Posted by Katherine Canipelli on Mon, Jun 08, 2009 @ 10:56 AM
The "new new" mousetrap is that thing that suddenly appears from nowhere and changes our lives. The paradigm shifter. The game changer. Whether the "new new" is service, manufactured good, or applied science, the marketer's challenge is huge. Your target customer hasn't a clue that they need it. And, even if they're intrigued, they probably lack what it takes to assess the potential value. Not a particularly auspicious set up for your sales team.
Don't tell me, yada yada. Prove it.
Why, then, do companies launch major new products on the naive premise that "show and tell" is a viable business development strategy? It may happen in consumer-land, but in the B2B world, new concepts don't get scooped up by simply arriving on the scene. Even the seemingly overnight successes cultivated their business opportunities very deliberately over time.
For argument's sake, let's assume that the venture backing the "new new" has enough funding to sustain the development period ahead, and that the core value proposition is both real and well articulated.
With the basics in hand, here are six essentials for "new new" market development:
#1 SALES BUILDS ON NICHE MARKET STRATEGY
In launching the "new new", you're up against
skeptics and entrenched beliefs about business process that don't
change easily. The marketer's job is to promote the benefits/advantages of change, to reduce the perceived risk of change in
general, and the risk of selecting your particular solution. Niche
strategies allow you to do the ground work more efficiently and to
secure a core client base at lower cost. Focus on one or two specific market contexts where your solution presents distinct advantage over the alternatives. Niche strategies target very narrowly defined uses, in terms of vertical markets, functions or process supply chains.
#2 ASSEMBLE IRREFUTABLE LOGIC ABOUT THE VALUE
Define, document and quantify the value proposition in your market's language. Do beta installations/set ups (for nothing, if you must) and get out there in the trenches to follow the value chain in order to prove the concept in use. Building a strong business case in one market niche will produce a fat file of references to help you jump to the next niche. Much, much faster.
#3 GET KNOWN FOR EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
Get known for the excellence with these first niches, then use them to network your way into additional sectors that have similar challenges. Provide clients with a "cookbook" on how to maximize the value of your product in use. And be very specific without fear of giving away your secret sauce. Provide whatever client services support is necessary to make them
successful users, even if that means contributing your expertise to
assist in their process redesign if they won't or can't do it
themselves. (You may find need to price in the consulting services; having testimonials attributing successful transition to your attentive client services will help.)
#4 EVERY CUSTOMER IS A CASE STUDY
Profile each new client's experience using your product, at all levels of use, in as many contexts as you can. Make the case study development bits part of your "onboarding" or "implementation" process--so that you can understand why and how they made the decision to use your "new new" from their perspective. Capture executive testimonials that attest that the value promised was delivered-and that your firm goes beyond. Then produce formal case studies that tell the story from the client's viewpoint. Write white papers that discuss the options and trade-offs, comparing your solution honestly.
#5 EXPLOIT NETWORK RELATIONSHIPS
Now, you're positioned to launch your "new new" into more niches. You have the data to back your unique selling proposition and real people who will vouch for how your company does business. Now you have something of interest to say, face-to-face, in print, on the web, at conference, et al. Substance that will help you sell. And contacts that you can ask to introduce you to others with similar problems or needs.
#6 SWITCH TO INBOUND MARKETING TACTICS
Inbound marketing educates, excites and engages prospects where they're looking for insight at different stages of their buying cycle. It's inherently a content marketing approach, but also fundamentally sales oriented. Web-centric integrated marketing infrastructure is vital; every tactic contributes to the overall success and metrics guide improvement. Do it well and you'll pull your targeted prospects through the awareness-interest-specifications-commitment pipeline without wasting much on the tire kickers. And since inbound marketing prompts prospects to contact you, this also means no more cold calls. Your sales team will love you.
No magic, just good planning & diligent execution.
One final comment. There is no "magic bullet". It's not about the size of your ad budget, creative branding, or becoming a media darling. These things are admirable, but not sufficient. Marketing the "new new" requires the diligence, discipline and process quality approaches akin to what your product engineers do. Work that's not always so glamorous and definately not a one shot deal. The most effective B2B marketing is systematic to begin with and "new new" marketing requires more than the usual number of touches.
Don't be confused. Your strategy doesn't position you to sell, it gets you aligned with how your prospect buys. In the case of a "new new" mousetrap, this means blasting a hole in their perceptions. Because, frankly, they aren't even aware that they should buy what you're offering.
NEED HELP?
