End of year report 2010

The end of the year is often a time for review and forecasts for the coming year. So what happened in 2010 and what does 2011 hold in store?

Last year our review of 2009 picked on similar topics to those that featured again throughout 2010. Marketing budgets were under pressure - they still are - the importance of content was discussed  as was social media and the decline of print as content moves online. We noted that the year ended with the coldest pre-Christmas weather for years (until this year that is) and  the growing interest in green marketing. Well green marketing was not mentioned in 2010 but social media and video was. We started in January with 'The year of video?" and suggested video had a growing and important role in online marketing. Few clients have actually embraced this although most acknowledge the benefits and YouTube was the third most visited site in 2010. It is an area where investment in professional video production is noticeable in terms of quality and few have so far committed budget to this.  It was a matter we covered later with "Do it yourself or hire a professional?" blog noting the limitations of much in-house production quality to save money - the marketing budget issue again. In fact we said that marketing budgets must evolve to allocate investment for new and evolving marketing tools.

It is fair to say that amongst our b-2-b clients little has changed with regard to adoption of social media, at all in most cases. For those who have an emerging social media policy it is still early days with modest interest by their customers at best. We asked "Is it time to redefine target audience classification?" to address the individualistic social media 'club'. We also raised the importance of market research for b-2-b companies. One interesting insight from market research for one client is that although unsurprisingly the web was the preferred source for product information, some three quarters already knew which web sites to go to and only a quarter searched on generic terms. A strong argument for on and offline branding.

A recent report suggests that b-2-b marketers are using social media to:-

1. Build brand awareness
   
2. Increase web traffic
   
3. Generate sales leads
   
4. Provide deeper engagement
   
5. Improve search results
   

Experience so far suggests that goals 1 to 3 are general aims not specific to social media there is no clear evidence that Facebook for example is contributing to this from a review of Google Analytics or that any but a handful of people are engaged in the 'conversation'.  What we can confirm is that blog links are being picked up and ranked highly which must help with search results.

So maybe 2011 will see more b-2-b companies adopting a social media policy, but it will require allocating marketing budget to do this properly. 

Features may not be 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.   

The story of the sweet shop

In difficult economic times there are two main targets for cuts - marketing and stock. One drives enquiries and the other provides goods customers want, now.

We have previously commented on the dangers of cutting marketing investment during tough times and allowing competitors to gain market share while advertising space costs are lower. But attracting customers then failing to deliver the product is not going to create loyalty and repeat business. So the temptation is to review product sales and delete the less popular from the range as a stock reduction strategy. This in itself in some manufacturing business models will  cause their contribution to factory overheads to be transferred to the more popular products, in turn increasing their cost and reducing margin.

However there is an important marketing issue here as well - one of presenting choice. The chairman of a company I worked for some years ago had a cautionary tale about the owner of a sweet shop of the old fashioned type that displayed sweets in a range of jars arranged on shelves behind the counter - a merchandising method for confectionary that appears to be enjoying a revival incidentally.  Each week the shop owner decided he would delete the least popular confectionary item and remove that jar from the shelves. After a few weeks he was able to clear a whole shelf, but as he worked to delete jars from the next shelf he began to notice that sales of the popular lines were declining and so was footfall. In short he was loosing business.  Customers, especially young children actually enjoyed the opportunity to have a big choice, but as stock rationalisation proceeded the choice reduced inversely to a point where customers perceived that there were only the most common and popular types on display and they could get those anywhere.  Although they usually purchased their favourites, part of the shopping experience was savouring what else was on offer and when that went, so did their custom.

A direct b-2-b analogy was with the marketing of floodlighting products. The main sellers were floodlights that lit wide areas, rather than narrower beam spotlights that could illuminate a small defined feature. In particular a very tight beam model that could illuminate a clock on a church tower which not surprisingly sold in small numbers. But of course the thing was that having that 'tool' in the range demonstrated that the company understood the challenges facing lighting designers and in doing so helped create specification for the more common products as part of the package. A purely accounting analysis would simply eliminate the specialist product whereas a marketing analysis would look at package sales and understand that volume alone was not the whole story.

Has Christmas been re-branded?

Has "Christmas" been re-branded as "Holidays"? Judging by the flow of e-mails and greetings particularly from the USA, the word 'holidays' features prominently in subject lines, even in sender addresses, while Christmas is not mentioned.

