Every economic developer has a list of their target markets. Nearly every list includes things like aviation, advanced manufacturing, automotive and medical devices.
These are great industries, but for many, if not most, communities, these phrases mean nothing.
Take advanced manufacturing – what exactly does that mean? What industries are those? What are the company names? In fact, as a mission and a goal, that phrase means very little.
Creating your target list includes looking closely at your area’s real assets and avoiding wishful thinking.
What are your area’s real assets? If you in a significantly agricultural, you already know that. Some of the less obvious assets are things like market needs. Rather than simply making a list, you should take a look at what you area needs. For example, if you have several data driven companies, like insurance companies or call centers, do you have a local data center to meet the need?
You should also look at complementary industries, as well as suppliers. One industry that has seen some excellent growth is the industrial coating market, but this industry will almost never appear on an economic developer’s list.
The European Union has created a great classification system that really makes it easy to look at the listing of manufacturers and figure out what level you are working with.
High-technology manufacturing
Division 21 Pharmaceuticals
Division 26 Computers, electronic & optical products
Group 30.3 Air spacecraft
Medium-high-technology manufacturing
Division 20 Chemicals
Group 25.4 Weapons & ammunition
Division 27 Electrical equipment
Division 28 Machinery
Division 29 Motor vehicles
Division 30_X_30.1_30.3 Transport equipment excluding ships, boats, excluding air & spacecraft
Group 32.5 Medical & dental instruments
Medium-low-technology manufacturing
Group 18.2 Reproduction recorded media
Division 19 Coke and petroleum products
Division 22 Rubber and plastic products
Division 23 Other non-metallic mineral products
Division 24 Basic metals
Division 25_X_25.4 Fabricated metal products excluding machinery
Group 30.1 Ships and boats
Division 33 Repair & installation machinery
Low-technology manufacturing
Division 10 Food
Division 11 Beverages
Division 12 Tobacco
Division 13 Textiles
Division 14 Clothing
Division 15 Leather products
Division 16 Wood products
Division 17 Paper products
Division 18.1 Printing
Division 31 Furniture
Division 32_X_32.5 Other manufacturing excluding medical and dental instruments
Having a list like this allows you to see a broad cross-section of manufacturing laid out before and lets you really think through the best options for your area.
Several services offer to do industrial analysis reports. This is a great report to have done, but don’t be deceived by companies that offer to do this for you for $30,000 or more. This is realistic a report that can be done for $5,000 or so. It is possible that a really extensive report will include lots of survey, etc. but most are simply based on a local economic information.
The World Economic Development Alliance specializes in keeping informed and sharing that information. WEDA can provide an industrial analysis report at a reasonable price, providing insights into how to market to these companies as well.
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