They can't do what we do ...

Before the widespread adoption of the web there were only two significant options for a business to gain attention for its products in the media – to buy expensive advertising, or buy PR for third party column space.

Aficionados of the Mad Men television series set in the 60s will have gained some insight into the former excesses of the advertising world through the fictional character of creative director Donald Draper. A world inhabited by snappily suited ad men with a prodigious appetite for the consumption of alcohol, smoking and the pursuit of attractive women. Set in a fictional advertising agency on New York’s Madison Avenue home to the advertising industry with the name ‘Madison Avenue’ used as shorthand for the industry itself and hence the play on words for the series title. The only evidence of work appeared to be scribbling doodles on restaurant napkins or more frequently lying on a couch in their extravagantly appointed offices ostensibly thinking up creative ideas and client meetings to ‘sell’ a concept. The expensive offices and lavish lifestyle called for clients with big budgets to bank roll advertising land. My own occasional glimpses of London’s West End advertising agencies in the 70s showed grand offices and generous expense accounts were normal here too. I cannot vouch for the rest of the life style of the ad men.

PR agencies so far as I am aware have not enjoyed the accolade of an award -winning TV series, but the practitioners representing political clients have collectively been referred to as ‘spin doctors’ which is hardly a good image for the profession. Individually the nickname of  ‘Prince of Darkness’ and later the ‘Dark Lord’ were appended to Lord Mandelson who as Director of Communications helped rebrand the Labour Party as ‘New’ Labour and of course there was the infamous former German Minister of Propaganda, Dr Josef Goebbels who explored the darkest depths of news manipulation.  

Then along came the Internet and the World Wide Web. The media opened up to even the smallest business, not just locally, but globally. Since publishing Techniques in Technical Marketing in 2000, the web has moved into a new phase with social media offering alternatives to the main ‘above the line’ media options.

This blog is intended as a simple introduction to where marketing has been headed in the last decade and some things that owners of small to medium size businesses in the B-2-B area should know including when to bring in outsourced marketing expertise..

Last word from the fictional creative director, “They can’t do what we do and they hate us for it.” The thing is the media might be more accessible but the creative expertise that causes one manufacturer’s product to be preferred over another is not.   

Confusing features with benefits

Product features are often assumed to also be benefits, but this may not be true.

Because features and benefits are often linked together, there is an implied assumption that all features also have a benefit and this thinking then extends to the belief that potential customers will be able to figure out for themselves why those product features are beneficial to them. Marketing text that talks about 'feature packed' products may be interpreted by customers as suggesting the product is likely to be complicated and difficult to understand.

The problem is that adding features has become something of a tactical 'arms' race to outstrip the competition and meet or exceed specification criteria. Charts listing a whole range of features with ticks to indicate where a product excels and others fall short are quite popular for technical products from cars to consumer electronics and of course b-2-b products too. But these are what the product does. The reality is that the more complex - feature packed - the product, the less the features actually get used. Just look at a control surface that has been used for a while - a remote, key board, control desk - and the pattern of wear and grime will reveal which keys are regularly used and which are pristine and untouched.

Benefits may be based more on an emotional consideration than an analysis of how the features stack up. The decision to purchase a television may depend more on what it might look like in the living room, the quality of the picture and how much it costs. There is an implied assumption it will do a few other things like hooking up to a sat. box and DVD, but beyond that the extensive range of other features are unlikely to sway the argument.  Mobile phones have become feature rich, but in terms of sustaining a telephone conversation in an area of poor coverage or when a train plunges into a tunnel remain just as challenging to the user as they were in the early days. In the b-2-b sector product development has too often been driven by what features  the competitors offer, then going one better. The rationale is to create differentiated products rather than compete in a commodity market on price alone. But unless the features are translated into customer benefits and explained in a way that the prospective customer understands and appreciates, these features risk being excluded from the purchase decision.  

