Business Marketing

Communications

Reference –Majority contents are from a) “B2B Marketing – A South Asian Perspective” -
Michael D. Hutt, Dheeraj Sharma & Thomas W. Speh and b) R.A.Cormier, besides other
sources)
 Paints Pvt Ltd
Paints Pvt Ltd is an anti corrosive paints company with annual
revenue of 5 crs . It manufacture paints is in Singur near Kolkata.
Paints Pvt is head quartered in Kolkata. The plant has been
installed and commissioned recently. The owner is an
entrepreneur from humble background. He has looped in some
technical experts in a flexible arrangements to develop new
products and run the plant. The plant has two mixers which
produces the paints. At this moment, it is working in a water pipe
paints project . It supplies anti corrosive paintings for water pipe
project. The project is a government funded. Paints Pvt is looking
forward to expansion and to get few more clients. It does not uses
advertising. At this moment , it does not have a website and is
planning to launch a website. In future, it has aspiration to use
digital marketing tools.

Please develop an outline for its advertising strategy and also

develop an outline for the digital advertising strategy for the
company.
 Objectives
 Role of social media
 Structuring advertising decision
 Understanding b2b advertising decision area
 Evaluate role of online advertising
 Evaluate role of trade shows
 Business to business social media

b2b social media refers to the various channels through the

social web where customer prospects an business communicate
across platforms as diverse as discussion forums, blogs, wikis, and
social networks, engaging with each other through the exchange
of content.

Discussion forum – a website on which participant can contribute

online discussions by posting opinions and questions related to
particular subjects.

Blog – an online journal maintained by an individual who uploads

content intended to information, express opinion, etc

Wiki –a collaborative web site on which User can develop and edit
informative content through their web browser.

Social networks-web sites comprised of online profiles for

individuals and groups that distribute content to others.
 Dell’s social Media Brand

Dell publishes several blogs in five languages including blogs on several topics
such as enterprise IT perspectives, healthcare and education.

 Sponsors a handful of online communities where customers can join

discussions on issues ranging from small business applications too gaming and the
company’s responsiveness

 Support forums – allow users to ask questions, and find answers about laptop
computers, servers, mobile devices, and other offerings

 Dell has more than 15 crore followers on Twitter, 600,000 fans on face-book
and 6000 subscribers to Dell’s You tube channel.

Dell’s signature media initiative is Idea Storm online community. Consumers

can post innovation ideas for Dell to consider, view their peer ideas, and vote for
or against ideas. Dell has received 15000 ideas from which 442 ideas have come
into fruitition.
 The customer decision journey

Marketers need to recognize how digital marketing has

changed the customer decision process or customer
decision journey.

Based on a study of nearly 20000 customers across five

industries , the research has find that “ single most impetus
to buy someone is someone else’s advocacy. Still, many
marketers focus media spending ( principally advertising)
rather than on driving advocacy.”
 Charting CDJ
Consumer decision journey (CDJ)

CDJ includes two critical points

Inspiration – turn online to find, create and compare ideas.

Sharing – customers relate their experiences or post case studies using a

variety of social media

Transforming the strategy ( global light)

1. After project completion, share the project cases online(website),
send to customer prospects and cross post in community sites
2. a team of marketing manager and salespeople keep monitoring the
community sites.
3. make the technical specification available in the website in easy
format. Tools for wattage selection for architects and consultants.
les sons learnt
Customer experience includes everything from discussions in social
media to face to face meetings with sales people to continued
interaction with the company and with other customers.
 The role of advertising

• Integrated communication programs

•Enhancing sales effectiveness
•Increased sales efficiency
•Creating awareness -------awareness to brand preference
to conviction to purchase
 Integrated Communication Programme
Advertising and sales promotion are rarely used alone in the
B2B but intertwined with total communication strategy
especially personal selling.

 Blend advertising and sales promotion strategy with

personal selling
 B2b advertising cannot

replace personal selling .

 cannot create product preferences……. Needs
Demonstration, operational testing
For effective communication, the business
marketing manager must blend all
communication tools – print and online.
Advertising creates awareness, provide
information and uncover important leads
 Enhancing Sales Effectiveness
Effective
advertising can make personal selling more productive

Rupee sales per salesperson call were significantly higher when

customer had been exposed to advertising.

Primary role of B2B advertising is to enhance the reputation of the

supplier

Efficiency

Increased spending on advertising leads to greater brand awareness for

industrial products which translates into larger market shares and higher
profits.

For an industrial product, Gross margin after advertising > 4-5 X gross
margin before advertisements.
 Increased sales efficiency

The effect of advertising on the marketing program’s overall

efficiency is evidenced in two way.

a) Business suppliers need to remind actual and potential

buyers of their solutions or make them aware.

b) Advertising appears make all selling activities more

effective. Advertising interact with all communications and
selling activities and it can boost efficiency for the entire
marketing expenditure.
 Creating Awareness

From a communication standpoint, the buying process takes

potential buyers sequentially from unawareness of a product or
supplier to awareness to brand preference o conviction that a
particular purchase will fulfill their requirements and ultimately
to actual purchase.

 61% of the design engineers returning an enquiry card from a

magazine indicated that they were unaware of the company that
advertised before seeing the ad.

