In doing the research for this we came across a very interesting article – see it on our website – from the World Journal of Management Volume 2 #1 March 2010 by Roger Brooksbank, Janet Davey, and James Macintosh.
The article is entitled Marketing’s Great Identity Crisis: A Revised Definition and an Urgent Research Agenda and can be viewed here: http://wbiaus.org/6.Rog.pdf

In this great paper, Brooks-Bank, Davey, and Macintosh outline how our very practice – not just B-to-B but B-to-C as well – is undergoing a fairly significant identity crisis as we move through this decade. They outline the causes to this, and some pathways to the cure.
Among other things in this interesting paper is their definition of marketing – or shall I say a proposed new definition.

Marketing is…
A philosophical, strategical, and operational managerial discipline involving:
1. The creation of a customer centric organization;
2. The identification of appropriate target markets and corresponding value propositions and in each case;
3. The development of satisfied customers in a socially and environmentally responsible manner at a planned financial return

The authors have carefully thought through every word of this definition. Looking for something to talk about at your next marketing managers meeting? You might cite this definition – or pass out their wonderful paper and have a discussion.

By the way, the researchers Brooksbank, Davey, and Macintosh cite a more seminal paper that was published in 2009 by the American Marketing Association by the prestigious researchers David Reibstein, George Day, and Jerry Wind– a guest editorial in the Journal of Marketing entitled: Guest Editorial: Is Marketing Academia Losing Its Way?
In this seminal paper, Dave, George, and Gerry, good friends of ISBM call both The Marketing Science Institute and the Institute for the Study of Business Markets to task for helping to lead large, multi-researcher projects to have significant impact on the practice moving forward in the middle of the decade. This paper basically forms the foundation for the B2B Leadership Board activity underway at ISBM. Don’t miss it.

Feel free to pile on if you‘d like. Right now our list includes:

1. Establish marketing plans
2. Be the link for communication and learning
3. Be the voice of the customer in business strategy
4. Own brand stewardship
5. Foster internal company wide communication
6. Manage crisis communication
7. Build a SWOT team of marketing/strategy resources
8. Develop marketing leadership for the enterprise
9. Share to the world trends and tools
10. Fund and measure marketing contribution

We expect this article to be fleshed out and launched soon. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Best,
Ralph

Avoid Waste. Save where it makes sense. Focus on and use what’s important.

Penn State has done an admirable job of defining the ephemeral word “sustainability.”

“Sustainability is the simultaneous pursuit of human health and happiness, environmental quality, and economic well-being for current and future generations.”

This broad definition which encompasses a wide variety of potential actions, initiatives, and projects, but eventually it involves stewardship of resources.

We talk about wasted resources: for example, paper that is produced, printed, and sent to people who don’t want or need it at all – so it is simply thrown away, or at best, recycled. Resource waste – outright waste – the dedication of resources to virtually no end, a worse than that, a negative end – is certainly a target for elimination. Target elimination of things that can be clearly defined as outright waste.

Then there’s ever popular saving resources. Are there ways to do the same things, and accomplish the same outcomes with fewer resources?

Here, the target may be savings – but this is very often a place where sub-optimization can easily happen.
We might save energy in one place, and reduce productivity in another by making offices too hot or too cold in the name of saving electricity and the environment, etc. –but most of us see that it’s about the $$$. Often in saving, we look at the things that are easy to measure, because they are. Rarely have I seen efforts to balance savings against outcomes which lead to a well-intended effort having no real ‘savings’ for an organization at all.

Or, worse than that, are we setting goals -hey we saved this much last year, lets save more this year- without really looking at other trends that might be easily correlated to this that have negative impacts?
Then there’s the third leg of the stool which I don’t hear enough about: wise use of resources. Are we focusing the resources we invest on things that will produce the highest possible return – short and long term?

My favorite example here is paper. To me the best use of paper that’s ever come along is teaching people how to do stuff. And yet, in classrooms from elementary to high school, although the focus on saving paper is admirable, occasionally we see this taken to ridiculous extremes, where children trying to solve math problems are flipping to one side of the paper to another, scribbling to the last corner of the sheet of a paper, and erasing sheets so they can be used again.

This is crazy!

While the average family is recycling pounds and pounds of junk mail they receive every month, the students in their classroom are reusing sheets of notebook paper?

It would seem to me that a third leg of the stool is a place to pay some attention – and one that might be the most important one of all. One that takes a positive direction. One that focuses on what’s the best possible use of precious resources. And before a “savings” measure is introduced, really ask – is this a place where we want to save? Or are these resources in fact being utilized in a way that actually is producing good return? Maybe in fact this is a place where we don’t want to save at all? Is this a place where we should use more?

