Posts Tagged ‘Forrester Research’

I just read a really stupid article in AdAge

Posted: March 19, 2010 in CMO, Customer Engagment, integrated marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Strategy
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I don’t ever like being critical of any of my peers, but sometimes, I just have to call a spade a spade. I just finished reading an article in Adage, entitled, “Our Biggest Brands can no longer be managed by nerds” by Tom Hinkes. His basic premise is that using data to inform marketing decisions somehow is responsible for the loss or the demise of CPG brands.

While I agree that “brand marketing is not a science, it requires analysis, discipline and detail. Even more, it requires intuition, flair and vision,” what I disagree with is the confusion between data and “numbers”. Using advances in market research, analytics and more recent social monitoring to listen to your customers, gain a greater understanding of what motivates them and responding to their needs/desires is not being a “bean counter”.

What made Starbucks a success was not that Howard Schultz ignored the research and went with his gut; it was that he was able to see the real needs/desires of his audience. They weren’t interested in coffee or soft drinks; they were interested in human interaction and a place where that could happen. And that type of insight is exactly what data and the successful understanding of data can bring about.

So I would counter that it’s some traditional brand managers who can’t see the forest for the trees and it takes a new more strategic business focused approach to be successful in today’s marketplace. So instead of being afraid of nerds, learn to listen and then apply the intuition, flair and vision that makes brand marketing as much art as science.

Other agencies aren’t the real competition, IBM is

Posted: March 24, 2009 in Uncategorized
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I just read a very good report prepared by the IBM Institute for Business Value entitled, “Beyond Advertising, Choosing a strategic path to the digital consumer.” While the article itself doesn’t contain and new thinking, that I haven’t heard discussed across many of my peer networks and among the analyst community like Forrester Research, what does stand out is that IBM, a technology and business consulting company demonstrates it understands what most agencies and marketing services companies still fail to grasp. What it tells me is that instead of worrying about other agencies, especially the large traditional holding company ad agencies, my real competition is going to become more and more the big consulting firms who see the challenges of marketers for what they really are, business issues, that affect the very core of how a company operates and what will make it successful in the future.

The only solace I can have is the fact that while the big consulting firms can do a good job of identifying the problems, they are not equipped to actually produce integrated brands, marketing programs and technological infrastructure necessary to achieve the solutions they will recommend. That still leaves an open field to companies like Ascentium and Sapient and a handful of others. But we had better not slow down the innovation we bring to our clients, or Big Blue will be pushing us out the door.

For every role, many hats may be worn

Posted: March 6, 2009 in Ascentium, Customer Engagment, Marketing Strategy, microsoft, Strategy
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Microsoft just launched a new Web site last week called Office for Business, http://www.microsoft.com/officebusiness. Normally that wouldn’t be an earth shattering event, microsoft.com is the most heavily visited corporate Web sites in the world and comes right after the major search engines in total traffic. What is noteworthy in this launch is how Microsoft is using role-based marketing to reach out to their audiences and understand that customers don’t look at the world from a single perspective. It should be noted that my company, Ascentium, designed and built the site for Microsoft and I led up the customer engagement, so I am open to claims of bias. I really think it’s a good Web site.

The premise of Office for Business is that business people are using the Web as a research tool to find tools to help them with their business. And that not only do different people represent different roles, individuals may wear multiple hats regardless of their role. This is especially prevalent in the small to mid-size business and has become even more important given the cut backs coming from the weak economy. In the case, the roles/hats addressed by this site are; the end user, the business decision maker and the technologist. These roles are captured in the statements, “Office works for Me, Office works for my Business and Office works for my IT.”

But if you dig a little deeper into the content on the site, you begin to understand that it’s not as much about different roles as it is about the multiple hats a single role plays. Microsoft understands that at the end of the day, it is the audience segment they call the Technical Decision Maker that typically has the final say in software purchases, upgrades and renewals and that while that role most likely lives within the IT organization, the person occupying the role may look at the world from other points of view than simply a traditional IT professional. In their recent article, “Role Profile: The CIO” Forrester Research reports that 39% of CIOs come from a non-technical/non-OT background. They say that “a great CIO is a strategic business partner who can innovate, think commercially and show business results.” In other words, they are just the guy in the server room fixing network issues.

We know from behavioral research that people’s first reaction to marketing is very individual. They aren’t thinking, “What can this thing do for my business”, they first think, “what can it do for me”. After that initial reaction, when the rational side takes over, their organizational role takes over and if they are a business person like the VP of Sales of Director of Accounting, they start to look through the lens of their role. In the case of the technical decision maker like the CIO or IT professional, they start thinking not just about the business benefit or solution, but how the software can be deployed and supported in their environment. Now what happens if the same person fills multiple roles or wears multiple hats?

