Is Facebook important to your marketing communications programme?

Facebook seems to be a bit like Marmite. You either like it or hate it.

We have clients who really love Facebook and have embraced it as the lead platform in their social media strategy. On the other hand we also have clients who totally reject it, regarding it as having little to do with business. As an agency we are constantly looking for results that support the resource put into Facebook and preferably in the form of attributable sales leads. At present trackable actions via Google Analytics are pretty lightweight, so the response is lets put more resource into Facebook then for sure we will see positive results. But here's the thing, it is easy to see what other platforms offer. YouTube is a pretty neat way to publish videos and videos can be powerful ways of demonstrating products. Twitter is the darling of the news community and sticks to the simple format of posting headlines, immediately and as it happens and is both a source of news and route to publish your own news. Blogging is an informal diary style medium that offers the opportunity for comment and allows you to publish material that wouldn't interest the trade press. But what is Facebook really good at?

For a start visitors also need to be signed up to participate, but with 800 million or so world-wide that may not be an issue. Because we administer several different accounts I am always signing in and out and am  disturbed to see pictures of people's dogs, babies and other personal stuff turning up between company news. But then it is still really a personal platform - the business bit is kind of tacked on. But it is business that will pay for the advertising, not people sharing family pictures with friends. Friends are at the heart of Facebook, one article suggested on average people had 800 friends - that's a lot of dog and baby pictures - but in real life they might have just 4. Or perhaps none if they spend their lives tracking 800 fantasy friends! Is getting people to 'like' a company actually of value? if they like you so much they buy or recommend your product that is great, but b-2-b case studies providing such irrefutable evidence never seem to get mentioned.

Facebook's founder didn't come out too business-like in The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich and the movie The Social Network and Facebook appears more a phenomenon than a regular business which is despite this valued in billions of dollars. But then again so was the market in collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps, built on sub-prime mortgages by banks thought to be too big to fail. Maybe they have figured out what makes the Facebook phenomenon so valuable (other than advertising access to hundreds of millions) that will build a sustainable business that won't evaporate overnight or have its users migrate to the next new thing. Traditional advertising agencies are cautious about putting client's advertising money into new publications until circulation is properly established, audited and certified. Writing in iMediaConnection Douglas Kerr's article 8 reason's marketers can't trust Facebook raises issues of control, access, copyright and moreover investment by advertisers in the medium.

To use marketing speak, Facebook is a dilemma. For b-2-b businesses with modest marketing communications budgets the best advice right now is add it to the marketing programme but measure response carefully and don't invest at the expense of methods that are proven.

Innovate or die

New product development is the lifeblood of a business. Failure to innovate will result in stagnation and eventual decline. 


The rate of new product introduction in most markets is now relentless, so just to keep pace calls for a regular flow of new products. Few will be genuinely innovative, most will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary but the evolution will move forward the market’s expectations. 


So where to start? Having reviewed the focus for the new product and market positioning through preliminary research, it is time to start putting together a brief for the development team and a specification for the new product. Perhaps the most important consideration is the target market. What is the role of the product, who will buy it and use it and what does it compete with or replace? Developing a product without a clear understanding of users' needs  will raise marketing problems throughout the process. So it is vital to get this right from the start. 


Today many companies find themselves competing in the global market with all sorts of regional variations due to custom, culture and legislation working against their attempts to develop a single, universal product. One approach could be to develop a core product or technology, which can be adapted or customised to suit different market needs. Such decisions have to be taken before any other work starts and if they are wrong, the product may be loaded with unnecessary costs for any one market, or too bland for acceptance anywhere. The attempt to incorporate everything for everywhere is not only expensive to implement, but results in an unsuitable product for any country. Another outcome can be the ‘lowest common denominator’ solution where the product brief meets the minimum needs of its principle markets, but ends up being totally uninspiring and unexciting to everyone. 


Finally by designing with only one country’s needs in mind, may for want of some simple-to-do considerations at the briefing stage, enable far greater sales to be achieved in many more countries.

Ready to launch a new product?

New products are at the heart of any integrated marketing strategy. Apple and the late Steve Jobs are masters of the new product launch. An event which presents a great opportunity to boost the brand and remind loyal customers of why they purchase your products and tempt others to buy.

