Keep marketing in bad times and good

Exhibitions make a big call on marketing budgets once space, design, give-aways, shipping costs, travel, accommodation and entertainment are factored in. Not to mention the time and organisational effort that prevents other marketing work being undertaken for a while. And yet it is rarely challenged by senior management. Not considered as an economy in difficult times. Interestingly it is seen as a potential economy by visitors. No, the reason is simple - fear of competitive gossip if the company does not exhibit. Interestingly recent research reported by Marketing VOX has discovered a similar sentiment with respect to advertising - or lack of it. "More than 48% of US adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business is likely struggling, according to a study from Ad-ology Research." Although it may seem a negative driver, continuing a strong marketing presence during a recession can be a very positive response. But only if the marketing investment is carefully targeted, co-ordinated and relevant to achieving the business plan. During difficult times the marketing plan may need to be reviewed, priorities changed and tactics refocussed, but even in these unprecedented times businesses are still trading and customers are still buying. It is easy to believe that everything has stopped. It hasn't.

Marketing by numbers

One marketing guru states without reservation that unless you are using at least 8 different marketing techniques then your marketing strategy needs an overhaul. He likes numbers - elsewhere it is 3 golden rules. Perhaps there are more pieces of advice reduced to a simple numeric headline. Of course this in itself is a good marketing technique - suggesting that there is a formula for success by following a prescribed series of steps. And of course it makes good attention grabbing headlines too. Of course the marketing practitioner has a range of techniques that can be deployed but it is not to say that because they all exist they should all be used.  A physician does not use every drug available but prescribes medication to address the diagnosed problem. Just because a business can advertise it doesn't mean that this is also the best use of the marketing budget. It is convenient to use metrics such as, the marketing budget should be set as a percentage of sales turnover. But consider two client examples where this was applied to divisions of large multi national businesses. In the first example the division had a significant turnover but only a few customers because in that business sector there were just a handful of players. But they had an advertising budget and wanted to run a campaign to use the budget. But this would have been unproductive - they knew all their customers and prospects already. Other marketing techniques to develop and sustain customer loyalty offered better returns. The second example was a company  where budgets were aligned to product sales. Again a problem because well established products enjoyed significant funding whereas new products that could in time evolve to replace these cash cows were underfunded. So the lesson is to devise a budget that is driven by a marketing strategy that in turn is designed to meet business objectives.  Marketing by numbers can obscure that goal, but marketing analysis can shine a light onto the real issues and indicate where budget should be invested.

Build it and they will come

Just over 9 years ago the so called 'dot com' bubble burst wiping trillions of dollars off the valuation of NASDAQ listed companies, many of them internet sites without any discernible business model or source of funding other than investment funds. Back then terms like 'cash burn' were employed to describe the rapid eating up of the investment, typically venture capital, consumed by paying programmers, designers and the rest to build and develop the sites, not to mention expensive advertising on prime time TV, newspapers, magazines, bus sides and the Underground. Then many of these companies propelled to prominence and excitedly  discussed in the press started to go bust in a spectacular fashion. Rather like the movie - Field of Dreams where a baseball field was built in  an Iowa cornfield in the belief that build it and people will come - the site would somehow attract visitors. And they did - by the millions, because it was free. Any hint of paying a subscription and the visitors were off to the next new thing. The vague business plan seemed to be to to build the site, build big audiences then leverage this package to advertisers. The truth is not many made this work. Fast forward to the Web 2.0 era and we see social network sites building big audiences and now trying to recoup the huge investment. But changing the site's look to carry advertisements or charging subscriptions and the users object or take their interest to new contenders who are still at the traffic building stage and perceived as cool and new. Co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone is supposed to be announcing how Twitter can generate a revenue stream and turn a profit out of its micro blogging service - or will it be sold? Then there is Facebook and the issues raised over changes in terms of service as a step towards targeted advertising based on user profiles cause a climb down. Typically venture capitalists are interested most in exit strategies rather than long term stake holding. In other words, get the venture going and take a profit from selling the stake. In b-2-b marketing we always start by taking prospective clients back to the business plan so together we can test its robustness, then derive marketing strategies and marketing communications campaigns. Not the other way about of building a brand and product without actual paying customers or advertisers to generate a revenue stream and profit. 

Personalised automated messages

An e-mail report arrived purporting to show how our agency profile "is doing" on an advertising industry database and went on to explain that we were currently recipients of their " Enhanced Agency Service" free of charge and not only did this afford the greatest exposure but they were proactively engaged in marketing our services using both online and offline channels. With great anticipation I scanned the report of visits to our page and click thrus to our site only to discover that despite all the great efforts apparently freely undertaken on our behalf, all figures were a big round zero. Ah! This eventuality was apparently anticipated and a zero return may be explained and rectified by updating our profile page. But guess what - there was no profile page or any mention at all of our agency on the site! This communication was presumably the output of some automated device and suggests that nobody had checked either the results which would hardly persuade us to actually pay for this service, or indeed if we were actually listed in the first case. This type of communication whilst posing as a personalised e-mail is actually less effective than a clearly widely broadcast message about a product or service. The main proposition that the owners of the database were selling was their enhanced listing so surely the first step is to provide some evidence that this has worked better than the basic free listing. This of course will take some time and human intervention, but should result in not only a genuine list of prospects but some understanding of how the 'trial' has performed. The new list will probably be shorter - if the rest are like ours a zero return it might instead prompt a review of the service itself - and better targeted. Relying on an automated system to generate sales misses the whole point of actually knowing who your customers and prospects are.

Publishing trends - a move online

If the spate of articles about new or newish marketing tools such as social networking sites is to be believed then the traditional world of print could be in terminal decline. It is a topic discussed in earlier blogs. A recent research report from isubscribe.co.uk again highlighted declining advertising revenues for magazine publishers, but then we are in the depths of a major recession so it is not that surprising. Talking to publishers in the industrial magazine market the advertising sales people required no persuasion to hold the same space prices as for several years past - big discounts on rate cards - so may be they would have settled for even less. Another interesting indicator is the start of charging for press releases published on web sites, perhaps a recognition that readers are migrating from the printed to online page. At one time, many years ago now press releases were selected by the editor, suitably edited and printed as news. Indeed, at an even earlier time articles were commissioned and paid for - a useful source of bonus income for a young product manager in the early 70s. Then came the era of so called colour separation charges a fee allegedly based on the extra cost involved in producing colour filmwork. This charge was sold as a "colour separation fee" long after the publishing technology had moved on, remaining in the space sales vocabulary, its origins long forgotten and often unknown by the young sellers. More recently the rationale for a fee has been justified on the grounds that far more press releases are received than can be published.  Somewhere along the line the division between editorial integrity publishing genuine news and selling the space disappeared and in many trade magazines the difference between display advertising and editorial content no longer exists. Of course if as they say too much news is received then more pages could  be printed, but the advertising revenue does not support that.  The following is directly quoted (including spelling) from a publisher in response to receipt of a press release and the publisher's eagerness to print the news if only we pay. "This (the charge) is because we receive many more press releases than we can possibly afford to publish and this option allows us to inlcude material from those that want the guarantee of publication." It continues to list charges per word, for publishing photos and an annual fee to place news on the web site. Perhaps little wonder then that smart marketers are busy exploiting free channels and moving into blogs, Facebook and Twitter while they remain both popular and free.

Is Inbound marketing the future?

A recent article by HubSpot suggested that marketing budgets are typically 90% outbound marketing and 10% inbound marketing and that the ratio should be flipped. OK, so what are outbound and inbound marketing?  

 Outbound marketing in short is the traditional approach - putting out messages to target audiences through advertising, e-mails, mail shots, exhibitions and all the other marketing tools. The article argues that not only is the average person subjected to 2,000  marketing interruptions a day, but has figured out means of blocking or filtering some of  them. For example Sky+ allows a TV programme to be viewed and advertisements skipped. Spam filters reject e-mail messages. You can sign up to opt out of mail shots and telephone cold calling. There are even street signs advising that you are in a "No cold calling area". So yes messages get filtered, but a lot gets through. So how about inbound marketing, how does that work and should 90% of the marketing budget be spent on it?  

I bought a new style of mousetrap at the weekend and was reminded of the Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation, " build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." OK - so how does the world know you have a better mousetrap then? Well the conventional approach would be to send outbound messages, the inbound approach seems to advocate hanging out where people are looking for mousetraps. And it is probably not in the High Street anymore, but an out of town shopping mall or superstore, or of course the Internet. And hanging out on the Internet increasingly is about compelling and relevant content and social networking to encourage the target audience to come to you - in short they beat a path to your door. Sounds great!

Do businesses Twitter?

