NO

Andrew Colwell, marketing drector at B2 Group

It’s understandable in the current economic climate that if your business relies on the public sector for a large chunk of its income, targeting the private sector looks highly attractive.

But is suddenly refocusing sales and marketing efforts from public to private budgets the right course of action?

It all comes down to the prioritisation of opportunity and the value you place on loyalty. 

Looking first at priorities, businesses need to ask themselves if it’s worthwhile to take a new direction based on the current and future opportunities available in the public sector. Questions for consideration include: has the opportunity completely gone, or has it just shifted?  And does the same level of reward exist within the private sector? Remember that public sector contracts are awarded by a comparatively smaller number of organisations, and it’s quite common for those businesses who work with the public sector to have 80% of their income derived from this sector, yet clients only make up 20 per cent of their customer base.  The same level of reward may not be available from the same volume of contracts in the private sector. 

Secondly, you can’t put a price on the value of loyalty.  It doesn’t look good to duck off the radar of those decision-making contacts who you have been nurturing for a long time when times are bad - it smacks of disloyalty.  At some point in the future, budgets will increase again, and if you want a healthy slice of that spend, you need to have a strong existing relationship in place.  Disappearing off the radar then suddenly appearing on the scene a year or two down the line is not going to work.

So before taking the plunge and changing direction the of your sales and marketing efforts, think carefully about the marketplace you are entering and value that can be generated from it.  Always engage with decision-makers, no matter how much budgets nosedive, because eventually the tide will turn.

NO

Mark Jacks, director of Halo

The cuts to the public sector purse will mean fewer projects to go around. However, Halo will continue to focus on these projects because we understand the pressure the stakeholders are under to deliver effective campaigns on a budget. This is a tremendous opportunity for both agencies and public sector marketers. The former should be tailoring creative campaigns that deliver strong results. For our public sector clients we’re looking at better use of public space, such as building wraps and disused space rather than the traditional, more pedestrian tactics of leaflet drops and billboards, for example.

This is also a massive opportunity for the public sector to review its working practices. Often the tendering process for these contracts stifles creativity and rarely shows an agency at its best. Spending cuts could be the turning point that the public sector needs be more commercial and deliver value for taxpayers’ money as well as pumping money into small businesses, which are often more flexible and can afford to be braver.  

In the light of the spending cuts, the public sector should look towards delivering its messages in a more peer to peer way through digital campaigns, including social media and street teams. The public sector can begin to see their work as consumer campaigns, as commercial clients have done for years.

The opportunity for change is tremendous and could see some real successes born. This could lead to a real shift in the value for money that pubic sector projects offer.

NO

Joe Hale, client director at Dragon Rouge

The current mood of uncertainty blowing through the public sector must be a concern for those brands that have long courted it’s more established bodies. But what should those same brands do now that the future seems so unpredictable?

For those brands that have built their business on this sector there is considerable concern. Spreading your customer portfolio across both private and public companies is a safe bet in the best of economic conditions, so it should be a serious consideration in today’s climate.

That said we’re not saying B2B brands should shun the public sector all together. Yes change is afoot. But there are two very good reasons to keep in touch. Firstly, those in the public sector, stay in the public sector. Key decision makers will move into new positions and posts once the uncertainty settles, so keeping close to your advocates and allies makes a lot of sense. 

Secondly, things will settle. The public sector will find its new function and form and as a result they’ll seek those partners that can help them reposition and recover. That’s when you B2B brands need to be centre stage to get the best for their business. 

So do your due diligence. Don’t retreat beyond recognition and work hard to establish the relationships that matter most to your business and can do the most for your brand. 

There’s no doubt that the sector is in serious transition, but as with the lessons from recession, many great brands are born in adversity. Whilst remaining cautious B2B brands should look upon this as an opportunity to diversify whilst securing the relationships that represent potential advantage in the future. 

NO

Paul Bevan, non-executive director at NHS Northamptonshire

The Public Sector now faces a plethora of "compelling events", mostly revolving around the need to save large sums of money. If B2B companies can focus in on the pain points, provide demonstrable business benefits and some commercial innovation around contract terms etc, then there will be significant opportunities. What ever you do don't offer consultancy, the winners will be those that deliver costs savings, not those that tell public sector organisations how they ought to make costs savings.

