Fast forward

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

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

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

Is technology devaluing creative services?

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

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

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

Another correspondent volunteered that,

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

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

Looking at news with through viewers eyes

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

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

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

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

Aggregating news

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

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

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

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

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

Marketing this week

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aerial artiste attracts attention at trade show

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

Does your target audience use Facebook?

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

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

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

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

Is social media a serious marketing tool?

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

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

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

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

Do it yourself or hire a professional?

Discussion groups this week have highlighted two different skills related areas under challenge from non-specialists.

Posted under the title, "Good software for leaflet design and easy printing?" was the following question posed on a media discussion group. "I have tried various basic software - word, powerpoint, publisher - to produce my leaflet designs but none ever seem to suit any of the printers I use and they all huff and puff to modify ( or so they say ??!! ). Anyway, can anyone suggest something that is easy for me to use, preferably free and printer friendly!" Interestingly not only is the enquirer seeking to do the job himself and complaining that printers have problems with the output he provides, but also wants the software for free as well.  Another similar discussion group noted how few companies had a budget for photography any more and typically clients provided images from their own digital cameras. While OK for a lot of web applications, creatively and technically they are often poor for print. Even for web based news stories, images often need a lot of tidying up and cropping to be usable.

 

There is much evidence of a move towards 'do it yourself' design, photography, web site construction and video that is prompted by the availability of software, increasingly open source, and cameras but not supported by any actual skills in their use, talent or creativity. The thing is the end results speak for themselves - they look amateurish. So what does that say about the brand, the products, services and company they are seeking to present? 

Bland product pictures will hardly catch the eye of an editor, but then again many publishers are dumbing down in print, online and television offering an acceptance of mundane quality. The flip side of this trend is that professionally produced material will actually stand out better amongst a sea of mediocrity. Think how much R&D investment goes into new product development, then think about making an investment in promoting that product rather than trying to cut corners and in doing so diminish the new product proposition.

We spend 7 hours a day consuming media

Research announced today by regulator Ofcom suggests people in the UK spend seven hours a day watching TV, surfing the net and using mobile phones - often all at the same time!

The report on the BBC web site claims that for the average person this represents half their time awake during the course of a day. In fact the equivalent time is more like 9 hours than 7 thanks to multi-tasking - watching TV while texting and surfing online. Coincidentally we have just completed some market research where when asked  where they look to discover information about our client's category of products, respondents nominated the Internet first followed by recommendations by friends and colleagues. And increasingly this personal communication and recommendation is about media communication by text, voice and social media rather than over a pint down the pub.

The Ofcom report says, "Concurrently, the use of mobile data has exploded, increasing by 240% between 2007 and 2009. It suggested that, in part, much of this increase had been driven by one site - Facebook - which accounts for 45% of all mobile web use in the UK, followed by Google at 8%." 

It all raises interesting challenges for marketing in the b-2-b space. Because the web site is the first place to look, is it up to date? Does it for example have things like "Copyright 2008" and a story from last year billed as latest news? Does the company use social media at all? The report also highlights a growing trend for older people to sign up for Facebook, although I know companies who sneer at the idea. Above all does the web site have compelling content? Too few companies use news about their company, products, projects, successes etc. to add great new content that not only keeps the web site current and provides recommendations and third party endorsement, but also provides useful content for search engines to pick up.

The truth is that most large companies do all this, while many small to medium size companies can't be bothered or claim not to have the time. This is where a Virtual News Office centered strategy can give small businesses a platform to compete with the big boys of their industry by delivering fresh and compelling content, providing up to date news feeds, building highly rated in-bound links -  and the good news is it very affordable.

Marketing budgets must evolve

As marketing communications methods evolve, it is essential that marketing budgets change too.

With any client there are three essential documents that we ask for and if these do not exist then we make sure they are put in place, because without them it is difficult to run an effective marketing programme. The first essential document is the Marketing Plan. This sets out the objectives, strategies, rationale, an annual plan of activities and time-scales. The second is the Corporate Identity manual which describes how all forms of visual communication collateral should look for a consistent projection of brand and image. And the third document is the Marketing Budget. 