Much has been written in marketing circles recently about not just the remarkable growth of Facebook and Twitter but how these are now essential business marketing tools. I have so far  refrained from commenting on either as immediately relevant to the B-2-B marketing space, but two communications received  today are worth noting. A business-to -business forum unhesitatingly claims, "It's time to finally engage social media for all it's worth". Topics include"Integrating social media into your marketing mix", " Developing online communities that increase customer loyalty" and " What will social media do for my business". Meanwhile Engineering & Technology's E&T magazine devoted two pages to Twitter mentioning high profile users such as Barack Obama.  Twitter with its 140 character "tweets" to tell people what you are doing lends itself to headlines and news flashes which seems to be what the New York Times offers and of course the self styled citizen reporters. It also offers a channel for the trivial as well. Described as micro blogging it is more akin to sending SMS messages, but to all your contacts or followers. And here really is the issue - Twitter's "followers" and "Facebook's" friends - who are they  and how do you get them on board? They need to be your customers and prospects in your target audience to be of value.

Both Facebook and Twitter offer potentially useful tools that are in popular use, further channels to communicate information to and receive feedback from your target audience but as with other media their inclusion within the marketing mix should follow marketing principles. Unlike printed publications who offer access to their readership, with social media building the readership of followers and friends is your job. So although the tools are free, the awareness well established it still requires a commitment in time to build the audience, create content and importantly to respond when appropriate. 

Back to basics

The flow of informative articles landing in the inbox has reached a torrent as discussions on whether or not to tweet, how to blog and speculation about the latest Google algorithm are joined by exhortations to keep on  marketing in the recession with offers of marketing webinars, free tools and white papers. During recessions the accountants assume more importance than in more prosperous times and demand cuts. Marketing is of course an easy target. Cutting budgets doesn't have the nastiness, legal repercussions and redundancy packages associated with cutting staff, not to mention the ugly scenes and bad press that inevitably follow. So stop advertising then. Next look at the underperforming products and discontinue those making the smallest contribution and while about it why not cut back on stock too. So we have a lean company, costs all trimmed back and ready to survive the recession. But what do customers and prospects see. A company that has lost visibility in the industry, offers a limited product range - probably the same as everyone else - have annoyingly stopped making the specialist products they require occasionally and to top it all they are expected to wait for delivery. So the customer loyalty is put to the test and it is time to shop around. The chairman of a company I worked for used to respond to accountants with cost cutting plans with an anecdote about the owner of a sweet shop. In those days a sweet shop kept sweets in jars behind the counter - several shelves of them - and the shop keeper weighed them out in scales, tipped them into a paper bag and tied it of with a flourish. His shop keeper decided to reduce stock, so each week he removed the jar that sold the least. Gradually the shelves lined with jars emptied and gradually his shop emptied of customers, because he had missed the point. Part of the shopping experience was the choice and even if most customers predictably bought wine gums or mints, they could spend a few happy moments debating a more exotic option before settling on the old favourite. Once the choice was gone, so were they - off to a shop where they could indulge in this harmless pleasure. So it is not so much about cutting marketing, but marketing smarter and that might even cost more.

Declining magazine revenues prompt online move

 emarketer offers some disconcerting news for magazine publishers. According to today's report some 525 American titles folded in 2008 with others closing in 2009. All attributed to a shift in print advertising to other media, in particular the Internet. Previous blog entries have discussed the wider issue of a move away from print to the Internet. A good example is Technical Data Sheets. Often these are required by architects or consulting engineers at short notice. Fifteen or maybe twenty years ago they were faxed and a printed copy followed by mail. As a result there was little point in using colour print - sales publications could do that. Today the PDF is the preferred format and colour is back. Many architects have recognised that they do not want to use valuable office space for rows of traditional ring binders either when they can simply download what they need.  From the print side Printweek.com today reports on job cuts throughout the print industry and carries an article that conditions are right for mergers. Within this article is news of investment in digital print technology in the field of intelligent colour personalisation which is another subject and a indication that print specialisation is the future.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is still a preference for print as a preferred medium for reading away from the computer screen. Some journals have reacted to this better than others by revamping not only the design of their publication but also investing in content by providing articles that are interesting to read. In the industrial publication sector IET has done this very well with their E&T journal. The Engineer continues to offer good value content and interestingly offers the same magazine online, but most industrial sector publications have long since descended into a catalogue of paid for press releases, manufacturer sponsored articles and shrinking advertising revenues. It appears they remain alive by a combination of telesales to companies equally slow to recognise the changing times. Some publications carried by the inertia of advertisers are almost unreadable, but that is another story. Ironically although many industrial companies invest in R&D to innovate new cutting edge products, they do not do the same for their marketing but continue to roll out the same budget and formula year after year - same advertising, same magazines, attend the same exhibitions with the same people and have an amateur approach to the Internet.

So has the printed magazine a future? Good content and good design are key. In a straw poll yesterday in a client's office there was an overwhelming preference for this to be in print. News headlines are OK on the Internet where print cannot compete so well, but magazines carrying more researched in depth articles could have a good future. 

Finally my own straw poll on the train out of London last night. Several people were reading books, quite a few were skimming through the free evening papers - nobody had the paid for Evening Standard - others were plugged into iPods, some were asleep and one girl was watching a particularly blood thirsty samuri movie on her lap top. Nobody had a magazine. 

Instant marketing is not a cheap fix

As the recession deepens and gloom spreads  I have noticed an increase in articles about marketing on the cheap. Typical sub heads such as, "Instant Press Releases", "Cheap business cards", "Free Marketing Plans" and"Free Sales letters" are promoted on one  web site referred to in a marketing newsletter. It all gives the impression that marketing can be applied like a fresh coat of paint to cover up the blemishes and that by using these free tools - and of course buying the book - business success will follow. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. What do cheap business cards say about a company? That the company has little substance, is amateurish and it just creates a negative early impression. And what about instant press releases? Just because you submit a piece about your company it does not mean it will get published. In fact it is very unlikely to be published in a journal that addresses your target audience. Here is the point of marketing. It is not a short term fix to be applied when sales enquiries slump. Savvy companies will already have their marketing plans in place, will have professionally designed business cards, support literature and web site; have regular editorial coverage in the appropriate trade publications because they had taken the time, given the commitment and made the investment to develop a marketing philosophy throughout the enterprise.  

Now social networking tops e-mail for popularity

 We have been experimenting with social networking and blogging with one of our clients for a while now but it is still too early to draw any conclusions as to the business value. One thing that soon became apparent was that blog content rapidly appeared on Google searches which must be a positive result if relevant in-bound links to the client's site are rewarded with higher ranking. But our adoption of social bookmarking links is even more recent  so far with no tangible results, but due to the adoption of such august organisations as the BBC and the sheer number of users (110 million according to Nielsen) it must be worth a try. I have personal anecdotal evidence from the younger (twenties) ladies in my family that Facebook in particular  is being preferred by them to e-mail as a communication tool with their friends. Recent research from Nielsen reported by Webpronews seems to confirm this through actual research and finds that over two thirds of the online population goes online to visit social networks and blogs. It also confirms that Facebook is the most popular and that more older, but not old,  users are joining. Another  finding is that mobile is "playing an increasingly important role in social networking". Of course there again the young early adopters of Facebook are prolific users of mobile communication too, so it is not perhaps surprising  now that the technology facilitates access to social networking sites from a mobile phone. Of course what is actually communicated is another matter, but unlikely to be very business oriented. Despite the undoubted prominence of Facebook it seems but a short while ago that MySpace was the place to be. An article appearing  on the BBC site posed the question - "Has MySpace lost its cool?" 

This article also points out the importance of the advertising funded business model. Will Facebook similarly lose its shine? For marketers many of these web 2.0 applications are both accessible and plausible but for those of us in B-2-B marketing still difficult to recommend with any confidence especially if they prove to be no more than a passing fad. On the other hand, it was not much more than 10 years ago when we were challenging clients to invest in a web site at all, then suddenly every business had a site. So what about e-mail then? It is  a very cost effective tool for communicating with the target audience but does require a lot of work in building and maintaining a good database and more and more organisations are blocking deliveries of messages. On the other hand, looking at the one or two web sites in the same market sectors as our clients that have a Facebook page, typically they have very few "friends" and fail to actually use or develop it. Back to the old problem then of generating content and this is where a good outsource specialist knowledgeable in the market can bring the experience and expertise to build and maintain the brand whatever channel is used to deliver the message.

