| | | The B2B Research Blog | |  Companies | 10 articles |
| Page 1 of 1 | Previous | Next | THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG FEBRUARY 1, 2012 How B2B brands approach Twitter Group-wide company news and thought leadership is shared through @EYnews. Social media has become a bit of an obsession for me. Not so much as a participant, but as an observer. m the technology equivalent of a bird watcher. ve been observing B2B marketers in their natural habitat. Noting their behaviours. Sketching and documenting the different species I see. call them ‘Twitologies’ and I’d like to share an outline of them here. It all began with a study Circle Research conducted for B2B Marketing late in 2011 to establish the ‘state of the nation’ in B2B social media. | THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG JUNE 25, 2011 47% of B2B marketers endorse using sex to sell First, the technique sends clear messages to the market about your company’s personality and the substance of your proposition. Ever since I was invited to join The Network of Aspiring Women (Birmingham Group), I’ve felt more in touch with my feminine side ( see post here ). Perhaps that’s why my interest was piqued by a recent discussion on the B-to-B Marketing LinkedIn Group. Kate Bishop, Marketing Co-ordinator at Custom Fluidpower, has a dilemma. To use, or not to use, promotional girls at a trade show stand? Her boss is insistent but she has concerns. I share them. Enjoyed this post? | | | | | |
| THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG JULY 27, 2011 Three reasons B2B marketers should care about sustainability Aside from Sodexo, are there any particular companies or sectors that you particularly admire and respect from a sustainability perspective? In the latest in my series of interviews with today’s leading business thinkers I spoke with Thomas Jelley, Corporate Citizenship Manager at support services giant Sodexo. But why, you may wonder, is a B2B marketing research agency like Circle talking about sustainability. Isn’t that the preserve of a niche team within corporations and NGOs? . Well, no. solid approach to sustainability shows that your organisation cares and is ‘one of us’. | THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG MAY 18, 2011 An interview with Jaakko Alanko: MD, Alanko Consulting Vertically-based segmentation – which typically covers large corporates, medium-sized companies, small enterprises and micros – has become increasingly important. And of course this gives us the opportunity to align the communications approach with the behaviours and needs of those types of company. . Under this scenario it is clearly the CEO because only the CEO has the total view of the company and all of its capabilities. If I look at the mega corporate world I really admire GE as a company. What are the biggest? Technology enables us to do this. . | THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG JANUARY 25, 2012 Measuring the service experience Needless to say the conversation ended pretty quickly and my trust in the company vanished. Does your business have a service element? Do you measure customer perceptions of the experience? If so, you might want to take a quick look under the bonnet. Let me share a story. It sounds far-fetched, but is true. Recently I took a holiday. Not one to ever fully turn off though, I needed my smartphone. Sadly, it too had decided to take a vacation. No calls. No emails. No problem” I thought. I’ll just call the operator’s help desk and get back online. My feedback was honest. | THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG JUNE 20, 2011 Better B2B segmentation: Four steps and a case study At this point, firmographic variables like company size and industry sector become relevant again as each segment can then be profiled on this basis to help targeting. Last week I was invited to join The Network of Aspiring Woman, Birmingham Group. I was tempted. After all, “ it’s where networking feels like a party ”. However, I declined for two reasons. I live in London. I’m a man. Clearly the Network’s execution fell short, but their strategy seems smart. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, they’ve segmented the market and targeted a niche group. The result? | | | | | | | |
| -
THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011 An interview with Stephen Cheliotis: CEO, Centre for Brand Analysis
Now, the best graduates, the best employees will be attracted to companies with a well-known, high profile, well regarded brand. Even investors who should, in theory, be very logical and very black and white in their views will be more confident investing in a company they’ve heard of, a company that they know has a strong reputation. I imagine that this applies to a company such as Circle where you’ve developed an impressive and loyal client base by always focussing on very high quality deliverables to clients. What makes a strong B2B brand? Absolutely. MORE >> -
THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2010 The French are stubborn
National stereotypes also apply to companies and their products (think Siemens, Aeroflot, Fujitsu). The French are stubborn. Germans are meticulous. The British are intelligent. National stereotypes are not always fair and should be challenged. However, they’re also powerful, resistant to change and widely held. To illustrate, try the following. Type ‘why do French’ into Google and look at the auto-complete options. These include ‘…people eat snails’ and ‘…people stare’. . Try the same for British, Italian or any other nationality. Google is smart. MORE >> -
THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG | SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011 The Ministry of Happiness
Companies, it struck me, are similar in some ways to governments. In our parallel world, we marketers sit in the Ministry of Happiness because the essence of our role concerns the interface between company and the key citizen group of customers. Next post: Creating your company’s GNH index. “[GNP] measures everything…except that which makes life worthwhile” said Robert Kennedy. Forty years on David Cameron has picked up Kennedy’s idea and instructed government statisticians to begin measuring quality of life in psychological terms. . In a nutshell the idea is this. MORE >> -
THE B2B RESEARCH BLOG | THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2011 Air Cargo News: Interview with Circle’s Andy Booth
Booth thinks that air cargo companies sometimes pay too little attention to such customer views, or that they fall into the trap of thinking that all customers think the same, whereas in fact different groups of them may have different priorities. Some companies say, ‘If our sales people don’t know the customer, then they should’. The conversation might start with general perceptions and frustrations about the industry and then move on to how the client company is viewed in that context. Advertising is not the only way companies communicate with their customers, however. MORE >>
| |