There are two aspects to budgets - the total amount and the mix. How the total amount is established is often a matter of some debate. Some people like to set this as a percentage of projected sales, but this lacks any real rationale as what works for one company may be entirely wrong for another. Ideally the marketing 'needs' should be determined and costed but this approach is rarely affordable, so a cap should be set balancing affordability with the ability to deliver on marketing goals. Just as there is no magic percentage figure, so dividing the budget up say, one third advertising, one third web and one third for all the rest, seems like a handy rule of thumb, but is far too crude a measure and does not allow for new evolving marketing channels and the content needed to supply them. Just as the marketing plan should allow flexibility to deal with changing circumstances, so the  budget mix should not be a constraint to recognising the benefits of new opportunities. Above all the marketing plan, CI and budget should be used to introduce a discipline and avoid runaway expenditure.

One clear requirement emerging from all the new channels is the need to budget for good quality content. Inevitably traditional spend such as display advertising and exhibitions will take a declining share of the budget and reviewing these can be no bad thing as often they will be a repeat of previous years rather than designed to achieve current objectives. 

Time for marketing marketing

Most marketers are so busy marketing to their customers that they can overlook other important audiences.

Government cuts of 40% to their admittedly large marketing group at the COI have been in the news recently. News about marketing rarely makes the business pages, not the front page, but then this time it is marketing jobs that are going. 

This government has only done what many businesses did two years ago because in times of economic hardship marketing budgets are easy targets. This blog called for continuing investment in marketing and cited supportive research. 

The editor of Marketing Week has written a lengthy piece prompting marketers to market marketing and points out that the government and the city do not understand the value of marketing. He describes marketing as  "as the beating heart, the lifeblood and the brains of any economy".

 

So the message to marketers is to sell marketing's value to their colleagues and not just the board of directors, but the sales team, HR, manufacturing and R&D. Particularly to explain that marketing is not just about pretty pictures, but is central to achieving the business goals of the company and something everyone should buy into by sharing the marketing plan.

Market Research

Several times a day we are invited to participate in consumer market research, but few b-2-b companies think market research is important.

The results of research and trials are taken far more seriously in consumer markets than in business to business where many companies believe they know their market already and hardly any seem to budget for any serious in-depth research. Despite this they readily invest significantly in display advertising for example based on belief rather than evidence from research. It is true market research can be a significant investment but not compared with R&D expenditure in developing a product unsuited to user needs or a big launch campaign that has the wrong message or aimed at the wrong audience.

But just because funds are not available to conduct formal market research by experienced professionals is no reason to do nothing. An appraisal of a small group while not statistically valid can often quickly show up important issues. For example are they the right people, do they understand what you are talking about? What are their views of your client, their competitors - in fact have they even heard of them? While conducting such small scale research prior to a campaign to launch a new product for a client we quickly became aware that because they had a serious supply problem, distributors simply would not order any new product from them until the delivery issues were resolved. Another company had moved to a new location and not thought to tell anyone, so we discovered a perception that they had closed down. But usually this type of appraisal helps validate the market rather than uncover serious issues, identify the important issues and provide input that is useful for developing the marketing communications campaign.

 But it is not just for new product development and launch campaigns, but also checking how the market and attitudes are changing. Online surveys can be useful for this, even very simple single question polls can yield useful knowledge.

Does your logo size up?

For years, SME company logos evolved from the artistic doodles of the company's founder, only to be left unchanged for fear of losing 'brand awareness'. Even professionally-created graphic logo-types are often maintained past their technological sell-by date. In years gone by, the graphic specs were defined by the business - sizes, colours and detail - were measured against the company's need to advertise. readability and understanding from glancing at billboards, page advertising, delivery van graphics, letterheads, calling cards. The scaling factor was important then, but it is even more important now. 

True, we no longer have to worry about a black and white rendition for the purpose of faxing a letterhead, although a prudent designer will still check all is well in that department. A recent experience of ours, marketing an international conference with over 30 companies providing sponsorship, highlighted a problem in stark sihouette. Promoting the support of the sponsors by using their logo initially seemed a simple task. Yes, the larger corporations sent the logo in different scalable forms of graphic, and some even appended the relevant section of their Corporate Identity Manual which left us in no doubt about how and where the logo may be used. 

The majority failed the first hurdle of supplying anything at all. When chased, they provided an image from their website (much too low resolution for posters, banners, flags or even for use in the printed brochure). After much cajoling, it was only when the logos were collated onto one large banner, did the real issue present itself. When scaling logos to the same 'equivalent area', some logos hit the viewer between the eyes, whereas others were lost completely. Spidery text logos look great running down the side of a letterhead in a subtle shade of colour, but what about when viewed on a website? And what about the favicon? 