Brand building with PR

A White Paper by Vocus - Maximizing the value of Your News: From Twitter to Google - underlines the changing role of PR that Web 2.0 offers. It suggests 'Rethinking your Audience' - not just media, but consumers and investors as well. To this I would add employees, dealers and agents. What the web gives us now is an opportunity to communicate beyond the traditional third party route of having news published in papers, magazines and on TV and radio and in particular what has been coined Web 2.0 enables us to not just talk to but converse with customers and prospects. This might be a very strange concept to some clients. In short PR has the tools to build brand values at all levels. The White Paper quotes research from TNS "Digital World, Digital Life", December 2008 that '81% of users worldwide used search engines to find information and 76% looked up news.' Add to that e-mail (the most popular use of the Internet) and we have communication, information and news - three primary pillars of PR and the Internet providing he tools to deliver to customers. Whether it is widely broadcast or targeted at very precisely defined groups, even to individuals it is all about favourably presenting the brand but now not just issuing press releases but joining conversations and dealing positively with negative feed back. The Virtual News Office from Technical Marketing provides the foundation for a range of publishing tools- news with image, searchable archives, e-mail news and RSS. By integrating a Virtual News Office with any company web site not only can companies easily communicate with their customers but by building highly relevant links into their site, also improving Google rankings.

Reaching B-2-B target audiences with Web 2.0 tools

Much online marketing discussion today revolves around the world of blogs and social networks. Most client discussions don’t. In the B-2-B marketing space, adoption of new ideas is notoriously slow. Despite often being technology leaders in their own field, typical industrial and commercial client companies are rarely early adopters of new marketing methods. This was certainly the case with web sites. There was a distinct process starting with ‘we don’t need it’, or ‘our competitors don’t do it’ to a sudden realisation that their competitors had been developing an implementation and now they were in catch up mode and being asked why they do not have one. B-2-B with smaller budgets has been more cautious in allocating resources to new ideas, often until the evidence is compelling, then looking to cheap solutions. In some ways the Web 2.0 opportunity is different. Many tools are free. It is instead the time commitment. Emarketer wrote that ‘corporations are using blogs to build solid relationships with customers’ and offered the information that some 47% of the online population read blogs and there has been a 300% increase in blog readership over the last 4 years. Further that blogs have more impact on purchasing decisions than social networks and 40% take action after reading a blog. Another writer quoted a question being debated, ’is Facebook is a tool to use in your leisure time or more of a tool to communicate.’ It has also been suggested that a ‘narrow topical appeal draws highly engaged users’ by cornering the market in information no doubt, on a topic relevant to the company product. On the other hand unless it is also a fast changing topic keeping the momentum going could prove a challenge when it comes to content. Consider the typical widget maker – getting regular PR content is a challenge, keeping a blog or social network site supplied with content is going to require a lot of inspiration. Unlike posting photos of a night out on Facebook, B-2-B content needs to be relevant and professional. Then again, do engineers, architects, contractors and the like actually follow blogs or connect to Facebook – it would interesting to know.

Are blogs changing PR?

An interview carried by iMedia Connection – ‘Steve Rubel on how blogs are changing the face of PR’ - brings forward a debate of the technical possibilities versus their relevance to the target market and the interest, uptake and commitment of clients to participate. The figures seem compelling. According to emarketer “Once a haven for techies, there are now blogs for everything from celebrity gossip to political commentary to the most mundane personal minutiae. By 2012, more than 145 million people - or 67% of the US Internet population - will be reading blogs at least once per month.” They reckon 12% of US internet users, some 25 million write blogs. Surprisingly more than 100 million internet users, more than 50% are also blog readers. Big numbers then. Consider now some unofficial statistics from our own research in PR activity in the UK industrial market. Whilst the most active portal web sites carry news free of charge and archive thousands of stories, a sampling revealed that the vast majority were generated by relatively few companies or their PR agencies. The larger group of companies submitted very few stories. Some just one token story before presumably losing interest or running out of news. Talking to other PR people confirmed that news output from their clients was hardly prolific. Most needed quite a good portfolio of clients to make their PR business work. In our experience many clients don’t even think they have any news and a key task of a PR professional is teasing out stories in the first place. Then few have any people in-house that can write anything about their business sufficient to interest and editor, let alone a reader. But blogs demand a far bigger commitment by company personnel as there is both an immediacy and inside knowledge that the traditional PR practitioners will find difficult to embrace. For example not just getting the story, but getting client approval introduces a delaying factor. The blog is more of a personal view and works against the secrecy culture many clients have. Only recently a PR professional was lamenting a decision by a client to stop all case studies and third party endorsement stories as they did not want their competitors to know. We all have clients like that – great stories are blocked because the credibility associated with their blue chip customer cannot be mentioned. So the challenge is getting not only the commitment to write a blog, even if ghost written by an agency but also the openness to actually reveal the sort of compelling inside news content people want to read.

Niche markets can offer opportunity during recession and build a sustainable future

For the UK manufacturing sector the current economic crisis comes not after years of boom that banking, retail and housing enjoyed, but after decades of a shrinking manufacturing base. Once the manufacturer for the world Britain as the first to enjoy an industrial revolution, that situation has long since changed culminating in recent times with the big shakeout of the 1980s seeing a major erosion of the once mighty industrial base. As other nations became major low cost suppliers volume manufacture largely moved offshore with China just the most recent of supplier nations. Meanwhile not only has British industry been addressing niche markets, but also redefining what is a niche market. Once seen as uninteresting due to low volumes today’s niche markets are not just about providing manufactured goods, but a package that includes consultancy and service support both adding value for the customer and contributing margin to the provider’s balance sheet. There is also the benefit of an on-going partnership between manufacturer and customer - a distinct advantage compared to products that would only be sold every 20 or 30 years. The combination of consultancy, manufacture and service changes the traditional demarcations and is leading to greater innovation, design flexibility and customization. The customer experience provides direct market research input and builds in loyalty and of course can lead to new opportunities. Meanwhile the beleaguered retail sector resorts to deeper and more frequent discounting. This seems an unsustainable strategy when they neither control the cost of products or design and at some stage the discount approach must run out of headroom. Likewise banks who have to some extent misused marketing methods to sell money they either did not have or was unsecured, might be forced to reappraise whether service might be more valued than selling so called financial products. Just as the manufacturing sector has reinvented itself, so may the retail and banking sector need to rethink service and support, not to mention prudence to the mix and give customers reasons to return loyalty. So niche marketing should no longer be viewed as a back water but perhaps the future. At Technical Marketing we have long espoused a similar philosophy. In short we build relationships with clients that includes advice, but also many deliverables and yes a degree of service support too.

Content marketing - a new specialism?

The Internet is probably currently responsible for creating more specialist jobs than any other business sector. Today there are niche specialities – SEO, usability testing, hosting, CMS software, social media consultants and now content marketing specialists. Ten to fifteen years ago our task then was explaining to clients that the Internet could provide a useful addition to their marketing communications programme. Many SMEs countered with the response that none of their competitors had a web site and their customers had never asked for one anyway. Back then there was an education job to do while building a web site was a collaboration between designers and programmers. In fact a typical approach was for a designer to produce the ‘look’ for the home page and how it should be applied to inside pages before the programmer coded, built and tested the site. As an Account Director it was immediately obvious that before these functional aspects could be addressed there was a need to plan the site architecture and most importantly create the content. The first was quite easy – the content however was usually a major challenge. A typical company web site is basically a distillation of what the company is about – what it does, who they are, what they sell, how to buy – but at that time the businesses I dealt with typically only had some sales leaflets and not much else. It often required meetings to identify basic facts about the company and cause them in turn to rethink what they were actually doing. It should have been amazing how little most executives understood about their business when it came to key facts, but experience showed it was commonplace. Even products were a challenge, for example one company marketed a range of floor cleaning machines that used cleaning fluids. In theory a lucrative range of consumables that could easily be sold online, but at the time relied on a storeman simply sending out stock only if asked in whatever container was to hand. There was no real process in place, no part numbers, no pricing and no packaged product so an important business opportunity was largely missed. Of course developing a web site while at the same time creating content that in turn requires creating business structures and systems can be a lengthy process. And of course adding emerging content as it became available was a poor way to deliver web sites on budget and on time. Clients simply do not understand that their lack of information is relevant. Although we tried to create and get signed off all content before starting to build a web site, the theory was always better than the reality as material persistently came through in bits and pieces. Returning to the spawning of web site specialisms the term ‘content marketing’ as noted at the beginning of this piece has now entered the lists of expert consultants. One blog talks about creating ‘remarkable content’.

Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of HubSpot says,

“

To be a successful marketer in today's society, you need to be half publisher and half traditional marketer. So your next hire, you might think, could be a writer, or a video producer, or a music producer, something like that, and you need to start creating remarkable content. You look at the people who really win on the internet, and who really win on Google, who rank very high on Google, its sites with lots and lots of pages inside of Google's index. So Google sort of looks at a website as, every page on a website is a unique little website that can rank for different keywords. So the key is, how do you get as much stuff in Google's index that's remarkable, that people are looking into it, that you can move up the rankings. So, we really encourage our customers to start creating remarkable content. And remarkable content spreads wildly on the internet. If you're creating boring content, it doesn't spread at all.

”

It echoes a theme we at Technical Marketing have long been espousing in less florid language, that interesting, relevant and helpful content is an important part of the marketing mix. Most companies simply do not have the time, or skills to produce their own content, so maybe it is the time of the Content Marketing Expert then.

Marketing through the credit crunch

Just as governments seem uncertain how to stop the descent into a global recession, so does the retail sector seem to be resorting to some strange marketing tactics. A ‘20% off ‘ sale a month before Christmas seems a desperate measure with the underlying suggestion that margins must have been more substantial than might have been previously inferred. The most curious promotion this week was a double whammy offer on Christmas Tree lights. Signage suggested that there were savings of up to 50% while the actual product was marked with far smaller cash savings. We picked up a box priced at around 10 pounds also marked with a previous price of a couple pound more. As it is still November one wonders when they were on sale at the higher price anyway. But stuck on each box was also a label for insurance. Although I thought it odd to advertise insurance on a ten pound box of lights, I was really surprised when a member of staff sidled up and pointed out what a great deal this was. For just 3 pounds we could insure the lights and get free replacement in event of later failure. My wife pointed out that she expected them to work and so did consumer laws. So the actual cost of purchase with insurance would have been more than the promised savings on previously displayed price. Marketing should be based on firmer foundations not flimsy gimmicks, but then hindsight is showing that the three great drivers of the British economy – retail, finance and housing – have all been based on overvalued propositions.

World economy in meltdown?

The news is dominated by failing banks, falling stock markets, falling real estate values, government rescues with multi-billion dollar sums that have little or no effect on stopping the downward dive to oblivion. Some marketing bloggs are starting to ask will it affect us, are we burying our heads in the sand? Those of us in marketing for several decades have witnessed business cycles of boom and bust, worked in high inflation environments, low inflation, high interest rates and low – but nothing like this. Who would have thought so much of British investment was in Icelandic banks for goodness sake? As the value of our savings disappears you can’t help but wonder what is next? We are at a stage of financial planning right now – what assumptions should we, indeed can we make? And yet, businesses are carrying on. Enquiries are still coming in product being shipped and paid for, so why are companies being so devalued on the stock market? The risk is that the total loss of confidence will start undermining otherwise healthy businesses if people hoard cash. But in the b-2-b sector nobody is yet talking of cutting budgets, broadly it is business as normal. Conventional wisdom advocates investing in more marketing, not less. Of course marketing is a soft target to trim or cut in recessionary times. Not a good plan. Businesses that market their way through difficult times generally emerge as the winners. Time will tell once the history of these strange times comes to be written.

Saving the planet

After many years working in the lighting industry and involvement with the electrical contracting world a visit to a wholesaler trade counter is always an interesting experience. Someone once remarked that all the best politicians are busy driving cabs and cutting hair. To these we could add ‘sparks’. The trade counter format has not noticeably changed over the years. Usually a poky place with electrical equipment manufacturers vying for the limited poster and display space. While waiting their turn contractors read the Sun, drink free coffee and express their views on the world in general. It is the ultimate word of mouth environment if your target audience is electrical installers and a great place for vox pop market research. These guys will have little hesitation in telling you what they think of your product. Today I was buying some special size fluorescent tubes and had taken in the failed lamp to make sure I got the right size. At one time the old tube would then be simply thrown away but due to new environmental regulations there is now a charge of ten pounds – to cover the licence and paper work gov you know. The new tube cost just over three pounds. Looking up from reading the Sun the next electrician in line took a deep breath and quipped – we’re saving the planet mate!

Photo: Our pond freezes over.

Movies and viral marketing

A business-to-business company Eppendorf has sparked considerable praise with their viral marketing campaign in the form of a pop band style video. It has achieved fulsome praise indeed and yet somehow it didn’t work for me. Worse I couldn’t make much sense of it first time around or feel inspired to pass it on to a viral network. Not being in the particular sector of the industrial market or familiar with the brand probably didn’t help either. Maybe it is a generation thing, or maybe it was the band. Humorous movies such as Hamlet cigars with the short clip ending with their famous music as a cigar is lit made me laugh, but a song about a product sung as a ballad was puzzling.

Servitisation

According to E&T journal ‘servitisation’ is a term originally coined in the ‘Harvard Business Review’ in 1988. In the same issue as its ‘Are you being served article?’ which discusses the reinvention of product companies as service companies is a major series to co-incide with the sixtieth anniversary of publication of George Orwells’ book ‘1984’. The journal looks at how far his scenario has been realised at least in terms of technology. Of course as with science fiction - Arthur C Clarke’s ‘2001 Space Odessy’ serves to illustrate that to imagine a future is very different from putting a realistic date on when it might happen. Both 1984 and 2001 are already history and some predicted technology inspired products have indeed become commonplace while some have come and gone. I am not sure whether much was predicted about outsourcing or off shoring sixty years ago, but today as a country the UK has outsourced production, call centres, software development, service support and arguably politics and law making. In previous blogs I have noted the problems facing one client where the traditional sales support model through development into volume production is no longer relevant. I have recently received their instructions for the launch of a new product. There is nothing new about the product except that it is produced in China and no doubt costs a whole lot less than making the same item in Birmingham. So while some companies are transforming into service organisations, keeping very close to the customer by consulting during the development phase and putting themselves into a better position to then supply product for volume manufacture others like our client are using low cost sourcing to stay in the game. I suspect the service route will prove more sustainable

How to make your customers pay for your advertising

Interesting isn’t it how as consumers we accept a role similar to the sandwich board man when we shop in the high street or shopping mall of carrying branded bags around proclaiming the names of stores we have patronised. Of course it wasn’t always like this. At one time purchases would be discretely wrapped in brown paper packages tied up with string, or smaller items in plain brown paper bags, or vegetable sold loose and tipped into our own bag or basket. But this was all a long time ago in the days when shop assistants brought out the product, before we had to do it ourselves and present our selections at a check-out. Taking your own shopping bag into a store suddenly became suspicious and to avoid accusation of shop lifting we accepted that our purchases would be shoved into a store bag that also served as a form of receipt. You also needed the bag should you return goods as some sort of proof of purchase. Before long supermarkets had piles of flimsy plastic bags at the till and you simply helped yourself to as many as you wanted. But wait, these same stores are now telling us that their plastic bags, the ones we didn’t ask for in the first place by the way, are destroying the planet. Marks & Spencer has even taken the step of charging 5 pence for every bag you accept as some sort of fine. I have refrained from shopping in their store, but should I be asked to pay I feel inclined to ask for a plain bag – or else present a rate card for my advertising fees.

Rapidly changing technologies?

A friend e-mailed a scanned clipping from a newspaper – in itself an indication of change, he would have posted it at one time – which listed a range of skills for dealing with technologies that are no longer needed. For example, changing the ribbon on a typewriter, winding a watch, getting up to change a TV channel, using the choke in a car … and plenty more. Newspapers love lists almost as much as market research into human behaviour, but it indicates the challenge facing new product development. OK so a number of these little wrinkles for using yesterday’s technology are obsolete, but on the other hand it still seems to take an age for new technologies to get into general use. Take the case of compact fluorescent lamps – CFLs – I was involved in their launch in 1980. Nearly 30 years on they are much more widespread but still way short of being universally used to replace Swan’s and Edison’s 19th century invention. Another lighting example is the promotion and take up of new dimming technologies that have been available for a decade or more but still in a tiny minority of total dimmers sold. In fact what the list actually demonstrates is not so much the advance of new technologies but easier use of the old concepts, improvement and evolution rather than invention and revolution. An iPod plays music same as a wind-up gramophone, just better; today’s motor car bristles with modern technology but most of the roads we drive it on were laid out by the Romans or ramble round ancient fields and river crossings established by the Anglo Saxons. So actions like filling a fountain pen, lowering a stylus (or needle) on to a vinyl record and using carbon paper may all be lost skills, but the tasks of writing, playing music and copying are still relevant. We just have better ways on doing things now. So the NPD marketing executive would do well to revisit the tasks his customers are needing to accomplish, to evaluate how new technologies can help in improving achieving the task and then figure out how to embody that into a product that can be successfully solved profitably. Not much to ask really!