But even the best executed marketing campaign will not compensate for poor products or products that the market does not want. So the first stage of any new product programme is research. Initially there may be dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ideas to sift and evaluate, but new products will most likely arise from one of three key drivers:-Technology, Market Need, or Price. Whilst market input is important, it’s not likely to result in any real progress in understanding what to develop. As one commentator remarked, ‘you don’t know, what you don’t know’. Once again Apple choose to think differently and created products that offered far more than mere functionality. Asking customers what they want is not the way to build innovative new products.The lack of imagination conditioned by the existing supply chain through to the end user, will deliver a verdict which can be summarised as ‘more of the same, plus a few ‘bells and whistles’ that the competitors offer on their product - and all delivered at a lower price’. And know what? They probably won't want a product where the design brief is guided by a lists of current wishes.

Technology, not surprisingly is a critical driver, either applied to the product itself or to the process of manufacture, or a combination of both. But basing new product development on a new technology platform can be a high-risk strategy unless relevant to the target audience. New technology for its own sake will not succeed unless it also fulfils a market need that the customers are willingly to pay for. Failure to recognise the value of new technology or adopt too late can be equally disastrous. Sometimes the technology is a good idea in search of a genuine user application. The key factor is an ability to bridge the gap between the possibilities afforded by adoption of the technology and the implementation and acceptance by the market. Good industrial design can be a great differentiator making the product not just good to see but easy and intuitive to use.

Finally price can be the driver for a successful new product, but to achieve this will generally require having a lower cost-manufacturing base than any of your competitors. This may be achieved through entry barriers to the market such as high level of investment in plant, or patent controls that are beyond the reach of your competitors and will usually also need to be accompanied by high volumes and a dominant market share. Of course dominant market share is just one strategy. There are premium price segments of the market that can actually prove more profitable  for products that can command that price point ... Apple?

Logo as an expression of brand identity

Because of their essentially visual form, logos exert considerable influence on the way that customers perceive and react to a brand. 


Their aspirational value is amply demonstrated in the power of global brands, such as Nike, to inspire a credible fashion statement for the wearers’ of garments prominently displaying its swoosh logo. But an ill chosen logo can have a detrimental affect. When some years ago British Airways phased out the stylized Union Flag in favour of ethnic art on the tail planes of its fleet of aircraft, there was ridicule that they had substituted graffiti. The Prime Minister went so far as to drape a tissue over the offending logo on a model aircraft in the new livery she had been invited to inspect . Credibility is a key to a successful logo. 


For b-2-b marketers logos are not a fashion statement or prominently displayed to the public, but appear on stationery, business cards, sales literature, web site and on products. The logo symbolizes the company and as such must convey expertise and trust in the company. Research studies have shown that the content of a message is credible if the source is itself credible and trusted. The logo must visualize the brand values and communicate these to the customer. One expert has identified three main styles that most logos conform to - the name only, the monogram and a symbol - above or to the left of the company name. 


Words only and monograms limit the ability to express credibility traits, whereas the symbol, well executed can be interesting and express authority. Just as with advertising keep to a single message, the temptation to build too many ideas into the image can confuse rather than project a clear communication. Colour too is important and practical needs for adequately repeating the logo in various media and on products needs careful planning. 


Logos must then be applied consistently, without variation to build both awareness and a positive perception of the enterprise through the visual expression of everything the business stands for. So designing a logo is not a task to be undertaken lightly. A strong logo, properly used can support and develop the brand. A poorly executed logo can undermine a company’s credibility and trust.

Integrating a socia media component to the marketing communicationsplan

Including social media as a component of an integrated marketing communications programme that also includes traditional media, web site and email campaigns should start with some research.

The big question for many b-2-b companies now, is where are their customers and prospects looking for information? There is a general acceptance that display advertising campaigns in the trade press are not the best way to invest so much of the marketing budget as they once were. That there is migration to other media and the web site is the vital  hub, but how do people get there and how do they learn about your business before reaching your site? This is where some fundamental research is called for. In this fragmented media landscape it is important to understand current customer preferences for discovering information and their route to a purchase decision. At the very least discover how many rely on traditional editorial recommendation in the trade press, or like the 'hands on' opportunity afforded by exhibitions, are content to search the Internet or maybe like the more relaxed style of social media? And there is another thing - what formats and platforms do they tend to use - print, desk top computers or mobile devices? It might be worth just checking how well the company web site displays  on mobile devices. In fact this piece of research is going to need to be done regularly as migration continues and media continues to offer new communication channels.

Armed  with this research insight - what next? With an up to date understanding of what media customers and prospects prefer, then there is a rationale to determine how scarce marketing resources of funds and time are best deployed and to set objectives. The overall aim is to lead through to sales leads, but some channels may work better at the early stages of engagement and social media probably works best as a soft sell, hence it needs to work within a fully integrated marketing communications programme.

Do you know what is driving your market?

