B2B Marketing Blog
Recently by Richard Bush

Why emails need to be professionally written

July 27, 2009 9:48 AM | By Richard Bush
The email I received from Yahoo today is a good example of how not to write one. (You’ll see it at the end of my post): I had to read almost every paragraph at least twice to understand it and even then I was confused whether they were doing this for my benefit or for their own benefit...
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The Recessionary Challenge to Creativity

June 22, 2009 9:15 AM | By Richard Bush
I’ve been feeling a little anxious recently and I haven’t been able to pin down exactly what is causing it. Business is good, generally our clients are doing well considering the worst recession in living memory, yet I’m feeling uneasy and I think I now know why.It came to me as I was reading my favorite magazine, Autocar (yes I know, I’m just a big boy) and on the inside front cover was a beautiful advert for the new Audi R8 V10. What was so beautiful about it? It had no copy just a wonderfully shot image of the car...
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Brand identity - a subjective task?

February 23, 2009 9:48 AM | By Richard Bush
Just read a blog on a US marketing blog talking about designing a brand identity system and it worried me a bit. It seemed to be saying that the most important thing was appeal and fitting in with your audiences’ expectations. (http://www.interimmarketing.info/designing-a-brand-identity/ )...
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One idea or many interlinked ideas?

July 19, 2008 7:42 PM | By Richard Bush
For a while at Base One we’ve been questioning the logic of the single big idea as the basis of a brand’s campaigns. Having spent years creating consistent and compelling campaigns around a single idea, why change? It’s been proven to work and buyers are still buyers surely? Well yes, and no. The fact is that Buyers are changing as this extract from a post by Chris Tacy, Chief Innovation Officer at Brand Experience Agency, Method implies:  … now we have an entire new demographic who have grown up not having to take it. And as a result, the...
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Shame on you Brother

March 13, 2008 10:56 PM | By Richard Bush
I've been feeling very good about B2B Marketing recently. Not the magazine, or the website (though they are both fantastic) but the genre. Until today that is. Rushing down the stairs to the tube at Waterloo station I was struck by a monstrosity of a poster ad for Brother printers. It felt like a throw back to the 1990s. Shame on you Brother, and your agency. I know it's just an poster campaign and I should be recognising what is a great bit of media buying, but I'm willing to bet that I and perhaps a few other of you...
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The changing face of british business?

December 20, 2007 8:44 PM | By Richard Bush
When we do Brand workshops with clients we often include an exercise designed to help them to identify the character they want their brand to portray and I think today I've spotted a trend. During the exercise participants are asked to choose two faces, one that represents how they feel the brand is seen now and the second, to represent what how they would like the brand to be seen. The actual faces are not that important its about the differences between the two faces. Invariably the changes in perception they wish for include: to be more open / accessible to...
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Engaging and outstanding creative?

May 27, 2007 5:08 PM | By Richard Bush
David Thomas (Base One Creative Director) and I were presenting the "How to produce engaging and outstanding creative" session on the IDM B2B Diploma course this week and it served to highlight the reality gap between the type of creative most marketers run with and the type of creative they think they should run with. We asked the 20 or so students to score the quality of their own creative from 1 to 10, 10 being engaging and outstanding. The results - only 5 scored themselves higher than 5/10, there were 7 scoring themselves exactly 5/10 and the remainder less...
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Do we need our own language?

May 16, 2007 10:10 PM | By Richard Bush
Whilst watching a series of ads on Channel 4 last night it dawned on me why we often, as B2B Marketers, struggle to convince others that branding and marketing is crucial for a succesful business. It's because we use the same words as people use to describe the work of our B2C cousins. When we say advertising our management colleagues envisage what they see on the TV or in the press. Direct Mail and they think of the irritating approaches from MBNA et al. Telemarketing and the remember intrusive, poorly executed calls from mobile phone operators. Branding and they picture...
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Consultants and pitches

April 9, 2007 1:24 PM | By Richard Bush
Over the last 12 months, as you would expect, we've been involved in a number of pitches and as part of our annual planning process I tend to sit down and review them all - Why did we win? Why did we lose? Which ones do we wish we had won? Which ones do we wish we'd lost? What did we learn from each? Which ones were a pleasant experience? How could we have done better? This year I've noticed a worrying trend which I believe is damaging to the already fragile pitch process - the consultant. I'm not talking...
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Where's the plan

March 10, 2007 11:32 AM | By Richard Bush
Over the last 5 years or so there has been a wave of change sweeping through the B2C world as Communications Channel Planning revolutionises how clients and their range of agency partners approach planning. It is resulting in a battle for supremacy between agencies as they compete for this all important role. It's an ugly sight, but it is resulting in more cohesive, more innovative and they would argue, more effective marketing. Why isn't B2B followig suit?...
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