 Business advertising may also make some contribution to

creating preference for the product.
 Managing b2b advertising
Set advertising objectives and define target markets

Determine the advertising budget

Developing the advertising message

Selecting advertising media for business market

Evaluate advertising effectiveness

 Set advertising objectives and define target markets

Set advertising objectives and define target markets-

 Advertising mission flows directly from marketing strategy.

Advertising objective must fulfill –creating awareness, providing

information, influencing attitudes and reminding buyers of
company and product existence

Written objectives

 Must be realistic and measurable and must specify what is to be achieved and when
 A specific objective can be “ to increase from 15% to 30% the proportion of general
contractors associating energy efficiency feature with our brand of air-conditioners
 Business advertising does not bear direct relationship to specific sales targets.
 Advertising goals are generally stated in terms of communication goals such as brand
awareness , recognition and buyer attitudes.
 Managing B2b advertising

Objectives ( contd)……..
the target audience needs to be defined. Each segment has
distinct product/ service attribute and criteria. Advertising
must focus these areas and hence, the objective must
mention the target audience.

creative strategy statement

has to be mentioned. It provides guidelines to the company
and advertising agency how to position the product in the
market place.

All creative efforts should support creative strategy

statement. Planning an effective advertising campaign
needs a clearly written objectives that provide a foundation
for selecting media and measuring results,
 Managing B2b advertising

Advertising Expenditure

Advertising budget
Determine advertising budget – spends crores of rupees.
Increasing share of web.
Two types- rule of thumb – some percentage of sales .
Second , objective task method--- relates advertising costs to the
objectives it is to accomplish.

1.Establsih specific marketing objectives for the products in terms

of such factors as sales volume, market share, profit, etc
2. Assess the communications to be performed to realize the
marketing objectives and then determine the role of advertising in
performing these functions.
3. Define specific goals for advertising in terms of the measurable
communications response required to achieve the objectives
4. Estimate the budget needed to accomplish the advertising
goals.
 Developing the advertising message

•Perception – buyer may not perceive the message because of

perceptual barriers. Even, reading may create opposite meanings.
•Attention
•Interpretation
Buyer tends to screen out message in consistent with their needs,
beliefs and values.
Interpret in the light of needs and beliefs.
Technical readers respond more favourably to technical ads where
as non technical readers shall favour

•Focus on benefits a business buyer purchases fast delivery time/

solution/ etc. “ very clear and strong focus on benefits” ….. So that
the customer reads and believes.

•Understanding buyer motivations extensive market research is

needed to understand the motivation of buyer. “ no classical set of
motivations or buying criteria”
 Selecting advertising media for business market

an integrated marketing communications program might include a blend

of online, print and direct mail advertisements that deliver a consistent
story across the formats.

online advertising - a shift to digital spend – 34724 crs.

Paid search engine ads – 45% of total online ads followed by display ads.
Rich media/video format witnessing growth
Motorola ….integrated campaign – for its public safety solutions

 business publication - magazines or new papers who editorials is

directed towards professionals within a specific industry trade
publications.
Vertical and horizontal publications.

Direct marketing tools - direct mail, direct e-mail.

Direct mail – used for corporate image promotion, product/service

promotion, sales force support, distribution channel communication and
special marketing problems.
Selecting advertising media for business market

Direct e-mail providing direct information to the customer –

Far more cheaper than direct mails. Generally, yield higher
responses than direct mail
 Measuring advertising effectiveness

measuring impacts on the purchasing decision

advertising affects – awareness, knowledge and other
dimensions
Also measure the indirect communication effects of
advertisements , word of mouth,
Ad effectiveness is evaluated against objectives formulated
in terms of buyers decision process as well as some of the
indirect communication effects.

The measurement program measures – market, motives,

messages, media and results.

Web metrics -measure traffic to the website, seo

 Managing Trade show strategy

 Trade shows : strategy benefits ------every year 79%

consumers come to their exhibitors
 An effective selling message can be delivered to a
large , interested audience
 new product introduction to mass audience
 customer gets hands on experience of customer like
1-to-1 selling situations.
 potential customers can be identified
 general good will can be enhanced
 free publicity
 Trade show investment returns
 Trade show objectives
 Selecting the shows
 Managing the trade show exhibits
 Evaluating the trade show performance
 Trade Show return investments

 improves sales efficiency in terms of communication

Powerful way of personal selling and trade shows
complement each other.

Planning trade show strategy –

 what functions should the trade show perform in the

total marketing communication?

 to whom should the marketing effort at trade show be

directed?

 what is the appropriate show mix for the company?

 what should be the tradeshow investment-audit policy

be? How should audits be carried out?
 Trade show objectives

 Generating Sales
 Targeting potential customers
 providing product, service and company
information
 learning of potential application problems
 creating actual sales
 handling current customer problems
Gathering competitive intelligence
 building corporate image.
 Trade show planning

Selecting the show

Frequented by the companies most important customer

segment ( idea from sales people/ customers)

 information from online directories

 net buying influences/ total buying plans …..measures of

the trade shows in some databases.

Managing the trade show effectively – meeting prospects,

existing and potential customers, presenting, lead capture,
scheduling interviews, etc
 Evaluating trade show performance

Show attendees

Target audience

Attracted to the booth (attraction)

Contact with the salesperson

Sales lead (conversion)