FollowFridays 2011 Session 2: Social Media strategy for suits.

Social media strategy for suits

AdNerds

The Radically Digital Division of Proximity BBDO

The differences between B2B and B2C


Does branding add true value in a B2B context?

How do social media fit in business communications where niche marketing tactics are prevalent?


Fournaise Marketing Group, june 2011

73% of CEOs don’t believe marketers drive demand for

products and services

The differences between B2C and B2B

in B2B, the default is ‘safe marketing solutions’

The money you spend is lost unless you earn it back

You need permission

People involved in technology buying decisions by purchase amount

0 15 30 45 60

$25,000-$99,999

$100,000-$999,999

More than $1 million

1-3 4-8 9-15 >15

Source: Marketing Sherpa/TechWeb

Business marketing campaigns need to be considered in terms of months, often years

High degree of complexity

By their very nature, business offerings are niche offerings

Business buying decisions are more likely to be a commitment

The similarities between B2C and B2B

We love brands (or not) because of the irrational

Does branding add true value in a B2B context?

B2B branding: A financial burden for shareholders?

Lars Ohnemus

Copenhagen Business School, Porcelænshaven, 2000 Copenhagen F, Denmark

1. Why don’t shareholders showinterest in branding?

In the business-to-business (B2B) arena, does brand-ing create sustainable economic value for compa-nies and their shareholders? Or, are other variablessuch as innovation, research, and manufacturingexcellence the predominant business drivers? Overthe last few decades, the topic of branding hasattracted increasing interest; however, little re-search has been conducted on the link betweenbranding and the financial performance of compa-

nies in the B2B segment. In many cases, business-to-consumer (B2C) activities have been the focus ofresearch, while industrial branding has been treatedas the ‘‘intellectual step-child’’ and been somewhatneglected. Academic research in this field has beenlimited, and the scholarly literature has neitherprovided a comprehensive theoretical basis nordocumented an empirical relationship betweenbrand value and shareholder value (Kerin & Sethura-man, 1998). The result is that branding research inthis field is frequently based on shaky foundationswhereby key results and findings are debatable.Bold claims shared by Balmer (2001) and Gronroos(1997) challenge the widely accepted perception

Business Horizons (2009) 52, 159—166

www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor

KEYWORDSB2B branding;Financial performance;Return on branding;Market orientation

Abstract Is branding an effective tool for generating shareholder wealth forcompanies that are active in a business-to-business environment? Or, do other factorssuch as innovation and manufacturing efficiency–—or the lack thereof–—create ordestroy shareholder wealth? Based on an examination of almost 1,700 companieslisted either on the United States or European stock exchanges, this study reveals thiscrucial relationship could be described as a W-shaped curve with five distinctivephases, depending on the strategic branding position of the company. Used strategi-cally, business-to-business (B2B) companies with a balanced corporate brand strategygenerally yield a return to their shareholders that is 5%-7% higher. It is therefore vitalthat key executives, including the board of directors, systematically assess andmonitor the strategic branding position of their company and how their brandinginvestments are performing against key competitors. This study reveals that share-holders should insist on systematic performance feedback from the corporationregarding all key items in the balance sheet–—including branding. As disclosed herein,very few of the companies analyzed possessed an optimal balance between brandingand financial performance.# 2008 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.

E-mail address: [email protected]

0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2008 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2008.10.004

Copyright 2009 by Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. For reprints, call HBS Publishing at (800) 545-7685. BH 319

Purchased by Bart Muskala ([email protected]) on October 07, 2011

Used%strategically,%BtoB%companies%with%a%balanced%corporate%brand%strategy%generally%yield%a%return%to%their%shareholders%that%is%5%:7%%higher.

Scot McKee

Brands are things we buy instead of products

just as soon as we can afford to.

What do you do?

How do social media fit in business communications where niche marketing tactics are prevalent?

EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATING YOUR BRAND VALUES

FOR BUSINESS

LED LIGHTING

LED LIGHTING

"Making energy-wasting traditional lighting technologies obsoletethrough the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting."

LED LIGHTING

Scott McKee, Managing Director at Birddog Ltd., top 20 B2B marketing agency

If we have values and messages and other brand assets that

reflect the prospects’ own view of the world, why wouldn’t they want

to buy from us and enjoy the experience of doing so?

BUILDING A COLLECTIVE COMPANY BRAIN

A simplified B2B buying cycle

has need research possible solutions

short list of vendors

go to bid make a decision

123 €

BA

CK

TH

EN

A simplified B2B buying cycle

has need research possible solutions

short list of vendors

go to bid make a decision

123 €

NO

WA

DAY

S

Without face-to-face contact with prospective buyers early in the purchase process, EMC

was losing an important source of information about

prospective customers.

Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, William Jenkins, EMC2

Two main drivers of this trend

Benjamin Ellis, previously worked at or for Siemens, Cisco, Juniper, Microsoft and IBM

People want to buy, but they don’t want to be sold to.

Based on research from Marketo

93% of B2B buyers use searchto begin the buying process

Two main drivers of this trend

In the past, our account managers had all the knowledge,

now a rep has to become a generalist, and our hope is that

they are able to ask the right questions.

Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, William Jenkins, EMC2

EMC One, online employee network since 2007 was the start...

13.000members

22.000UV/month

4.2 millionpages

|EMC ONEonline network of EMC employees

2007 figures

Internal Education

13.000members

30.000members

= 65% of all employees

.com

- community sectie op site met howto videos, info, ..