Winston Churchill is attributed with the observation that Britain and America were "two nations divided by a common language" although even the origin of this quote is questioned. In England there remains a general acknowledgment that Christmas is essentially a Christian festival from which the ethic of giving and good will to  all men has been transformed into a focus on promoting the sale of  goods that can form the gift element. Holidays are an entirely different product generally recognised as a travel and accommodation vacation package more commonly associated, but not exclusively, with the summer. Would Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas' have proved so popular and enduring as 'White Holidays'?

The problem is that the Church of England's Christmas brand has in marketing terms become generic and no longer properly associated with their own well defined product. This is a problem that others have discovered to their cost when their brand becomes descriptive of a class of products, often a category they have pioneered. Hoover is a classic example where people commonly refer to their vacuum cleaner as a 'Hoover'. In the theatre the Strand Leko was so popular that all spotlights were commonly known as 'Lekos'. Of course supermarkets deliberately create generic brands - Cola for example - to position against, but priced beneath the leading brands. Electrical wholesalers also benefit from the product development efforts that bring buyers to the trade counter through promotion and specification where they are then encouraged to switch brand and save money. 

Protecting brand names through trademarks may not be adequate protection when the brand name becomes a product descriptor. May be the term 'holidays' will allow the church to reclaim their ownership of Christmas after all. 

How well do companies merchandise products online?

With the web site often the first sight of a product, it is important that prospects get a complete and positive view to convert visitors to buyers. And yet few b-2-b companies fully exploit the possibilities of photography, video and user reviews, relying instead on one low resolution product image and text description to turn prospect interest into a conviction to buy. Some times there isn't even a picture!

There are 4 important opportunities for presenting a product to best advantage - product description, photographs, video and user views. Unlike a 'hands on' opportunity, at an exhibition, potential buyers cannot touch, explore and test a product online. Take most electrical products - it is just as important to see round the back, to see what sockets there are, to understand how it is installed and these features can easily be shown by offering other static views of the product. Instead of the traditional product shot from the front, why not show other important views - the inside, the fixing locations, connections to other systems, profile views? If however the product has performance features such as how it works, opens up, transforms for different tasks, then these are better shown in a video. It is also important to offer independent reviews. Case studies can provide valuable third party endorsement and the views of recognised authorities carry considerable weight. 

Finally, a full technical specification and content highlighting and differentiating the product should not be forgotten - plus of course a 'call to action'. Having virtually demonstrate the product you still need customers to call and place the order and this should be made simple to do and a seamless part of the process to close the sale. 

Is it time to redefine target audience classification?

It is unwise to ignore statistics particularly those that claim significant growth in new communications channels that could become important marketing tools.

So it comes as little surprise that the consumption of social media now accounts for 25% of all time spent online - by far the biggest defined activity, with others such as email (7%) in single figure percentages. Likewise it is not surprising that Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are ranked as the top 3 most popular web sites. By now even the most laggard business has acknowledged that a web site is an essential marketing tool. But statistics like this tend to support the view of sceptics that the Internet is somehow frivolous and not a serious marketing channel. The real question is, where are your customers spending time in this space? Facebook claim 500 million accounts globally. But how many are active accounts? Anecdotally I have observed that some people I know discover Facebook, embrace it with great enthusiasm, add a lot of information, make friends with total strangers, then just as rapidly lose interest.  Others of course remain loyal and regularly communicate with friends. Data from Facebook shows 57% of members are female and 43% male. Based on Facebook's charts over two thirds are under 35 years of age too. The largest group is 18 - 34 (approximately 54%). For many b-2-b companies in the industrial and engineering sectors for example this may not correspond with the profile of their customers. A quick look round a typical engineering exhibition suggests the audience is mainly male, older and judging by dress code, conventional and possibly not a Facebook convert.

The thing is, it is unlikely the average b-2-b company has profiled their target audience in this way. Much more likely the target audience is classified, where it is thought about at all, by job functions, specification authority, industry sector - not by age and gender demographics.  It is easy to see big numbers and assume the media is essential, but quite another to have realistic data that it will deliver the audiences that specify and buy products and services from b-2-b enterprises. It calls for research to find out. It is no good waiting until competitors have stolen a march as many did when web sites were the coming thing. On the other hand why invest marketing pounds in channels that may be irrelevant?

But it is not just social media that may hold opportunities or not, other tools are on the up as well. The UK has seen 70% increase in smart phone ownership over the last 12 months - far greater than our European neighbours - and with it a big surge in mobile search. It prompts another question - how many web sites are mobile friendly?

Technical information

Continuing our short series of blogs discussing White Papers, Guides and now Data Sheets - important documents that each have a role at different stages of the buying process.

