Category Archives: Education and Training

AdWords for Engineering Companies: start with B2B Buy-Task thinking

Engineering companies are often unsure as to how digital marketing is relevant for them. Frequently, they rely on the sales-force alone to clinch contracts. This can be challenging without digital marketing support. Engineering companies that are in B2B markets need to think in B2B Buy Task format as they structure their Google AdWords campaigns.

[ Note: This post was originally published on May 20, 2016 and due to the great interest of our dear readers this post is updated on March 3, 2021. We have added an example from aerospace from high tech manufacturing. The earlier example food manufacturing remains. In 2021 though, modern food processing facilities tend to be comparable to aerospace in terms of automation, digitization. We hope that this post will inspire readers from manufacturing to redouble their marketing efforts as we come out of COVID 19. ]

Derived Demand: Why B2B Marketers Should Care

Every B2B product has a consumer who ultimately pays for it. This is Derived Demand.

Not caring about the final B2C Customer is a big B2B Marketing Mistake.

The “S” Curves of radical and incremental innovation

What are the “S” curves? Each of the above S curves represent a technology platform. Movement up an “S” curve is incremental innovation while stepping down on a lower new “S” curve now, may lead to radical innovation, as the new “S” curve surpasses your existing “S” curve.

The Cost and Performance Y axis, Time on X Axis: If you look at the Y axis you see performance going up and cost coming down. Just as time goes on. In other words over time a particular S curve and technology platform gets improved. This improvement is through factors such as experience, techniques like 6 Sigma, more adoption by customer. The adoption by customer mean higher sales volumes and costs keep going down. However there is a catch for each S curve.

Happy July 4th: Why think about life after the COVID Pandemic?

Tomorrow is July 4th, 2020 the American Independence day.  July 4th is the American Independence Day and a day of hope and freedom for people.Due to the recent spike in American coronavirus cases, traditional firework displays have been cancelled in regions where there is an upsurge of cases. However, there are some options to watch fireworks  and here is a nice list of virtual fire work displays. Here is our July 4th post from 2008, in the midst of the great recession.
It’s really important to start thinking about life after the global coronavirus (COVID) pandemic…. because like the great recession, we will overcome this.  Here is why we should all be hopeful this 4th of July:

How work-life will change after coronavirus

With the experience of  coronavirus COVID 19 lockdowns work-life will change forever. . With 91% US kids at home parents are spending more time than ever with children. Some parents have jobs that allow digital work and these folks are so lucky. Then there are the  struggling 25 million unemployed in the travel, tourism, retail and any type of jobs that require a physical presence. At the other end of essential workers are the beleaguered medical worker, true heros, who show up every day to work. No less valiant are factory workers, grocery retail workers, law enforcement folks who are keeping essential services working. For everyone in each of these situations the pandemic has been trying as the USA tries to reopen. Going forward here is how work life will change:

Unlocking Innovation: What does our Customer Success Tomorrow look like?

It’s hard to explain to everyone in an organization – that their role includes “marketing”. And focussing on constant innovation. Hence the term “Customer Success.”

[Note: Thanks to the interest of our dear readers this post from September 18, 2018 is updated April 7, 2021. During COVID everyone was forced to become more tech friendly. We hope that this revised post will help our dear readers prepare better for a post COVID world}

The Customer Success term is particularly popular in the SaaS (Software as a Service ) industry. SaaS companies need customer renewals. To do so, SaaS companies try to align the organization including programmers, sales , finance to working towards customer success. SaaS companies also have a separate Customer Success function that faces the customer and helps in getting the most out of the SaaS product.

Educating the customer is a central task for marketers

The days of information asymmetry are over. Information is no longer power. And Google and other search engines are just getting started. The notion of the used car salesman trying to sell a “lemon” is a relic of the pre-internet era. Today, the entire history of a used car is available to consumers through servicesContinue reading “Educating the customer is a central task for marketers”

Why forward looking performance “previews” for business are better

Over the last week there were two speakers who influenced this post. The first was the famous goal setting expert  Gary P Latham who spoke at Yale University. And the second was Bob Bowman, (Michael Phelp’s coach) who was interviewed on NBC for his new book  “The Golden Rules.” It also turns out that ourContinue reading “Why forward looking performance “previews” for business are better”

Why are people suspicious of innovation in organizations?

CEO’s know that their organizations must innovate to stay relevant and succeed. Other functional heads (CxO’s) also understand the innovation imperative. And this applies to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) ,Chief Supply Officer (CSO) or the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) etc. These organizational leaders cannot understand why getting a new thing started is so difficult. And why they do not see the benefits flowing in- simply because of employee reluctance in implementation and “buy-in.

New Product B2B marketers and the junior manager prospect: problem or opportunity?

No junior or middle manager would like to admit that they have a problem when faced with a new B2B solution that has the potential to vastly improve efficiency or reduce cost. Such an admission involves potentially admitting that the manager is not doing her job. The risks seem just too much with a new supplier, legacy systems and the fear of the unknown. A classic case of marketers trying to promote value as buyers try to reduce risk. And we are not just referring to purchasing and supply management folk- but the potential users of the new product that the marketers is trying to convince in the buying center.

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