So a thought: are you saving resources, wasting resources, using resources to their greatest advantage?
And if you were in the middle of a savings program that actually was wasting your company’s profitability or some hurting some other element of your business outcomes would you know? Are you measuring what’s easy – or what’s critically important?

Something to think about as we continue to turn up the fire under the sustainability cauldron.

Just my thoughts…

Ralph

At a recent meeting of ISBM, Craig Maxwell, Corporate VP Technology and Innovation at Parker Hannifin, enlightened us with a view on how he’s built a strong market and customer connection to the R&D function at Parker.
This powerhouse firm has led the way before – with innovations in value pricing, marketing process, and tools and techniques for improving marketing. Although the details of this process are quite proprietary, Parker’s “WIN” program which includes “Winovation,” “Winmap,” and “Winvalue” are an important part of their arsenal of tools for succeeding in difficult business markets.

Winovation: helps tie marketing and a customer view to the innovation process at Parker, and enables Parker to rapidly build a business case for innovation projects.
Winmap: a detailed approach for building a strong market action plan, enabling a more uniform but flexible process at Parker which allows for elements of this diverse firm to learn from one another, increases discipline in the process, and is proven to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their marketing, and
Winvalue: A system for better understanding the value of what are often quite complex Parker offerings, and pricing to value.

Craig pointed out that branding the process, communicating it strongly, using practical and easy to understand visualizations, have enabled stronger processes at Parker, and a much greater degree of view to the market and customer in all of their processes.
At the same ISBM Members Meeting Carlos Cardoso, the CEO of Kennametal, in a very inspirational talk discussed the importance of building clear, flexible, easy to describe processes for accomplishing goals. Although this can be overdone, he talked the importance of process maps and enabling people to communicate better with one another to work across “silos” and to effectively begin the elimination of those all too dangerous “handoffs.”

We often hear that the “handoffs” are very dangerous places. Breakdowns in the communications, reflections at the interface, major execution discontinuities seem to always be lurking at the “handoffs”.
Frederic Jung, CFO at Arizona Chemical pointed out that a good strong process, with a clear map at Arizona Chemical enabled a much stronger tie between the marketing function, their markets, and the sort of decisions made in the CFOs office. He was abuzz with great quotes including, “If I see a cost, and I don’t know what it is, shame on me for not cutting it.” Another quote that resonated with our audience of business-to-business marketers was “As a CFO I understand how difficult the processes of business marketing can be. I know that there are always assumptions and occasionally I have to make a leap of faith, in helping to build a stronger model of how we can be more accountable. I’ll make that leap – but please don’t make it the Grand Canyon.”

It was also pointed out that good strong people can overcome weak process – and often do – they use their own powers of persuasion, credibility, and knowhow to overcome processes that are not well thought through, or well communicated. However, as soon as though key people get moved to another position, things begin falling apart.
Branding the process

Craig Maxwell pointed out that one of the things that broke through the clutter and began moving things forward more rapidly at Parker Hannifin was just the fact that they created a brand for the process. The core values behind the process, the personality of what the process owners are like, how people should feel when they connect with the process – more empowered, more able to deal with difficult challenges, more secure in what the next step is, and importantly – how to communicate with everyone involved in the corporation required for execution in ways that ensure that things will be more likely to be executed.

So, in summary, working to mobilize organizations for execution, we get back to the basic elements:
• Do you have a strong process(es)?
• Is it simple and easy to communicate – graphically and through a variety of media?
• Is it “branded?” Not just with a logo or catchy words, is there a real brand behind the process – something that creates a relationship among people who are looking to implement?
• And, is the process strong enough so that if the people implementing the process change, the process will continue, grow, and be executed?

Ralph

See the full interview here or read it below: http://www.thesdggroup.com/#/blog/4555170456/Three-Ways-B2B-Marketing-is-Changing/982659

Enjoy,
Ralph

Three Ways B2B Marketing is Changing

By Mike Colucci, Jan 30 2012 8:24AM

B2B marketing has its own set of challenges. And no one that I have met has as much insight into what those challenges are then Ralph Oliva, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM), a research center in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State.

“We not only know B2B, it is all we do, and we love it! It isn’t our sideline, it’s our frontline!” Ralph Oliva on the focus and passion of the ISBM.

Because of Ralph’s knowledge, experience and current responsibilities he has his finger on the pulse of whats going on in the B2B space. I think the first question I always hear him ask me when we connect is, “So, how’s business?”

So I thought I would give Ralph a call and ask him a few questions this time. Of course, he beat me to the punch. So, after telling him how business is, we gone on with it.