We all know favicons, but probably not by the name. It's that little tiny icon that appears on the extreme left of the URL address of the company website, as displayed in the navigation bar of a browser. When considering the adaptability of your company logo, this is the far end of the size universe. With an area of just 16 x 16 pixels, you need a style that works here too. So when considering a new or updated logo, take into account all aspects of marketing, and start with just 16x16 pixels and doodle upwards from that.

Losing sight of your customer

We all know that the term 'marketing' is synonymous with 'communication'. If the communication channels are inappropriate or misdirected, the central purpose of marketing any product or service is lost. Communication is delivered in many forms. Obvious 'front door' tactics of advertising, direct mail and bulk emailing are often combined with a more subtle approach of promotion on the website, widely distributed press releases, knowledgeable staff, personal contacts, and the 'moral high ground' support communication materials such as 'white papers', complimentary training courses, information booklets and advice guides. 

But who is the 'customer' to whom these various elements of a marketing mix are directed? In the 1980s, it was fashionable to consider everyone as your customer. The NHS ceased to treat 'patients', and replaced them with 'clients'. The public could no longer consider themselves 'passengers' on a train; they were promoted to 'customers'. Everyone in a communication chain became a 'customer'. 

When a company develops from the home-spun specialist enterprise selling directly to end users into a mainstream commercial business with a corporate structure, there has to be a change in working practice. The size of the client base expands and becomes too large to manage from head office. Markets may expand globally, and for a manufacturer, national distributors eliminate the problems of dealing with multiple languages, local fiscal and legal practices, maintenance and servicing. But companies can risk focusing their commercial interest on the nearest link in the commercial chain - national distributors - who consider their customers to be their network of competing dealers who may or may not sell to an end user. 

But what becomes of the communication channel between the prime manufacturer and the end user? Deciding on a marketing mix of appropriate marketing initiatives is the specialism of marketing consultancies who can help with detailed planning and implementation to ensure a coordinated approach to all stations on the 'route to market'.

Don't let software tools drive marketing activity

The availability of software tools tends to encourage some people to think they now possess the knowledge, capability and skills to successfully accomplish work they have no training in. Although paints, brushes and easels were readily available to anyone, few believed that the mere act of buying these tools transformed them into artists. But by a software package and suddenly they are graphic designers, web designers and accountants. The other side of the "technology" sale to non-experts is the leveraging of gullibility to sell supposed benefits  of a wonder product that somehow compensates for the purchasers lack of expertise. Taking the sale in isolation from its use as a tool for experienced users.

Some years ago chip makers Intel ran a powerful campaign aimed not at b-2-b customers who would actually buy their product, but at the general public who were invited to look for an "Intel Inside" label on the product. For buyers the business of comparing a whole range of specification points the task was now simple - they just had to look for a single label to know the product was "good". We even started to get feed back from sales people that this single parameter was being requested by b-2-b customers of electronic control systems. Forget that an R&D team had carefully researched the best electronic devices to meet the product specification and they actually knew what these things were. More recently we have encountered clients mesmerised with web technologies more interested in which CMS system (remind me, what does CMS stand for?) than the site content and navigation, or indeed the purpose.  

I was reminded of this selling "technology" to the non-technical when a client called excited about a new software product for marketing that had been demonstrated to him, something to do with e-mail he thought and just for a few tens of thousands of dollars it seemed like a bargain. Could I look into it? The web site he referred me to had no reference to the wonder software, just a series of hysterical messages inviting a call back - itself apparently worth $350 but offered free - and then a series of dead links.

Buying e-mailing software for its own sake is a bit like buying a car when you can't drive. Questions like do you have the e-mails of people you want to communicate with, indeed what is the message you want to send, do you comply with legislation, analysis, campaign tracking, your ISP etc. etc.? It is simply starting at the wrong end - learn to drive first, then once you have passed your test think about what car you need. There is a lot of knowledge and experience involved in using programs that goes on behind the scenes that a client does not have to get involved in. After all clients should be most interested in selling their own product, not managing software.  

Our philosophy at Technical Marketing Ltd has always been to start the marketing process from an analysis of business objectives, then to set goals and strategies that work to deliver those objectives. We develop marketing plans to describe the method, introduce a budgetary discipline for financial control  then work closely with our clients in implementing plans, measuring results and where relevant modifying activities.Technology in marketing is not an end in itself, but used by people with marketing knowledge can be a powerful tool. Driving a marketing plan to use one particular technology tool is not the most effective way to go.

Does the Internet threaten brands?