Like the product life cycle, complete markets or market sectors can also progress through different stages over time. 


At each stage there are different market drivers, so it is important to understand how these market drivers work. During the introductory phase the target audience is small and  is characterised by innovators and early adopters. Application of new technologies can often be the driver for new markets. There are plenty of examples of markets served by products that previously did not exist – mobile telephony, the Internet – where early adopters drive the market forward. 


In growth markets, the drivers are a constant flow of new users accepting and using the product, as well as an increase in usage rate amongst existing users. The next wave of customers, influenced by the early adopters, join the market and in doing so increase the current target audience as well. Mature markets develop when there is no increase in the total population of users and existing users cannot readily use or consume more of the product. More manufacturers will also have entered the market. In mature markets there will typically be many suppliers, little real product differentiation and pressures on price due to high supply and no growth. Many industrial markets are arguably in this state most of the time, leading to excessive discounting to move the product and with suppliers experiencing falling margins. 


Declining markets are usually characterised by a shrinking total population and sometimes a decline in usage as well. This may be caused by a shift to use different solutions or simply the reason for the product need is no longer valid. 


At each stage of the market cycle – introduction, growth, maturity and decline – the marketing approach will need to address the target audiences which themselves will change and not be a constant. The proposition to early adopters and opinion formers in helping grow a new market will be quite different to marketing to an audience well familiar with the market, comfortable with the same again, resistant to change but not yet ready to move their allegiance to a new and evolving sector.

Making the most of databases

Data collated to understand and predict customer demand has become an important issue in ensuring the right product is in the right place at the right time. 


Wider choice, reflecting the shift from the supply of mass-produced goods to mass-customisation, a demand driven market and the need to manage product availability to match actual customer preference, calls for better user data. In the business-to-business world the expectation has shifted significantly towards a rapid supply of product, where once several weeks wait was acceptable. As knowing more about customers and prospects becomes increasingly important, so legislation and privacy concerns as to what information is held on databases becomes a bigger issue. But many businesses do not yet really fully utilise their existing customer knowledge to provide better targeted marketing. Few extend beyond a basic address list and often operate several unrelated address lists divided across field sales, marketing, service and accounts. When this information is pooled into a single database, then patterns begin to emerge, helping to classify your customers, by product preference or usage requirements, for example and to create a profile of their main interests and motivations for buying your products and services. These profiles can be matched to the total market population. Profiling the total population including those with similar needs to your customers, can extend your prospect database. Sending information can then be selective, so that messages they receive by e-mail or direct mail have far greater relevance. 


Experience shows that recipients of highly relevant information return a far better response rate to direct marketing campaigns, leading to improved sales closure. Mining data, generating and understanding customer and prospect profiles, helps target messages with high relevance to the recipient - leading to higher response rates. 

Including social media as part of the marketing mix

For many b-2-b marketers, social media has at best been something of a trial, a test run, a toe in the water to take the temperature. But now some companies are thinking it maybe time to include a social media strategy as part of an integrated marketing communications programme. An integrated marketing communications programme should now strike a balance between traditional media, established Internet methods and social media.

Traditional print media has been under pressure for several years due to the widespread adoption of the Internet offering greater immediacy to news and information without the need to subscribe or register for journals and magazines. With advertising revenues declining, weaker editorial content, fewer pages and fewer publications, display advertising - the mainstay of many b-2-b marcomms plans - may no longer be the best investment. Although  traditional media offers researched and audited audience data, more of your audience may now be looking somewhere else.

In the Internet era, customers and prospects are no longer passive audiences but are actively researching comparative product specific and background information themselves. So search engine optimisation became a mantra to propel company web sites high on the list for relevant search terms. Analytics packages measure visitor statistics - where they came from, what they looked at and what, if any, action they took.  Web sites and email have been the killer applications of the Internet and matured into mainstream marketing communication tools, primarily accessed via desk top or lap top computers. But this situation too is changing - just when the web site has become the main conduit for enquiries - with more people preferring mobile devices to access content and the increasing popularity of social media platforms. 

  

Social media additionally offers the prospect for ‘conversations’ between sellers and buyers, explaining and showing products and receiving feedback. Measuring and evaluating interaction varies between the different platforms, but those with advertising options allow a target audience to be specified based on user registration data. Because social media’s origins are in personal social communications, b-2-b organisations generally don’t expect their customers to use this medium for business. But it’s worth asking them the question. Do your customers use Facebook, follow on Twitter, read blogs and watch YouTube? Because social media is used to share social trivia and questionable images it is not seen as serious media for business. But then again the same people once dismissed the importance of web sites and placed labels on them to declare their site did not contain pornography!