Mike Colucci: Ralph, how do you see business marketing changing?

Ralph Oliva: I see there being three distinct areas where change is influencing B2B marketing.

MC: Okay, let’s start with the first…

RO: The biggest thing people are talking about now in marketing is social marketing. I think that the real question then for B2B is “is B2B marketing changing, or is it getting more the same?” Business Marketing has always been “social.” It has always been face to face and personal. What is happening now is that people and businesses are getting connected in more ways, lubricated by the different technologies and social media that are available. And this has its advantages and challenges

The implication is more about this new way for community to happen and how you can penetrate that community and mine for value.

The whole emphasis on marketing historically has been on everything we do before the sale to create, communicate, and capture our fair share of value. We need some new focus on what we can do after the sale. This is a new frontier. Customers are empowered in this area because of social media and social marketing. And so B2B marketers have to ask, “How do we create new value by utilizing this space? How much of this can happen through individual connections? Can you get a small group of people together and focus on it?”

This doesn’t necessarily have to be people who have been coined “creative.” Social media allows these dialogues to happen faster and on a greater scale, and that can get more people contributing to this dialogue. The rule now is no longer that you can control who plays, it is that everyone plays. And this rule allows personal creativity is amplified in these social situations.

MC: Are B2B firms at an advantage or disadvantage compared to B2C firms here?

RO: B2B firms have the advantage here because the “crowd” is easier to manage and engage. And that presents a great opportunity for this “after the sale” value mining. Not only is the number of people interested in becoming part of the community smaller, the people who are engaged are much more knowledgeable and carry a greater interest in seeing you succeed.

Where the B2B firm has to be very in careful is in understanding that a lot more clout and focused interests exist in these communities than in a B2C. If you have an advocate – or a detractor – it becomes a very powerful voice, so you need a clear strategy in order to succeed.

MC: Alright, the “social aspect” of marketing is the first change. What is the second?

RO: It is that we are redefining what “integrated marketing” means. The old style and definition relegated integrated marketing to the Marketing and Communications groups. The kind of questions they asked were around things like, “Is our messaging consistent in all of our literature?” “Is our logo and identity being deployed consistently?” “What is our brand?” “What is the company tag line?” The focus was on the way firms were communicating their message through materials and images.

Integrated Marketing now, in the new style, asks the question. “Can the whole firm be focused on achieving your objectives in the market place?”

Integrated marketing now involves lining up the entire company –and its assets – aligned to customers and markets. And it recognizes that to be truly innovative will require much bigger groups of cross functional teams.

MC: You mentioned being “truly innovative.” Can you expand on why you place that here in the “Integrated Marketing” space?

RO: Sure. Integrated Marketing can’t happen in a “Marketing Department.” Marketers can (and are) leading the way, and can bring frameworks for thinking, tools, and guidelines. But they also need to reach out to involve more people in that discussion and use of the tools if you are going to get the whole firm lined up to meet the objectives.

I think about Larry Keeley’s 10 pathways or 10 types of innovation. B2B firms really need to be thinking this way. The way I see you, and Larry, and others talking about innovation now is that anyone can do it with the right tools. And not only should they do it, they must.

MC: I like Larry’s quote, “Innovation is a discipline… you can require it of people.”

RO: That’s exactly it. And B2B firms are beginning to realize that innovation is not relegated to a select few just as “integrated marketing” is no longer relegated to one department. Firms need to be leveraging all of their resource and human capital.

Where your message resonates with Larry’s is about how Larry says this business of people not being creative is all wrong.

MC: And third?

RO: Most B2B firms are grappling with this question, “What is the role of the corporate marketing function?” We’re working with firms on this question all the time. One role of the corporate marketing function can be to bring state of the art tools that will make the whole firm better. Whether they find those tools internally and develop ways to share them throughout the firm, or whether they find them externally and bring them in to become a core competency of the firm… the question that should drive the corporate marketer is “How can I mobilize the innovative capability of the firm?” And it holds true for all of the other capabilities… Pricing, Segmentation, Social Media…

The corporate marketing function should have a powerful impact in connecting company strategy – at the executive level – to the customer, market, and the exact right demand. This is the thrust of our next ISBM Members meeting.

MC: Thank you Ralph. As always, very insightful.

If you want to know more about the ISBM or how they can work with your firm you can visit www.isbm.org. The meetings are always worth the trip and, having worked with Ralph in the past, I can tell you that they deliver on what they promise. Open enrollment courses in all areas of Marketing Excellence are also available for individuals who need focused content and training.

