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.
Recently, while visiting one of our customers in the UK, I saw a fascinating sign on a building next door to the customer’s own offices. I was struck by the boldness of the claim – particularly given how unimpressive the sign’s visual idea and execution was. The effect, in my mind, was to create something academics call cognitive dissonance. And that’s a certain something many B2B companies do all too often.
What’s the purpose of B2B marketing? Ask the question of any attentive marketing student and they’re likely to reel off a description that somewhere, somehow, involves increasing demand for the company’s products. But marketing is also about managing demand, too, which may actually require reducing demand – or moving demand away from particular products in a company’s range. That said, it still seems counter-intuitive to create marketing or sales materials aimed at putting a dent in sales…
“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” These magical words are usually attributed to someone famous – perhaps Einstein, Mark Twain or a long list of others depending on who you believe. In any case, there’s plenty of truth in the idea, I think you’ll agree.
I thought again of those words when I attended a seminar held by DABF (Danish-American Business Forum) and found the happy ending to a business fairytale I think of almost every time I see someone trying to go against the status quo in an organization. Continue reading
Marketing technology firm Software Advice has released a new report on online B2B buyer behavior, detailing business implications for inside sales professionals in 2014 and beyond. The folks at Software Advice run a highly tuned sales machine where fast phone followups are part of the model, so they know what they’re talking about when it comes to getting visitors to move down the conversion funnel. And for the hungry B2B marketer, there are a few pointers worth noticing.
Mark Hanley, president of Massachusetts-based consulting house I.T. Strategies, recently asked me for my opinion on the state of the market for printed brochures. Do printed sales materials have a future or are they on their way out? It’s a great question, and one which is brought up time and time again by marketers in meetings I attend.
Imagine your company’s new brand expression is the Sydney Opera House. Designed and built by the professional architects you hired to replace your tired old building, the new structure is a thing of beauty. It’s visionary, one-of-a-kind. It looks great. And it’s memorable. In fact, your employees and customers are already complimenting you on a job well done. But will your Opera House still be impressive 12 months down the track? Or will it have become an eyesore that will have management wondering whether it was worth spending all that time and money?
B2B companies have had mixed experiences with blogs. In fact, we’ve seen countless blog deaths among our B2B clients. These unfortunate blogs were usually started by enthusiastic marketing departments keen to display a vibrant corporate culture—a more human side of the company—to stakeholders in an attempt to build trust and engagement. That’s a great aim, but there are many challenges and pitfalls Continue reading
I was recently privileged to hear marketing whizz-kid Thomas Webster talking about a project he had been brought in to advise upon for a knowledge-intensive B2B manufacturer. The project’s goal was to bring the company closer to its customers using content marketing. A Voice of Industry (arms-length content marketing) site had been set up, a budget allocated and the project was nearing the end of its first year of operation. But things weren’t going as well as the company had hoped. So Thomas and his team were asked to consult on ways to make the project work more effectively. Continue reading
In global marketing circles, there’s been some sort of unwritten (but often stated) law that it’s foolish and even dangerous to use humor when you’re dealing with oh-so-serious B2B marketing messages and more than one culturally cohesive region of the world. So, when a large B2B corporation dares to go out on a limb and use humor toward its largest key accounts, we figured it’s something everyone in a B2B global marketing or communication department should hear about.
The company is DuPont, famed for its broad, science-based activities. The business area in this story is the dairy industry segment within DuPont Nutrition and Health, and the daring is due to not one, but a number of managers with both a sense of humor and the courage to stand out from the crowd.
There’s a particular value that your company will need to wholeheartedly adopt in order to compete for the attention of the today’s B2B buyers: the idea that, by helping others to achieve what they need to, you will be better able to achieve your own aims.
You see, what really drives today’s B2B customers is receiving help to achieve the goals that have been set by or for them. If you can be seen to help them, they’ll buy your products and services. Of course, the kind of help we’re talking about isn’t just about products and services. You can also help people by recognizing them or supporting their careers (for example, by promoting their achievements and widening their personal web footprints on your Voice of Industry platform). Continue reading