Keeping in touch with customers

With so much focus on the company web site and social media it is easy to forget to keep in touch with customers when they are not actively thinking about buying new products. Company newsletters can help keep customers and prospects informed about your products, and maintain ‘top of the mind’ awareness for your brand. 

A  company newsletter can be mailed to both ‘external’ and ‘internal’ customers. Internal customers include members of your team in non-customer facing roles, manufacture for example, as well as people in field sales and the distribution chain.

Even with the immediacy of the Internet, there is still a place for printed communication where readers can review the contents at a more convenient time. Not only should the design look professional, but the layout should make reading easy and include good quality photographs to gain attention and help break up the text. The content also needs to be relevant to the reader and add to their knowledge and experience of your business. A newsletter can also present interesting and noteworthy projects by explaining how challenges were solved, how your products were used and provide the endorsement of your customers. It can be a useful vehicle to help educate your readership about new developments, by giving background information, or to explain how to get the best use from your products. Newsletters can of course showcase new products and remind customers of the virtues of existing ones. Featuring company employees, explaining their role and contribution will help present the human face of your business and remind customers that they are dealing with a team. By including ‘useful’ articles you can also create higher retention value for the newsletter and well- produced versions have been used as reference sources. You can develop relationships with your readers by introducing response inducive elements ranging from a letters page to competitions and of course encourage readers to recommend others.

Above all you control the content. You are not subject to editorial selection as in the case of the trade press, which has limited space and needs to maintain impartiality. Frequency is another important consideration. A few issues a year sent out regularly are better than an initial flurry then big gaps between issues as the time commitment and need for genuine news content becomes a challenge you cannot sustain.

Media advertising

The term advertising is often confused with the whole marketing process itself. 


Our use of the word is confined to ‘paid for’ media space. In business-to-business communication this is mainly the trade press and portal web sites, but advertising media also embraces radio, cinema, television, bus sides and bill boards. A rather lengthy and convoluted definition of advertising is "the persuasive force that utilises mass communications to make changes in customer attitudes, behaviour and actions towards products and services in a direction favourable to the advertiser."


 Advertising is cost effective in reaching large groups of customers and potential customers with a shared defined profile, hence the proliferation of special interest and industry specific magazines that can deliver an audience relevant to the needs of the advertiser. Media selection must therefore seek to match your target audience and readership profiles. Advertising’s key aims are to progress the target audience through a series of stages:-

• creating awareness of the product
• turning previous unawareness of the product, into awareness 
• establishing a comprehension of the proposition and the benefits it offers 
• a conviction that the product is both relevant and of benefit 
• finally a ‘call to action’ to convert the prospect into a potential customer. 

As individuals we are subjected to hundreds of advertising messages each day, so to arrest attention the advertisement has to stand out from the others. This may be by use of compelling images, headlines or a combination of both, that stops the browser just long enough to take in the proposition. The fly fishing analogy has been used to explain the process of first being seen and attracting attention, then swiftly driving the point home. Once ‘hooked’ a few telling words must explain the benefits of the proposition succinctly, then offer a ‘call to action’ where the prospect can find more detail. Today typically a web site or QR code and the ‘call to action’ could be incentivised by the promise of a useful or attractive offer to enhance response rates. 


Advertising is a key marketing tool, to raise awareness, build brand recognition and communicate a simple or top-level message, but needs repetition to ensure that message is seen and acted upon. Other communication means such as PR and direct marketing will be called into play for a fully integrated campaign. 

Marketing for engineering, scientific and technical b-2-b companies

For every Apple, Google, GE and Microsoft there are thousands and thousands of small businesses trading with other small businesses in the engineering, scientific and technical sector that need to market their products to a global audience on a small budget.

It is a big ask for a small business with small budgets to do this successfully which is one reason why we set up Technical Marketing Ltd to help companies like this to succeed. Common to successful engineering projects and successful marketing is the importance of planning and testing first. Our technical marketing philosophy helps engineer marketing solutions that support and aid delivery of company objectives. Starting at the beginning of the planning process is the marketing plan. Very few companies actually seem to have one any more than they have a formal business plan. There is too often the impression conveyed that the only marketing plan is to repeat last year's pattern of expenditure - usually the last several years - which makes it difficult to find budget for new concepts. All at a time when marketing is rapidly evolving. The usual reason given for not having a formal marketing plan is lack of time. But what is the point in spending money without knowing why or having any benchmark to measure whether it is successful? We recommend not only reviewing the marketing plan at least annually, but also setting the budget that will help deliver the results and company objectives. 

