In B2B communication (and the broaderbusiness world), Power Point has become synonymous with high-touch customer engagement.  But, has the servant become the master?  Power Point is the internal corporate currency.  The opportunities to easily churn out rich media presentations is evident; entire off-shore agencies have emerged to quickly and cost-efficiently produce power point.  And, Power Point has become the presentation vehicle of choice in academia.  Not just university, but primary and secondary schools in the U.S. now include power point as part of the curriculum.  Power Point is indeed a high-impact presentation tool with increasing capability to use rich multimedia assets in storytelling. 

A picture is truly worth a thousand words in a B2B high-touch engagement and showing solutions at work, showing a rich 3D rendering of a product still on the drawing board, or showing a customer reference singing your praises is certainly effective. 

I do see a couple of risks.  One is the vehicle becomes too much of a crutch for the content and the delivery.  If the prospect is staring at imagery flying around a screen, she may not be paying attention to the root message specific to her situation which is the core objective of the engagement.  Will the presenter become lazy knowing that the story will tell itself?  I recently had a hardware malfunction and had to present an hour strategy session on a white board from memory.  It turned out to be pretty invigorating and raised my level of engagement significantly. 

Some of the best sales presentations I have seen have been forty minute conversations based on 1 or 2 key ideas (albeit reinforced on 1 power point slide on a screen in the background).  I’ve also detected a subtle shift in the high-touch environments where basic Power Point is perceived as indistinguishable from the competition. 

One observed answer to this dilemma, flashier and fancier power point with embedded video, thunderous sounds and high-flying animation.  An unfortunate side-effect is computer crashing file sizes and the potential need to cart around external speakers and other paraphernalia.  Another observed approach,  a retro movement towards customer-tailored physical boards just like the ad agencies use on t.v. 

High-touch engagement across the sphere of decision-making and influence is exceptionally important in the later stages of the B2B sales cycle.  

But, vigilance is required to ensure the differentiated “what” that needs to be communicated doesn't’t get lost in a rich media clutter of “how” it’s presented.  And, sometimes the competition can be outflanked by redefining the media supporting the message instead of seeking to win the power point arms race.   

Or, just a very clever viral marketing gimmick? 

Skittles (www.skittles.com) has launched a new website that may be a harbinger of things to come as the web evolves from destination to distribution.  The Skittles brand is now represented in the digital world by an amalgamation of all things social networked and crowd sourced.  The home page itself is the Wikipedia listing for Skittles.  A chatter tab takes you to the twitter page for Skittles. Another tab takes you to the Skittle Facebook page.  Even video is supported off-page via a You Tube channel.  And pictures?  Flickr, of course.  (Interestingly enough, there seem to be quite a few people who name their pets Skittles.)  All of these off-page resources are managed fairly cleverly by a branded navigation bar to keep a visitor grounded. 

What’s a marketer to make of this integration of relevant and credible content sources that are shaping the Skittles brand through grass-roots discussion, debate and consensus?  More importantly, what’s a consumer to think?  Is it credible, or are we going to find out later all the passionate posters of Skittles pictures on flickr are actually employees of a PR firm working incognito a la Lonely Girl?  The Wikipedia entries seem to be coming from trusted sources exclusively within the Skittles organization and its digital marketing firm.  Plus, the opt-in content disclaimer up front is a little creepy for a candy brand.

Regardless, it’s a shot across the bow on how marketers think about the interaction of customers and brands in the digital space.  Most marketers have already been thinking about how best to leverage the power of viral content and crowd sourcing to improve customer engagement and keep brands timely and credible. 

Skittles has launched an aggressive approach, which has basically handed the brand over.  It may be a well-executed gimmick, but a thought provoking one in the integrated marketing space. (Photo credit: PiccoloNamek)

There’s a very poignant story circulating right now, “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. 