NO

Sarah Quinan, owner of Suffolk Guides

The public sector are going to be reeling for the next few months but they will still have huge budgets after the cuts have been implemented. I think there are big opportunities in the sector as they will need to outsource more and handle enormous change management challenges. Getting them to make a commissioning decision will be even tougher though!

NO - Claire Chapman, UK social media coach & coach supervisor

It is all about prioritising resource.  With the spending cuts, there will still be a need to have external resource to support the leaner services, in exactly the same way that private companies who make redundancies often find the need to employ consulting resource as they flex into the new reality.  It will probably be a case of working smarter with any public sector clients, by recognising the potential need to respond to requests for renegotiated contracts, and by showing the value that you have added over time as a current provider.  From there, it’s reviewing how experience can be built or transferred into areas of opportunity.  It may also be that agencies change exactly what they are offering in response to these new needs, to continue to work with existing, public sector contracts.

For a company who works all public sector now, it’s time to start building a plan to balance the public and private sectors to reflect the new reality.  Building those contacts and translating this into contracts can take time. This is why effective planning is so important – it helps create a new set of priorities depending on whether the company plans a full move to private sector or considers that the public sector will pick back up over time.  It is also the firms who already have taken the time to build good avenues of communication and regular client management who are most like to have the strength of communication and relationship to be informed about changes from a client perspective.  It’s also not entirely true to think that the impact of changes to public sector roles won’t impact across the wider business community – B2B businesses who themselves may have strong business ties in this area may find their own downstream impacts, even if private sector.  Understanding as much as possible about your clients and the new realities they find themselves in, by keeping up with news and  influencers in the sector, will also help businesses assess whether it is right to consider a move purely into private sector over the next few years.

NO

Carole Myers, founder and managing director of Conception Marketing

Businesses supplying the public sector have much to be concerned about. With the planned cuts in most government departments’ budgets and a pay freeze for two years, many projects will be halted before they begin and others delayed, drastically rescheduled or strictly re-budgeted. But should companies halt their targeting of the public sector, choosing instead to focus solely on the private sector? No, probably not. As with everything in life, a balanced approach to spreading the risk would seem the best solution. Just as there will be challenges, of course there will be opportunities thanks to this contraction of the state.

And, after all, public sector cuts will cause job losses across the board, less work for private contractors and less disposable income for those still in employment, damaging fragile confidence further. Private sector budget holders are already reluctant to make spending decisions with their own futures in the balance causing suppliers throughout the supply chain to reassess their plans for handling inevitable drops in revenue. Expected rises in unemployment and, potentially, rising inflation which will bring with it pressure to raise interest rates, could further squeeze the economy making business, in the private or public sector, harder to win, harder to keep and harder to make money from.

Tax increases and cost cutting alone will not get the economy back on an even keel. We also need continued growth in output and consumption: the burden of this growth resting squarely on the shoulders of the private sector, if the UK’s economy is to do more than just stand still. And that’s where the private sector’s confidence levels will be key. Economics is mostly about self-fulfilling prophecies: if we are confident that things are going to be okay, we continue investing and spending, the economy keeps growing and, generally, things are okay. If we all believe times are going to be tough, we stop investing and spending, the economy stands still or shrinks, and our worst fears are fulfilled.

Many businesses have weathered the credit crunch, some have even thrived, finding innovations and new markets to give them a competitive edge. But now all businesses face the prospect of further austerity measures and anxious customers regardless of their markets. So, exactly how is the confidence of owners and managers? Are the incentives offered to private businesses enough to keep them growing even though aggregate demand may be reducing? Just how confident are you about putting all your eggs in the private sector basket?

YES

Lisa Archer, marketing consultant at Bitesize Marketing

It's quite simple really, the answer is Yes.

It’s common knowledge that most public sector organisations are difficult to work with. They often have large committees who get involved with decision making, are renowned for very long sales cycles, have very specific frameworks that suppliers must use and incredibly intricate tender processes. If that isn’t enough to put B2B brands off then this should – their budgets are also shrinking. So, unless your B2B brand is already heavily engaged in the public sector, has a proven track record and is making profits - stay well clear! In my opinion, you would need your head examined if you think you will even get a foot in the door, let alone receive a good return on investment when focusing on the drastically shrinking public sector. 

