A week in marketing

As a possible topic for a blog I kept note of what happened during one week, day by day working at Technical Marketing Ltd.

Not really a good idea as it turned out, or put another way nothing happened that would be of much interest to anyone else.  Working days planned to accomplish specific tasks but diverted by new instructions, changed briefs, urgent last minute requests and the steady pinging of arriving emails . Thank goodness spam detection is  much better now, so that the stream of offers for fake Rolex watches, impossible medical enhancements and news of untold millions of dollars waiting for me in frozen Nigerian bank accounts, go straight to the junk folder.

What it did reveal is how much time is spent on the detailed implantation of plans on a day to day basis and the challenges of actually completing a project in one session compared to the reality of stopping and starting while missing material is sourced or client approval received. A typical day starts early morning with a goal of actioning the overnight emails and planning tasks for the day and ending late evening clearing the last of the day's email quota. Now everyone works through a desk top computer or mobile device, the telephone is much quieter, but communication channels are open all hours.

Back in the early 1970s the marketing department where I worked was a very different working environment. Computers weren't on desks, they were housed in climate controlled rooms attended to by white coated acolytes who changed tapes and fed in punch cards. Beyond the inner sanctum where the actual machine lived was an open office with around fifty young girls busy punching cards to feed the computer. We ourselves occupied a smart high rise company headquarters in London's West End - the computer was located at a factory site in Leicester where space cost per square foot was much less. On our desk we had a blotter and a telephone. The only other piece of furniture was a steel four drawer filing cabinet. Pretty much the whole marketing team was male, or at least appeared to be, but outside of our offices sat our secretaries who took dictation in short hand and typed up letters, memos, meeting minutes and forms on early IBM golf ball electric typewriters. Few of us arrived in the office before the 9 am start time, took an hour for lunch, often spent in a nearby West End hostelry and left for home at 5.30 pm. By 6 pm the cleaners had finished and the place was locked up for the night. There were clear working hours and nobody - customers or suppliers - expected to telephone outside those prescribed working hours, because they worked much the same hours themselves.

Marketing in the seventies was for us mainly about managing a rip-roaring success. Demand for product effectively meant rationing supply as we built more production capacity, invested in new production lines and tooling - all incidentally UK based. Inflation was a convenient reason for publishing a new price list every three months. We didn't need to sell, we just took orders and examined voluminous sales reports each month on concertinered print-outs delivered from that computer up in Leicester. In retrospect it was something of a golden age. It certainly was for the advertising and design agencies. Nearly every marketing communication was in some form of print and the process of transforming our marketing briefs into a finished piece of print went through many, expensive and 'skilled' stages along the way. The bills for producing, even quite modest printed documents, were eye watering with scope at every stage to ramp up the costs - a particular favourite being "authors corrections". Artwork was actually type and images glued to a board ready for a special photographic plate making process and the risk of a bit falling off during the final review and sign off - yes actual signatures on each page - meant the final printed piece could be missing a letter or two.

But if the graphic design agencies and printers were licensed to charge well for access to the many arcane skills in the brief-to-print game, then the West End advertising agencies were masters of the art of swinging huge fees and expenses. They mostly occupied glitzy offices with elaborate receptions, decorative and arty staff luxuriating in lavishly appointed and smartly furnished offices. They would arrive by cab, often with the metre left running throughout the client meeting, before then departing for an alcohol fueled lunch at a fashionable restaurant with a similar attitude towards exorbitant pricing! But once the computer displaced the blotter on the desk top, productivity tools such as desk top publishing and email arrived, then away went the secretaries, out went the complex print processes and down went the fees. Probably the real winners in the game are the computer manufacturers, the application programmers and ISPs. The marketing people are now doing more as individuals simply because it has become possible.

Do people who like your Facebook page also buy?

Are Facebook "Likes" and for that matter Twitter "Followers" a metric of success?

It is a question that is interesting many companies as more effort and resource is put into social media. It is flattering of course for people to take time out to click a "Like" button. Hardly a demanding or onerous task to show such affection for your brand, but what does it do in terms of boosting enquiries and sales?

