In Images of a Work-Light, Pressure-Sensitive Trigger for Variable Speeds, Shoulder Strap, and Other Features

The packaging that Makita provides assists consumers in demand for power tools with conceptual learning of its products and what sets Makita apart from its competitors.

A few examples of competitor packaging are displayed below for comparison:

DeWalt Packaging Shows a Diagrammatic Image of the Tool, with a few Feature Call-Outs

Black & Decker (who owns DeWalt) Features More Imagery and Zoomed-In Product Features or Use Cases

The packaging used by Makita is a great way of implementing a strategy that could complement showrooming, a process used by many consumers today where they can easily find the product and features in stores and then make their purchase online later. The packaging is often used as a marketing-controlled information source for potential purchasers to help them narrow down or limit their evoked set, and can even be an entry point into the need recognition stage if a shopper in a Home Depot or other store was not necessarily shopping for power tools to begin with.

Other than the exterior boxing, Makita offers other interior packaging benefits ranging from hard tool cases to tool bags of varying sizes to interlocking tool cases and even to customizable foam inserts to accommodate every Makita tool user. Below are some images of these other packaging options.

Makita Hard Tool Case

Makita Contractor Tool Bag

Makita Interlocking Tool Cases

Makita Customizable Foam Inserts - Pop Out Squares of Foam to Customize for Your Tool Set

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Post 6: Competition

The top Makita competitors include Stanley Black & Decker, Bosch, Fortive, TTI, Hilti, ITW, Snap-on, Emerson, Apex, and Hitachi among a few others according to Pressure Washr’s industry research which is outlined in the article “Tool Industry Behemoths: The Tool Companies Who Make and Own Most Tool Brands” (March 2018). When researching any of the main power tool product groups common in the industry, the shopper may find any or all of these competitors in his or her evoked set (or consideration set) – that is, the group of brands resulting from a search for considerable products.  Makita seems to be considered the innovative leader in the power tool market, which may or may not help shoppers narrow down their evoked set into a final brand purchasing decision.

According to Pressure Washr, Makita has an approximate 6.86% share of the power tool market as of 2015, with a revenue of $3.5 billion dollars of a $51 billion dollar industry at the time of the reporting. This, however, does not seem to be correct when evaluating the brands that Makita is compared against. Fortive, with the third largest market share in Pressure Washr’s research, seems to be more of an advanced robotics business with companies such as Specialty Product Technologies (a technology company in the industrial automation market), Fluke (manufacturer, distributor, and service provider of electronic test tools, biomedical equipment, and networking solutions), as well as others. Additionally, Pressure Washr classifies a category of “Other” which includes Home Depot, Lowe’s, Harbor Freight, and others which are not really competitors in the industry, as these companies are actually resellers of power tool brands. Taking the revenue of both Fortive and “Other”, which comes out to $10.67 billion, results in an estimated 8.68% share in the power tool market for Makita. Its largest competitors, Stanley Black & Decker, Bosch, TTI, and Hilti thus have estimated market shares of 17.70%, 15.37%, 14.88%, and 12.50% respectively. Pressure Washr’s infographic depicting the relative market shares of all 19 competitors in its study is displayed below for reference.

Grainger stated in an article titled ”3 Trends in the Power Tools Industry” that in the U.S., the demand for power tools in U.S. dollars rose from $3.5 billion in 2011 to $4.6 billion in 2016 (March, 2017). On a global level, power tool demand is forecast to rise at 4.8% per year to reach $32.9 billion through 2018”. A few things to note are that (1) this means that Pressure Washr did indeed include too many competitors in its estimation of the market size for the power tool industry and (2) the aforementioned market data provided is surely based on the global market and not on the U.S. market alone. Still, for the purposes of estimation and with the limited data available to the public, an 8.68% share of the global market for Makita is probably an accurate estimation based on available data.

Due to the number of business that sell power tools, a shoppers involvement in the buying process can be very time consuming. In B2B marketing, the manufacturers’ distributors are often buying the necessary quantities of tools and accessories they need to meet the demand of their end users. As such, their purchasing decisions are often routine response behavior in that they are responding to the demand of their end users and already know the brands they work with to refill lost inventory. Limited decision making may occur on the end-users side if they are unfamiliar with a brand that has been included in their consideration set for their familiar product category of power tools. For DIY users or end users that are first time shoppers in the power tool industry, the extensive decision making process may lead them to many of the competitor brands mentioned previously. The goal is that Makita can reach customers in all stages of their purchase path from need recognition throughout the consumer decision-making process and even into their post-purchase activities in order to provide relationship marketing that will keep the customer coming back and increase its market share in the power tool industry.