B2B brands would be much wiser to invest in marketing strategies focused 100 per cent on the private sector. The private sector is far more dynamic, much faster moving and what’s more has money to invest for products and services that meets specific business issues, needs and/or pains. Successful engagement with the private sector means increased revenues for the short, medium and long term.  Now if that’s not an attractive proposition for B2B brands then I don’t know what is. 

When there is low hanging fruit in the private sector the question on my lips is why on earth would B2B brands even contemplate trying to succeed in the public sector when there is so much investment required and yet so little to be gained?

NO

Maggie Currie, founder of Creedance Training Academy & Consultancy

Whilst I agree that there have been massive cuts in public spending, I am not convinced that B2B brands should focus all their attention on the private sector for the foreseeable future. There will always be some hidden gems in the public sector which will be just ripe for the picking and they should definitely be looked out for.  I believe the public sector will always need to employ outside agents due to their staff turnover, much the same as in any other sector.  It will of course mean that, given the massive cuts in spending, this will indeed be very much reduced.  It is true that there may well appear to be a lot more scope in the private sector for a while. Historically the funding for most contracts has come from grants etc., from the public sector and as such these will probably be cut in much the same way. It is my opinion that B2B brands should perhaps focus a little more attention on the private sector so as not to miss out in that area, but keep their options open by still keeping an eye on the public sector. The mistake would be to focus on one area to the exclusion of the other and end up missing out on both.

NO

Danny Turnbull, managing director at GyroHSR Manchester

Let’s be clear here: there will still be a market. The public sector is a sizeable one and it will hardly cease to exist. Someone will have to continue to build, run, clean, repair, staff, advise and cater for hospitals, schools and libraries. Not to mention largely ring-fenced infrastructure and energy projects or opportunities arising from outsourcing.

We have clients who work across both public and private sectors and they are doing one of two things:

1) They are shifting their emphasis from public to private sector (where their portfolio allows it). This really is a no-brainer. If you can, stand on balanced footing. For the last couple of years, during the recession, it was public sector investment for example that propped up the construction industry. In the next couple of years investment there is more likely to come from the private sector. So our clients quite sensibly adapt accordingly.

2) They are working harder in the public sector (if that is where their business is based). Competition for public sector contracts is already fierce and will become even more so. One of our favourite clients services the construction sector and is doing well because they’re going to great lengths to tailor their offering to public sector clients and work harder than ever to win and execute contracts. And they make us work harder to find creative ways of communicating the value they add in a highly competitive setting.

So all’s not lost in the public sector, and all’s a lot easier for B2B brands that can flex to resonate in both sectors and with different audiences within them.

NO

Chris Wills, client partner at Rufus Leonard

The wholesale closure of public sector initiatives over the course of the last few months has been immensely frustrating for our clients. Given the traditionally risk adverse nature of the public sector, projects due to occur in Q4 would have undergone rigorous departmental analysis before budgets were released and work commissioned. 

With budgets now frozen until the October review (and potentially the New Year), life for commissioning civil servants has essentially been placed on hold - significantly damaging staff morale. 

In my view, this loss of momentum could potentially erode public sector confidence. Once the scaled down budgets are re-released we risk suffering considerable lag before public sector projects regain the head of steam experienced earlier this year. 

It’s like a pseudo-recession, confined to the public sector. Now the lights are out, we at Rufus Leonard need to work harder as a public sector supplier to ensure we retain our place at the top of the heap when things pick up again.

Rather than seeking pastures new, I firmly believe this is the time for agencies like Rufus Leonard to stand fast and support our clients by keeping all channels open and forging ahead with the type of support necessary to keep our commercial relationships alive. 

As with many online design houses, our public sector clients are a vital part of our client mix - to jump ship at this point and move to more profitable pastures would, in my view, undermine the trust and loyalty we have developed over the past ten years. In short - stand fast, keep the dialogue open and provide robust account support wherever possible.

I think it is fair to say that the commercial climate in the public sector will never be the same, and we must be prepared for a more agile and demanding Government sector. The commercial environment will be more competitive than ever. Running with our public sector clients during the tough times is the only way forward.

NO

Julian Rawel, director of executive education, Bradford University School of Management

The public sector is going to be hit very hard but there will still be a massive public sector.   However the days of seemingly unlimited budgets are over.   

B2B providers will need to show that they add value to the new public sector.  The seemingly huge amounts made by organisations providing general solutions to customised public sector problems are a thing of the past...and rightly so.