White Papers provide a briefing relevant to the product technology and current state of knowledge while Guides offer more specific information on topics such as planning, options, installation needs and other practical considerations. But at some point customers will need detailed product information. This is the role of the Data Sheet. Interestingly none of these three documents is an overtly sales document - the traditional glossy brochure extolling the virtues of the product for example. Clients are typically expressing less demand for brochures as high volume printed items, but more commonly used as downloads or short run digital print as their role changes.

Data Sheets too are most commonly supplied as downloads and are vital documents particularly in situations where it is normal for a consultant or engineer to specify a product for a contractor or buying department to purchase. They should contain relevant and sufficient content for the product to be specified and the nature of the data will depend on the product itself. Where there are a range of products in the company portfolio then it can be helpful to have a design that allows users to find the same type of data in the same section on each, for comparative purposes. Data that falls into specific categories such as 'electrical', ''mechanical', environmental' and 'standards' compliance helps give structure to the data sheet. Headings, classification and contact details are also helpful elements to include to help order and index a suite of data sheets. Often creating a comprehensive, coherent range of data sheets is not recognised as a high priority, but getting the supporting information correctly documented is an important and essential marketing task.

Thought leadership

Continuing the theme of the last two blogs prompted by research that White Papers are rated "the most influential sources of information and their content figures early on in the buying process", leads to how this can help establish market authority. A company publishing an authoritative document confirms a level of expertise and knowledge that helps gain the 'moral high ground'. There is a strong inference that a company that is fully conversant with the technology, the applications and pros and cons will have also transferred such knowledge to developing their products and should there be problems then they are more likely to have the knowledge and skills to solve them. It can be an important differentiator that introduces a value consideration rather than evaluating products on price alone.

According to Wikipedia, "A white paper (or "whitepaper") is an authoritative report or guide that is often oriented toward a particular issue or problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to documents used by businesses as a marketing or sales tool." 

Similar to the White Paper but nonetheless performing a different role in influencing buyer behaviour is the Guide to a subject.   The Guide also imparts knowledge but the education and information role is different - it seeks to explain how to evaluate or choose the right product for the buyer's application. We have developed guides for several clients over the years and  these can be very useful for introducing products where the prospect may be less familiar with the technology, where by nature of the product purchases are infrequent, or where there are several options to consider to select the optimum product solution. A guide is also an authoritative document but can be a branded sales document more so than a white paper which ideally should be more neutral.

The Guide can be presented as a well designed and branded document that has high retention value to the person that requests it. It offers a great 'call to action' opportunity in advertising too. The offer of a free guide promises greater value than simply asking for a sales brochure and helps generate enquiries and potential sales leads. One technique we have successfully used is to launch the guide content initially as a series of articles in the leading publication in the market, before consolidating the content into a more formal document. The endorsement of the journal then works to confer approval and also be used in response to readers questions. Creating the definitive guide for a market in this way also makes it difficult for competitors to do the same.

Finally by controlling release whether by sending printed copies or offering a download there is a valuable opportunity to engage with interested prospects and nurture their interest. 

Synergy shifting

In the last blog, we noted that the conclusion in a recent survey on B2B purchasing preferences rated White papers as the most influential sources of information, and their content features highly in the early stages of the buying process. 

Presenting sales information to a technical market has always been a subject of hot debate and compromise, usually resulting in a plethora of glossy brochures, data sheets, specifications and catalogues all saying more or less the same thing in different ways, backed up by White Papers, sales scripts, PowerPoints and all manner of peripheral marketing materials. 

In the current atmosphere of belt tightening, it is interesting to see a nascent trend appearing which moves the compromise balance of sales information into condensed print material. One of our recent projects involved marketing a highly technical and specific range of Ethernet devices. The core influencers in the purchasing cycle were identified as technical consultants - not end users or fund holders - and their decision making process was predicated on concise information, simply put. The client’s marketing budget had been slashed - no more separate glossy catalogues, price lists, data sheets etc. More would be squeezed out of the website to provide those searchable details. But there was still a need for a publication that could be supplied to dealers for onward distribution to specifiers for retained reference purposes. 

The result was a ‘briefing booklet’. It developed as a technical white paper with an overview of current system design techniques, a few appropriate case studies, and concise technical specifications of key elements of the system from the company’s broad range. Publishing such a document helps confirm authority and thought/knowledge leadership that regular sales blurb doesn't achieve.