In today’s world of tough economic decisions and ever scarcer corporate resources, the technical decision maker needs to be able to make their case for software investment, not just from their point of view, but from a business perspective to justify the spend and from an end user perspective to ensure adoption. On the new Office for Business Web site, this is exactly what Microsoft is trying to. The site is built around different scenarios, captured under the headings of Work Smarter, Work Better and Work Safer. Then within each scenario, they address the what can Office do for the user, the business and for the IT organization. It is hoped that this multiple perspective approach will build the case for each audience group to want the software.

Time will tell if the approach is successful. But given the increased scrutiny associated with any capital expenditures these days, it’s reassuring that an organization as large as Microsoft understands how their customers are looking at their own business needs.

B2B Recommendations for Turbulent Times

Posted: November 22, 2008 in Ascentium, Blogroll, Closed Loop Marketing, CMO, community marketing, Customer Engagment, integrated marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, microsoft, social media, social networking, Strategy, web marketing
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I spend a lot of time with our clients figuring out the best strategy, the latest measurement tools and how to cut through the noise. But lately many of the questions have been around should B2B marketers be doing in times of economic turmoil, when no one is sure how far it is to the bottom and when we will start coming back up. So I carved out a little time and tried to come up with a few key best practices that might give at least a little direction. I’d really like to ask for everyone else’s thoughts. And maybe together we can chart the right course.

First, as the old saying goes, the best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. And while the weather metaphor may not match the current financial outlook, the lesson should be heeded by every marketer and by B2B marketers the most. Success in B2B focused businesses comes as a direct result to the quality of the relationship between companies. Traditionally this has been primarily the province of the direct sales force. But in an increasingly more online world, the quality of the relationship is measured by the quality of the online experience, which is most often managed by marketing rather than sales. So in hard times, when B2B purchasing is put on hold and buying cycles lengthen considerably, it is up to the B2B marketer to use all the tools at their disposal to nurture the relationship so that when the recovery comes and the buyers have money in their hands, they turn to those with whom they already have a relationship.

Second, in today’s world, the selling of technology is becoming a larger share of B2B transactions and the process of buying and selling technology is changing rapidly. IT purchases used to be the almost exclusive realm of technology professionals. They would recommend new technologies, deploy them and have complete responsibility for their support. And to many business users, how that technology worked and how it worked together was a mystery that went well beyond both their expertise and their interest. Now however, approaching the end of the first decade of the 21st century and when Gen X types are approaching what we used to call middle age, the roles are in flux. The rapid growth of Software as a Service and even Software plus Services, especially in the enterprise space, is testament to the fact that business owners are no longer willing to completely delegate technology to the IT department. For this new generation of business leaders, technology is not just the plumbing that runs behind the scenes, it is often the measure of innovation and a key differentiator in their business. For the B2B marketer, this means that technology can’t be packaged just for the geeks and promoted by the proverbial speeds and feeds, it must be presented to the business decision maker and must demonstrate the business value it delivers. It’s solution selling at its most basic.

Next, it’s not only that technology is moving out of the server room, it’s also being taken home. According to a recent survey of online adults, 77% used Microsoft Word at home as well as 58% used Microsoft Excel, once an exclusive business tool. What does this mean to a B2B marketer? The line between B2B and B2C customer is becoming blurred as the line between our work and our home lives fades. We are taking traditionally business applications like Word and Excel home and we are bringing Facebook and Twitter into the office with us. This is especially important as consumer products lead the innovation race and it’s just as likely that a business will be clamoring to get the latest B2C products and services, but use them in a business context. So the B2B marketer has to recognize that their audiences may be interested in their products as a consumer and that their companies are competing against consumer products in the business arena.

Finally and perhaps the most important tip for today’s B2B marketers comes from one of my favorite analysts at Forrester Research, Laura Ramos. She’s been posting a series on Forrester’s marketing blog entitled, “B2B Marketing Obsolete, Really?” And one her best messages is, “For marketing to evolve, we need to learn to listen more than we talk.” The world of Web 2.0 is no longer an abstraction. According to the most recent data I’ve seen, 75% of online adults in the United States participate in some form of social media. And that number is fairly consistent across most age groups. It’s not just a bunch of tweens on MySpace. Companies are being talked about on the Web, B2C and B2B alike. Business people are seeking out their peers to research and rate products and companies alike. And if you are not reaching out to find out what they are saying, where they are living online and who they are listening to, you can bet your competitors are.

Bottom line, despite the economy, there’s a lot B2B marketers need to be doing now and its not just this quarter’s sales that depend on it. The future of their companies may depend on how they step up to the plate.