BUYING GENUINE MONTANA: What Does It Mean to Be Made in Montana?
Author | Braun, Michael |
Position | Cover story |
If you stroll down the aisle of your local grocery store, you may come across a food item carrying a Made in Montana emblem. Perhaps you've spotted the sticker on price tags of artisan jewelry at a farmer's market or on a bag of ice at the gas station. There are a variety of products that bear the Made in Montana mark and it seems our homegrown seal of authenticity is cropping up everywhere. But it's the symbol's pervasiveness that should give us pause. What does the Made in Montana seal stand for anyway?
Today's hypercompetitive marketplace has created the need for merchandise marks indicating where and how a product is designed, sourced, manufactured and in some cases packaged. Whether surveying California avocados or Swiss watches, the companies, industries and regions involved in their production and sales are locked in a race to capture their merchandise's territorial essence, protect its locational authenticity and promote its unique heritage.
A merchandise mark may simply be an indicator of a good's origin of production (i.e., country of origin), used purely for the purpose of making the supply chain more transparent. However, products carrying a region's merchandise mark may additionally draw on the desire to deliver a representative product whose manufacturing may have occurred in a number of places. Ideally, governments, consortia and member companies that band together in a coordinated effort, push the bar of what it means to be "made in," distinguishing their product in the eyes of the consumer while keeping competitive forces at bay.
Next year, Made in Montana will celebrate the 35th anniversary of its circular, multicolored emblem, which adorns everything from beef jerky to automotive drain plugs, dental instruments to drift boat anchors. Meant as a way to promote products either created or enhanced in the Treasure State, the Made in Montana program boasts 3,400 participants, whose products are sold online and across hundreds of retail locations.
For a product to be eligible to carry this designation, the Montana Department of Commerce asks that it be made or substantially transformed (the finished product valued 50 percent or more than the individual parts) within the state. With this designation businesses can leverage the Made in Montana pillars put forth by the Department of Commerce.
These pillars are meant to infuse products with a set of distinctive values to help potential buyers in their purchasing decisions. Yet, in review, it is apparent that products with the Made in Montana seal could just as well be made in Wyoming, Alaska or even Canada for that matter.
* A Cut Above: We consider our members a cut above, because not just anyone fits this brand. In Montana, we hold each other to a higher standard--that...
To continue reading
Request your trialCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.