White Papers influential in purchase decisions

According to a recent survey amongst B2B technology buyers, White Papers are rated the most influential sources of information and their content figures early on in the buying process.

Although " brochures and data sheets were cited as the most frequently consumed collateral type, White Papers were rated the most influential in the purchasing decision process." This is a significant insight because in our experience white papers are regarded as something of an oddity by many companies, or even with suspicion by revealing inside knowledge. It is perhaps a hangover to the old way of thinking where the manufacturer controlled the monopoly on information, dribbling out only what was required to make the sale. We would argue that rather than reveal secrets, a well constructed white paper enhances the company's reputation as an authority and by setting out the relevant technical knowledge that  helps inform the prospect and enhances the likelihood of securing a sale. In fact respondents to the survey were more likely to be disappointed when a white paper contained not enough technical information rather than too much.

The second most valued and influential sources of information were Case Studies with a strong preference - more than two thirds - for these to be in a written format rather than video or audio. Not only does a well crafted case study provide valuable third party endorsement, but provides credibility for the product in use. In the buying process starting when a buyer begins researching products, developing awareness, considering options, making purchase decisions to placing orders, both white papers and case studies provide vital early information. Typically this is downloaded from the company web site or may be received by direct mail, news feeds or links.

At Technical Marketing Ltd these findings come as no surprise but as further confirmation of the importance in developing and sharing important information as part of an integrated marketing programme which is crucially influential in the buying decision process.

What recession?

Faced with a daily dose of financial gloom and despondency served up by the news media, it comes as something of a relief to see evidence of very strong green shoots of success. But this time they are appearing from many directions in manufacturing industries in the UK and Europe. 

In marketing land, we were always taught to ‘read the runes’ or ‘feel the seaweed’ to judge trends from empirical experience as well as official metrics and that in times of recession marketing was ‘the first in to it and the first out’ as companies hurriedly cut back on spending when times were hard and started to invest again as a recession bottomed out. How true. Yes, we can be informed by international pundits and financial journalists that things are looking bleak and worse, with cuts and changes that will affect everyone adversely, but let’s be positive when we can. 

In the last few months, we’ve seen some real changes in the entertainment technology and other engineering industries. There was a common theme at PLASA in London this September when chatting with old friends who were manufacturers: plenty of orders, too few components. One old mate was absent from the show as he dashed around the globe looking for bits to keep his production lines going in the UK. The same theme has been repeated to us many times from manufacturers in industries ranging from control desks to table tennis bats. 

Now there may be plenty of readers who will disagree as their personal experience doesn’t reflect this view, but that is not the point of this blog. The point is that as marketing consultants Technical Marketing Ltd has been contacted repeatedly in recent months not just to ‘do a press release’ or ‘update a website’ or ‘sort out an advert’ but to look at business opportunities, come up with ideas on how to structure the company and products for the future, how to integrate business goals with a marketing plan and how to execute it. Medium term thinking, not short term. Is this the ‘first in, first out’ recession syndrome at work? 

Maybe the seaweed is looking healthy again. Let’s all hope so.

Getting it right first time

It is now 20 years since the advent of the World Wide Web but like most inventions ideas had been mooted, tested developed and improved as far back as WW2 for a network to share knowledge. It was coincidentally also 20 years ago when we started to map out the rationale for marketing in the world of engineering, technology and b-2-b in general. Many of the emerging technologies were indeed to prove vital to what we later termed technical marketing but it was a further 10 years before we publicly promoted the philosophy. 

The technologies enabled by the world wide web and Internet although important are merely useful tools, but without an under pinning purpose cannot be effectively used for marketing. Although people have enthusiastically embraced the hardware and software of personal computing and mobile communication what few have grasped is that to be effective they must control these devices and not be ruled by them. In short to have a clear plan designed to achieve objectives. In the absence of a marketing rationale, a formal plan and clear business objectives the tendency is to simply be 'busy fools' rushing about, attending meetings, forwarding e-mails, making calls without purpose while creating the impression of being very busy.

In the early days of building web sites it rapidly became apparent that gathering the content material was actually the most difficult task often because few clients fully 

understood all aspects of their business. This lack of clarity was brutally exposed by the 

engineering reality of building a web site without a valid business model and relevant content 

that would lead to building, rebuilding and modifying the site as missing content dribbled in 

and existing content changed. Despite counseling clients to plan first, collate content, then 

build and do it just once,it usually proved impossible to achieve in practice.  Take another example - display advertising. Doing it once by negotiating and booking an annual plan avoids being 

dragged into a piecemeal plan reacting to incoming advertising space sales offers, rushing to 

meet deadlines and generally spending more with less effect than from a planned approach. 

