The era of customized marketing has arrived! The instrumentation industry is moving toward \"customization\"”

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　　With the improvement in the automation and intelligence levels of industrial production, machine manufacturing is gradually replacing manual production, and many instruments and equipment can now be produced in bulk. Problems such as uneven quality of products across batches and low production efficiency have been resolved, but this type of assembly-line production model finds it difficult to meet the various different requirements that customers have for products. http://www.levelmeter.cn/uploads/image/20180527/1527434956.jpg 　Customized marketing 　Recently, an instrument user from the south posted online about the problems he was facing. The climate in the south is humid year-round, with high humidity at times. Some instruments are not suitable for use in humid environments, but the manufacturers have not taken any measures to protect the electronic circuits from moisture, which leads to frequent malfunctions of these instruments. In response to this, the manufacturer also provided frequent after-sales service, but the quality of that service was unsatisfactory, and it eventually turned into shirking of responsibility. Logically, there is no issue with the quality of the instruments themselves, so the manufacturers do not need to bear much responsibility. However, it is indeed the manufacturer’s negligence for not providing moisture protection, and it is only fair to offer repair services to the customers. Ultimately, such awkward problems arise because manufacturers lack a concept of customized marketing. 　　Today, the whole world is focusing on the advancement of Industry 4.0, yet few consider that marketing strategies should also be updated accordingly. From the era of mechanical manufacturing, to the era of electrification and automation, and then to the era of electronic information, marketing models have now entered an era of intelligent and customized production. The concept of customized marketing began to be discussed, and American marketing expert Kotler also hailed it as \"one of the latest fields in 21st-century marketing.\" As one of the key industries in the manufacturing sector, the instrumentation industry also needs to gradually adopt a customized marketing approach. 　　In fact, some foreign instrument manufacturers are already trying to offer customized instrument services. Thermo Fisher offers the best workflow options to meet customers’ research objectives, delivering high-quality, consistent products thanks to its industry-recognized life sciences brand. Leveraging over 20 years of experience in developing custom reagent solutions within cGMP production facilities, we work continuously with clients to deliver specialized solutions that meet their research needs. Thermo Fisher offers customized services for various fields, and customers can obtain a complete solution with just one phone call. As a water quality analysis expert, Hashiko can leverage his professional technical skills and extensive experience to develop customized service solutions for clients, meeting all the requirements related to water quality analysis in actual field situations. Instrument manufacturers such as Shimadzu and Agilent focus more on improving product performance to meet the common needs of their customers, while also being able to customize consumables and reagents according to the actual requirements of those customers. 　　In contrast, domestic instrument manufacturers seem to be more interested in customizing instruments, although most of this is limited to lower-end products. The instrument customization services provided by Hexin Instruments are of a higher quality; they are tailored to meet the specific testing requirements of clients in the defense and other related fields, using core technologies related to high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometers. Such customized mass spectrometers can be used in research on nuclear weapon ignition systems, studies of nuclear materials, and monitoring of the atmosphere inside submarines, among other applications. To date, Hexin Instruments has successfully provided products and technical services to multiple **strategic sectors (including the nuclear and military industries). Dandong Aolong Radiation Instrument Group has long been dedicated to the development of radiation instruments, and it is able to customize certain life science instrument products according to customers’ requirements, thereby meeting specific personalized needs. Other instrument manufacturers can also support the customization of laboratory supplies such as beakers and test tubes, as well as reagents. 　　It can be seen that due to the high technical barriers in the instrumentation industry, many domestic manufacturers are still unable to develop and produce mid-to-high-end instruments on their own; as a result, they cannot undertake more sophisticated customization tasks and can only offer limited customization services in the low-end market. Moreover, foreign manufacturers with strong technical capabilities have not invested much effort in customized services; unified production and sales of complete devices remain the focus of most instrument companies. This situation arises partly because the technical standards required for customized services are difficult to meet, and partly because, even if those standards are achieved, it still requires excessive resources, resulting in much smaller profit margins compared to selling instruments directly. Moreover, at present, there are still few customers who require customized instruments and are willing to bear the high costs. 　　Ultimately, the main obstacles faced by customized marketing in the instrumentation industry stem from technology and profits. An expansion of the profit margin can only be achieved by reducing manufacturing costs, which in turn requires an improvement in technical capabilities. There is still a long way to go, from mass production and sales of complete products to customized marketing, but this does not mean that customers’ personalized needs can be ignored. Instrument manufacturers should pay more attention to customers’ common needs and incorporate them into the transformation and upgrading of their next-generation products. At the same time, different solutions are provided to meet diverse needs, a flexible production system is established, and modular design is adopted to satisfy customers’ varied requirements.