Technical marketing brings the same engineering methodology and thinking to marketing - introducing staffing structures, building the team, setting objectives through the marketing plan, formalising budgets, introducing financial controls, defining schedules and setting specifications for creative projects. Too often companies launch into building a web site, designing a brochure, booking an exhibition stand or commissioning an advertisement without first deciding on what they need to achieve. Design led agencies naturally play to their strengths - a flare for creative and compelling designs - and wow clients with exciting images. Arguably engineering marketing, or as we call it technical marketing, lacks some of that wow factor, but what we have discovered is that clients recognise the benefits that our approach can bring to the bottom line. We supply the rationale. And with the increasing importance of the Internet in marketing, a technical competence and comprehension of what works online too.  Of course there is a need for professional creativity, but it requires purpose and direction - in short planning, organisation, discipline and control. So engineering marketing solutions works - our clients testify to that.

So do the marketing techniques employed by giant companies too woo consumers work for the less glamorous world of business-to-business marketing, where budgets are considerably less? The answer is that the general principles of marketing still apply – the challenge is how they are applied. People buying business products and services are also consumers who experience the world of consumer marketing every day, but in their professional capacity will be less influenced by emotional appeals. When buying or specifying b-2-b products the process is not characterized by a spontaneous desire for instant gratification. It is a process of evaluation and consideration which may be quite lengthy. But what might ultimately differentiate one similar product from another is the reputation of the brand of the supplier. Although price will always be important, quality, reliability, technology, availability, post sales support and many other factors may figure in the final purchase decision. Building that reputation for a brand is where marketing performs a vital role in creating an environment where purchasers will ultimately demonstrate a preference for one product over another.

Marketing should not be confused with sales. It is far more to do with planning for the future, with strategy to keep ahead of fast moving trends, the routes to market, and the means of promotion and delivery that provide the essential environment in which selling can be successful. When marketing technical products, there are many facets to the marketing role. Technical marketing will typically embrace new product development, marketing communications and protection of intellectual property. Instead of the emotional appeal of consumer marketing we recognize that in the marketing space we address of industrial, engineering, scientific, technical and entertainment technology products, we are more typically engaged with engineers. Accordingly we have introduced an engineering approach to marketing. Engineering brings discipline to marketing, a discipline much needed in controlling the flights of fancy of the creative media types in getting the i's dotted and t's crossed, keeping feet firmly on the ground and keeping sight of the purpose of marketing a product - not in winning design awards. And if bringing engineering into marketing might seem a strange notion, unless marketing is properly controlled and brought in on budget then it will be a disaster. Engineering projects are as much about planning, adherence to schedules and budgets as they are about technology. In fact engineers are increasingly being employed in some surprising areas including many types of management consulting even in the financial sector. 

Planning needs to be followed by effective implementation. This is an important part of our client involvement – working as part of the team to actually implement the plan at an operational level. By working in partnership with our clients, changing circumstances can be easily accommodated in the plan. We bring experience in a range of marketing disciplines from traditional to evolving online techniques and can handle some or all of these to an agreed plan. The mix will differ according to each client’s own specific needs and resources. Most of our clients now regard Technical Marketing Ltd as part of their team thanks to long standing business relationships.

If you market technical products and think your business could benefit from working with us then get in touch. If you are just interested in what we do then sign up for our e-mail newsletter or just follow us on Twitter or any of the other options offered on the web site. We are here to help businesses succeed.

Has social media ruined marketing?

Social media continues to divide marketing opinion. Rather than treat social media as another marketing tool, the antagonists are tending to focus on the all or nothing approach. In short throw out the old ways and bring in the new.

One important rule of traditional marketing was not to rush into new media opportunities which at one time was more likely to be a new publication. The thing then was to wait until all the hype of the new title launch had quietened down, then see how the readership - your target customers - had taken to it. Quite often new publications failed to build a readership and make it to the point where they had a certified circulation. Social media is easier to experiment with to see how it works and although some are free to use, resource will still be required to create content whether text, images or video, even if that resource is time of in-house staff.

Some voices are arguing that display advertising in the media is now wasted money, unlike AdWords and the like that provide a great heap of data that can be traced. Recently QR codes have suddenly been seized upon as a means of linking to a landing page via a smart phone or iPad and reviving the flagging medium. One journal has even decided to launch a QR directory with great fanfare.

Countering the call to switch to traditional media one article provocatively pointed out that prior to social media companies conducted a monologue with their customers, but now small businesses can compete on a level playing field. Bigger companies that could spend more on space and compelling creative concepts find social media has evened that out as they have to conform to a fixed format.