The same is true of other marketing tools and techniques. Don't react to people selling 

exhibition space, direct marketing, advertising and the rest, have a formal marketing plan that determines which marketing tools will be most effective to you, then negotiate with suppliers instead of having them sell to you. In short have clear objectives, a marketing strategy that details how the objectives will be delivered and how the appropriate marketing tools will be deployed and integrated to optimum effect. 

Working with a marketing company that understands the importance of a technical marketing approach can not only help companies clarify their own aims, but bring in new ideas, wisdom and experience to change the culture to one of being in control of marketing.

Protecting investment in photography and artwork

Not so long ago artwork was stored on film and photography as transparencies, while for even quite large marketing departments a 4-draw filing cabinet would suffice for storage and indexing. Then gradually images came on CDs and DVDs and for a while artwork on optical discs. Then digital cameras were churning out 100 shots instead of one or two before and suddenly managing all this material became a problem. Enter the Image LIbrary.

An Image Library or Image Bank is created to protect the company’s investment in photography and design work by providing an online resource for the storage, search and retrieval of images and finished artwork. 

• Image storage: We found that clients did not often have a systematic process for storing images and artwork. As company personnel change, the details of the subject or purpose of an image maybe lost with their departure. There may also be copyright restrictions that limit or restrict how and where the image can be used. It may be a requirement that a credit should be given to the photographer, or a particular caption has been authorised. 
  
• Search: With the advent of digital photography the volume of available images has increased dramatically. Consequently there is a need to search through a library to find a particular image. The search works by using text notes and keywords, date etc attached to each image file at the time it is archived. The system also allows a client to store images at different sizes and resolutions such as thumbnails or index size through to high resolution. It also allows company marketing teams in other countries, dealers and agents to find suitable images for their local promotional material and for a corporate marketing department to control access.
  
• Retrieval: Once identified and selected, images can be downloaded by any authorised person with Internet access and authorised level of access. Corporate marketing may wish to control access e.g for reasons of copyright and only show a thumbnail image requiring that high resolution images are only supplied on request for restricted purpose.
  

The Image Library is a web server based system to store, manage, document and access a company's collections of digital images and artwork. It works like a Library index system that provides information about each image and includes links to where the images are stored online.To store images it is usual to first create the different standard levels of resolution that the company wishes to have available and post these images to a server. Images may for example be for press use, use on a web site, in a brochure and can be in most standard formats including high resolution PDF.

A filing 'card' is completed for each image. Categories can include:-

• Section - e.g. product, project, press release, artwork, logo etc.
• Date - last updated
• Image title
• Where used - e.g. press release, web site, data sheet, advertisement etc.
• Details about the image
• Caption and photo credit
• Notes
•  Keywords for search purposes
• Image file name - e.g. photo777.jpg
• Server host
• Image type - e.g  - .jpg, .bmp, .png, .pdf
• Full path link
• Guide for use - e.g. copyright   

There are two levels of access for the Image Library:

1. Viewing

This is the normal route for browsers to search, view and download images. Access can be given to authorised staff to view at a url.

 

2. Viewing and editing

This access route provides control of the data shown for each image (title, location, filename, captions etc). Access is intended for Marketing department only and is at a different url.

 Authorised staff can view and search the Image Library database and download images for company approved use.

 Where use of an image is restricted, or subject to owner approval to publish, an automatic option offers a request email to be sent to the person or department e.g. Marketing Manager/Marketing Department, managing the Image Library.

 Marketing additionally has access to edit and publish descriptive content associated with images.

 Marketing also has access to add new images (thumbnail, low resolution index & high resolution), or this can be outsourced.

If you think an Image Library would be useful for your company, then contact Technical Marketing Ltd with an initial indication of how many images you have.

Fast forward

A new breed of marketing managers has emerged that manage mainly by forwarding e-mails.

In reality switching e-mails between people that actually implement work, who create, provide information and content, adds very little value to the marketing process. At best the intermediary marketing manager provides a useful link between an outside agency and people within the organisation that can provide the information required. Time and again we see an e-mailed request for information simply forwarded, often from an i-Phone, with a simple note added such as 'please answer this'. They then reply and the marketing manager forwards the response along with the whole chain of e-mails back to the original person requesting the information. Quite often this reveals interesting internal information that probably should not be sent outside the company. It also tips off who in the company is actually the relevant person to contact in future.