The video of the lecture  is inspiring and I also recommend the book which has some additional material and perspective.  If you’re not familiar, it’s literally the last lecture of a Carnegie Mellon professor afflicted with terminal cancer (who has since passed away) where he reflects back on lessons learned. 

One particular anecdote I’ll paraphrase is his experiences with a youth football coach he describes as “old school”.  The first day of practice, the players quickly notice that the coach has arrived without any footballs.  When asked, the coach retorts, “How many players touch the football at any given time on the field?”  When someone answers “one”, the coach continues “We’re going to focus on what the other 21 players are doing…. the basics”. 

As I continuously monitor topics related to integrated marketing through the digital toolkit, I am struck by the same lesson…focus on the basics.  There are a lot of new digital tactics emerging in both B2C and B2B some will win and proliferate others will fade, but it’s important not to lose focus on the basics.  For most marketers, their web site is the media channel garnering more customer interactions and engagement that any other media channel.  Ensuring the right information awaits the right person in the right place on a website is an exercise in content management which isn’t the hottest of topics, but critical to the credibility of a brand. 

And, the movement of customers from one stage to the next in the purchase cycle is intrinsically tied to not only the right information, but also the basic taxonomy of the website and effective calls to action.  It’s an exercise in basics that takes internal fortitude and discipline.  Similarly, the most efficient means by which many companies can bring people to their interactive experiences, their most prolific media channel, is search engine optimization.  Again, an exercise in ongoing discipline and institutional focus as SEO is a journey not a destination. 

The ongoing evaluation of keywords, copywriting, tagging, taxonomy, urls and other algorithm affecting variables is roll-up-your-sleeves, basic marketing. 

Just as in sports, a strong foundation in the basics of digital marketing will make the rest of the mix more effective.

The emergence of computer generated imagery (CGI) as a viable production alternative for very flexible creative platforms has been proven to me as I’ve used it as an alternative for traditional photography in both on-line and off-line marketing components. 

I know most photographers no longer use film as the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of digital photography have taken hold.  I wonder if someday the photo shoot will become obsolete and creative production will occur only on high-performance workstations. 

After seeing this article  another dimension emerges.  Will a computer generated shopping world be a viable alternative channel now that it’s moving from a gimmick in Second Life to a stand-alone replication of a world-class shopping different.  My retail marketing experience has taught me the importance of the “last 3 feet”, the moment of truth when final purchase decision re made. 

The retail sales representative continues to have significant influence on this moment of truth.  I wonder if Artificial Intelligence-based sales avatars are in development to help close the sale in the virtual world?   

Having had the opportunity to market in both B2C and B2B (and B2B2C) environments, it’s been interesting to take a step back and evaluate the similarities and differences between the approaches necessary in both to achieve success.  At the core, both share certain basic similarities founded in classical marketing convention.  Customer-needs based brand positioning which is relevant and credible, and creates distance from the competition (through uniqueness within a category or creation of a new category) is the structure upon which I’ve been able to build successful marketing programs in both B2C and B2B environments.  From this commonality; however, diverge two very different marketing lifecycles.  B2C customers are typically much less brand loyal and often make buying decisions emotionally.  My B2C experience has substantiated that a consumer will quickly change brands should another meet a relevant need better with more credibility and differentiation.  My B2B marketing experiences have dealt with customers who consider brand quite important in the purchase cycle (“no one ever got fired for buying IBM”) and engage in a very rational purchase process.  The purchase process itself is exceptionally different.  Whereas B2C marketing can encourage the “impulse buy”, B2B is a much longer and complex sales cycle with typically a large sphere of influencers impacting the ultimate purchase decision.  This difference in purchase cycle leads to much different channel marketing strategies, with the complexity of B2B solutions often requiring multi-step distribution across a number of partners who bundle together a solution of parts for the ultimate end-customer.  These differences impact the integrated marketing approach as target audiences (buyers and influencers) respond to different marketing vehicles.  One thing I have noticed is a convergence of both B2C and B2B in the digital space, as digital marketing proves effective across the audiences to nurture a dialogue with the end-customer regardless of speed and complexity of the sales cycle.  Many of the digital tools once focused on the B2C space to help the consumer easily research a product and hopefully convert them are now being successfully utilized in the B2B space.  B2B customers now the ability to holistically research solutions (and marketers now have the ability to accelerate the sales cycle) through the digital toolkit.  Search any major B2B company on YouTube and it’s likely you will find a channel focused on the B2B customer.  This convergence in the digital space is turning what used to be two different types of marketing skill sets into different points along the same spectrum.

