The Business Strategy Process – And Why It Fails
In many mid-sized B2B organisations there is no formal business strategy process. There may be a rough guide to the future direction and a financial plan, but that is all. If a strategic analysis process does exist, it is often little more than a box-ticking exercise....
A B2B Manufacturers Blog – What’s Its Real Purpose?
What’s the primary purpose of a B2B manufacturers blog? Is it traffic? Or better still sales leads? If those are your goals and you follow the standard blogging advice I suggest you will be disappointed. Let’s assume you run a small to medium-sized B2B manufacturing...
The Future Of Marketing
What does the future hold for marketing? I suggest the perception of marketing has fundamentally changed over the past twenty years and that is not good news for the marketing profession. That said, this is not a marketing is dead post, far from it. Marketing, when...
Using Scenarios in B2B Marketing planning
Some perceive the B2B marketing planning process to be flawed and a waste of resources, perhaps rightly so. In this post we consider the traditional marketing strategy and planning process, some of its major flaws and one possible solution. The Traditional Marketing...
How To Identify Target Customers – B2B Markets
The time taken to identify target customers in B2B markets is rarely wasted. It can be all too easy for a sales department to lack focus and to chase the easy target, the ones the competitor's chase, or those always open for a visit. It is important to focus resources...
Required B2B Marketing Skills For The 2020s
What B2B marketing skills are required by the modern marketer (or team)? To grow business from both existing and new customers the required marketing skillset includes: Brand management. Exhibition management. Social media. PR and press. Content and print. Sales...
Generating New Product Ideas In B2B Markets
In many B2B markets what was once a unique product or service is soon copied, often by low-cost producers, making it a commodity and driving down the price. The challenge then is continually generating new product ideas. However, there is a problem concisely put by...
B2B marketing strategy and planning – Focus and Flexibility Are The Key
The reasons for undertaking a B2B marketing strategy and planning exercise are well established but too often I have seen the result sitting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. The lack of an effective B2B marketing strategy and plan can result in lost opportunities...
The Value Of Customer Input Into Innovation Process
Asking for customer input to the product innovation process may seem like a logical approach but there is a problem. Steve Jobs said: A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. Henry Ford said: If I had asked people what they wanted,...
The Key manufacturing Business Marketing Challenges
Manufacturing businesses face a unique set of manufacturing marketing challenges. In this post, we suggest some potential solutions. Not Products But Commodities It is becoming harder to differentiate products and, as a result, charge a premium. Products are...
The Key B2B New Market Entry Challenges
The new B2B market entry challenges are not as obvious as they may seem. Yes, you need a killer product that fits with the need of the marketplace but image, relationship and your people are also key. We consider the key B2B new market entry challenges and suggest...
How To Grow Sales In A Niche Market
Any business with a target to grow sales in a niche market faces a unique set of challenges. Unfortunately, most marketing advice and literature focuses on mass markets. Little information is available on marketing to a niche. A niche market is defined by the...