- emc world event > twitter, flickr, facebook, live streaming, the cube + linkedIn group





- live product launch: 8000 man

Multiple Launch Eventsaverage of 150 clients - flew in

Symmetrix Launch Event8000 concurrent viewers - 1,5h live stream & chat

KEEPING A FINGER ON THE PULSE

clients

customer support

channel partners

demo’s / product feedback best practices / inspiration

code examples

clients

customer support

channel partners


code examples

Mark Yolton, SVP at SAP

If we can make our customers more successful than our

competitor’s customers, then the latter are going to come to us.

4 C’s EMC2 and SAP had to decide on

Content

Community

Closed

Control

clients


What Content do you want?

& Thought LeadershipGet Control of Conversations

Help Customers get More Value(Co)-develop Products & Services

Customer Service & Support

Education

Where will you host your Community?

On top of existing social networks

On existing nichecommunities

Own communityvia social software

thought leadershipget control of conversations

help them get more value

thought leadershiphelp them get more value

educate


help them get more value educate

customer serviceco-develop

Will it be Closed or not?

ClosedNetwork

OpenNetwork


educatecustomer service

help them get more value educate

customer serviceco-develop

Who will be in Control?

Own Employee(s)

ChannelPartners

CommunityMembers

BUILDING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

5 Types of Sales (or Account) Managers

Relationship Builders

HardWorkers

Lone Wolves

ReactiveProblemSolvers

Challengers

Challengers win by pushing customers to think differently, using insight to create constructive tension in the sale. Relationship Builders, on the other hand, focus on relieving tension by giving in to the customer's every demand.

OF

Where ‘challengers’ push customers outside their comfort zone, ‘relationship builders’ are focused on being accepted into it.

Challengers win by pushing customers to think differently, using insight to create constructive tension in the sale. Relationship Builders, on the other hand, focus on relieving tension by giving in to the customer's every demand.

OF

Where ‘challengers’ push customers outside their comfort zone, ‘relationship builders’ are focused on being accepted into it.

5 Types of Sales (or Account) Manager


HardWorkers

Lone Wolves


Challengers

n= 6000

5 Types of Sales (or Account) Manager


HardWorkers

Lone Wolves


Challengers

on average 40% of star reps

only 7% of star reps

n= 6000

Jeff Molander, Molander and Associates & author of “Off the Hook Marketing”

Be a thought provoker, not a thought leader.

PAMPERING THE MAIN INFLUENCER

1 year after the community’s rollout: E2E members on average requested 6 times more sample chips

across 3 times as many product areas as non-members

1 year after the community’s rollout: E2E members on average requested 6 times more sample chips

across 3 times as many product areas as non-members

SERVING THE WHOLE FOOD CHAIN

I haven’t met anybody who feels they have their organization

completely aligned with this revolution.

John Hayes, CMO American Express

1.5 million people liked this effort

among all retailers that accepted our card

on that day, sales increased 9 percent

year on year

Among small businesses that

participated in Small Business Saturday, sales rose 28 percent

The best kind of marketing is the marketing that really helps your

customers out.

Horse sense

SAFEGUARDING YOUR COMPANY’S FUTURE

William Barret, Global Director of Online Strategy at Deloitte

In a highly commoditized business, perhaps our largest

differentiator is our people

TOTALLY IRRATIONAL BRANDING

unique answer-

and-question

format

on US TV

since 1964

Alex Trebek, the

Luc Appermont of the States

known in Belgium as “Waagstuk”

Daytime Emmy Award

for Outstanding Game/

Audience Participation9 million daily

viewers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_Emmy_Award_for_Outstanding_Game/Audience_Participation_Show
















Ken Jennings75 wins in a row

Brad Rutterwon $3.455.102

Paid Media and its immediate results

Jeopardy commercials Book Press Coverage

Stephen Baker wrote a book &

shared it in pieces, day by day

a NOVA documentary & a TED presentation

reached a tech & ‘science’ audience

Worldwide press coverage in major

newspapers & tech magazines

massive commercial

attention starting months in advance

Documentary

Owned and Earned Media

46%

33%

21%go humans

jokes

go Watson

IBM People involved Tweets

+30 movies and over 1 million

views. New movies added regularly.

1000s of blog, FB & Twitter posts, created

by info shared with employees.

35.000 tweets before & during the show, still multiple

tweets per day

daily updates (& still updating) to an audience of about

50.000 people

Facebook & Twitter YouTube

iThe long term results

Recruiting Sparked Ideas Inquiries

IBM, yearly looking for many engineers ,

IT’ers etc has a full pipeline ever since

Existing B2B clients are sparked with new ideas, ready to take

on the next step.

Many corporations, universities and

government agencies requested info.

The “A Smarter Planet” concept has a higher awareness

and credibility.

Impact on Branding

Dr Sam Nussbaum, Chief Medical Officer, WellPoint

Imagine having the ability to take in all the information around a

patient's medical care.

Branding in B2B does add value.

Conclusions

Branding in B2B does add value. Communities are a better alternative for sales people

Conclusions

Branding in B2B does add value. Communities are a better alternative for sales peopleChallengers outperform relationship builders

Conclusions

Branding in B2B does add value. Communities are a better alternative for sales peopleChallengers outperform relationship buildersThere’s always definitely at least one good reason to consider social media

Conclusions

Will you still have a job in marketing of the future?

Thx!

FollowFridays 2011 Session 2: Social Media strategy for suits.

Business

business b2b companies

business offerings

business marketing campaigns

business horizons

business environment

b2b marketing agency

b2b buyers

b2b context