Of course at either end of this process someone needs to actually do some real work collating the information within the company and turning this into marketing collateral. The savvy marketing manager will however review the raw content first to check if it is appropriate and add a marketing insight that is consistent with marketing policy.

Is technology devaluing creative services?

A post on a site visited by photographers exposed a series of cases where photographers were expected to work for free. This quickly got picked up on other sites and struck a chord with other creative people, in video, design and web site building to name just a few. 

One correspondent on the Milton Keynes Media Circle pointed out how technology was allowing this and explained, 

"The bottom line is that technology is empowering. At the advent of Desktop Publishing three elements came together to decimate the Pre-Press indusustry, one with many hard links to the technologies in photography. Apple Macintosh, Photoshop, Quark Xpress. Suddenly we could empower a secretary to do page assembly, rudimentary scanning and proofing. The plain fact is that 85% of the colour pre-press didn't NEED the extended qualifications of the trade houses so the work dried up in MONTHS. The phrase GOOD ENOUGH COLOUR was coined and the rest is history." 

Another correspondent volunteered that,

"I partly blame the sophistication of current technology and availability of cheap but reasonably capable equipment on the high-street. It encourages those with little or no experience or training and almost non-existent skills to set themselves up with fairly basic equipment and call themselves 'photographers' or 'videographers'(a term I hate). Because of their lack of investment in skills development and relatively small investment in equipment they often offer their services for free or very low-cost." 

They could have mentioned interns wielding all this equipment for free too. In the past the difference in quality would have been obvious and expertise, talent, skill and the use of professional equipment would be easy to spot. But dumbing down on quality is everywhere. We are all exposed to so much sub standard work that many people appear to lack the ability to distinguish good from poor and focus instead on price. The implication is that subconsciously customers will pick up on  cheap looking publicity material and transfer that expectation to the price and quality of goods the company is offering. 

Looking at news with through viewers eyes

Recent research suggests that text is more important than images on the web. "The web is primarily a text-driven medium and will remain so despite the rise of video," says New Thinking.

According to the article, "In traditional print media it has long been established that images are more powerful than text in getting attention. But the opposite is the case on the Web. Text dominates." Information derives from an Eyetrack III study that logs where subjects look on a web page, in this case news sites, where they look first on the page, what they spend most time viewing and what they ignore. Interestingly Google AdWords rely exclusively on text and it is true that some very successful print advertising such as poster campaigns work with just text, thanks to powerful headlines. The news study also noted how people scanned headlines, so whether designed to get people to read the rest of the news  story or to  learn about a product or service, the headline can be a deal breaker in getting attention and engagement.

Headline writing is an art, whether to encapsulate the story, to intrigue, to amuse or otherwise grab attention few words work best. Getting viewers to stop long enough to engage is essential whether promoting news stories or reading advertisements, both on web sites and in print. Flagging up something of relevance and interest to an individual within a sea of messages and information is where the combination of effective headline and strong visual image has been accepted wisdom in the news and advertising businesses. The same wisdom applied to designing press releases to gain the attention of a news editor by accompanying the release by an interesting image that the editor would recognise as in turn helping sell his publication.

Unlike Google AdWords, Facebook does include a meagre 110 x 80 px image along with 25 characters for headline and 135 characters for body text. Interestingly the Eyetrack III research found that "a postage-stamp mug shot was viewed by 10% of participants" and "images that are at least 210 x 230 px were viewed by more than half the testers." Many news sites routinely use small images the study observes. The Virtual News Office cleverly uses 4 different sizes of image - a small index image that is displayed alongside headline, dateline and story summary, a larger image that can be enlarged with a click to 300px and a high res option for downloading by picture editors. Interestingly the study signed off with a research tidbit: " We noticed that people often clicked on photos."

Aggregating news

Not so long ago news was delivered only through a few specific channels and at defined intervals - now news is accessible 24 hours via many channels.

 Yet many b-2-b companies still approach the issue of news about their companies, if they produce any news at all, just as they have always done and without regard to the changed media landscape. Traditionally a press release has been sent to the editors of trade press journals with a view to providing some stand out content, maybe an eye catching image to help being selected for print.  More commonly in the industrial press the response is from the sales team who sell editorial space for a price.  To some extent this is vanity publicity that has become an extension of advertising because the managing director likes to read about his company in print.