Charging for design advice

In a recent blog – The China Syndrome – I discussed a problem that a client had identified of customer development support. The problem being encountered is that traditionally working with a customer on prototype development had been an essential part of the marketing plan; using expertise and knowledge to provide a solution through using their products. Once the product had been demonstrated at a test level then volume sales could follow thanks to this earlier specification work. It is or was a familiar business model using technical sales activity to build a specification so that boxed goods products could then be supplied for the volume production needs through distribution networks. Of course holding ‘spec’ has always been an issue, but now with the massive price difference between product produced in China and in home based factories not only are buyers switching, but the price and margins are destroyed. It leaves companies like our client with the knowledge but without a means of charging for this expertise. I return to this subject because another client, this time operating in the building services sector, has a similar problem. Here prospects might recognise they have a problem but need help in identifying its exact nature before selecting and installing products that will provide a solution. The design support required does not stand the cost of a specialist consultant but typically calls for a site visit leading to a report and recommendation for supply and fix. The real issue they have to confront is that the design advice is essential to a successful outcome, but not traditionally chargeable as it is part of the quotation process. The question now is can this be made chargeable. This is where marketing to build trust in the brand can create an environment where the relationship created in the specification phase carries over to the implementation where a price premium for the safe option can be traded against the risk of using a remote low cost supplier. It only takes a container to go over board in the South China Sea and suddenly the supply line comes to an abrupt halt and what does that do for reputation of a carefully nurtured brand?

Lies, dammed lies and statistics …

The advent of Google Analytics has ushered in a new era of web site accountability. Suddenly the colourful Webalizer charts have given way to the free to use but rather dour monochrome displays offered by Google. Now there is a heap of data that can be sifted by activity and time frame to reveal a wealth of statistics. What it doesn’t actually offer is information - that requires interpretation of the statistics. OK so we know that the bounce rate is 50% for example, but what does that mean? That half the visitors find your web site of no use to them, or half the visitors are not your prospects, or they went there by mistake, or are stupid, or just surfing anything hopefully? The problem with this data is it begs the questions of why? And what does it all mean? Then there is the mismatch between what Google says happens and what the accounts package says was actually ordered and you have to wonder whether it is most useful to indicate trends rather than give an absolute measure. Then there are some recent top-level statistics from BRMB that provide interesting statistics on the use of the Internet. Still top at 73% is e-mail followed by online research at 48% and online banking at 35%. Top sites are Travel at 48%, Weather forecasts (38%), cinema listings/events (35%), Music/mp3 (32%), Sport (27%), Jobs (26%) and News (24%). It is curious that weather sites should rate so highly – perhaps a weather forecast should feature on all sites. But as with all statistics there will be flaws in the validity of how they are collected, how they are interpreted and how they are used and this is where solid marketing experience comes into play and basic common sense. It can be useful to stand back and ask the question – does it make sense? Of course the data can be used as a guide to make changes and observe the results, but some things will remain constant. With ‘General Research’ being the second most popular use of the Internet after e-mail, first make sure people can find your web site when searching for sources of supply for their specific need. Then ensure that they can find the information they need and finally they can contact you to enquire further or place an order. And once they have found you, use means that give them a reason to return and become a loyal customer.

Driven by innovation or customer experience?

In a recent article it was suggested that the order in which things are invented has an impact on their use and acceptance. Developments in technology are not necessarily a sequential expansion of capability or benefits. An early popular use of the telegraph was the telegram. Messages had to be written on a form, using an economy of words, for an operator to key in and send and be printed out for a telegram boy to deliver. Messages were of economic necessity brief but had the advantage of speed over post. Voice communication came later with the telephone and offered instant two-way communication, but still in the early days a caution of keeping calls brief due to cost. It was a long time before first, long distance and later international calls became common place. Then came wireless telephony and mobile phones. You could now talk from anywhere without the restrictions of fixed line systems. Then oddly texting became arguably the most popular use of mobile telephony. Back to the telegram – an economy of words, indeed a language that evolved for the purpose, not dissimilar to the abbreviated business language once used for telex. But what if texting had been the only method of communicating on mobiles – would voice have been seen as a big step forward? In new product development writing a specification for a new product often calls for all the features of the one that is being replaced, plus a whole host more to match every competitor all at a lower cost. If invited to contribute to the product development process sales people will naturally want every feature they have ever been asked for, simply to remove sales objections. The result is what in effect are redundant features never or rarely used because they are not actually needed or too difficult to understand or operate. Did product developers expect the success of SMS, or was it a user driven uptake based on simplicity? Perhaps if texting had come first and voice later it would have gone the way of the telegram by now. In marketing product development requires not only an ability to profitably harness evolving technologies and an understanding of actual and perceived user needs but also inspiration.

The China syndrome

The early part of my career was concerned with new product development. As a product manager I conducted the whole process from initial concepts and market research, through design and development, into manufacture and eventually a product launch. Our b-2-b marketing clients today generally do not have a product development process. Either they are providing a service or marketing products where the design decision is taken remotely – typically in another country. As a consequence our marketing role has become far more focused on communications, so it came as something of a surprise when one client mentioned that the source of a top selling product was ceasing manufacture and supplies would soon be exhausted. Interestingly another client had rapidly withdrawn a product for a similar reason, in their case the basic component that made the thing work was no longer available. It caused me to stop and think. When was the last time we had included anything about new product development in a marketing plan for a client? Not because we forgot to ask, but because they had no plans. My thoughts soon strayed to another client inspired remark made to me about 6 or 7 years ago concerning a meeting in China. To his amazement he was shown products used for scientific purposes similar to those produced by his own company, which subject to testing (subsequently confirmed by independent laboratories as very accurate) appeared their equal. His USP was based on years of research, materials selection, manufacturing development, quality controls and skills of the work force. Volumes were not high so cost and price reflected this and such a device cost maybe $200 to manufacture. When asked for a price the Chinese contact seemed not to know the cost and suggested $3 would suffice. Why tell this story? Firstly it is not an isolated example, secondly the whole economics, new product development and marketing rationale were stood on their head. From a position of semi exclusivity, expertise and a ‘black art’ process that produced these devices, suddenly they were available to anyone at give away prices. Soon there were importers entering the market which still commanded a price premium, but what the importers could not offer was input into the application development. But here our client faced another problem. In order to get a product specified the company had traditionally worked with engineers working on a prototype so that when the product entered production their device would automatically be specified. But now buyers substitute the cheapest alternative, or production is offshore and sourced locally, so the development process rather than a marketing cost should really be a chargeable activity. It is possibly the only charge or sale the company will be able to make. Our client has yet to fully make this transition but a major rethink seems inevitable. When product development becomes product sourcing much is lost in the understanding of what the market needs. The other big issue to my mind is cost. As a product manager producing a product at a cost commensurate with a price that we judged the market would stand and achieve returns on investment and earn good gross margins was always a challenge. The low cost of Chinese products that does not truly reflect materials and other costs in the example my client cited cannot be sustainable in the long run. Already China is forcing up world commodity prices due to the sheer volume of world production whilst contributing to pollution on a heroic scale which prompts the question, is building a business on extremely low cost imports viable longer term. And what happens to that accumulated knowledge and black art if people like our client should completely opt out of manufacture?

Putting lipstick on a pig

The sub prime mortgage crisis seems to have been the catalyst for the huge losses recently incurred by banks, the first run on a British bank for a hundred and fifty years or so , collapse of a major US financial institution and the prospect of worse to come. How much of this I speculate is due to an inappropriate application of marketing techniques. I have long been dubious about the idea of promoting financial services as products, but this concept has also been accompanied by, or perhaps even led to, a major change in financial institutions transforming them into businesses that sell products like grocers. In fact the major grocery chains of supermarkets have got in on the act themselves in selling financial products. Although much of what people see of marketing is the advertising and other market communications, like the proverbial iceberg below the surface should be something substantial. We look first to understand the business model and test this before developing marketing plans for a client or prospect. Sometimes the business model is hard to define, or as in the case of one notable potential client back in the ‘dot com era’ – non-existent. Swept up in the enthusiasm of the time this ‘dot com king’ was busy buying other ailing dot coms for ridiculous amounts and raising funds on a stock market aided by investment banks that had collectively lost touch with the fundamentals of business. The financial institutions by transforming themselves into aggressive sales driven businesses abandoned financial prudence so devaluing the product. Banking staff steeped in a long understanding of finance have largely been replaced by sales staff, incentivised by selling products and often recruited from high street retailers. In fact banks actually talk about their retail business. Think for a moment about the marketing process starting with the product. In the traditional model a company would research the market or uncover an unsatisfied need, design or improve a product and add value to the manufacturing process transforming raw materials and components into a product to satisfy an identified or perceived marketing need. Now look at the sub prime business model. Loans made to people on welfare cheques in the American Budweiser belt at 5 or 6 times imagined income were the unpromising raw material that was diced and divided to emerge without any actual added value, as triple A quality investment products. The products backed by the credibility of a major financial institution then traded on global financial markets. What anyone selling goods could have told them is that quality control is also a critical ingredient – as one American colleague once remarked it is no good putting lipstick on a pig. You cannot successfully market an inferior product without some backlash. Of course a brand carefully nurtured over a couple of centuries like a major bank builds goodwill and trust – customers with scant knowledge of financial services believe in the products because of this trust. It is the credibility of the bank that is being leveraged and their professional advice. Bankers trade on their perceived professional status, customers accept their advice the same as they would from doctors or lawyers, in general they are not buying a product at all but simply following investment advice. But breach this implicit contract between buyer and seller and customers soon take their business elsewhere. What is amazing is that the financial institutions thought they could get away with such a devious scheme. Once lost trust is hard if not near impossible to rebuild. The marketing lesson is clear - the product, the business model and marketing message must be credible and sustainable to achieve long term success. Short term views cannot prevail in the long run. If banks had taken an imprudent approach to financial matters they would not have built up a solid reputation in the past.

