Drive drums are also known as drum motors, and play an important role in manufacturing plants and warehousing environments all over the world. Drum drive motors are used primarily as the drive pulley mechanism in conveyor belt systems, where they can have a huge impact on the overall efficiency of transportation, distribution, and manufacturing systems. While drive drums and motors are well integrated into the vast majority of factory environments, new models and technologies still need to be regularly marketed and sold to individual factory owners. The process of marketing and selling drive drum (Antriebstrommel) devices often involves educating factory owners of the benefits of drum motors in terms of efficiency and overall system integration.

Drum motors were first realised theoretically on paper in 1928, but were not physically manufactured until the early 1950s. Since this time, drum drives have played a major role in factory environments all around the world, and are one of the major reasons that the industrial sector has experienced such a high level of growth during this time. Marketing drive drum devices is often a simple process of educating factory owners as to the power of these motors, and describing the increasingly important role that they have played since the birth of computerised automation in the 1980s. Newer, more efficient, and more refined drum motor designs are being manufactured all the time, and the marketing area of the drum drive industry is often involved in the re-education of specific industry sectors regarding the implementation of this new technology.

Drive drums play such an important part in manufacturing and warehousing that they have become well accepted and integrated into all manner of factory environments. With a basic design that features an asynchronous or synchronous motor fixed to a stationary shaft, the basic technology involved in drive technology is often quite simple. However, some new advances include helical and planetary gearboxes, along with different kinds of bearings and incremental encoders. Selling new drive features to factory owners and managers is often a combination of traditional sales techniques combined with an educational approach. New advanced drive drum features can help factories to operate more efficiently, and it is vital for drive drum manufacturers to make factory owners aware of this when they are attempting to market their goods.