 Pressure Washr. (March 24, 2018). Tool Industry Behemoths: The Tool Companies Who Make and Own Most Tool Brands. Retrieved October 5, 2018 from https://pressurewashr.com/tool-industry-behemoths/

Grainger. (March, 2017). 3 Trends in the Power Tools Industry. Retrieved October 5, 2018 from https://www.grainger.com/content/supplylink-trends-drilling-the-power-tools-market

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Post 5: Target Market

Makita has a wide reach when it comes to various market strategies and is reaching customers across the entire professional tool market with customized lineups of tools that have been created with unique needs of customer segments in mind.  The overall market that Makita targets is the professional contractor market, and Makita uses a market segmentation approach to further break this overall market down into need groups such as construction, landscaping, and maintenance, as indicated on the LXT Advantage page of Makita’s website (2018).

Makita doesn’t seem to specifically call it out, but the industry in general has greatest participation by males and hence is a male-focused industry. Makita thus utilizes demographic segmentation in the form of gender segmentation by focusing on power tools that are widely used by men in the construction industry. Makita has expanded into the outdoor power equipment industry as well which, in the professional contractor segment, is also led by Hispanic males. There is a mix of gender and ethnic segmentation in this market as well. Makita specifically targets the Hispanic market of the power tool industry with its sponsorship of the Mexican National Soccer Team, which is mentioned in an article from Roofing Contractor (June 9, 2010) but is still true to this day.

Amazon has targeting abilities that allow businesses to target specific geographic areas down to the zip code, and Makita would like to get involved in this targeting strategy. Some advertisements for products that are more seasonal have too wide of a reach. With a narrower focus down to the geographic level through geographic segmentation, Makita could potentially advertise specific seasonal product groups to portions of the U.S. that are in the market for these tools.  Makita also uses an age segmentation approach in that the largest user base of power tools are in their late-twenties or early-thirties up to their late fifties. These age groups are also the highest converting when it comes to following through with a purchase.

Perhaps the largest psychographic segmentation approach that Makita takes is based on Lifestyles. Makita tends to focus solely on the professional contractor and usually does not take part in marketing to the do-it-yourself (DIY) consumer. The DIY consumer tends to have a focus on more cheaply priced tools that can get their smaller projects done, and Makita’s higher price point does not compete well in this niche of the market because Makita makes quality tools with the features necessary to professional users that run these tools day-in and day-out every day.

 Makita U.S.A., Inc. (2018). The LXT® Advantage. Retrieved October 4, 2018 from https://www.makitatools.com/lxtadvantage

Roofing Contractor. (June 9, 2010). Makita is the Official Power Tool Sponsor of the Mexican National Soccer Team. Retrieved October 4, 2018 from https://www.roofingcontractor.com/articles/87247-makita-is-the-official-power-tool-sponsor-of-the-mexican-national-soccer-team

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Post 4: SWOT

The following SWOT analysis is mostly composed of personal experience with working for Makita; however, there is some factual evidence for which these opinions and analyses are based. Power Tool Market data is hard to come by and is extremely costly, so it is difficult to base the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on market share as a percentage or even market share by category.

Strengths:

According to Grainger (March 2017), “there has been a shift from corded to cordless power tools”. Makita has an advantage in the cordless power tool segment with its market penetration approach of flooding the market with its 18-volt line of Lithium-Ion batteries. If Makita can penetrate the market with its batteries and get users on its battery platform, they will be compelled to purchase more Makita tools for which their batteries are supported.

Makita has its cash cow tools, especially in the two-piece combo kit category which include both a driver-drill and an impact driver, as well as a charger, case, and battery or batteries. These cash cow tools, unfortunately, sometimes become weaknesses for Makita, as will be discussed below.

Weaknesses:

Those same cash cow tools discussed above are sometimes discontinued, causing replacement models to have to regain traction on eCommerce marketplaces, such as Amazon. This takes significant amounts of time and money. Since Makita discontinues these kits sometimes, it might even be possible that they are problem children rather than cash cows. I am unable to tell for certain since I do not have access to Makita’s profit margins.

Makita does not always seem eager to make strides in eCommerce, not just on Amazon.com, but also on other marketplaces.

Makita has a much smaller advertising budget in comparison to its top competitors in the eCommerce segment – DeWalt and Bosch.

Makita has some dog products on Amazon.com, such as some band saws and pneumatic tools that don’t perform well in terms of sales.

According to Stuart of ToolGuyd (June 19, 2017), Makita “can be slow to adapt to industry trends (e.g. battery fuel gauges)”.