Immediate post sales support

We hadn’t planned to buy new light fittings, or luminaires to give them their correct name, but a visit to a local DIY store of the type that we once called ‘sheds’ hastened a decision that we had apparently been contemplating for some months to upgrade lighting in the home. Beyond the humble lamp shade that most people can manage to install, anything requiring electrical connection presents a real challenge, one I was well aware of from previous experience. Domestic electrical installation it seems, remains largely unchanged since around the turn of the last century. Thomas Edison modelled his electrical distribution on the then standard gas system and today’s system would surely be recognisable to a time traveller from the 1870’s. While most electrical appliances are plug and play and the addition of the plug itself by the unskilled strongly discouraged as nowadays they are not made re-wirable, the typical domestic luminaire has to be connected - that is hard wired to the supply. Of course the packaging makes no reference to this and the display model is attached to a wooden panel. Fixing to a real ceiling is altogether a different matter. I try to look both interested in the choice of luminaire while surreptitiously sneaking a look at the ease, or otherwise of actually installing the purchase, but the packaging usually defeats this attempt. So having got the box home and overcome the not inconsiderable challenge of prising open the vacuum-sealed packaging the reality is revealed. The instruction leaflet carefully avoids showing the actual electrical interface and the collection of looped cables and switch runs to be found in the ceiling rose. A bracket is helpfully enclosed on non-standard fixing centres along with the suggestion to employ an electrician. Do the thousands buying light fittings over the counter really all employ electricians? I seem to recall that in Germany sockets for lights are just as standard as wall sockets for other appliances. In fact years ago when I was a product manager an inventor tried to sell our company a UK ceiling light socket, but it really needs both wiring accessory manufacturers and installers to introduce and of course house builders to specify. Meanwhile fiddling with brackets and wiring while perched up a ladder and holding the unit looks set to continue. Nobody seems prepared to make the quantum change needed in the market, but at least the information could be more practical. In industrial marketing the documentation available to ensure the product is specified is essential. Typically 20 per cent of project time is spent researching and specifying. A pity that hard to install consumer products don’t actually invest a bit more in both design and documentation.

Why do companies continue to exhibit themselves?

Driving away from the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham after a brief visit to a relatively small exhibition with a focus on a niche sector of the industrial components market, I wondered as always, about the marketing value of exhibitions. Just why do companies expend so much resource on exhibitions? Will the web hasten their demise as it seems to be doing with print? Consider the show I attended – 130 exhibitors mostly with shell schemes in a single exhibition hall at the NEC. The visitors almost exclusively male, few younger than 40, in the main wearing well worn suits with ties – typically engineers and probably mostly from the west midlands. Most stands exhibited a seemingly identical collections of stainless steel widgets, unimaginatively presented and with the more adventurous using flat screen monitors running endless loops of amateurishly produced PowerPoint sequences. Engineering types, similarly attired to their visitors, hovered ready to pounce or simply waited sat at tables engrossed in their lap tops or using their mobile phones. Some stands were not even manned! Of course the exhibition organisers with their slick admission systems will claim yet another record year with more overseas visitors when they pitch to sell space for next year. My own observation is that many such exhibitions become a club and travelling circus for the exhibitors themselves. Thee opportunity to travel the country, even the world with a familiar crowd, who are actually competitors, incurring not only the exhibition costs but shipping, travel, accommodation and of course entertaining. A big dent in the marketing budget. So how many of these companies set objectives and measurable targets for an exhibition so the results can be evaluated? How many new customers do they attract and remember all the competitors will have seen them too? Of course there is the unspoken fear of not exhibiting – they will be more noticed by their absence and risk negative speculation by competitors and despite denials, exhibitors kind of like being on show.

B2B – a booming market

According to recent research the UK business-to-business marketing sector is worth a staggering £9.8 billion and booming. There are reckoned to be 176,000 marketing practitioners just working in B2B and a further 272,000 partly working in B2B marketing. So, on paper a big market for agencies to go after. What is not clear from the summary and headline figures is quite how the B2B sector is structured. On the face of it there should be some huge agencies just living on B2B clients, yet most big advertising agencies seem to focus on consumer marketing and anecdotal evidence suggests most B2B agencies are small, or one man operations. Then again the report says that ‘agencies are not seen as important’ that only 20% use agencies for strategic thinking, over a quarter do not use an agency at all and 50% of the marketing practitioners have no marketing qualifications. These figures tally better with our experience of B2B marketing. Yes companies are putting money into activities broadly classified as marketing, many try to do their own thing, few have any real strategy or a written marketing plan. So from the agency side it is quite likely a large part of the £9.8 billion does not go through them, so whether B2B specialist marketing agencies are booming is another matter, but probably not. Neither judging by the attention of media salesmen are traditional trade publications booming. Particularly in the industrial sector many journals seem to have stripped back staffing levels and are hanging on by the skin of their teeth while reluctantly, belatedly and half-heartedly looking towards the internet. The trouble with big numbers like billions is we never handle sums on money with that many zeros, or are even sure how many zeros there should be. According to Wikipedia it is 1,000,000,000 but the there is the short scale billion (a thousand million) or long scale (a million million – 1,000,000,000,000). So rounding figures up the UK B2B market is put at £10,000,000,000, the number of practitioners at 476,000 so that works out at about £21,000 per head not such an exciting number, or it could be £2 million of course - unlikely. That is another problem with big numbers, relating them to something meaningful. Our experience shows that knowing market sizes and market shares does not easily translate into useful marketing knowledge. At the end of the day the only knowledge is does the marketing investment contribute to improved profitability.

e-Mail - a rebirth?

Yesterday news arrived from Honda, by way of their hotmail account, that not only had my e-mail address been drawn to win a new car but I also stood to win several million pound in a further competition. Today I have been contacted by an attorney anxious to trace the beneficiary of a multi-million dollar legacy who has reason to believe I might be the rightful heir to this fortune. Then a K I Bakri asked for help from his death bed in distributing a fortune stashed in his diplomatic box to the under privileged of the world. Perhaps unaware of this rapid accumulation of wealth many more people have kindly sent me offers for fake watches, amazing medications that will enhance my life, share tips and cheap software. All this means frequently de-cluttering my e-mail in box and hoping I don’t inadvertently trash a message that is actually of importance to my business. Amongst all this lunacy there have been frequent reports placing e-mail back as the top Internet application and a powerful marketing tool. Arguably e-mail was the first Internet marketing tool and judging by a sense of weight of e-mail delivered marketing advice recently it has survived all the concerns of junk and spam to emerge reborn. Various communications and blogs seem to have almost rediscovered e-mail as a marketing tool. Of course we are also an advocate of e-mail and for some clients direct mail is just not affordable as the costs are per item – print, postage, envelope etc – compared to an e-mail set up cost largely independent of volume. Of course much has also been written about list building, opt-in subscribers, frequency of e-mails, subject lines and much more. Yes it works, but really as part of an integrated marketing programme where other communications methods are employed as well. But is it enjoying a new beginning? The jury is still out on that one.

PR v Bloggers – is there a clash of interests?

