Today Scott, John and I were interviewed by Brain, a Tokyo-based creative magazine. It’s hard to miss the irony of an agency dedicated to American manufacturing being approached by an Asian publication, and we had to laugh at the idea of MADE blowing up in Japan. But soon after the interview began, the reporter asked us an interesting question: would we ever want to help a Japanese brand that made something in America? Our answer was a resounding YES.
There’s a reason other countries do everything they can to lure manufacturers to their shores. It’s called the multiplier effect (something we referenced in our last blog post). What it means, in short, is that manufacturing jobs generate almost twice as much money for an economy as service jobs. So when a company designs something in one place and manufactures it in another, the latter location gets roughly double the economic boost. In America’s case, it’s usually us designing things, and other countries enjoying the benefits of manufacturing them. But sometimes the reverse is true. My everyday vehicle is a 2003 Toyota Tundra. Though I had no idea when I bought it (in fact, I had no idea until I checked the door frame about 20 minutes ago), my Tundra was built in a factory in Princeton, Indiana. A factory that happens to employ 4,000 workers, all of whom contribute to the local, and national economy.
And, since R&D usually follows manufacturing (innovation of a product is inextricably tied to the making of the product itself), Toyota has established an R&D presence in Erlanger, Kentucky, closer to its US factories. That means jobs for American engineers, too, and a continuum in America’s ability to innovate.
We’re not saying everything in the world should be made here, but so little is, we’d be crazy not to support the things that are. And if Toyota wanted MADE to work on the Tundra, hell yes, we’d jump at the chance.
An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!
Thanks for the reply. We are interested in your colleague’s analysis. We are not experts either, but we are learning as much as we can and there’s a lot of good material out there. The information referenced in our post comes from a book by Andrew Liveris called Make It In America. In the book, Liveris cites both The US Bureau of Economic Analysis and The Manufacturing Institute. According to those organizations, manufacturing does more for the surrounding economy than any other sector. Their research shows that “every dollar in final sales of manufactured products supports $1.40 in output from other sectors of the economy. For comparison, the service sector supports only $0.71 in output per dollar spent. We’ll continue to post on things like this from time-to-time, and also send along any good reference books we stumble upon. And if you learn anything we should know or could benefit from, we’d be happy to hear from you or anyone you know. Thanks again.
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