The best approach is to review the overall marketing mix and try to be in the media and places where your customers go. The challenge now is discovering just where that is.

The importance of content

Why is is it that design and programming technology are often seen as  more important  than web site content?

It frequently seems to be the case that clients spend time agonising over design issues and stranger still dictating  programming matters that they seldom understand, but then tend to ignore the content. Their customers and prospects on the other hand  want to discover as quickly as possible if the site has what they want. More specifically what benefits the company's products offer in meeting the customer's needs. Web site visitors want to get to the detail quickly without following complicated navigation - they want to get to content that is relevant to them. There are three important things to communicate - [1] how your products can benefit them, then to build confidence, [2] how your customers have successfully used your products and [3]  your company's capability, status and reputation within your market sector.


Because most buyers start their buying process by using the Internet to research what is available, even in the b-2-b sector, it is wise not to presume all prospects are familiar with your particular products and product names and can therefore find the way through you categorisation of products. Start by explaining what the products are for, differentiate yours on benefits and add links to any required, or optional accessories. White Papers can be useful for giving more background detail and Data Sheets for specific details of products. Endorsement made by users of your  products  will help to convince prospects to progress towards buying or specifying. Third party end user endorsement can be presented in several ways such as case studies, news stories and social media by using quotes, articles, pictures, interviews and video. Finally it is useful to establish the authority of the company as experts in the sector by providing thought leadership content. Involvement in conferences, independent reviews by the leading journals or web sites in the sector, supportive content from industry gurus and 'how to' style content all help to confirm thought leadership and occupy the moral high ground.


So before designing the site and worrying about the CMS it is better to start with developing content, then moving on to the site plan, design and building the site. It is also a lot more efficient to hand over the complete content to the web site builder. All too often content arrives piecemeal which both extends the project and escalates the cost.

Have I got a great advertising deal for you

It might seem odd how often display advertising space salesmen just happen to have one remaining space left  to sell before the issue closes.

We have remarked previously how selling is more concerned with the present and marketing concerned with planning and the future. The advertising space sale, pitches the salesman against the marketer. The salesman is looking for an impulse purchase when he calls and will tempt the prospect with a much reduced price - because they are 'just about to close the issue', which also happens to have a feature that is very relevant to the marketer's products. Interestingly many marketers are tempted and buy, justifying the space purchase on the grounds that it is a good deal and the issue it appears in is right for the company.

The wise marketing manager will have planned a campaign, analysed the media, negotiated series rates and booked the space at an advantageous price compared to rate card, all within a pre-determined budget. So when ad hoc deals are proposed it is easier to decline, content in the knowledge that the campaign is already set to achieve the company objectives, not help a salesman hit a target. But there is another interesting aspect to this advertising space 'fire sale' and that is the relative cost compared to other marketing activities. Because the special 'buy now' price is steeply discounted compared to the rate card and also usually less than a negotiated series rate, it sounds like a good deal. The rate card for a full page display advertisement in a leading UK engineering publication for example is £3950 and in another £4250. A 12 month series drops to around £3100 a page. Now good negotiation could significantly reduce this much further but it will still be a significant sum. A sum of money that could actually buy quite a lot of other marketing services. Oddly  because many marketing people are aware of advertising prices, the discounts and deals they seem more willing to pitch up a thousand pound for space than invest a few hundred pound in something new that could actually generate better returns.

Dropping a few advertisements from a campaign or schedule is unlikely to weaken the campaign but could free up some modest marketing budget to invest in new and different ways that could prove more valuable.

Measuring marketing – are we on target?

We live in a culture where so much business activity has a numeric target attached.

Targets are everywhere today. Not just in business, they have even spread into the public sector services where targets for appointments in the NHS for example are seen as measures of how well health services are being delivered – not do patients get better. The thing is people who have to achieve these targets often invest more effort and imagination in finding ways around the target than in focussing on the work task itself. A few decades ago companies seemed to be driven by doing what they did, well. Whether it was designing better products or providing ‘old fashioned’ superior service it was more guided by a shared work ethic than a numeric goal. Then the accountants moved up from the back office to board and CEO level and brought with them the language they understood best – reducing everything to a set of numbers.  It was a compelling idea which politicians adopted to mange public sector services as well.

Think about banks. At one time banking was a profession that carefully managed funds and ensured loans were made to people able to repay them and with collateral that could be called in the event of a default. Then the terminology changed to talk about retail banking and selling financial products. They developed a sales target culture and hired sales people rather than bankers. Meanwhile the investment arms developed a casino culture. Targets were met or exceeded and motivated by generous bonuses. And look what happened. Even my milk bill left by the doorstep deliveryman starts, “ Please can you help me reach my targets by making payment this week.” Yes there are targets everywhere and marketing has not escaped either. My big question is, do they work?