By clicking "Like" you are given their permission to enter their newsfeed and  updates the 'killer app' of Facebook. If their friends notice they have liked your brand, then they might take a look out of curiosity themselves, so you could reach new people as personal recommendation is always a strong card. If in addition they add a comment, then this demonstrates some engagement which is a step towards actually being interested in your company.  Facebook users it seems pay attention to their newsfeed, but it is claimed that the majority of people who "like" a page never return to it. But no worries, you can now push them messages via their newsfeed. Except they can just as easily revoke that permission if they tire of what you send them. Then there's Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm which filters the news they receive and one measure is the affinity or  interaction you have with that person. Because if they are a real friend it will be a two way communication process and news from friends is rated highly. That's why they use Facebook in the first place. Of course someone may have "liked" you because off an offer, free voucher or competition entry and not be within the scope of your target market at all - in other words are they prospects you actually want to be engaged with in conversation.

As a straw poll piece of research we looked how many "likes" companies had in a niche b-2-b market sector. Taking just a small sample of 10 prominent companies in this sample market, 2 did not appear to have a Facebook page at all, the biggest company had zero "likes", 3 companies showed a few hundred and 4 companies a few thousand. Of course it is early days and the unliked big boys might find themselves overtaken by the liked competitors, time will tell.

Very Pinteresting

According to Shareholic "Pinterest created more referral traffic than Twitter" last month.


A closer look at their "All Traffic Sources Report" - based on aggregated data from 200,000 publishers and 270 million unique visitors in the month - puts Pinterest at 1.05% and Twitter at 0.82%. Although sitting in the top 10, still a long way off Google's dominant 48.81%.


So what is Pinterest and does it have a role in B-2-B marketing? It is another entrant in the social media open platform camp and at the basic level is  a photo and link sharing service. A digital collage of pictures that offers the options to "Like", "Comment" and "Repin". Their own description is that, "Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests." It goes on to say, "People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favourite recipes." Hardly B-2-B. And yet there are case studies claiming considerable business success. The trick is to pin interesting pictures, not just pictures of your products. For companies who have such a picture library then Pinterest may be worth a punt.

Is it time to switch more of the budget to inbound marketing

There is one school of thought that terms many of the traditional marketing communication tools such as, display advertising, exhibitions, email campaigns and telemarketing, as outbound marketing. These methods are deemed interruptive because advertising messages, emails and telephone calls intrude into your  life. It is also pointed out that the means of blocking these intrusions using time shifting to avoid TV advertisements, junk mail filters to swerve around unwanted email traffic and caller identity to filter telephone calls is making these traditional communications less effective.

The new world is termed inbound marketing where instead of the vendor targeting prospective customers, the customers find the vendor. It is argued that buyers typically start the process of researching products and suppliers on the Internet. So the first goal is for your prospects to find your web site. A modern take on the notion of 'build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door?' So, how out of the millions of web sites do buyers find yours? Unlike the traditional method of identifying target audiences and building or buying lists that deliver your message to the market population - either individually or collectively - you wait? Well not exactly, you focus your efforts on creating compelling content that will bring prospects to your web site, on search engine optimisation to propel search results to your content high up and hang out in the social media space where your customers go.

Content should be informative and can exist in many different formats, all designed to present your business as knowledgable and authoritative - in short as someone the buyer will have confidence in buying from and considers qualified to provide products that will serve their need. Examples of content are news stories and feeds, white papers, ebooks, videos, blogs and case studies.

SEO is a complex and ever evolving art ensuring the web site has all the right tags and titles, analysis of keywords and search terms and link building strategies.

So what about social media? There are many players, but usually Twitter, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and special interest forum are the favourites. These alone can be extremely time consuming in providing a timely flow of quality content. Twitter - the microblogging site - is great for broadcasting headline news and links say to your blog. Here the story can be developed in more depth but in a friendly less formal style than a press release. YouTube can be a great place to post videos demonstrating the products or for third party testimonials. LinkedIn has something of the professionals response to Facebook and offers opportunities to create and participate in special interest groups.

A final thought - should inbound marketing be part of the marketing mix? Yes. But as with any marketing communication programme an appropriate combination of techniques should be used to work harmoniously in an integrated campaign.

Technical Marketing appointed to promote ABTT 2012 Theatre Show

The Stage web site has posted the news that Technical Marketing Ltd has been awarded the contract to market the ABTT 2012 Theatre Show.