So the three ways Marketing is Changing for B2B firms:

The Rise of Social Marketing and the “after the sale” experience

The Redefining of Integrated Marketing

Defining the Role of the Corporate Marketing Function

Been navigating waters with several CMOs lately, it seems as if that question is another one of the perennials: “Why is it that it’s so difficult to define the best place for a Corporate Marketing Function to play in B-to-B?”

Atlee has started some very interesting insights in this area, and we hope to do some work on this over the next few weeks.

Ralph

Although I’m still working on the title, we’ll basically be focusing on “Building B-to-B Marketing Connections to the “C Suite”: Driving Stronger More Effective Dialog with the CEO, CFO, CTO…

It’s getting exciting!

Had good discussions on this with Dr. Adrian Slywotzky who’s agreed to keynote, and as of now we have Carlos Cardosa, Chairman, President, and CEO of Kennametal on the agenda.

We’ve also invited John Engel, President and CEO of WESCO, Craig Maxwell, VP of Technology Innovation of Parker Hannifin, and Dr. Malcolm McDonald, a renowned Marketing Professor, former Deputy Director at Cranfield School of Management and B-to-B Consultant onto the agenda.

Stay tuned for more!

We hope to better understand the challenge, focus, and language of C level executives, clarify the role of b-to-b marketing in driving organic growth, and getting us a seat at the table in helping to build better and more market informed strategy.

I’m hoping we get “down and dirty” on what C level executives need from business-to-business marketers, what they need to hear from us, and importantly what they don’t need to hear – from their marketing team.

Please join us!

Best regards,

Ralph

From Larry Keeley, who built on his “Ten types of innovation” framework to talk about the “plumbing” you need to implement it, a new way of identifying opportunities he turned “vergence”, and some startling case histories – outstanding stuff.

Bernie Jaworski with another framework – a Monitor specialty – on how alliances need to be part of your strategy as you move forward into “emerging markets.”

A great panel illuminating all this with the illustrious Fred Wiersema who I thank God for every day – continuing to pull insights from Larry and Bernie.

A great gritty case from WESCO – Mike Ludwig and his Lean Value Creation Team on how they decommoditize everything they sell by going beyond the product with a systematic and forensic search for savings.

Dawn Astorino from LORD Corporation giving an incredible “tour de force” on how to build your business brand – and innovate with it – as a way to create protectable value. Great quote: “people connect with LORD because of their products. They stay with LORD because of their people.” Dawn is making that come true.

Finally, on Day 1, and eye opening presentation from Bob Little on how marketers need to step up to the bar to mobilize intellectual property – which may be sleeping in a vault inside your firm to create new growth.

The second day kicked off with an outstanding presentation from Rick Segal on the “@Work State of Mind” – the fact that with ongoing and ubiquitous electronic connectivity, people can “shift gears”, and go from work, to home, to play, alternatively throughout the day. How do you develop tools and techniques to “intercept” the @work state of mind through the day. Thanks to Rick we were very fortunate to hear from Linda McGovern, CMO of USG talking about the “UltraLight Sheetrock” story. What a story – big lesson: never, never be afraid to ask the obvious questions and then really listen. The problem with their 130 year old wall board product? It was heavy. Instead of just deciding it was heavy, USG decided that they could make it lighter, and are now growing and pulling share from one of the most down markets – the US Housing Market – in history.

Sandy Diehl from United Technologies talking about how to get a big, multi-divisional, silo’d organization to work together to create new value – and for any of us who’ve worked in a large firm we know how difficult it can be to get these various elements – who are managed to be independent – to work together. Loaded with insights on this.

Finally, to wrap it all up, Jeneanne Rae from Motiv talking about the 3 pathways to service innovation – “productivity push,” “access advantage,” and “the engagement edge.”

A great wrap up to our meeting.

All in all “Reinventing Innovation” requires thinking beyond what’s become the traditional “out of the box.” In fact, Linda McGovern, Bob Little, and others showed us that a lot of innovation can happen “inside the box.” This to me is the essence of what Business Marketing is all about – business marketers need to step into the lead to create thinking with fresh thoughts, seeing with fresh eyes, listening with fresh ears. We need to turn all of our senses on in new ways to reinvent the way we connect with customers, create value, serve needs ahead of the competitor.

Hopefully the meeting provided a lot of frameworks for thinking – and I’m hoping that all of our members did go away not only with new frameworks, but with their minimum with at least 3 new friends.

Ralph

Click here for the full read.

Best,
Ralph

http://chiefexecutive.net/are-you-ready-to-take-on-china’s-next-generation-competitors

The piece has appeared in ChiefExectuvie.net and Industry Week.

I hope that you find it an interesting read.

Best,
Ralph