B2B providers will now need to be more selective in how they wish to sell to the public sector and ensure that money available (usually via a tender process) is enough to warrant going after. 

If it is, then adding value and empowering the public sector to do more for themselves is vital.

So, yes, there are still opportunities, but less and more difficult  - but potentially more satisfying.  

Will the private sector pick up the slack in the next couple of years? No chance!

NO

Nikki Scrivener, director, Fourth Day PR

I think it's unrealistic to say that marketing budgets aren't still being squeezed. Our clients are under pressure to deliver the same results with less resources and this pressure is naturally being passed on to us. I think we are making slow steps in the right direction though. The decision-making process seems to be a good indicator of how the market is faring. Last year there were huge delays between taking a brief and eventually being selected. This seems to be getting shorter and clients are keen to get going.

In terms of what they're investing in, I think we're seeing a back to basics approach in the PR industry. Clients wants media coverage, fast. Campaigns that can't deliver immediate results are a lesser priority. Basically clients need PR to impact their business quickly.

The good news is that we're recruiting again and we're seeing some very high calibre graduates. They all arrive with knowledge of the industry gained through work experience positions and are incredibly ambitious and talented. When the economy makes a full recovery this can only be an excellent thing for the future of our industry.

The economic downturn has meant that B2B marketers have faced inevitable cuts to their budgets. This means that achieving reach through traditional media is harder, but it doesn’t mean you can’t get lasting, meaningful results from your marketing. You just have to think bigger, bolder and more creatively.

The marketing mix for brands has become sterile and staid. Brands have become used to the classic media plan of print, outdoor media, TV and radio and although more and more brands are embracing viral and online routes to market, this is still predominately the sole preserve of the large FMCG brands. It’s time to think differently about how to connect with your audience and using creativity to drive innovation into your marketing mix.

So why do so many brands play it safe with their marketing activity? Well, because it works. Brands should be engaging with their audience across multiple touch points, driving key messages at opportune moments and using various media outlets to achieve the greatest potential reach. The problem is achieving ‘cut-through’ in an intensely competitive environment where consumers are bombarded with messages, images and brand ‘noise’. The economic climate has simply now forced our hands and marketers need to think about other ways to engage an audience.

Big, brave creative opportunities are all around us, as empty buildings, building site scaffolding and hoardings are all artistic frames for creative treatments. Dirty pavements that have been power cleaned and stencilled can literally take brands into the high streets, as can graffiti on approved spaces, which give brands an edge and take advantage of local governments’ desire to embrace a growing, vibrant street culture.

Marketing is now about finding new ways to reach your audience. Why should a campaign stick to six sheet Adshel posters on multiple bus shelter sites, when you can vinyl wrap a single, well-chosen shelter in a prime location? Why put a series of ads in the Metro when you could brand the Metro street teams for one day?

It’s imperative to connect your brand with the market in ways you and they have never thought of before, as it will keep the brand fresh and exciting. In these days of austerity, you have to look for potential new platforms on which to carry your messages; let creativity be the driver and don’t be afraid to ask questions about where and how you can reach your audience – the answer might just be ‘yes’.

The recent Ofcom report, which states that we are consuming multiple sources of media over half our waking lives through multitasking, could mean we are approaching an information overload. We have become data consumption monsters in both our personal and business lives – Overrun with emails, reports, stats and charts but is it making us any more productive?

The short answer is not really – we have increased the amount of data in our lives by 40X over the last 20 years, while our output has not matched this level of growth. Too much data leads to indecision and a lack of ability to focus on the most strategic issues. When it comes to marketing what can you do to get around this? The focus should be placed on insight – demand that every report you look at (or generate) has something there that tells you what it actually means. You should place a big red box at the bottom of every report, every slide and even every email and ensure it has the ‘so what’.

This method is a key to good data practice and you will find very soon you can start saying "I no longer need to look at that report as it doesn’t have a ‘so what’ nor will it have one anytime soon". Whenever I, or someone in my team is presenting a slide it has to have this, data without insight it is not useful.

1. If Facebook was a country it’d have a GDP ranked 173 out of the 193 countries listed by the IMF the world (between Gambia and Grenada)

2. If Facebook was a country its people would be the poorest on the planet by a distance with GDP per capita less than 10% of the next poorest (Burudi)

3. If Facebook was a country its airports and ports would have to be massive gridlocked – its population would only spend 22 minutes a month there.