Technical Marketing Ltd has been appointed to plan and implement a marketing campaign to promote the ABTT 2012 Theatre Show which takes place on the 13th and 14th of June at The Old Truman Brewery in London.

Technical Marketing’s Andy Collier announcing the engagement said,  “we are delighted to have been appointed and thank the show organisers for the trust placed in Technical Marketing to deliver a successful campaign. What is particularly exciting is that although the show enjoys a fantastic heritage – 2012 will be its 34th year – it continues to evolve and retain relevance to the theatre industry now.” Andy continued, “as both a visitor and exhibitor over the years, for me the show has always been friendly and accessible. Not only is it a great opportunity to talk to equipment suppliers and examine new products, but it is also a ‘must attend’ event for networking and making or renewing contacts”.

Co-director David Brooks picked up the theme that “Technical Marketing will  be emphasising the show is a valuable opportunity for exhibitors to meet and engage with knowledgable  visitors – many with an important role in specifying or purchasing products and services for the theatre market”. David explained,  “we will be developing awareness of the value of this annual event for both exhibitors and visitors and running a marketing campaign throughout the months leading up to the show in June. In particular news and information will be available through a dedicated web site and via email, as well as through popular social media platforms. We will be encouraging feedback through these channels so visitors can tell us what they are looking for at the show and in the associated seminar programme.”

Technical Marketing Ltd is well known in the theatre and entertainment technology sectors and specialises in providing affordable marketing services to technical, scientific and industrial business-to-business companies including small, new technology start ups as well as larger established enterprises.

A benchmark for social media

Marketing Week has recently published an article – Benchmark your social media – that offers an insight into recent market research and talks about an initiative to benchmark and create a ROI model for social media. The report looks at how brands can put a value on their digital activity. The following extracts are quoted from the article.

 With most marketers expecting to spend more on social media “few claim to know what they really get for their money.”  The four major digital platforms were examined “to see which ones marketers are getting the most success from. Facebook is the most successful with 16% of businesses seeing a return on their investment. This compares with 15% for Twitter and LinkedIn and 9% for YouTube.” Presumably this implies that over 80% cannot identify a return on investment. “Half of the 900 UK marketers questioned by the CIM see potential in social media, saying it will be a significant force in five years’ time. But for the moment, many aren’t seeing results. Nearly a quarter say their activity on Twitter was not at all effective last year, a third say the same for Facebook, 37% for LinkedIn and 44% for YouTube.”

Here are some interesting further snippets from the article.

“if you are achieving above about a 2% engagement ratio, you are generally doing a pretty good job. Past 5% is very good. It’s not difficult to acquire more fans through ad spend if that is what you are after. The challenge is keeping them engaged when you get them there.”

“Social media will make you money if you act upon what your customers are telling you. That is not just as a marketing team, that is the whole business acting on it. It gives you what is on the customer’s mind in real time.”

“About a third of marketers say they are just experimenting with Linkedin and 37% say their marketing efforts through the network were not at all effective. This compares with 33% who say Facebook didn’t get results last year and 44% who weren’t happy with YouTube.”

The general impression is that social media is still pretty much an unknown in terms of demonstrating a clear Return on Investment. Getting Facebook members to “like” a brand is a far step from engaging people with the brand and that is probably even further distance from turning into a buyer. For b-2-b buyers it may be a really big step.  

Returning visitors

Much advice is available about attracting visitors to your web site and gaining their attention with a view to converting their interest into a purchase. But how do you deal with people who already are customers and returning visitors?

Analytics of established companies indicate that a significant percentage of web site visits are from returning visitors. Enquiry source analysis further suggests that many already know the company. Add to this a review of search terms and there are again visitors reaching the site because it is their chosen destination - they know the company already.

There are several possible reasons why visitors return. One may be that their first visit was initial research to discover potential suppliers and short listed your business as a possible vendor. As that group of visitors moves through the sales process, the web site should make it easy for them to find the specific information they require at various stages in the process including pricing, delivery and ordering details. Another reason is they are customers ready to make a new purchase. Where product values are high and purchase intervals infrequent it is important that returning customers can discover what is new and what developments there have been since their last purchase.  Another group could be specifiers who already acknowledge your company as a qualified vendor and need to ensure that they are using the latest current product data.