Good value is to appear on an industry news web site that aggregates news from many companies. Because such sites focus on an industry sector they can rank quite high on search results for a generic product enquiry and the more stories you have about that type of product you have posted, the better chance your name will appear. Plus each story often has a useful link to your web site, a factor thought to be rated importantly by search engines. 

For most companies publicising their products and services, there is a finite and fiercely contested amount of  editorial space available in printed media. Rather than a stream of news a few knowledgeable articles strategically placed in the right publications can be a more effective goal in building credibility for the brand. But with most b-2-b publications being monthly, at most they are not a vehicle for current news and information. The Internet offers this immediacy and although as already noted industry portals and news aggregating sites have an important role to play, the real opportunity is now for the company to be the publisher itself and feed news not only to the print media and industry web sites, but direct to customers and prospects.

At the heart of this strategy is a Virtual News Office that not only allows news to be published on the company web site, but also provides tools for news distribution. The VNO generates a custom style press release that can be e-mailed to the media with links to high resolution images, contact and company background information for journalists. It also provides a searchable news archive that can be a useful resource for sales as well. Interested parties can subscribe through the VNO to receive e-News, RSS headline feeds, or link to social media such as a blog, Facebook or Twitter.

Marketing this week

Week 37 - week commencing 13th September - a varied week in the life of Technical Marketing and a different type of blog entry this week.

Tuesday a visit to the annual PLASA trade show at Earls Court - now reached by a direct train service that stops off at West Brompton, conveniently located directly across the road from the entrance to the show. No tickets or queues any more, simply key in your pre-registered code on a touch screen and your badge is instantly printed out for immediate scanned entry. Difficult to assess the real success of the show. No doubt the organisers will claim record attendance, but the large areas of screened off and presumably unsold space and thinly populated wide aisles between stands failed to convey the buzz of hectic business activity. Difficult to read the audience profile, more suits in evidence, less of the casually dressed techies of yesteryear and the aging hippies with bald pates and pony tails from the show's disco origins, almost, but not quite a vanishing breed. Sat down with a couple of companies to discuss the differences in marketing collateral that might help successful American brands gain acceptance in the UK. Highlights of stand 'traffic-building' were the aerial artiste (see blog 15th September) and the frequent burst of real flames, the heat from which was apparent on the next stand. See pictures.

An article in IET -'Challenging the establishment' - reported that "normalisation of deviance" was behind the loss of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 and of the RAF Nimrod over Afghanistan in 2006. What on earth does that mean? Well apparently people - typically managers - get so used to things going OK that have basic flaws, they actually believe they are OK. Or more eloquently, "Normalisation of deviance means that people  within an organisation become so accustomed to a deviant behaviour that they don't consider it a deviant, despite the fact that they exceed their own safety rules by a wide margin. People outside see the situation as deviant whereas the people inside get accustomed to it." Bit like an outside marketing consultant trying to figure out how despite doing all the wrong things, some companies still go on.

Marketing Week today speculates that Google will usurp Coca Cola as top brand, asking  "How long can a 19th-century medicinal tonic head the list of the world’s biggest brands? Or, to put it another way, surely Google’s exemplary brand associations combined with its stranglehold on search in many parts of the world make it a far more valuable asset than a fizzy beverage whose best days are behind it? If you could pick Coke or Google as a future bet, which one would you prefer?" But apparently Google happily breaks the rule of messing around with its logo which changes or is embelished on special days like a shamrock for St Paddy's Day, or last week's dotty display prior to the announcement of Google Instant but that's OK when you are heading for top brand.

A book, " Driving down cost" - by Andrew Wileman identifies as a target for cuts "PR and marketing, or at least advertising and outsourcing", along it has to be said with hiring top firms of accountants and management consultants whose names in the company report impress shareholders and bankers. He asks, "Why not introduce a diktat that all promotional and advertising plans must be slashed by 20 per cent? Until you have tried it how can you tell what effect this may have?". Interestingly Amazon have slashed the price of his book by over 40 per cent from an already modest £14.99 to a bargain £8.47 - perhaps he cut his own advertising budget.

And finally a thought on how the word 'product' seems to have changed in marketing speak.It was prompted by a visit to the Post Office, a place I associate with buying stamps and mailing letters and parcels. So I was a bit surprised when after weighing and measuring a package I was asked if I wanted to buy life assurance. Not so long ago there were product managers whose job was to mastermind new product development and manage a portfolio of products. Products then were solid objects like television sets, light fittings, electric motors. Then the financial sector started talking about products, now the Post Office too it seems, but these were not actually tangible things you could take out of a box, plug in and switch on. No they were things like investments, mortgages, insurance and the concept they were a commodity that could be marketed perhaps led to selling 'products' to unsuitable people. But now it seems products have become things you put in your hair or a beauty treatment and something hairdressers talk about. Perhaps they are the new product managers who use hairdressing merely as a prelude to selling products. I have got a suspicion dentists are going down the same route.