“I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted … I just don’t know which half.” This quote is still occasionally rolled out. Whether half is wasted is not the point. What is worth thinking about is that successful marketing campaigns use several different communications methods, so when enquirers are asked, “where did you hear about us?” quite often they don’t actually know. But just the same systems demand that they should know, so they offer an answer anyway that contributes to statistics. Instead of looking at the net result, such as “did the company make a profit?” individual elements of campaigns are scrutinized and costs per lead determined. Another quite different example is in justifying new product development by producing return on investment analysis. Anything less than 18% was a non-starter in one large organization I worked for. And guess what - every application reached this magic figure because sales targets were revised upwards until the numbers worked. Then there was the five year plan which took year 1 as the current budget year because it couldn’t be different. But partly because it was written last year it was probably already off target, but years 2 through 5 merrily forecast as rising year on year starting from that already off target benchmark. Nobody ever forecast a downturn. Huge effort went into developing these plans including competitor market shares to 2 decimal places – an implied precision based completely on guesses and a figure the competitors themselves would not recognise. Then all this questionable data was used to produce targets. Experience suggests that the data itself, assumptions and forecasts upon which targets are set lack the credibility that a numeric target implies. What then of the data used to measure achieving targets?

Thanks to web statistics Internet activities give rise to a new mass of data. Once more the implication is that this is precise and accurate. It is data collected on our behalf and provided free. Although companies can set rules, they do not collect or evaluate how the data is collected. Another example is email delivery and open rates. Sometimes non-delivery messages are received when in fact they did arrive, some seen in a viewing pane without registering as open.  The reality is that marketing targets are being set based on dubious data and measured by data nobody in the company actually controls. Targets are useful but they shouldn’t become the objectives themselves.

The customers know best - do they?

Do companies that use focus groups develop the most successful products?

The answer is probably no. Gathering together a cross section of customers to determine the specification for a new product development is unlikely to result in a sure fire success. While customers can usefully comment on existing products or on even advanced prototypes, they are unlikely to provide the key to a winning concept. Similarly designing by committee can be a recipe for disaster, especially when it is composed of company delegates from around the world. I have seen too many such meetings where a shopping list of features is drawn up to incorporate pretty much every local quirk and oddity that some how have to be delivered in a product that actually works. Not only is a new product developed from this unpromising start likely to be burdened with a heap of features that are little understood or appreciated outside the country that asked for them, but the new products will still be much the same as what already exists. It might tick a lot of customer requested boxes, but thanks to all the bells and whistles also be more expensive.

The thing is customers are conditioned by what they are used to now, so their input tends to be for improvements - gradual evolution, not innovation. It is unlikely they will be familiar with new enabling technologies or advanced manufacturing methods that could actually revolutionise the market. Back in the 1960s Thorn Lighting, better known then for its mass market products such as Atlas and Mazda branded lamps, suddenly stormed into the theatre lighting market with Q-File - an electronic lighting control that immediately challenged Strand Electric the incumbent market leader. Developed originally together with dimmers that are often now forgotten, the landmark system was very much the brain child of Thorn's Tony Isaacs and his team. I worked with Tony on various electronic products in later years and understood they learned what was needed by spending night after night in control rooms observing, noting and learning.  In the boom years of construction during the 1950s and 1960s Thorn had grown rapidly with their Pop Pack fluorescent lighting package being responsible for much of the success. Prior to Pop Pack it was normal to buy lamps - the light sources - and fittings (luminaires) from different suppliers. Thorn simply put the two together in a single pack from a single supplier, then invested heavily in production plant that ensured they were also the lowest cost producer. Again it was a game changer.

Today Steve Jobs and Apple are classic examples of not only telling customers what they want, but creating a massive desire for their products. Nokia and others were dominant mobile phone manufacturers who probably carefully monitored what other phone makers were up to but didn't expect the challenge to come from a specialist computer manufacturer. Any more that is than the music industry expected the Apple Store and iPods to revolutionise music sales and create a whole new class of product.

So asking customers what they want is probably unlikely to result in a game changing product. Studying the markets and marrying actual needs and benefits with new technologies and production methods may prove more successful.

Show and tell

Of the social media tools, YouTube is one that offers a new, different, affordable and useful marketing channel.