Ensuring that both new visitors and returning visitors quickly find what they need will probably mean they will take different journeys through the site so it should be clearly signposted which route to take. Aside from the practical information such as who you are, how you can be contacted, pricing and delivery visitors will need to know about your products.

Where there are product options it is important to provide simple guidance to help them select the right one. Buyers and specifiers are influenced by what the experts of that market have to say about your product and what endorsement they give. Finally what do users and owners of your products have to say about practical experience. The factual, expert and user experience combine to provide compelling copy. One useful way of providing regular updates in each of these three areas is by including a Virtual News Office.

Let me tell you a story

Content is arguably the most important factor for a web site, or indeed for any form of marketing communication. But what makes good content?

There is typically much discussion and focus on the technical aspects of web sites, often in stark contrast to the effort spent in providing compelling content. For example non-technical people merrily debate the merits of rival content management systems whereas practical observation suggests that marketing people rarely actually use them. And although we provide systems for people to subscribe or unsubscribe from email lists it is surprising how often we are sent emails asking us as administrators to add or remove names. Content rather than technology alone is what can convert a visitor into a prospect and ultimately into a customer.

It is likely people visiting a web site for the first time will be in an early research stage of sourcing a product or service and probably relatively ignorant about the options, or what products they actually need to solve their problem or meet their requirements. For example they might have a need to measure something very accurately, perhaps in a hostile environment and only have a vague idea what devices or systems will help them achieve this. They may have considerable expertise in their own field and need to be in touch with similar experts in another field - in this case precision measurement. We have a client who does just this and for tim we have developed informational content that describes how their transducer products are applied in a whole range of measurement situations. This content does not spell out the detailed technical specification of a product at all. Instead the product is referenced as a means of solving a measurement problem and readers are invited to contact the engineering team for free advice in proposing solutions to their particular challenge. Of course the web site will also need to provide product specifications, but these are for a later stage in the sales cycle, once the prospect knows what equipment they will require. But without telling a story that describes a scenario they can identify with, it is unlikely they will have made the journey to get them looking at product details. They simply will not have known that is what they needed.

Of course telling a compelling story helps establish the company as an authority and expert in the field. By explaining what is needed, how it can be used and most importantly the benefits the product brings to the prospect, the company who has provided the essential education and perhaps demystified the industry jargon has put itself in the pound seats for when that prospect becomes a buyer. Merely talking about the company and setting out the products is not enough. Content that positions the company as a vendor that can benefit the visitor will not only help lead the visitor along the path to become a customer, but will be recognised by search engines to as providing relevant content.

Trade press - the quality publications

The last blog - "The changed role of trade press" - brought a deserved rebuke from an editor for failing to mention the quality publications.

At the centre of the blog item was the old and on-going practice that evolved from 'colour separation charges' into the now quite open charge to print press releases. A subject also picked up today on another blog. At one end of the publishing spectrum are the vaguely positioned publications that seem to have no defined target audience, perhaps deliberately so to accommodate a breadth of content in the form of published press releases. Here is an example of such a communication following up the initial 'sales' call. Only client details have been removed for reasons of confidentiality. 

"Hi,

Hope your well, nice talking to you earlier, here is a quick email discussing what we are looking too do with your company. We are looking too feature xyz groups ( name of item removed)  'within our industrial feature in the next issue of the publication, Its due to the fact that we have been let down with artwork at the last minute and need to fill the relevant space. As a result we will be reducing the cost to £125+vat as it is normally alot more than this. I hope to here from you soon. If you are happy too proceed, could you please reply reserving down your location and i will send you a booking form. 

We are national basis to 15000 readers which include company directors, plant managers,maintenece engineers, machine builders , design engineers, health and safety officers etc.

Kind Regards" 

What I failed to mention is that despite the emergence of the opportunist publishers most sectors still benefit from the continued existence of quality journals.  The comment on the last blog from the editor of such a quality publication offered the following conclusion.

"Industry needs a symbiotic relationship with a healthy trade press. While the enquiry mechanism has undoubtedly moved online, there is a mass of independent research highlighting that ideas are generated and business decisions made on the printed page. While the paid for advertorial magazines persist, they drag the whole of industry down around them. Those of us in the quality press do our utmost to maintain standards and to hold industry up around us. It is time that more of the PR world tried to do the same."


