PIM Products

Marketers at manufacturing companies have a ton on their plates.

They have to get ahead of consumer behavior, create engaging product experiences for their customers, design helpful resources for sales teams, meticulously track analytics to ensure their efforts aren’t being wasted, and constantly iterate on all of these tasks.

The one roadblock standing in the way of marketers successfully accomplishing these responsibilities?

Poor product data management.

Luckily there are tools that can substantially help marketers at manufacturing companies organize their product data so they can be the hero of their organization.

What Is Product Information Management Software?

We often say there isn’t a silver bullet for marketers (as much as we may want one). That being said, there is the next best thing for marketers at manufacturing companies.

It’s called Product Information Management software.

PIM Meaning

Product Information Management (PIM) software is a tool marketers at manufacturing companies can use to make every aspect of their work lives easier. PIM products are tools that help manufacturers organize, store, and manage product information in one, centralized place.

PIM solutions replace the need for employees to store valuable product information in disparate spreadsheets, hard drives, and local devices that complicate cross-collaboration between teams.

Think having disparate information isn’t that big of a deal? Think again.

For example, if you were trying to compile product data to use in an upcoming product catalog, where do you begin looking for this information? Do you have one trusted source of truth you can turn to or do you have to check with multiple people? Once you get this information, how do you trust it’s accurate since it wasn’t stored in a centralized location? And by the time you use this product data in your product catalog, how are you notified if the product data has changed since you retrieved it?

Not having a PIM solution causes friction among internal teams and produces marketing materials for customers and sales teams that might not always reflect the most up-to-date product information.

What Is Product Information?

Product information is data that helps further describe the details of a product.

Product information can look like:

Product Name
Product Descriptions
Stock Keeping Units (SKUs)
Price
Size
Product Ratings
Classification
Ingredients
Materials
And so much more

Why Is Product Information Important?

Product information is extremely important to the decision process in the customer journey.

Let’s take a customer who wants to purchase a refrigerator as an example. This customer is going to compare features, specifications, price, color, etc. when making their decision. If at any point this customer experiences friction with obtaining product data or finds inaccuracies with the refrigerator’s product data, this minor error could cause them to choose the other brand’s product.

Product information is an extremely valuable asset for manufacturers. It’s time manufacturers invest in the resources to better manage this valuable asset.

Relationship Between CMS, DAM, and PIM

Product information is only one part of telling a compelling product story. Customers need to interact with images, videos, and manuals when deciding what products to purchase.

Manufacturers likely have several pieces of content attached to each product, which can be difficult to manage.

Luckily, there are tools like a Content Management System (CMS) and a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system that can also provide manufacturers with a way to organize these assets.

Content Management System (CMS) - A tool used for managing a brand’s content that is used on their website like images, text, etc.
Digital Asset Management System (DAM) - This solution is used to store all of a company’s digital assets to be used across multiple channels by multiple teams. For manufacturers, a DAM commonly stores all product-related digital assets such as product images, owner’s manuals, troubleshooting videos, etc.

Commonly, these solutions are marketed separately, depending on which software solution you choose to go with. Other times, a PIM, CMS, and DAM are all part of a larger software ecosystem that eliminates the need for manufacturers to invest in outside solutions.

These larger platforms are called Product Experience Management (PXM) platforms.

PXMs are platforms that encompass almost everything marketers at manufacturing companies need to market their products and provide internal marketing resources across departments depending on the PXM solution. For example, most PXM platforms include a PIM and a DAM.

Lumavate is a PXM designed specifically for manufacturers that puts managing manufacturers’ product data at the center of everything we do. Plus, our PXM enables marketers to bring their product data to life by creating dynamic digital experiences tied to product information stored in Lumavate’s PIM. Our PXM Platform also has a built-in DAM and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) allowing you to effectively centralize product data, manage digital assets, and create digital product experiences in a single platform.

Watch a tour of our PIM to learn more.

Interested in seeing our PIM solution in action? Schedule a demo today and our product experts will show you how easy it is to use our PIM solution to organize your product data.

Why Do Brands Need a PIM?

Manufacturers have hundreds of products that are sold often globally. Each product comes with at least several points of product data points that need to be meticulously managed, otherwise, chaos will ensue internally and customers’ trust in the brand will diminish.

PIM solutions are essential to the success of a manufacturing company and can lead to an increased ROI.

Who Uses PIM Software?

Any company that sells physical products should be using PIM software, especially manufacturers. It’s also common for retailers, dealers, and distributors to use a PIM solution.

Manufacturers and PIM Solutions

Manufacturers should be investing in PIM solutions before it's too late.

Why Manufacturers Need a PIM Solution

What we mean by that is that customers are willing to ditch a brand just after two bad experiences. By not using a PIM solution, you leave your company vulnerable to displaying inaccurate product information, like pricing, in materials like product catalogs. Customers will become frustrated that information is not consistent if they run into this challenge. That’s strike one.

Strike two for manufacturers without a PIM is a customer who has just purchased a product and they are now wowed (or even provided) a product experience.

Benefits of Using a PIM for Manufacturers

We’ve talked about the challenges manufacturers face when they don’t have a PIM solution, now let’s discuss a few benefits manufacturers can see after implementing a PIM product.

Centralized Location for all Product Data

How would you describe your junk drawer in your home? Most would answer “chaotic”. That's the reality for manufacturers when they don’t have a solution to store their product data.