Aerial artiste attracts attention at trade show

The Technical Marketing team have been at Earls Court this week for the annual PLASA Show and stopped by the Hoist UK stand to see aerial artiste, Isobelle putting the rigging to the test.

Does your target audience use Facebook?

Identifying your target audience is no longer just listing job titles.

When developing a market focus for a company it has been traditional to identify target markets and target audiences to then identify the media that address them most efficiently. Because in the b-2-b space the typical media has been the trade press this information drawn from their readership audit is usually job titles, or more helpfully job functions. Marketing communications delivered through these media - display advertising and editorial - can therefore reach the people interested in buying or specifying your products. But in the social media there are other key consideration such as age and interest.

Facebook announced in June that there were now 500 million users and some research suggests 50% check their Facebook account each day. So a massive potential audience. However, although popular with younger people (18-29 have 86% usage) there has also been a big growth amongst the 50+ demographic, doubling in the last year to 42% usage. Broadly user groups with time but not so much cash then and more importantly probably a bit thin on people who are  buying or specifying industrial products. The primary motivation seems to be people driven rather than product driven. It prompts the inevitable question of how people oriented is your product and will enough people in your target user group be so intrigued by your product to become fans. Interestingly the industrial sites that seem to be achieving some measure of success in attracting fans are the portals that are aggregating news. But checking on one such industrial site that also operates a Facebook account shows just 2.1% of monthly site visitors are fans. Of course there are other news delivery options including Twitter which is good for headlines as is RSS and of course e-mail.

In an age of media fragmentation social media needs to be in the marketing mix, but how much resource should be allocated to maintaining a Facebook presence that needs frequent attention? Indeed is there a sufficient flow of quality content to avoid descending into the realm of trivia? Using social media as additional news distribution channels can be managed within a PR programme but developing customer engagement and interaction is more time consuming and an on-going commitment too.   

Is social media a serious marketing tool?

Clients are divided on the role of social media in b-2-b marketing. Now it seems marketing experts are too.

 Marketing Week has thrown a new spanner in the works with an article titled - "Social Media is for people, not  brands". The article challenges whether social media is relevant to big brands and says, "The results, when compared to the industry buzz we keep hearing, simply do not stack up."  The article looks at the top 20 UK brands and offers the fact that some minor celebrity has attracted more followers on Twitter  than all of them together. Some top brands apparently have more tweets than followers and even the more successful  have attracted only around 0.5% of their customer base. The effort and marketing resource to interact with such a small group of customers tends to add support to those of our clients who see social media as at best irrelevant and at worse creating a frivolous image. After all names like Facebook, Twitter and blog hardly sound solid, respectable business ring to thems. Then again the same clients that laugh at the idea of blogs and the rest at one time saw no role for a web site either.

On the other hand a few clients are enthusiastic about Facebook and YouTube and excited about interacting with their customers, sharing pictures and discussing goodness knows what. They see the whole social media phenomenon as  heralding a bright shiny marketing future. These clients happen to be those that love gadgets - their Blackberries, iPhones, apps, net books, lap tops etc - who are avid Facebook users and get excited when they get a message from their favourite brand. Although hardly Luddites, the other group - at present a majority, regard a mobile phone as just that - a telephone - and if they are aware of social media at all do not see it as relevant to their customers. And this is really the bottom line. If even the top brands are pulling in just half of one per cent of their customer base it hardly suggests it is yet a mass marketing tool. Just who are these 0.5% anyway? Are they representative of the other 99.5% or a minority with an unreasonable fascination for a brand, are they the opinion leaders, or totally disillusioned due to poor product experience? Either way does this justify diverting a whole heap of marketing resource? Can we really expect professional buyers to avidly track the latest tweets about nuts and bolts products and bother to comment and volunteer pictures - are they that interested? Do they have the time?. Do these people really want to be 'fans' of a company anyway? 

The fact is we don't really know. What we do know is that using a number of marketing communications tools that are relevant to a company's target audience is effective and now into this mix is added social media. Technical marketing is about analysing the market, then pitching up with an integrated marketing communications plan that addresses the target audience using the most relevant and effective marketing mix.