4. If Facebook was a country everyone would have dozen of friends they don’t know.

5. If Facebook was a country, no one would have a wall that hadn’t been vandalised by their friends.

6. If Facebook was a country, its population would actually be slightly older than that of the US. But then officially it doesn’t allow anyone in under 13.

7. If Facebook was a country, business would go bust as people would just say they like their products rather than buying them

8. If Facebook was a country, its people would starve as their famers are more interested in ribbons than crop yields

9. If Facebook was a country, no one would join any protest that didn't insist on being at least one million strong.

10. If Facebook was a country, it’d be rubbish! But thankfully it’s “only” a social network site that millions use and love.

(I’m happy to show working workings if anyone is really interested; source of stats are IMF country tables (via Wikipedia) and reported Facebook figures from various newsfeeds) and I’ve taken revenue to be the same as GDP)

The views expressed in this blog are personal views of the author only and not of any company or organisation in anyway associated with the author

My reluctance to take the stage wasn't so much the fear of defeat, it was more a response to the depressing realisation that the B2B industry is catastrophically unable to respond quickly to game-changing shifts in market development.

I sat in the front row and listened to the argument against the importance of mobile. In the panel discussion following the formal debate someone 'rested their case' with the comment, “Ask yourself this, if you've just been told that your budget's going to be cut by 25 per cent, what would you do without? Mobile.” The comment (and the vote) highlights the staggering degree of ignorance about mobile technology in the B2B space.

A better question would have been, “If your budget was cut by 90 per cent and you only had 10 per cent left to play with, what is the single most essential activity that will deliver the highest returns in the next 12 months?” Mobile. Idiots.

“I don't want people to have my mobile number” was one comment from the floor. “I don't want more spam texts or unsolicited calls on my mobile” was another. Has the B2B industry once again failed to grasp the significance of social empowerment – this time in a mobile context?

No one is talking about SMS or telemarketing. That was the 90s. It's now 2010. Social media has changed the world of communications forever.

What does that have to do with B2B? Well, irrespective of budget cuts, we can barely afford to 'push' even if we wanted to. We have to 'pull' social-savvy audiences towards our products and services. Richard Robinson, industry head of business markets at Google said in the debate that mobile traffic has increased over 600 per cent in the last year. Your customers use their mobile devices to access and request information online. No one heard that of course, because they were worried about unwanted SMS messages...

Your customers want to use their mobile devices to access content (your content) when it's convenient to them, which is hardly ever whilst they're at their desks.

Now reach for your mobile (it'll be right next to you) and punch in the URL for your own brand's website and have a look at how well your company content performs on a three-inch screen. It's not good is it? It's not even a difficult (or budget-breaking) problem to solve. If you do nothing else in the next 12 months, fix your content for mobile delivery – you can do it with one call, from your mobile. And if you don't, just remember that your customers are already engaging with those that have. Okay, now you can vote. scot@birddog.co.uk

The stats are draw dropping. Such as it took 15 years for television to reach 50 million users. Ipod took 3 years and the now third biggest country in the world, Facebook, about a nano second. 

However, are we really living in so extraordinary times? A TV in the 1950 cost an average (US) person about 8 week’s wages. The iPod when launched cost about half a week’s wages. And it ‘doesn’t cost a penny to join Facebook. So it’s not exactly a fair comparison.

I also wonder why the video, slides and facts don’t include the 5 years it took Cabbage patch dolls to get to 65 million in the 1980s Or the fact that there were 25 million hula hoops sold in their first 5 months in the 1950s?  

These rapid sales figures are a triumph of brilliant product development and fantastic marketing, not a revolution unique to our times.

We all like to think we’re living in a special, quickest golden generation, but we’re probably not any more special, golden or quicker than others.

Rather than being in the vanguard of a unique revolution, we’re more like a teenagers. We’re convinced that the previous generations don’t have a clue of the challenges we face and everything in our world has never been seen before. We cannot ignore the changes society, marketing and we’re all going through. But real change will take a longer time to impact.

We’ll only realise how different tomorrow is from today when we use that greatest but also most useless gift, hindsight.

The views expressed in this blog are personal views of the author only and not of any company or organisation in anyway associated with the author

Google has become the first major brand to fail in its attempt to integrate email with emerging media channels, following the collapse of its Google Wave application.
 