Until last week the whole world of Web 2.0, its technologies such as RSS and its phenomenon like social media seemed to be just a fast growing area of communication that had possible implications and benefits for the b-2-b world. Albeit some as yet, hard to define. Then on a PR newsgroup an old world debate on the merits of ‘paid for editorial’ was joined by the editor of an industrial journal who opened up the link to a blog where the UK PR industry stood accused of alienating one of the UK’s most prominent bloggers. But first lets take a step back to the world of industrial print. Many b-2-b titles, particularly in the industrial sector long ago ceased to offer truly independent news and typically exist to sell advertising space padded out with editorial content to at least maintain the impression of being a journal. The falling advertising revenues have had implications in terms of both staffing levels and editorial content. To the UK PR industry the staff appear to be few in number and mainly focussed on selling space, because for many journals every bit of space is sold or sponsored. Only today an e-mail arrived from the Managing Editor of an engineering journal to inform he was now handling both news and advertising for my clients, proof if any were needed that the old demarcations where journalism was independent of advertising has gone. Advertisers who see their money bank rolling the publication want to see their products favourably mentioned on editorial pages and the PR agencies they employ, after years of objection, generally now recognise the new reality that most of the news about their clients is dreary stuff and will only get published for payment. Originally disguised as a charge for a ‘colour separation’ fee, but more accurately an editorial charge, one can understand the cynicism and cause for frequent debates on the subject. The other side of this, is that as press releases are now sent by e-mail and no longer printed accompanied with a nice glossy photograph, it is easy to distribute them widely and this is where the prominent UK blogger got alienated – some one sent him a press release. In turn he used his blog to curse the PR industry and marketing in general and give rise to speculation that his well-connected peers would cause a huge backlash. His blog rambled on about the parasitic nature of PR people following a mention onPR Blogger in what got referred to as the ‘brothel’article thanks to a photo supporting his rant of a door sign reading – ‘This is not a brothel there are no prostitutes at this address’. They have since published a piece saying bloggers couldn’t care less about client’s products and should be left in peace and not sent spam PR. So there we have it – sensitive bloggers v spamming PR types who treat bloggers as prostitutes. Maybe the PR world has become hardened by the world of print publishing.

User generated content

There is much discussion of web 2.0 technologies, associated web site phenomenon and in particular user generated content. It raises all kinds of questions. Is content dumbing down? Who is accessing this content? Who has the time to produce it all? Is it giving rise to an alternative economy, does it make business sense … ? I could go on. Just today some major brands withdrew their advertising from a user generated content site because of concerns that their name appeared in juxtaposition to unsuitable content material. Maybe that is inevitable given the apparent chaotic, anarchic and irreverent content that some might choose to post. Then on the other hand there is the success of Wikipedia - amazing by any standards. The Internet certainly seems to be a fertile ground for overnight successes. Started in 1999 Wikipedia today claims 1.92 million articles in English, has 4.8 million registered users 1,200 volunteer editors who edit articles that anyone can submit and requests donations to keep it running. According to accounts on the site, donations were $1.3 million in 2006. What kind of business model is that? Recently we learn that an article by Harvard Business School has explored ‘issues of how online cultures are made and maintained, the power of self-policing organizations, the question of whether the service is drifting from its core principles, and whether a Wikipedia-like concept can work in a business setting.’ All amazing stuff and if it were not for the huge numbers of visitors to the most notable Web 2.0 sites would they be of business interest? It certainly marks a sea change, but will it impact b-2-b or is it all totally disconnected from the old world notion of business as selling products and services to make a profit?

The times they are a changing

We are all aware of the unrelenting pace of change but every now and again a few items of essential truth combine, or occur close enough together to cause a pause to take stock of the situation. In the last few days two such moments have given me cause for thought. A review of a new book – Austerity Britain 1945-1951 – and the trailers for Andrew Marr’s forthcoming BBC series on the history of modern Britain both promised to provide a benchmark of how much change there has been in my lifetime. Nostalgia placed in context. But the other thing was a line in a news magazine from my former university about the conversion of what in my time had been the students union building, into a presentation suite and study facility where students could work quietly in groups. The closing sentence read, ‘The area brings a change in the strategic direction of the union with a move away from alcoholic provision towards allowing students an area where they can study and relax in an unlicensed area.’ This clearly is a monumental change from the heady days of student politics that held sway there in the late 1960s, a time when several of today’s cabinet ministers were rebellious student activists. The union largely existed for the bar, it was the primary source of income. Of course through work for our clients we had been aware of the changing use of university and school spaces as science and engineering facilities converted to performance spaces, but the news that alcoholic provision was no longer either a viable or required need was indeed surprising. And that is the point really, how often do businesses really reappraise what their customers need or do. It is too easy to become comfortable with client relationships and assume everything stays the same – it doesn’t.

Return to the dot com boom?

Back in the heady days towards the end of the twentieth century there was a rush of blood to the heads of investment bankers to pour money into nascent web companies. Typified by young technology driven entrepreneurs with a vague proposition and people working long hours at computers, business principles were disregarded in a rush to get money invested in the latest young hopeful. The term ‘cash burn’ was coined to describe the consumption of the capital investment chiefly into people and advertising. Within a couple of years it all ended in tears. We launched our business Technical Marketing Ltd s in 1999 during this first internet frenzy, self funded, based on proven and prudent business models but embracing the internet technology. A new article today – Still waiting for the dot com revolution - suggests that the sector is maturing based on new and more stable technologies but still has a way to go to deliver a must have experience to users. All too often the content disappoints. From America we read much about Web 2.0, the so-called Social media and the boom in video sites. The Prime Minister even published his congratulations to the new French president on You Tube! Then on the other hand the market is fragmenting with specialists not just in building web sites, but in search engine optimization, usability testing, content management software, statistical analysis and quite possibly in interpreting the evolving terminology to baffled clients. Back in 1999 we were invited to pitch for an advertising campaign for one newly floated dot com company. The initial meeting took place in an apartment in Kensington trying to establish a brief while the busy entrepreneur dressed before dashing off to take a flight to Paris. ‘All you need to know is in the prospectus’ was the brief. It was impossible to figure out what this company did or identify any sort of business model let alone define target audiences and markets. They seemed to actually be buying other dot coms that were floundering and burning cash in the process. We declined the account. Shortly after the business folded. Today we are faced with a growing list of internet related technologies and specialists and may we need to step back and put the web site into context within a marketing plan. Experience in the b-2-b sector shows that for most of our clients the web site is a convenient resource to obtain specific or background information about a company they already know. Providing the site works and the information they need can be quickly found and accessed they are happy. Knowing your market and customers will be the best guide to determining what should be on the site rather than employing an expensive cluster of different specialists to find out what you already know.

PowerPoint in the firing line

Today’s Daily Telegraph carries an article reporting on research by professor John Swells of the University of New South Wales suggesting that presentations using the ubiquitous PowerPoint slide package cause audiences to lose attention and ‘switch off’. Apparently the brain cannot cope with the amount of information being received. Microsoft not surprisingly support PowerPoint as a powerful business tool. Personally I have made less use of slide presentations whether PowerPoint or Keynote as client meetings have now tended to become less formal and reverted to more of an old fashioned discussion, without the encumbrance of visual aids. A few years ago it was quite different. The arrival of video projectors and lap tops enabled slide shows to be quickly arranged and slides projected onto screens, or simply the office wall. But now the excitement over the then ‘new found’ ability to do this plus our trend to closer client involvement instead of ‘lecturing’ the client, it is not something I encounter so often. My criticism of PowerPoint was not the information overload or boredom factor, or even the time it took to create an acceptable presentation and the sheer intricacy of some presentations, but the use of slides as a substitute for a full report. Busy people would ask me to send them the PowerPoint presentation or to present a market research report in PowerPoint; not simply as a reminder of a more detailed presentation or report, but instead of a report. To me PowerPoint was more a descendant of the flip chart, itself simply a visual aid to help underscore key messages. Soon the key decision makers were only receiving bullet point briefings – the rationale and depth of analysis largely unseen. So the presentations changed from being an aide-memoire into a mini report that resulted in a huge file size. Recently we concluded some market research on behalf of another agency, extensively supported by charts and graphs and at the last minute was asked for a PowerPoint version as an alternative to a presentation and report for their client. There was no discussion on the findings and recommendations although the client was reported to have been delighted .. and no doubt on to the next project – or PowerPoint!

Footnote: the Google ads served to accompany the online version of the news story was for an agency specializing in guess what … PowerPoint. Right after an article totally decrying it. How weird is that?

Can sales people let a good marketing campaign down?

