The Marketing Leaders - B2B Marketing comes of age



		B2B Marketing comes of age
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THE marketing leaders ^TM is very keen to promote B2B Marketing. Its editor invites you to participate in the development of the IDM’s new B2B Marketing qualification. TML subscribers can also download some free industry and analyst reports. Find out, too, how you can support our ‘B2B Marketing deserves recognition’ campaign…

In this edition of The Marketing Leaders you will read that Business to Business (B2B) marketing is often put to the sidelines. It’s the lost cousin of the business-to-consumer (B2C) world, and my research for the development of 3 modules of the Institute of Direct Marketing’s new qualification shows that there aren’t presently many up-to-date books on the subject too. What there is available talks more often than not about physical consumer-related products (some of which to be fair may have a business application), and they largely ignore the growth of web and traditional B2B services – including those available through the Internet; the role of which needs some significant updating in the available textbooks.

Integrated B2B Communications

“Although little research conducted in this area, particularly in the business-to-business (B2B) sector, we should also note that UK online advertising has grown by 62% to £491 million in the first half of 2005, and Reed Exhibitions expect it to soon reach the £1bn mark. Global 2000 companies are also spending upwards of $600 billion a year on marketing, according David Norris in his report for Bloor Research on ‘Marketing Automation Platforms’.

Most of their marketing is executed in an impromptu and uncontrolled manner. There’s often too much focus on branding alone as well, even though marketing goes way beyond marketing communications, which only one element of an overall marketing strategy. In fact an IDC survey of chief marketing officers in 2004 suggested that 56% of technology-based firms said that creating brand awareness is their top marketing challenge.”

Source: Graham Jarvis MA, Bloor Research, ‘Creative B2B Marketing Campaigns’

So More needs to be done

THE marketing leaders ^TM, together with its supporters, article contributors and partners, like Bloor Research (Click here or email justin.speake@bloor-research.com for a free copy of my latest report on ‘Creative B2B Marketing Campaigns’), the Institute of Direct Marketing and many others. So, with our support and muster, B2B Marketing is now coming of age. It deserves to be pushed to the fore, to be talked about more often in the marketing press and in the country’s lecture theatres and seminars, whether in the academic or commercial spheres. After all, most commercial sectors (including the FMCG markets), non-profit or even Government sectors, are supported by B2B Marketing in one way or another.

Play a role in support of B2B Marketing

As a THE marketing leaders ^TM subscriber you can also play a role in helping us to gain more recognition for this discipline. How can you do this? You can write for this e-magazine, sponsor a webinar or an off-line event, or help with our research. I am currently working on 3 modules of the Institute of Direct Marketing’s new B2B Marketing qualification, and so I’d be delighted to hear from a number of our B2B marketers with experience and knowledge of the following within this sector: Strategic Marketing, Multi-Channel Marketing, and Loyalty and Retention. I am looking for at least 9 case studies from different industry sectors, whitepapers that can be used as part of my research, practitioners to interview, diagrams and more besides.

An 'open invitation'

Those able to help me with my research will be invited to write for THE marketing leaders ^TM, and our Community Director, David Hood is offering the opportunity for them to participate in an online recorded interview, which will be enable you to share your experiences and knowledge with the subscribers of TML. So if you consider yourself to be a Marketing Leader, please get in touch. They will also be appropriately accredited within the modules themselves.

As Editor of The Marketing Leaders I believe that B2B Marketing has come of age, but there’s more work to be done to increase the level of recognition its receives. To support our campaign and our research, please therefore call me on +44 (0)20 8661 8965, or +44 (0)776 682 3644 or why not connect with me on Skype? My user name is gajarvis. You can also get in touch with me by email.

Contribute to the next TML editions

Please also contact me if you would like to contribute an article about ‘The Marketing Dashboard’ – December 2006 edition - and ‘Marketing and Corporate Governance’ takes us into 2007. Hasn’t the year gone fast? It’s not long until Christmas!

By Graham Jarvis
Editor, THE marketing leaders ^TM

Email: editor@themarketingleaders.com
Blog: http://www.media-insert.co.uk
Web: http://www.themarketingleaders.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 8661 8965
Mobile: +44 (0)776 682 3644

Graham Jarvis
Editor,
THE marketing leaders ^TM

email
Blog: http://www.media-insert.co.uk
Web: http://www.themarketingleaders.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 8661 8965
Mobile: +44 (0)776 682 3644

Full list of articles for
November 2006