When employees don’t have one place to store product information, they resort to using other ways which may not be the most sanctioned method of doing so for the longevity of the company. For instance, if an employee has a spreadsheet of product information saved to his or her local storage device, how do other team members access this information? Or worse, what if this employee leaves the company - how do you ensure this product information isn’t lost when this employee leaves?

PIM tools help manufacturers scale by creating long-lasting solutions to product data management challenges. PIM tools ensure employees have one place they can turn to in order to find accurate product data.

Brand Consistency

Without having a platform that gives brand marketers control over their brand assets, there’s no telling what other employees are using and creating to sell your brand’s products. If customers see varying degrees of brand assets, product information, and description, their trust in your brand could diminish greatly.

By having a PIM solution that helps establish brand consistency, marketers can easily add brand assets to the platform for employees across the organization to use. Not only does having control over which brand assets employees use, but it also helps elevate your brand and establish your brand’s name as a credible name for customers to choose when buying products.

Improved Collaboration

Marketers wear a million hats, one of which includes creating marketing materials for sales teams. By having access to a PIM solution that’s part of a PXM, marketers can easily create and launch sales resources by using the product data that’s in a PIM and create an engaging product catalog or landing page for sales teams to use when in the field selling a product or at trade shows generating leads and talking to customers.

Not only does having a PIM tool in marketers’ arsenals make creating these resources easier, but it also reduces friction internally and makes the marketer the hero of the story because of how helpful they are in creating these resources.

PIM Software Companies

Now that you’ve heard of a PIM solution, we can get into discussing the various product information management examples out there.

PIM Software Examples

Lumavate - Lumavate not only has PIM functionality but is a PXM platform that has a wide array of additional functionality that is cost-effective for manufacturers including the ability to create dynamic product experiences, store and manage content and digital assets, and send text messages to customers.
Salsify PIM - Focuses on enabling retailers to centrally manage their product data.
Plytix PIM - Primarily designed for small to medium-sized businesses to help organize their product data.
Akeneo PIM - Akeneo describes itself as an open-source product information management platform with DAM capabilities.
Inriver PIM - Inriver is headquartered in Sweden and is a cloud-based product information management solution for retailers.
PIMcore - PIMcore has several solutions including product information management, digital asset management, and master data management.
Catsy - Catsy’s PIM focuses on eCommerce product information management and is often regarded as a more expensive PIM solution when compared to others.
Unbxd - Unbxd considered itself an AI-powered solution with PIM functionality for eCommerce brands.

It’s important to note that Lumavate is the only PXM on this list that’s purpose-built for marketers at manufacturing companies. Not only is Lumavate extremely easy to use and get started, but it’s also 75 percent more cost-effective than other solutions on this list.

How Do I Choose a PIM?

Choosing a new software solution for your tech stack isn’t always an easy process. There are many PIM tools in the market that all appear to help organizations easily manage their product data, but upon further evaluation, they might fall short of what your organization needs.

Whether you’ve never invested in a PIM tool before or here is a list of things to consider when evaluating PIM software:

PIM Evaluation Criteria

Ability to Easily Manage Product Data
Connect Data Dynamically to Digital Experiences
Ability to Implement Changes Without the Need for IT
Provide Easy Access to Digital Assets

Which Is the Best PIM?

What solution has all of the criteria mentioned above? Answer: Lumavate.

Lumavate is purpose-built for manufacturers. We are uniquely poised to understand manufacturers' frustration and have built a platform with functionality that solves these challenges. From our Templates to our product releases, everything our team develops is centered around making marketing manufacturers’ lives easier.

Let’s take a look at just a few reasons why manufacturers can benefit from using our PIM solution.

Benefits of Using Lumavate’s PIM

Unlimited Products - Lumavate doesn't limit you on the number of products within your PIM instance no matter what subscription you’re on.
Multiple Product Types - Sometimes, having one product type just won’t cut it. You shouldn’t have to pay an additional fee to have more than one product type. With Lumavate, you can designate several product types for your products depending on what makes sense for your business.
Unlimited Custom Attributes - Your business is unique and along with that so are your product’s attributes. Lumavate enables manufacturers to create an unlimited amount of customized attributes for each product depending on what makes sense for your business.
Easily Related Products and Accessories - One of the things that helps drive increased ROI for manufacturers is selling related parts and accessories. Provide customers with relevant products and accessories related to the product they’re interested in your digital product experiences.
Integrate to Existing Systems - Whether you use our system or your own tech stack, we believe technology is stronger when it works together. We have a list of numerous integrations you can connect to, like Salesforce, to help your business run smoothly.
Unlimited Users - Multiple people in your organization need to be able to access and manage your company’s product data. Using Lumavate, you can have an unlimited amount of users access your company’s PIM solution to make sure the data is accurate. Plus, you can designate admins and designate access to who can edit, review, and access certain screens.
Create Dynamic Digital Experiences - Skip the hassle of having to remember and update every place product information is used throughout your marketing efforts. With a PIM in a PXM solution that has DXP capabilities, you can create dynamic digital product experiences that reflect the most accurate information. For example, if pricing changes in the PIM, your digital product experiences will instantaneously reflect these changes, leaving you with more time on your hands now that you don’t have to manually update each asset.

Ready to Use the Best PIM Software?

Don’t waste another minute trying to find product data in a myriad of places or put out inaccurate product experiences for your customers because they weren’t connected to a PIM.

Schedule a demo with our team and we’ll show you how easy it is to use Lumavate’s PIM and show you the many benefits partnering with our team provides.