Like many people I prepare for the worst when telephoning a company for information. Jobs are so deskilled and compartmentalized there is little chance of getting a complete answer at the first attempt. Then my heart sinks further when I realize I have reached a menu. How many levels will there be? What data will I need to key in? Will there be a relevant option? How long will this take? And how much will it cost? Then increasingly with off shore call centres – will I understand what they say? So it is with considerable trepidation I call BT to progress an order. I had decided to take up their offer to upgrade my broadband account and had returned the order form in the envelope provided in the expectation of order confirmation within a week. Three weeks had now elapsed and no news. Oddly for a telecoms business there was no phone number on the letter, or address, or e-mail – just the web site. That did not yield a number either but it did offer an online option to check order progress. Unfortunately it failed to recognize my information. So after fifteen minutes to reach a dead end I used the sales number on the telephone bill and proceeded through the multi-level menu, entered my phone number and eventually got a ringing tone that somehow died leaving me hanging. I repeated the process and this time got to speak to someone, gave my telephone number, customer number, home address and mother’s maiden name. They concluded I did not exist and offered to transfer me to some other part of the BT empire. After repeating the same information to a succession of people, queuing, listening to Vivaldi, being told how busy they were, it appeared the phone was registered in my wife’s maiden name, even though the bill reflected her married name, slightly misspelled, but near enough to recognize, and this was undoubtably the problem. I was put through to a supervisor to get the name on the account changed and was congratulated on my marriage. I thanked her and pointed out this was in fact a few years ago and could we make the account Mr & Mrs? No that was a step too far, so I settled with it in my wife’s name, possibly correctly spelled. When I got to person number 5 I actually explained I was progressing an order taking up their offer to upgrade my broadband. So far there had been no trace of receipt of this order, but this very helpful lady decided that I was in fact with BT Yahoo, not BT broadband – by the way customers don’t care about internal organization - and offered to set up the phone call and introduce me to the right person. Nearly there then. But hold on, person number 6 opened the conversation by asking if he could help me with anything. I explained the nature of my enquiry which seemed not to strike a chord at all. You already have broadband he volunteered after asking how much I was paying – is there anything else I can help you with. So is there an upgrade deal or not I asked? Apparently not. End of call after 32 minutes – another dead end. Not a great customer experience.

Next morning I have an e-mail sent at 5 am and addressed to my wife, wrong spelling of course, to thank me for my order and confirm delivery date of the equipment.

Short attention span screen generation poised to enter work place?

According to an article from World Business, “Susan Greenfield, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Oxford, argues that the culture of the screen, where everything is visual and available at once, is shaping a different kind of reasoning. "The screen culture is not conducive to taking time to think," she says. "The result is iconic thinking, quick fixes and short attention spans." Whether culture is the word to describe the possibly disturbing trend of some of the youth of Britain engaged in hours of nocturnal X-Box gaming, is open to debate. And if this is truly shaping a different type of brain as is also suggested is similarly a matter of conjecture, but what I found truly worrying was the suggestion that a generation bent on quick fixes and short attention spans are not only entering the work place but could next become managers. Arguably less qualified than their parents - despite degrees from some minor English town or village that now enjoys university status - and steeped in texting in a language reminiscent of the long redundant telex machine, how will we engage them in a conventional business approach? A different report noted how the impending retirement of the post war baby boomer generation was going to create a significant knowledge gap for many organizations. Will the newly named screen generation be their replacements? If so it is likely they will require knowledge in easily digestible packages. Whichever outcome, documenting, databasing searchable information seems to be something businesses should prioritise to ensure knowledge is retained in an organization, available to all that need it and accessible. Yet another report criticized the difficulty of pulling all the information together and finding it in a timely way. It is something long advocated by Technical Marketing Ltd, the building of a knowledge resource using web database techniques to acquire, store and provide accessibility to vital information. Enlightened companies are working on this recognizing the importance of securing the investment that has been made in acquiring the knowledge in the first place.

Are blogs relevant to b-2-b?

A great deal is being written about blogs. Company CEOs and politicians are said to write them. Individuals record their mundane daily activities, journalists break news using them, but very few of them ever get read! There is a lot written about the idea of blogs and the rapid growth in the number of blogs in existence – but is this just another idea with more puff than real value? A recent survey published by eMarketer quoting an American Advertising Federation report rated various new media for effectiveness putting blogs at a mere 13% just ahead of RSS with 8%. Leading the list was search at 49% followed by online video 34%, Social networking 30%, podcasts 21%, video games 20% and mobiles 15%. A veritable raft of new media communication opportunities and a lot of food for thought. Will there be winners and losers? Will they all develop to oust traditional media? Who knows? Back to blogs. According to Technorati the 50 millionth was tracked back in July 2006, the blogosphere is doubling every 6 and a half months, 175,000 new blogs are added each day, there are 1.6 million postings a day …. so not something to be ignored then. Except this nagging concern about effectiveness – well I guess if nobody reads most of them this is not surprising. Another part of the eMarketer article concluded that awareness of blogs really depended on links from other blogs – 63% and 22.9% by recommendation. Only 19.6% were via search engines so optimising content is going to be less effective than getting some well known bloggers to link to your blog. More about word of mouth marketing than conventional promotion. So where does this leave blogs in the technical marketing plan? Perhaps we are the frontier of a new communication media revolution …. Perhaps.

Small is beautiful ... or is it?

A piece of market research arrived this week from accelerator offering an introduction that they were ‘aiming to find out what’s really going on at the front line of small business’. In an earlier blog – September 18th 2006 – I noted that in terms of numbers 99.3% of all British businesses were officially classed as small, that is they employ 49 or less people according to government statistics. Of course the mere act of taking on employees immediately changes the nature of a small business – you are now managing people and dealing with a whole raft of employment legislation – and it is easy to forget you actually need to service clients and customers to make money that creates wealth. May be that is why nearly two thirds do not have employees. Of those that do the second biggest perceived threat is actually recruiting and keeping good staff. Not surprisingly 71% thought the UK government did not do enough to foster small businesses and business people. So no surprise there. Despite this 72% thought the UK a better place than Europe to start a business but significantly only 34% and 42% respectively thought the UK better than North America and Asia. Autonomy rated at 38% was the top reason for preferring to work in a small business. We are left with the question of whether there are two emerging business communities – the relatively few global giants and the mass of small businesses. Our experience suggests big businesses talk about marketing expenditure within an often somewhat arbitrary budget, whereas small businesses focus on generating more business profitably. What the statistics suggest is that marketing one small business to other small businesses is a factor that cannot be ignored and business to business technical marketing will need to provide efficient means to do this successfully.

No time to listen to a proposal?

We once ran, at the clients’ specific request, a cartoon in their newsletter. The scene was an ancient battlefield, a king brandishing a sword and wearing a suit of armour was being tapped on the shoulder by a knight trying to attract his attention. The caption was ‘I don’t want to see any crazy salesman. Can’t you see I have a battle to fight?’ In the background stood the salesman clutching a machine gun! We turn now to an article about overcoming TDD – Time Deficit Disorder. As the argument runs, businesses are down-sizing and the remaining staff are too burdened with keeping everything going, their time is over-scheduled with none spare to evaluate new propositions. It is an interesting concept TDD, or maybe its just difficult to engage in the right type of dialogue with a prospect anyway. So the task of the marketer is to convince the prospect it is worth allocating some time to listening – there might just be a solution to an existing problem. The approach needs to get quickly to the point – what are the benefits and are they relevant to the prospect. This is where the marketing skills are needed. To gain the attention in the first place, offer relevant benefits and make responding to the offer easy and quick to do.

The information revolution ... and is it any use?

A news item from a client today referred to Burkina Faso – what is that? A country? A town? A person? – why not Google it she said, then rang off. The CIA web site flagged it as an African country – I later discovered it was Upper Volta – maybe they decided to re-brand after all the snide remarks down the years. Of course Googling – a name or term that itself didn’t exist a couple of years ago - immediately yields millions of references; sometimes too much information. A document from the IML Group referred to the too much information problem, a problem they had now solved by having a site where only the businesses or products you are actually after are turned up by their search. Another report from Accenture today of a survey conducted amongst a 1000 UK and USA managers reckons 53% of the information they gather actually has no value at all. It gets worse – they can’t easily get hold of the information they need, it is in too many places, others in the same company won’t share it, too much information making it hard to find what is needed … and so it goes on. One large corporate I worked for demanded masses of information all the time. Of course most of it was useless because people had to make up information to fill their report quotas. For the 5 year business plan one essential piece of information was the market share to 2 decimal places of our 3 biggest competitors – even the competitors didn’t know themselves, I know that because I called them up to ask. More recently a client appointed a high ticket marketing guru who wanted a complete audit trail tracking every marketing dollar invested to value of resulting sales. Not surprisingly their IT systems could not actually deliver this information. The data was all there somewhere, but on different systems. The effort in extracting, using and interpreting the data was hardly worth it – although it did confirm what we already knew. And that really is the issue – gathering information for its own sake can be a waste of resource – the big question we always ask is, so now you know the information you wanted, what are you going to do about it and does it help? If it does – good. If not then was it worth the effort?