Although the Internet offers small companies a global platform it also provides new challenges to Intellectual Property according to a recent report.

The report by patent and trademark attorneys Marks & Clerk highlights concerns by brand owners across a number of infringement opportunities that have become possible due to the Internet, are difficult to police and where law in the digital space has yet to catch up. IP issues that undermine legitimate brands operate at a number of levels.  

The Internet has provided new distribution channels for counterfeit goods with leading auction sites playing an important role. It is no longer the case of buying something that had 'fallen of the back of a lorry' or 'from a man in the pub', instead a degree of apparent legitimacy is bestowed thanks to the branding of the channel itself. At another level editorial content is freely stolen and images used outside of the company control. Of course getting widespread publication of attributed editorial is a good brand building thing, but being plagiarized to promote rival products or counterfeit goods is another matter entirely.

According to the report, "63 per cent believe that search-advertising such as Google AdWords is unacceptable when businesses bid on the name of a rival’s trade mark" and "Almost 7 in 10 (69 per cent) predict that social media will become the “next big threat” to brand owners in protecting their brands online". So the threat is not just from counterfeiters and forgers, but from otherwise legitimate competitors using the Internet to ride on the back of their rivals investment in marketing.

Then of course there are disgruntled customers and users who can exploit the Internet to not just air a grievance but conduct campaigns and rally support.  Social media has been extolled as a channel for companies to converse with their customers but for most b-2-b businesses it is very early days. Some - a few - have embraced sites like Facebook, while others won't even entertain the idea. Marks and Clerk's report notes, "With Facebook reportedly having the world’s ‘third largest population’ – more than 400 million users, compared to a population of just over 300 million in the US – it is little wonder we are seeing increasing protectionism and nervousness from brand owners.” 

From our experience in social media it is difficult to point to concrete benefits either, except getting picked on search and generating useful links. This will be the subject of a future blog.

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.

Feature v Benefits

All too often businesses promote product features while customers are actually seeking benefits.

For many products, particularly those utilising new technologies, it is the new features that are most loudly proclaimed. The problem of marketing a product by focussing on features is that it presumes your target audience - your prospects have sufficient insight to translate a particular feature into something that is of benefit to them. Features are often seen as selling points, or specification clauses used to exclude rival products that do not enjoy that particular feature. I strongly suspect that feature-rich products such as smart phones, digital cameras, remote control devices actually cause confusion to prospects that just want to make a phone call, take a photograph or turn on the TV. A quick glance at many control surfaces or keyboards will often confirm by patterns of wear and dirt which keys are actually used and how many neglected. A feature is a statement of fact and making a potential customer work hard to figure out how it might benefit them is not going to help sell the product.

Prospective customers should not be made to do all the work. Many will be looking beyond features to issues such as value, reliability, availability and ease of use. Those TV manuals that arrive in 50 languages and in in several volumes show scant regard for targeting the user who only wants his language and is embarrassed by the paper wasted on the rest, but then discovers the hand book describes endless features that have curiosity value and no obvious benefit to the buyer. When marketing products, promoting benefits will be far more beneficial. It requires knowing  your target audience and presenting features in terms of benefits that will make their life easier, their businesses more efficient, their bills reduced - not clever technological functionality they cannot used to their benefit. In short it is 'what's in it for them', not look at how clever we are. If you need help in taking a fresh look at your business and products then a technical marketing specialist can bring this perspective and create compelling content that delivers results.

 

How will content be consumed in future?

In the last few days there have been a number of related announcements from different sources  that in their different ways point to a new future for content  and how it will be read. Who can have failed to notice the UK launch of the Apple iPad splashed across billboards, on TV and in the press - a device designed for online consumption of content from books and news to Internet and e-mail. 

This week Technical Marketing client, print giant Polestar Group plc announced, "Polestar is launching a service to enable its customers to publish their printed publications on the new Apple iPad, iPhone and online. Polestar Digital Editions – powered by award-winning YUDU technology – enables files received by Polestar for print purposes to be converted to online publication simultaneously across all platforms." In the same week, trade journal Automation sent their 'voucher copy' not by post, but by e-mail using this very technology. Meanwhile in Management Today in an article titled 'Yesterday's News, Today's new hope' the whole issue of charging v free content is examined.

Whatever the future - the devices, the software, free or subscription it is content itself that is essential. For b-2-b  enterprises anxious to keep their name in the news then a partner like Technical Marketing Ltd will become even more essential as this new future unfolds.