On a recent trip to London, one of many tourist stops was the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising, in Notting Hill. As soon as I walked in, I immediately noticed shelves and shelves of products, posters, ads and videos, all shouting out the various brand names that have been developed over the years. It is an amazing assortment of stuff at first glance, and it became even more impressive upon further inspection. 
The wealth of product containers, signs and products that museum owner Robert Opie had the foresight to save (and preserve in mint condition) for this museum is truly remarkable. If you’ve clicked around our B2B agency's website, or visited our creative campus, you are well aware that Opie and MLT Creative may be kindred spirits.
We began our tour by traveling through a “time tunnel” of vintage advertising, beginning with products from the Victorian times, and ending with brands that are still around today. Sprinkled in with the product displays were facts about advertising and merchandising over the years, many of which spoke to the importance of trademarking and the prevalence of imitators. At one point there were boxes of dry mustard from various companies that had all been made an identical shade of yellow to mimic the packaging of then-market leader Coleman’s.
Seeing these displays reminded me of how far we’ve come as marketers, and how far we’ll need to go to truly differentiate our brands. In the past, building your brand was as simple as creating a logo or a tagline and placing a few display ads. Today, there are so many ways to market your brand – from SEO to social media participation, to advertising, to customer service, to service after the sale.
In the B2B marketing world of today, we’re seeing that it’s less about the official corporate messaging and more about relaying the honesty and humanity of our companies, as well as listening, engaging, sharing and connecting with customers. Less “push,” more “pull.”
Contemporary B2B marketers know that we need to have a brand people can relate to. We have to let customers make their own decisions about our brands, knowing that we’ll have to accept whatever conclusions they make. This is a tough pill to swallow for those schooled in traditional marketing, and those who are accustomed to having supposed “control” over a brand message. Instead of controlling the message we project, savvy marketers now focus on controlling the official corporate response to their brand, whether the customer feedback is positive or negative. Besides, it’s always better to know than to not know.
And, if I can give a little shout-out to the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising: I loved the tour, and you guys are doing a great job of mixing nostalgia with modernity on your Facebook page!
Kelly Pires is B2B marketer and an account executive at MLT Creative, an Atlanta-based B2B advertising agency.
Recently, a few MLTers and I met with a prospective client for the first time. During the get-to-know-you’s, as we learned about each other’s business, our prospect made a very interesting comment. He said something to the effect of, “I think brands are becoming less and less important because there is so much information available. A brand is simply a promise, and when information is available, the brand isn’t as important.”
My initial reaction (as a B2B marketer, naturally) was to think, “Of course brands are still important in purchasing decisions! It’s arguably the most important aspect of a business, and companies spend millions and millions of dollars building and testing awareness of their brands! Are they all insane? Are they throwing good money after bad?” He then admitted that this is a controversial stand to take, and went on to further explain using this example (and again, I am paraphrasing from memory):
Imagine you’re driving down the road, looking for a place to eat, when you see a sign for a roadside diner and a sign for a chain restaurant. You’ve eaten at the chain restaurant many times before, but are curious about the roadside diner. You search the name of the diner on your smartphone and find rave reviews online (“Best roadside diner in the country!” etc.), so you decide to go there. Though the chain offers a name you know, and you’ve had no complaints about it in the past, the information at your fingertips was convincing enough to lead you somewhere else.
I find this comment and example interesting food for thought (no pun intended), especially as we are seeing marketing channels grow and evolve from traditional “push” methods to the “pull” of inbound (i.e., information-based) tactics. However, the magic of shaping and maintaining a successful brand still lies in finding the delicate balance between investing in traditional brand-building marketing, developing information-based content and encouraging the online conversation (i.e. the fourth “P”…Promotion).
Applying this scenario to the B2B landscape, I think the question can be better addressed by looking at the sales cycles of B2B product offerings, which can be divided into two basic categories (for simplicity’s sake): long-term and short-term. It can reasonably be assumed that long-term purchase decisions are made after extensive research and review of available options, and are generally more complicated, with multiple influencing factors in play and more risk involved (e.g., a warehouse technology upgrade for supply chain management). Short-term purchases are typically more frequent “at the right place, at the right time” decisions and likely have a smaller transaction cost and less risk (e.g., choosing a landscaping firm to groom an office park’s green areas).
Do you think that the importance of a recognizable brand now plays less of a role in purchasing decisions than it did in the past, due to the information available on the web?