Although aimed at the consumer market, Google Wave’s collapse raises questions on how businesses looking to integrate email and emerging channels will be affected.  Social media has experienced a stratospheric rise, but is this collapse an indication that integrating email and social media for marketing strategy is doomed?  Absolutely not.
 
The Google Wave failed because the application was too complicated –resulting in lower than expected adoption.  The Wave was a collaboration tool built for individual communication.  Not a marketing application designed to enrich customer relationships and brand perception. That said, the failure of the Wave should remind marketers integrating social media and email to invest in strategic guidance in order to take full advantage of combining the two mediums.
 
Email is a common thread that connects every touch-point in the customer’s lifecycle, but to build effective customer relationships brands must first understand how it affects channels like social networks and mobile. A recent report from Forrester Research finds that "given the increasing complexity of the email marketing channels – including the need to integrate email with social and mobile channel – the call for strategic guidance will only continue to grow in importance."
 
The ‘strategic guidance’ on offer includes listening and monitoring services; lifecycle communications frameworks; email and social media campaign tools and execution services; community management services; analytics and loyalty marketing programmes that encourage and reward participation across the social web. When leveraging emerging channels such as social media, this guidance can be the key to establishing the customer bond and connecting with them at a meaningful level.
 
For example, research suggests that ‘best’ customers represent around 20 percent of a businesses customer base, and account for 80 percent of sales. Identifying and striving to create a unique experience for those customers should therefore be the aim of nearly every marketer on the planet. This is where companies need to start thinking more strategically to identify their best customers and create unique, special experiences for them.
 
As part of this strategy companies must:
 
Listen
Listen to and understand the conversations customers are having and, specifically, what they're saying about your brand. Insights gained through listening can often identify a shared passion (be it travel, sports, music, etc.) that's essential in engaging best customers for ongoing conversations.

Learn
Conduct some proprietary research across your best customers to understand how they use the social web, which will inform your segmentation and marketing strategy further. This research will also be critical in developing new social programmes that appeal specifically to your key segments.

Engage
Build a truly unique experience for these customers, leveraging all touch points: website, email, customer service desk and presence on social networks. Take the time and effort to build a lifecycle communication programme for every segment, paying attention to community management. Rethink your loyalty programmes — perhaps shift your focus from promotions to rewarding best customers for participating with your brand — be it their community contributions, social network activity or brand advocacy.
 
Influence
Leverage social tools to facilitate and encourage sharing and brand advocacy. Flag and thank active customers, and reward them for their advocacy.
 
Finally, track and anticipate what’s coming next. The greatest benefit of focusing on your best customers is the ability to manage and execute based on the data. Amazing things begin to emerge when you not only know who your best customers are, what segment they fall in, what products they like and how often they use them, but also their email activity, loyalty/purchase activity and social activity.
 
While many companies “listen” and “learn” few leverage the data they capture to “engage” and “influence. Leading brands must learn to create this bond and to utilise the strategic guidance, creativity and tools necessary to build relationships and drive brand advocacy. It is through leveraging the data and insights gained from marketing activities to build more relevant conversations, that results can be achieved.
 
The use of social media will continue to grow, and the collapse of Google Wave is not an indication that this growth is slowing. It is simply a failed product experiment from a company we are not used to failure.   Stay the course in integrating email with emerging channels to strengthen customer relationships, do not be distracted by the hype that is bound to follow failure of the wave.

The SME Community is hugely underrepresented both in the media and to government – a statement that seems ridiculous given that these companies represent 99.8% of all UK enterprise.  So how can this be? 

Could it be the lack of existing clubs and networks that are the issue? This seems doubtful as these are ubiquitous.  However, over the last few years membership of many of these organisations has either remained static or diminished.  Research through B2 Group’s SME Voice highlights that around two-thirds of SMEs are not currently members of any business club or network, and more than 80% never have been.  In fact, almost a quarter of SMEs had never heard of Business Link, the government-run network, and even the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the largest by far with 213,000 members, is unknown by 15%.

It seems that many SMEs do not see the advantages of being a member of such a network. The vast majority of these groups offer neither worthwhile membership benefits, nor a big enough range of useful services.  Although almost two-thirds of respondents suggested that the SME network they were a member of provided networking events, while less than half (40%) said they provided anything else of any great benefit, such as a platform for lobbying government, or sales and marketing tools.