In previous blogs we have observed the importance of news items/press releases online in contributing to search engine optimisation performance and also the archive role of news items online. However there is emphatically a role for the quality printed publication that provides well informed and researched content that offers an authoritative voice in the industry sector it addresses.  

The changed role of trade press

Despite the growth of online news and failure of some established trade journals, there is still a proliferation of titles. So what has happened?

Before the Internet, the trade press played an important role in publishing news about a company and its products. Generally speaking editorial content was published on the merits and news interest of the story and not, in an ideal world, by the advertising spend of the company in question. The aim was to produce a quality, interesting, relevant, informed and trusted magazine. Companies wanted their news published because of the credibility and apparent independence of appearing in a respected and well read journal. Because there were often many titles, company  strategy was to place display advertising only in the leading books and use PR to gain mention in the rest. Most employed a PR agency to cosy up to editors and get their press releases published.

Even before the Internet the trade press landscape was changing. Publishers were experiencing cost pressures and many looked to increase revenue by effectively charging to publish press releases. Of course it was not presented like that, the requests were along the lines that the editor had selected the news item for publication but would you mind contributing towards the cost of colour separations so the text could be illustrated and be more effective? Agencies initially resisted these charges but over the years and the disappearance of the excuse to pay for 'colour seps' many trade journals simply charged to print press releases. Some appeared as 'advertorial' to identify that the content was paid for but others simply published press releases collated together in product or company news sections. Because of publication dates most of it by the time the magazine lands in the letter box is not news anyway, or at least has been available online for at least a month. The willingness to print anything also ensured that there were always plenty more stories than the magazine could publish.

So other titles started - effectively product 'books' - no editorial just a magazine full of product press releases creating a different business model, one that didn't need to hire journalists, just space salesmen. And based on this model publications come and go that just publish press releases often scavenged from other publications and web sites - a weird collation of news stories with no obvious target audience and published simply because someone agreed to pay.

Of course news publication is a very effective marketing tool, but one that calls for expertise in ensuring the most effective use is made of the PR budget.

No time for the detail

Despite, or perhaps because of, the proliferation of productivity devices and applications fewer people now appear to have time to look at any detail.

The fact is many of them never did anyway. They were happier firing off one line commands rather than collecting information, analysing data and determining a plan to successfully accomplish a task. Strangely people with limited attention to detail and minimal attention span often occupy top jobs and have a personality that seems impressive at first. "I prefer to take a helicopter view" might seem as though they have a grasp on the big picture, but are the creatures on the ground they view from on high giants or ants?

The problem is people who should actually be looking at detail don't, or may be are incapable of doing so. Managing by forwarding emails is one symptom that should raise caution. It is quite instructive to look at the email trail that typically arrives from some companies. It starts deep within the organisation with someone emailing a colleague a question, one that is dealt with by forwarding to someone else and so on until it leaves the organisation entirely to land in the inbox of an external consultant. Oddly the serial forwarders probably consider the act of forwarding completion of a work task in itself. Sometimes the email goes to a colleague sitting just a few feet away. Perhaps if people spoke to each other more, overburdened email inboxes might be less of an issue and communication more effective.

It is quite common these days to see people working the emails on the move. On the over crowded commuter trains into and out of Euston there are people sitting cross legged on the floor a Mac on their lap busy forwarding their emails. So the working day extends into travel time too - no wonder they have to giveaway the London Evening Standard for free now. Its what the chairman of a company I worked for years ago would call 'being busy fools.'

But marketing only really succeeds if the planning is meticulous something it shares with the military - in fact the approach to a successful marketing campaign calls for the same ingredients such as reliable intelligence, analysis, consideration of options, strategy, detailed planning, marshalling of resources and immaculate execution - plus the flexibility to change if conditions change.  And you can't pull that off without attention to detail.

Is Facebook important to your marketing communications programme?

Facebook seems to be a bit like Marmite. You either like it or hate it.

We have clients who really love Facebook and have embraced it as the lead platform in their social media strategy. On the other hand we also have clients who totally reject it, regarding it as having little to do with business. As an agency we are constantly looking for results that support the resource put into Facebook and preferably in the form of attributable sales leads. At present trackable actions via Google Analytics are pretty lightweight, so the response is lets put more resource into Facebook then for sure we will see positive results. But here's the thing, it is easy to see what other platforms offer. YouTube is a pretty neat way to publish videos and videos can be powerful ways of demonstrating products. Twitter is the darling of the news community and sticks to the simple format of posting headlines, immediately and as it happens and is both a source of news and route to publish your own news. Blogging is an informal diary style medium that offers the opportunity for comment and allows you to publish material that wouldn't interest the trade press. But what is Facebook really good at?