Or does it vary depending upon the aforementioned long-term or short-term scenarios?
Kelly Pires is B2B marketer and an account executive at MLT Creative, an Atlanta-based B2B advertising agency.
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending an intro Food and Wine Pairing class at
Cook's Warehouse taught by
Gil Kulers,
Atlanta-Journal Constitution wine columnist and sommelier. He explained the basics of winemaking, including which grapes are used, where they come from and how a particular vintage is created, among other interesting facts. Throughout his energetic lecture, I couldn't help but recognize some of the similarities between winemaking and B2B marketing.
Pairings can make or break a campaign (or a meal). In class, we experimented with the many different flavors one glass of wine can take on when paired with a sweet food, a salty food or a spicy food. Similarly, a good B2B marketer knows his or her target audience well enough to pair the proper marketing techniques accordingly, resulting in the optimal brand experience for that audience. For example, inbound techniques + direct mail might resonate with some audiences, while others will respond to advertising + PR. No marketing channel is wrong, but some may be more right for your target audience than others.
Measurement is key. Gil was careful to point out that we shouldn't concern ourselves too much with what is the "right" or "wrong" wine to serve, but instead to simply drink what we like. However, there are wine rating systems established by various groups of experts to rank one bottle against another. As marketers, we understand the importance of applying metrics to all marketing activities so we can learn from successes and failures, probably similar to the way that vineyards adjust their wines depending on how the experts score them.
Timing is everything. Knowing when to harvest your grapes is just as critical as knowing when to launch a campaign. A vineyard wouldn't harvest out of season, and a B2B marketer wouldn't place a campaign without careful consideration of typical prospect purchasing times.
Content is still king. Attractive bottle labels tend to get noticed, but it's the wine inside the bottle that counts. Similarly, good-looking creative means a lot in B2B marketing, but our content is what's most crucial, especially in the age of inbound marketing.
It's impossible to be bored. Wines are complex and (given the intense levels of study necessary to become a sommelier) rather complicated. Every bottle of wine is a new experience, and so is every marketing campaign. I'm lucky to be in this business today because there's always something to learn, or some new tactic to try. B2B marketing is dynamic and ever-changing, with twists and turns around every corner.
Since we're at the forefront of change in the marketing world, I hope that one day our peers look back on this as the birth of an exciting new era, the way we now look back on how TV changed the advertising landscape forever. Let's drink to that!
Kelly Pires is B2B marketer and an account executive at MLT Creative, an Atlanta-based B2B advertising agency.
There was a great article on Huffington Post last week that the "M" of MLT Creative passed along to me (thanks @billymitchell1!) called "Marketing in Today's Digital Culture." The author, Patricia Martin, writes from a B2C perspective, but much of what she explains is relevant to B2B marketing as well. This section in particular hit home for me:
"Marketing and consumer services are becoming the same thing. Finding ways to help people live more meaningful, efficient, happier lives is becoming more important to brands than advertising - thereby linking the marketing department to operations."
Or the B2B translation:
"B2B Marketing and the buyer experience are becoming the same thing. Finding ways to help businesses become more profitable, efficient and satisfied with their purchases is becoming more important to brands than advertising - thereby linking the marketing department to operations."
This assertion holds just as true in B2B marketing. Bridging the great divide between sales and marketing doesn't fully complete the closed loop marketing model. B2B marketers must listen to their marketplace, and ensure that operationally, their business is keeping the promises they make - or else, any well-planned strategic communications will lose credibility and ring hollow.
Kelly Pires is B2B marketer and an account executive at MLT Creative, an Atlanta-based B2B advertising agency.
Hello, readers!
For longer than I care to document here, the Digital Citizens at MLT Creative have been tirelessly encouraging everyone else on staff to start blogging regularly. We've even gone so far as to officially declare blog
ging to be MLT Creative's collective New Year's Resolution.
I've delayed jumping into it, though, mostly because of the inevitable time restrictions, but also because once you start, it's really obvious when you stop. But I will take Martine's blogging basics to heart, and try my best to shoehorn some blogging into my workdays.
I'm counting on you all to keep me honest! If you haven't seen a blog from me in awhile, call me out on Twitter. There's nothing like a little public shame to keep me motivated.
Thanks in advance for reading! I'm looking forward to your comments and feedback.
Stay tuned for my first installment...
Kelly Pires is an account executive at MLT Creative, an Atlanta-based advertising agency specializing in business-to-business marketing.