Conversely, one-third of companies would be willing to pay for access to a network that supplies business advice and marketing tools such as lead generation assistance. So if that’s the case, why do so few organisations offer these perks? What SMEs need to get the representation they deserve is not a huge number of disparate, fragmented networks, but a community with a large enough critical mass to offer a collective voice that really can strike a chord in the corridors of power. 

Therefore I can’t help but think that if SMEs are to have a proper voice and obtain value from their member organisation, they need access to an ‘SME hub’ that can deliver all this under one roof – something we are committed to bringing to fruition.  Watch this space.

Ed Weatherall recently likened Twitter to the Emperor’s New Clothes (http://www.b2bm.biz/blog/2010/04/twitter-the-emperors-new-cloth.html).  It’s surrounded by hype but when we look closely it often has limited relevance in B2B.  This bold position could explain why Ed was Happy Slapped to publicise last year’s B2B Marketing Awards.

Despite the risk of suffering the same fate I’d like to join the campaign for common sense.  Ed, I’m available for any future petitioning, rallies or door knocking that you have in mind.  In the meantime I used an invitation to speak at the HORIZONT B2B Advertising conference in Frankfurt recently as an opportunity to take the crusade to mainland Europe and add some nuance to the debate. 

A video of the speech can be found here (http://www.circle-research.com/B2B-Barometer-Survey/Horizont-B2B-Presentation.php) but in summary it goes something like this.

There’s no doubt that the latent power of social media in B2B is potentially huge.  For example, LinkedIn claims to have 65 million members in over 200 countries.  It also seems to be the case that B2B marketers have bought into the idea.  In the latest B2B Barometer study 78% agreed that B2B social media is more than simply a passing phase.  Furthermore, 70% plan to increase spending on social media over the coming year; 1 in 10 significantly. 

Impressive statistics.  My contention though is that social media is not of equal relevance in all circumstances.  Rather, I suspect its relevance is driven by four considerations. 

The first two concern whether to become involved.  The stronger the community identity within your target market the more important social media is likely to be.  For example, IT professionals tend to form stronger communities than Office Managers.  But just because there’s a strong community this doesn’t mean you should dive in.  The consideration then is whether you will be welcome.  For example, some communities are deliberately closed to suppliers whilst others such as Juniper’s J-NET are actually facilitated by suppliers.

The remaining two considerations concern how to become involved.  What level of engagement is there with your product category?  This will drive the level of interest in you or anything product related you might have to say.  In situations where there is low engagement the question then becomes how you might add value in other ways not directly related to your product area.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting.  By mapping strength of community identity against welcomeness, category engagement and ability to add value the most appropriate approach to social media emerges.  You’ll need to watch the video for the detail but essentially in cases where community identity is weak then social media is either irrelevant or simply another broadcast tool.  However, when community identity is strong social media comes into its own either as a listening channel or somewhere to actively engage with your target market.

So, when we expand the debate beyond Twitter to social media in all forms, nuances emerge.  Social media can be relevant in B2B but not in all situations and not always in the same way.  The Emperor is perhaps not naked but is in his underwear.

This was one of the papers presented at the Academy of Marketing Conference, a convention of academics who study and research what we practitioners do for a living.   The paper showed that broadening the customer-company relationship via the website increased positive word of mouth towards the website, and intentions to increase purchase of the company’s products. 

So far, so good.  Except they haven’t compared it to other relationship building websites.  Or outside Greece.  And the statistical differences are so miniscule you’d need a microscope to see them.

A second paper looked at whether loyalty cards increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Answer?  Not really.  The reason being that all stores have loyalty cards so it’s a must, not a differentiator. 

What was interesting about both these papers is that the research process (which is incredibly robust, uses lots of very complex terminology and some graphs that make you glad you’re no longer at school) revealed what I would argue most marketers know by gut – that making an effort to broaden your customer’s interaction with your brand or company (as long as it’s relevant and useful) is going to make them more likely to want to do business with you.  And that marketing’s job is to keep ahead of the game constantly.  Once you have a good idea (like storecards) your competitors will catch up – meaning you have to move ahead of the pack again.  That’s what makes our jobs so stimulating. 

However, wile the academic community is pontificating about whether 0.03 is a meaningful statistical difference we are judged by whether it actually made any difference to the success of our client’s companies.  So it’s left me wondering why we marketers are so desperate to have our ‘gut instincts’ validated by research? 
 

Would welcome anyone’s views.