Scandinavia’s no. 1 international B2B marketing blog

Adobe, Inc.’s Voice of Industry

One example of an owned-media Voice of Industry activity is Adobe, Inc.’s CMO.com (www.cmo.com). Branded discretely with a small Adobe logo in the top right corner, the site offers “digital marketing insight for chief marketing officers”, including news items, trend articles, announcements, information about marketing analytics, resources and marketing-specific web sites, blog marketing, and other information about key players in the digital marketing space. The site carries articles, reports, surveys, statistics and commentary from industry experts and other digital marketing resources with a relatively long “shelf life”.

To follow Three Voices™ strategy logic, Adobe’s investment in CMO.com is most likely designed to engage marketing management at an industry or solution level, growing a base of registered subscribers and creating a valuable channel of communication for marketing purposes. Adobe’s interest in this particular audience is strongly driven by the company’s product portfolio, which includes one of the marketing automation industry’s most advanced and comprehensive systems. The investment required for such a system requires CMO sign-off—thus the need to engage with, educate and convince CMOs to move toward a more sophisticated approach to their marketing activities as a step forward in Adobe’s sales pipeline.

Adobe’s provision of useful, meaningful information to CMOs via its Voice of Industry site is likely to enhance the company’s status among its customers as a value-adding business partner rather than just another vendor trying to push its products. And here lies one of the most important points of this book: Simply put, the ultimate goal of a properly implemented Three Voices™ strategy is to move from the company telling prospects and customers “We’re great!” to having these audiences telling each other “They’re great!”. To get there, you need to build Voice of Industry activities, move from propaganda to credibility, and shift from being a salesperson to the role of customer advocate.

Like this post? Subscribe now and get notified about new content!

Jonathan Winch

I’m Jonathan Winch, partner at cylindr and BBN International and a B2B marketing enthusiast. I've participated as a strategic and creative resource in the marketing and communication sphere for over 25 years, making contributions to the strategies and communications of companies of all sizes, the best known of which include Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Danisco, GN ReSound, Hempel, Nokia Siemens Networks, LEGO, Coloplast, and Johnson & Johnson. My mission? To help B2B companies make the most of the value they create for the world. My hobby: Nutritional science, particularly sports nutrition.