Opportunities:

Perhaps the largest opportunity for Makita at this time is to invest in growing its eCommerce business from Amazon.com to many other marketplaces where it can have control of what is sold, or which sellers are authorized.

Another opportunity for Makita is to go after the DIY market as well, although I do understand their reasons for not doing so.

Threats:

DeWalt has a large market share and a vast budget for marketing and advertising on and off Amazon.com.

DeWalt’s and Bosch’s advertising is misleading and often dishonest. Being an honest and humble company, Makita has difficulties overcoming this obstacle.

My greatest suggestions and advice to management at Makita are as follows:

Promotions are not always intended to turn a profit in the short term. Sometimes they are used to bring awareness to a new product or to let consumers know that your brand exists as an alternative to your competition. A “deal” does not necessarily need to turn a profit through its immediate performance to be an effective advertising method.

Invest more heavily in eCommerce. Work with companies such as Pricefalls and Overstock.com to be available wherever consumers are in the market for Makita tools.

Realize that the DIY tool user would also find a use for Makita tools. Also, the DIYer may be the future professional tool user. If a competitor gains the interest of a DIYer before Makita does, then Makita may already have lost a possible brand loyalist just because Makita does not view this shopper as its target market.

W. W. Grainger, Inc. (March 2017). 3 Trends in the Power Tools Industry. Retrieved on September 22, 2018 from https://www.grainger.com/content/supplylink-trends-drilling-the-power-tools-market

Stuart of ToolGuyd. (June 19, 2017). Which is the Best Cordless Power Tool Brand?. Retrieved on September 22, 2018 from https://toolguyd.com/best-cordless-power-tool-brand/

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Post 3: Strategy

Post 3: Strategy

Makita has forged its path as a power tool company with key differences in comparison to its competitors in areas such as innovative design as well as in its distribution of products and information. Makita seems to have a product differentiation competitive advantage in that their product reliability appears to be the best in the power tool market according to various sources, including Makita itself. According to Makita U.S.A. (2018), Makita is “an innovation leader, manufacturing best-in-class products at 10 plants operating in 8 countries. The unmatched quality and durability of Makita products is driven by the company’s strong R&D capabilities and have earned the trust of professional users worldwide”. Additionally, according to The Saw Guy (2018) – who should be relatively unbiased, as they claim to be “huge DeWalt fans (as you’re surely aware if you’re a frequent reader)” – Makita “has continuously been the more innovative of the two brands throughout the decades”. I would personally go even further and say that Makita has a sustainable competitive advantage with its Lithium Ion battery technology, although this may not be the case in the future if Makita does not retain its current patent on the technology. Makita’s patented technology prevents competitors from copying its battery design which is one of the aspects of its tools that provides a competitive advantage through various compatible technologies such as Star Protection Computer Controls™. According to Makita U.S.A. (2018), Star Protection Computer Controls ™ is a technology “that monitors conditions during use, allowing the tool and battery to exchange data to protect against overloading, overdischarging and overheating”.

Makita’s competitors seem to have a cost competitive advantage in that many professional brands such as DeWalt and Bosch, as well as some lower-end do-it-yourself (DIY) brands such as Ryobi have a lower cost selection, although this can also translate to a lower quality offer. This cost competitive advantage is what propels these competitor brands to the top of search results in many Amazon.com searches. Amazon’s product ranking algorithms seem to push the highly viewed and highly clicked products to the top of searches along with pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. Makita is taking various approaches from Ansoff’s Opportunity Matrix to try to gain market share, both among existing customers and in new markets. Various actions are being taken by the company to take a market penetration approach to increase market share in the power tool market, in some categories of tools more than others. Additionally, a product development approach has been used by Makita in recent years to expand into the Lawn and Garden / Outdoor Power Equipment (OPE) segment of the market through releases of products such as string trimmers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, chain saws, and lawn mowers, among numerous other outdoor power tools.

Makita will likely remain the technological leader in the power tool market if it can continue to market itself as a technology company with strong R&D capabilities, intending to serve the professional users that demand these products. As discussed previously, Makita is succeeding in delivering its mission across the U.S. through its Driving Innovations Tour, which is a fleet of vehicles with a purpose of being an “interactive tool demonstration on wheels” according to Makita U.S.A. (2018). This tour is also a way to inform distributors and users about why Makita is the technological leader in the power tool market.

 Makita U.S.A. Inc. (2018). About Us. Retrieved September 22, 2018 from www.makitatools.com/company/about-us

The Saw Guy (2018). Makita vs. DeWalt – Who Makes A Better Set of Power Tools?. Retrieved September 22, 2018 from www.thesawguy.com/makita-vs-dewalt/