For a start visitors also need to be signed up to participate, but with 800 million or so world-wide that may not be an issue. Because we administer several different accounts I am always signing in and out and am  disturbed to see pictures of people's dogs, babies and other personal stuff turning up between company news. But then it is still really a personal platform - the business bit is kind of tacked on. But it is business that will pay for the advertising, not people sharing family pictures with friends. Friends are at the heart of Facebook, one article suggested on average people had 800 friends - that's a lot of dog and baby pictures - but in real life they might have just 4. Or perhaps none if they spend their lives tracking 800 fantasy friends! Is getting people to 'like' a company actually of value? if they like you so much they buy or recommend your product that is great, but b-2-b case studies providing such irrefutable evidence never seem to get mentioned.

Facebook's founder didn't come out too business-like in The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich and the movie The Social Network and Facebook appears more a phenomenon than a regular business which is despite this valued in billions of dollars. But then again so was the market in collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps, built on sub-prime mortgages by banks thought to be too big to fail. Maybe they have figured out what makes the Facebook phenomenon so valuable (other than advertising access to hundreds of millions) that will build a sustainable business that won't evaporate overnight or have its users migrate to the next new thing. Traditional advertising agencies are cautious about putting client's advertising money into new publications until circulation is properly established, audited and certified. Writing in iMediaConnection Douglas Kerr's article 8 reason's marketers can't trust Facebook raises issues of control, access, copyright and moreover investment by advertisers in the medium.

To use marketing speak, Facebook is a dilemma. For b-2-b businesses with modest marketing communications budgets the best advice right now is add it to the marketing programme but measure response carefully and don't invest at the expense of methods that are proven.

Innovate or die

New product development is the lifeblood of a business. Failure to innovate will result in stagnation and eventual decline. 


The rate of new product introduction in most markets is now relentless, so just to keep pace calls for a regular flow of new products. Few will be genuinely innovative, most will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary but the evolution will move forward the market’s expectations. 


So where to start? Having reviewed the focus for the new product and market positioning through preliminary research, it is time to start putting together a brief for the development team and a specification for the new product. Perhaps the most important consideration is the target market. What is the role of the product, who will buy it and use it and what does it compete with or replace? Developing a product without a clear understanding of users' needs  will raise marketing problems throughout the process. So it is vital to get this right from the start. 


Today many companies find themselves competing in the global market with all sorts of regional variations due to custom, culture and legislation working against their attempts to develop a single, universal product. One approach could be to develop a core product or technology, which can be adapted or customised to suit different market needs. Such decisions have to be taken before any other work starts and if they are wrong, the product may be loaded with unnecessary costs for any one market, or too bland for acceptance anywhere. The attempt to incorporate everything for everywhere is not only expensive to implement, but results in an unsuitable product for any country. Another outcome can be the ‘lowest common denominator’ solution where the product brief meets the minimum needs of its principle markets, but ends up being totally uninspiring and unexciting to everyone. 


Finally by designing with only one country’s needs in mind, may for want of some simple-to-do considerations at the briefing stage, enable far greater sales to be achieved in many more countries.

Ready to launch a new product?

New products are at the heart of any integrated marketing strategy. Apple and the late Steve Jobs are masters of the new product launch. An event which presents a great opportunity to boost the brand and remind loyal customers of why they purchase your products and tempt others to buy.

But even the best executed marketing campaign will not compensate for poor products or products that the market does not want. So the first stage of any new product programme is research. Initially there may be dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ideas to sift and evaluate, but new products will most likely arise from one of three key drivers:-Technology, Market Need, or Price. Whilst market input is important, it’s not likely to result in any real progress in understanding what to develop. As one commentator remarked, ‘you don’t know, what you don’t know’. Once again Apple choose to think differently and created products that offered far more than mere functionality. Asking customers what they want is not the way to build innovative new products.The lack of imagination conditioned by the existing supply chain through to the end user, will deliver a verdict which can be summarised as ‘more of the same, plus a few ‘bells and whistles’ that the competitors offer on their product - and all delivered at a lower price’. And know what? They probably won't want a product where the design brief is guided by a lists of current wishes.