What the marketing messages should focus on is convincing the prospective customers that the product has benefits that they can relate to and can actually appreciate. Features that make the product easy to use, improve productivity, save money, even bestow prestige - what they don't want is a list of features. We recently took delivery of a new television that offers a handbook only on screen which tantalisingly lists its 'features' some about its own proprietry system but unfortunately no explanation of how to access or use them.

‘Word of mouth’ and ‘viral’ marketing

An e-mail arrived today with an invitation to attend a networking breakfast scheduled for 6.45a.m. in a nearby hotel. The supporting data made impressive claims for the number of business leads such events had already generated elsewhere and concluded with the exhortation to bring plenty of business cards. The underlying theory, presumably to provide a face-to-face business exchange, is, at first, one that is not easy to square with the marketing concept of identifying your target market and then the target audience you need to address with your proposition. 

The assumption might be that the target market is other local business people, which may work well if that is the full extent your target market, but if you operate in a niche global market it may attract just a tiny portion of your potential audience. But what it does raise is the whole issue of recommendation, something we are familiar with at a local level. People are happy to recommend a good plumber, a dentist or a good service experience from a local garage and this form of ‘word of mouth’ marketing is extremely valuable. Personal recommendation is far more powerful than a manufacturer’s own claim and if that third party endorsement comes from a respected person in the market, then it enjoys credibility. 

This support can be utilised through news placement, case studies and use of attributable quotations. Having opinion leaders endorse your products or services also builds trust quickly and the advice they dispense is a powerful marketing tool. Recently there have been references to a concept claiming ‘you are only six degrees of separation from anybody else in the planet’, implying that through six friends of friends a message will reach everyone. Certainly within most industries news, good or bad, travels faster than you might imagine and with the Internet the exponential speed of virus dispersion is demonstrably rapid. 

A concept known as ‘viral marketing’ has been defined as ‘any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence.’ A classic example was how Hotmail propagated so quickly, by giving away a free e-mail address and service, promoted by a tag line on every e-mail users sent to an increasing and widening circle of friends and associates. Then came Facebook that didn't appear to start with any conventional marketing and of course Linked-In is the online version that saves attending early breakfast meetings!

So whether it is ‘viral marketing’, ‘word of mouth’ or ‘networking’, the ability to influence your target audience through others is an important marketing device.

Market channels

The days, if they ever existed at all, when prospective buyers were supposed to beat a path to the factory door are long gone. Today, businesses, are participating in a global market that exerts a direct influence, even on companies only operating in their home market. 

Conversely the opportunity to sell products and services to a wider market place has never been better. Moving product from the point of manufacture to the ultimate end user may involve a lengthy chain of participants, or be delivered direct.  With the advent of the Internet and e-commerce continuing to exert changes on the markets addressed and channels to serve them, new business models have emerged. Sales teams are much slimmer than before, product volumes often higher and market channels, distribution and delivery changing to the new paradigm.

Traditionally serving a large customer base, has been through an intermediary – wholesaler, stockist, distributor, dealer or agent. The manufacturer is relieved both of shipping to multiple end customers and the cost, and risk, of carrying perhaps thousands of small accounts, in return for a discount against the published selling price plus marketing and training support. Working through intermediaries can present a number of marketing challenges, in terms of pricing, profitability and keeping in touch with the end user. A term that has been introduced in the last few years is disintermediation – the process of bypassing distribution and going straight to the end customer. Direct selling demands a high level of product quality associated with a ‘plug and play’ out of the box simplicity, to avoid high levels of ‘expensive to deal with’, returns. The use of call centres and the Internet linked with global carrier services and credit payment methods have now given the manufacturer the mechanisms to bypass traditional channels by appealing directly to the end user, but the investment in promotional costs with this model is high.

Finally it is important to remember the roles of specifiers and influencers, although not part of the supply chain, may still wield the real specifying influence. The end customer is often not just buying your product, but a complete working system where a system integrator or consultant may be a key player in bringing together a range of products to carry out the tasks needed by the end user.