If your customers know more about the value you provide than you do, marketingFOLIO can help. We'll
provide the independent research to verify direct and indirect benefits
by market segment, validate buying processes and personas, and produce
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Posted by Katherine Canipelli on Tue, Apr 07, 2009 @ 09:35 PM
Launching a blog, I’ve learned, is like trying out for American Idol.
You walk in thinking you’re the next great pop star and then—ephiphany!—you find that your destiny is to be the next great opera diva (a bit like the French soprano’s Natalie Dessay’s story). It takes getting up on stage to find the right voice.
The Power of Authenticity.
This is to say that, after some reflection (and target market feedback), we’re shifting the style a bit. Less dense, more sporty. The Industrious Marketer’s goal is to add some insight on all things B2B marketing, but not necessarily to break new ground with every post. And, for the blogger, a little less pressure and a lot more fun!
More Chapters Yet To Come.
There remains a place for the serious, instructive, analytic, white papery content. Allow me to introduce the new marketingFOLIO B2B Point of View Series. The first article, “Ten Tips for B2B Market Research”, was modified from a 2006 client memo I wrote about the value of targeted research, input to a new strategic market segmentation initiative. (We got the gig, which combined web-based “customer” surveys and in-depth industry executive interviews to capture full spectrum data.)
Readings to Share.
After revamping the piece this week, I was happy to find two good articles that discuss trends in B2B market research. The first came from eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey ("Why Now is Not a Good Time to Slash Your Market Research Budget") citing three recent studies (AdMedia Partners, Duke Univ/AMA, MarketResearchCareers) that suggest that B2B companies may actually use the current economic situation to advantage by investing more in research. The second was a BtoB article ("Online Market Research Takes Off—Internet surveys combined with traditional research methods are becoming the norm") that echo’d my contention that support for B2B research suffers unnecessarily due to fear of small sample sizes.
Other than budget constraints, another pushback against research is “inside information”. Not the SEC kind; I refer to senior executives who strictly rely on personal experience to guide strategy decisions. I’m always a bit shocked to find this, despite years of experience working for engineer-oriented, operations-focused, sales-driven companies that should have inured me to the insularity of it all. Being customer-centric may be a stretch for some businesses, but to be customer deaf is a problem. Especially now, as market norms are shape-shifting as we watch.
As the saying goes, knowledge is power.
Posted by Katherine Canipelli on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 @ 09:44 AM
Technology changes everything: at home, at work, in our communities. Take this new tidbit: 1 Billion Internet users. Back in 1995, 1 million people were using the Internet worldwide (per MIT, based on hosted computers or IP addresses). Now, according to comScore world Metrix, the world bumped past the 1 Billion user milestone last December (2008). And this stat doesn't include scores of mobile users who connect primarily via iPhones, PDAs, practically every new phone sold, or the local Internet cafe.
Information is the Antidote to Commoditization
Emerging technology is transforming many markets and businesses. According to a recent The McKinsey Quarterly article on business tech trends to watch, "Technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value; companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business." The leading activities cited for transformation are managing relationships, managing capital and assets, and leveraging information in new ways. I couldn't agree more.
As with any network model, the more people that use it, the more value it offers. Thus, as social networking extends rapidly (e.g. LinkedIn and Plaxo) and as more business processes shift to SaaS platforms, the Internet is destined to be the ultimate business utility at home, at work and everywhere in between.
Business Process Innovation isn't Limited to Operations
It's those inbetween areas where new value lurks for the industrial B2B sector. As example, executives in my network tell me that their Internet use is greatest during business travel--primarily on mobile devices--when they're not occupied with leading people.
Although industrial business has embraced web-based technology to support core operations, B2B execs often overlook--or ignore--how they might leverage their commercial development with new web-based communications technologies. This isn't to suggest that we throw out the old, tried-n'-true approaches; it's time to explore how the new tools fit in and where they have greatest impact.
Three Steps You Need to Take Now
Industrial B2B marketers and product managers should champion new tools to spur awareness, demand and sales leads--working smarter with some time invested but no significant capital outlay:
- Rethink market communications with web-centric strategies: expand promotions reach at low cost (effectiveness), increase control of your leads pipeline (efficiency), and facilitate a two-way information flow that will set you apart from the competition (innovation)
- Be where your targeted decision makers are: add mobile device support to your market-facing and customer-facing websites--especially for data/transactions that feed their KPIs (excellence)
- Get comfortable with how social networking and social communities work for your business context: test them first with your employees and channel partners for knowledge exchange (alignment), then develop customer oriented "social" contexts that reinforce your value (EVA)