Technology, not surprisingly is a critical driver, either applied to the product itself or to the process of manufacture, or a combination of both. But basing new product development on a new technology platform can be a high-risk strategy unless relevant to the target audience. New technology for its own sake will not succeed unless it also fulfils a market need that the customers are willingly to pay for. Failure to recognise the value of new technology or adopt too late can be equally disastrous. Sometimes the technology is a good idea in search of a genuine user application. The key factor is an ability to bridge the gap between the possibilities afforded by adoption of the technology and the implementation and acceptance by the market. Good industrial design can be a great differentiator making the product not just good to see but easy and intuitive to use.

Finally price can be the driver for a successful new product, but to achieve this will generally require having a lower cost-manufacturing base than any of your competitors. This may be achieved through entry barriers to the market such as high level of investment in plant, or patent controls that are beyond the reach of your competitors and will usually also need to be accompanied by high volumes and a dominant market share. Of course dominant market share is just one strategy. There are premium price segments of the market that can actually prove more profitable  for products that can command that price point ... Apple?

Logo as an expression of brand identity

Because of their essentially visual form, logos exert considerable influence on the way that customers perceive and react to a brand. 


Their aspirational value is amply demonstrated in the power of global brands, such as Nike, to inspire a credible fashion statement for the wearers’ of garments prominently displaying its swoosh logo. But an ill chosen logo can have a detrimental affect. When some years ago British Airways phased out the stylized Union Flag in favour of ethnic art on the tail planes of its fleet of aircraft, there was ridicule that they had substituted graffiti. The Prime Minister went so far as to drape a tissue over the offending logo on a model aircraft in the new livery she had been invited to inspect . Credibility is a key to a successful logo. 


For b-2-b marketers logos are not a fashion statement or prominently displayed to the public, but appear on stationery, business cards, sales literature, web site and on products. The logo symbolizes the company and as such must convey expertise and trust in the company. Research studies have shown that the content of a message is credible if the source is itself credible and trusted. The logo must visualize the brand values and communicate these to the customer. One expert has identified three main styles that most logos conform to - the name only, the monogram and a symbol - above or to the left of the company name. 


Words only and monograms limit the ability to express credibility traits, whereas the symbol, well executed can be interesting and express authority. Just as with advertising keep to a single message, the temptation to build too many ideas into the image can confuse rather than project a clear communication. Colour too is important and practical needs for adequately repeating the logo in various media and on products needs careful planning. 


Logos must then be applied consistently, without variation to build both awareness and a positive perception of the enterprise through the visual expression of everything the business stands for. So designing a logo is not a task to be undertaken lightly. A strong logo, properly used can support and develop the brand. A poorly executed logo can undermine a company’s credibility and trust.

Integrating a socia media component to the marketing communicationsplan

Including social media as a component of an integrated marketing communications programme that also includes traditional media, web site and email campaigns should start with some research.

The big question for many b-2-b companies now, is where are their customers and prospects looking for information? There is a general acceptance that display advertising campaigns in the trade press are not the best way to invest so much of the marketing budget as they once were. That there is migration to other media and the web site is the vital  hub, but how do people get there and how do they learn about your business before reaching your site? This is where some fundamental research is called for. In this fragmented media landscape it is important to understand current customer preferences for discovering information and their route to a purchase decision. At the very least discover how many rely on traditional editorial recommendation in the trade press, or like the 'hands on' opportunity afforded by exhibitions, are content to search the Internet or maybe like the more relaxed style of social media? And there is another thing - what formats and platforms do they tend to use - print, desk top computers or mobile devices? It might be worth just checking how well the company web site displays  on mobile devices. In fact this piece of research is going to need to be done regularly as migration continues and media continues to offer new communication channels.

Armed  with this research insight - what next? With an up to date understanding of what media customers and prospects prefer, then there is a rationale to determine how scarce marketing resources of funds and time are best deployed and to set objectives. The overall aim is to lead through to sales leads, but some channels may work better at the early stages of engagement and social media probably works best as a soft sell, hence it needs to work within a fully integrated marketing communications programme.