I am a passionate proponent and frequent champion of avoiding what in my view is a common marketing mishap, the "ready, fire aim" method of running with a marketing tactic prior to clearly understanding a couple of things:  the business objectives which drive the marketing objectives and corresponding integrated marketing mix, but also, and more important to the overall effectiveness of a marketing program, the unique positioning of a product or a brand as the genesis for all marketing.  I define "brand" as a promise to customers, employees, channel partners, employees and even competitors.  I define positioning as how a company (or a product as representative of a brand) uniquely delivers on that promise.  Typically, my most effective work developing positioning has been done through the lens of relevance, credibility and distance.  Relevance related to how the attribute of a brand are translated into the terms that are aligned with customers in a particular segment of the market.  How does a brand or a product deliver against their specific needs, help them achieve their goals and aspirations?  How can they relate to a brand in their own context, in their own language and vernacular?  Credibility builds upon that relevance to articulate the reasons to believe that a particular brand can deliver against those customer-specific aspirations and goals.  Why should anyone believe your promise?  Any brand has that information at the ready.  Some are challenged bringing that to the forefront.  It's often corporate nature to focus inside-out.  To want to talk about what makes your product cool, to focus on a technology instead of benefit, to list features etc. etc.  And conversely, against corporate nature to think about positioning, what makes you unique in a way which is relevant and credible to your customers?   Continued discipline is needed not only to establish this type of philosophy, but also adjust and evolve it as the market, customers and competitors, evolve.  The third element, distance, speaks to how different and differentiated you are from the competition.  How do you deliver your brand promise with relevance and credibility that's unique to other choices in your category?

With all that said, as I reflect upon this blog to-date, I've started with tactics loosely affiliated under the confederacy of the integrated marketing mix. In hindsight, this topic should have been the genesis of any integrated marketing discussion.

Visual clutter has unfortunately extended from the digital world into the physical resulting in an interesting evolution of out of home advertising space.  The leader with whom I’ve had good experience is JC Decaux (http://www.jcdecauxna.com/  )  an agency consistently pushing the envelope in the intersection of new technology and out of home advertising.  What used to be static is now dynamic as lighting and movement is integrated into what used to be static small form out of home such as bus shelter advertising.  JC has also put a green spin on out of home with advertising kiosks in Paris which catch and store rain water via roof basins that’s stored in the body of the kiosk and then used to clean and post material on the kiosks with out requiring a water tanker truck to drive around and service the kiosks.  Interactive store windows that sense and interact with the movements of passers-by are exceptionally engaging; check out the weird soundtrack for Diesel in Milan http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/diesel-interactive-store-window-sculpture .  I am intrigued by  the whispering window http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxd_CeQPAbY  and the potential it represents for personalized interaction when combined with other technologies, but a high cost may never move it out of a promotional state.  Bluetooth enabled out of home which passes content to passersby as seen at http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9755102-1.html has the potential to target but also annoy.  Mini did interesting work with RFID enabled billboads that utilize RFID keyfobs and user contributed personalized messages to flash targeted messages as the MINI drives nearby http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/13/mini-usa-rolls-out-rfid-activated-billboards/ .  Really cool, but doesn’t change and gives rise to big brother conspiracy theories.