Telling a story on video can add greatly to showcasing products and interviewing satisfied customers who are endorsing your products. So why are many b-2-b companies slow to utilise this great communications channel? There are many online video sites, but YouTube seems to be the leader and allows companies - well anyone really - to present and share their movie content online. Founded in February 2005 and bought by Google for $1.65 billion in November 2006 it is also not surprisingly given the ownership,  an important channel for search results. It offers a useful technology platform that neatly solves many production and delivery problems of the past.  Back in the 1970s VHS had won the format battle over Betamax as the de-facto market standard and marketing departments experimented with video in various ways. But production was then expensive. Cameras were expensive. Creative capability was expensive. Talent was expensive. So was post production, packaging, duplication and all the other stuff that had to be done, because most companies were aiming to produce broadcast standard work. And the reason they needed high quality material is because that was what people expected. It was what they were used to on their television at home as it was through the domestic television/VCR combination that customers would need to view the company video. Oh and because you had to hire cameramen, actors and some production crew the videos were quite long and of course had to compete with more compelling content served up by broadcasters. So video never really gained traction as a standard b-2-b marketing tool - it was an indulgence, a luxury.

But so much has happened since then. You no longer need the family VCR and TV to view content - more likely video content will be consumed on a PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone. Viewers are used to programme material that is user produced thanks to the popularity of reality TV. Cameras are more forgiving about lighting levels and quality and most people own one as well. To sum up - creation of content, delivery to users and options for users to view have created an opportunity to reconsider video. In fact not using video as a marketing tool is to pass up on a great communications opportunity.

Video allows products to be demonstrated to show functionality that static images would otherwise struggle to convey. It is also useful to to show how products are installed, or can be used as a service guide. Video for PR is taking off too through interviews, showing recent projects or explaining new ideas. Of the new social media sites YouTube provides a convenient means to get today's inexpensive video content online and distributed.

B-2-B blogging

Of the leading social media tools mentioned previously, the blog is possibly the easiest to include in a b-2-b marketing programme.

The blog can be regarded as an informal publishing tool for press releases - but there are important differences. A Virtual News Office (VNO) is better for publishing formal news releases as it caters for the needs of the press, such as offering downloads of high resolution images, background and contact information. But a VNO could also be used as a blog. The big step between publication of a formal press release and blogging is the delegation of authority to the blog author or authors. Although b-2-b businesses are generally used to working with PR agencies, nothing is usually approved for publication until the content has been carefully scrutinised and signed off. Because a blog invites comment and comment calls for response and moderation, this formal process is unrealistic to implement for blogs. Content may touch on some of the subjects that press releases address, but more likely the blog will evolve as a commentary about the company itself, the industry it operates  in and support for the users of the products. Probably one of the blogs most useful roles is to develop an awareness of the company's expertise, establish authority and create a level of trust that extends into a desire to purchase products.

Content is also valuable for search as the scope may be wider than that covered by the company web site and discussing issues from a different perspective may provide links from users that may not otherwise discover your company. But a blog does require time to write and manage and commitment - this is where companies are not so good.

Continuing the social media question - Facebook.

Columnist Mark Ritson writing recently in Marketing Week - The seven dumbest sins of social media - sparked off considerable debate about the effectiveness and value of social media as a marketing tool, not least in eliciting a response from the publication's editor who replied: "But all three of these social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Google+) are still in their infancy. We’re still finding new ways for them to add relevance to our lives as users. The fact that brands haven’t yet figured out how best to exploit social media channels is no reason to rule them out as valuable to marketers just yet." Ritson previously had written " If you have opted for a social media budget that is going to be allocated exclusively on Twitter and Facebook, you are not budgeting or planning your marketing properly." A telling point that emerged was the absence of real success for brands and examples of some downright and expensive failures. Clearly there are success stories as others have documented, for example David Meerman Scott in his best seller book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR".

With the major brands still trying to figure out the best use of social media, it is perhaps unsurprising many b-2-b marketers are still proceeding warily. In the last blog we pointed out how Twitter could be useful as another self published channel for headline news and links back to your main site's news office or blog. The next one to think about is Facebook. Undoubtably  it is extremely popular as a social media tool, but does that make it a marketing tool? And if it does is it relevant for b-2-b marketing? With 750 million accounts by July the numbers are compelling but how many of these are buyers of industrial components for example? Some clients enthuse about Facebook and maintain a company page while others scorn the idea of association of their company with such a site. As yet we have still to see any sales that can be attributed to a Facebook lead for our clients that use Facebook. Typically b-2-b marketing is not about gossip, so the more common use is news stories, snippets of news that don't rate a real press release and general chit chat rather than actual campaigns that involve the 'friends' and test the strength of their interest.