The digital marketing mix is top of mind for the obvious reasons of targeting and efficiency of spend.  A couple of traditional mix elements have recently caught my attention for innovation that seeks to achieve the same benefits of digital marketing in the offline mix.  Traditional direct mail is under attack not only from the efficiency angle, but also the environmental perspective.  I recently attended a very interesting presentation from the US Postal Service www.usps.com  which focused on driving efficiency into traditional direct mail.  A movement is under foot to convert the traditional direct mail model from pay per unit sent to pay per unit converted.  In other words, an advertiser doesn’t pay for postage unless the direct mail piece results in a conversion.  A less measurable perspective from a likely biased presenter:  direct mail is now exceptionally effective with millenials as a direct result of their living in a digital world; since they don’t get very much mail in the mailbox anymore, they are more likely to pay attention.  Also, a sound byte on the environmental impact of catalogs and direct mail: less than 2% ends up in landfills.

I heard an interesting opinion recently that in general, search engine optimization is more effective in reaching customers and prospects during the awareness stage of the purchase lifecycle and that paid search is more effective during the acquisition stage.  The implication being the message and context which accompanies the search result can be optimized to best anticipate the desire of the customer.  It will be interesting to see more research supporting this premise as I find myself negatively inclined to click on paid search banners as I find them generally more contrived and too direct in their engagement.  I react in this manner with full knowledge that the activities impacting natural search rankings make the result rankings no coincidence.  Maybe the ongoing evolution of the search algorithms provides a comfort level that I am not missing a better deal by clicking on the first banner I see-one that is an obvious advertisement.  On the other hand, if the paid search banner is a trusted source, I will readily click through and accelerate the sales cycle while avoiding potential competitive links.  There must be precedent from traditional advertising.  Judging from the stacks of car ads in the newspaper and the apparent continued effectiveness of inflatable guerillas on car lots, an in your face approach must be generating significant ROI.   The research and results will be interesting.

I recently viewed research data from leading search engine marketing agency which stated that over 70% of click throughs are driven by the first five results in an organic search listing, with paid search banner results for the same search ranking a distant third in overall click through rates.  An overwhelming case for an effective search engine optimization strategy to create and maintain effective organic search optimization.  The big question remains at what point does paid search need to play a role in the search marketing activities.  Does the ROMI play out to invest to own keywords beyond the optimization investment required to own and maintain first and second organic search listings?   The one thing paid search does deliver is certainty.  The third most effective search position can always be owned regardless of competitive activity or change in search engine algorithms.    The elasticity between paid search investment and investment and maintenance of organic search strategies to influence click through rates leading to more financially salient results is now a critical equation

 

With a barrage of web 2.0 options entering the digital marketing toolkit, it’s been challenging to sort out the relative impact of platforms like communities, social networking, blogs, wikis etc.  I’ve been trying to better understand the trade offs on blogs as a component of the marketing mix and now after months having passed since establishing a blog, I can provide a personal testament to what seems to be an underestimated investment of resource to create topical and relevant content in a timely enough manner to keep an audience engaged in dialogue.  A situation I see mirrored in the corporate blogosphere.  Without a ghost writer, it’s pretty challenging to populate, much less maintain, a blog as a part time pursuit. 

The successful blogs I’ve observed serve a very specific purpose to a very specific audience.  Rudimentary marketing, perhaps, but often overlooked as a tactics are deployed without strategy.  The siren song of new ways of reaching customers and prospects has created a web 2.0 checklist, now standard issue in an agency pitch.  A recent study from Forrester www.forrester.com entitled “B2B marketers fail the community marketing test” highlighted that only a fairly significant percentage of B2B marketers are using blogs.  What specific strategy to move prospects along the purchase cycle is enabled by a blog and how effective and measurable the result.     I also observe successful blogs are often times fueled by personal passion.  A function of staying disciplined in scope and focus and ensuring whoever is writing understands the unique vernacular of the target.  Passion and discipline attainable without dedicated focus?  I’ll test it for myself trying to keep up with what’s purported to be a key currency in the digital marketing toolkit as a side-exploit.