I think most of us would agree that times are tough. The uncertainty surrounding  the economy is arguably more damaging than than the recession itself. We know what a recession is because we’ve seen one before. The uncertainty on the other hand is a different beast. There is no way of knowing what to expect and very little by way of prognosis being offered by our leaders. We have the usual helpful comments coming out of Westminster telling us we need to work harder  to achieve growth (damn, why didn’t I think of that?) but that’s about it.

The uncertainty is not going away any time soon and there is nothing that any of us can do to effect it on a macro level so how should business managers deal with it? The answer is simple – Invest in sales and marketing.

Winning new clients is the lifeblood of any business so no matter what is happening in the marketplace we need to make sure that our businesses are generating a constant stream of new business enquiries. This is an incontrovertible fact. Without new business, we are living on borrowed time.

So the key question is not how we deal with uncertainty because this is beyond our control. The key question is how we can take charge of our own destiny and make things happen irrespective of market conditions/uncertainty. What this means in reality is that you need what the government seem unable to provide – yes that’s right – a plan for growth.

Being the generous, community spirited company that we are we thought we’d share some simple thoughts on how to generate new business. And what better way to tell our story than through the eyes of the star of many a B2B Marcomms blog, the market trader.

Walk through any market in the world and you will hear the shouts of the stallholders, quite literally, communicating with their market. Each stall bustles with energy as they vie with each other to attract the attention of the customer. It is usually he (or she) who shouts loudest that wins this competition. Sure, the quality of the product matters a great deal as does location and price, but unless a customer actually knows you exist, price, location and quality are irrelevant.

The market trader may have the benefit of being in close proximity to his customers and being able to use a simple means of communication to get his message across but we should not underestimate or undervalue the basic premise of his approach. The premise being that if we know who are potential customers are and where we can find them then we can deliver our message to them with ease.

In a business-to-business context we obviously do not have the trading floor or a shop front to help us achieve this goal. The business-to-business equivalent of the trading floor is our customer database. In a B2B context, a database is without question, the most important tool your company has for generating new business enquiries. And as we have already said without new enquiries, you are living on borrowed time.

So what is a customer database? How can you get one if you haven’t already? How do you use it to fuel your growth strategy? A customer database is simply a list of clients who you have worked with in the past, who you are currently working with now or who you aspire to work with in the future. The list will contain the name of the key contact – the decision maker. (Don’t waste your time and money marketing to anyone who is not in charge of a budget.) It will also contain their contact details, ideally including email address, postal address and phone number. The number of contacts on your database depends on the capacity your company has to manage the enquiries it generates. If you are unable to follow up enquiries quickly and professionally, this tells you that you need to recruit someone to help you do this or reduce the size of your database. If you have not already got a database then get in touch and we can help.

Once you are happy that you have an up-to-date database, how do you use it help your business grow?

We already know the marker trader’s footfall is the equivalent of our database. So what else can we learn from this analogy? We know that the market trader changes his message throughout the day to reflect the needs of his business. So for example, whereas he might announce lower prices on his fresh produce towards the end of the day, you might want promote a particular product or service that provides a better margin or perhaps free up some capital by selling some old stock. You might want to announce a price increase, you may want to advertise a good news story or a new case study. Having a database of customers allows you to communicate all of these messages, and more, directly to your market.

A regular channel of communication with your database does not just allow you to make company announcements and deliver sales messages. It also enables you to build brand awareness by affirming and reaffirming your company’s association with whatever product or service you offer and with your values and ethos. Regular and consistent communication with your customers will lead to a continuous stream of new business enquiries. Handle new enquiries with care and they will inexorably lead to new clients and growth.

There is nothing more complicated to fueling the growth of your company than opening up an effective means of communication with your market. Take the proactive approach and apply this simple formula and you will reap the rewards irrespective of market conditions. Ignore it and you are leaving the success or failure of your company to chance.

B2B Marcomms can help your company grow through effective brand strategy, marketing and online communications. We offer our clients insight, intelligence and an effective strategy that addresses their specific needs. That’s what makes us different. We listen, we understand, we plan and we execute. If you’re looking for a refreshing change in how you communicate with your market then get in touch now;

Phone: (01924) 470900

Email: info@b2bmarcomms.com

b2bmarcomms.com

Your marketing agency is the people who help define your B2B brand proposition and help author your brand strategy.  They help deliver said brand proposition to your market. They are tasked with generating new business enquiries and helping your business achieve its’ corporate objectives through direct marketing, advertising, PR, social media, design of your corporate literature etc. They are supposed to define who you are and what you do. They can also help with managing enquiries/response management and facilitate the ongoing communication between you and your clients, your workforce and your industry as a whole.

In short, the role of your B2b marketing agency is extensive, varied and very important indeed. As a result, getting the right agency for your company, can give you a huge advantage.

So what should you be looking for when appointing an agency? Take a look at our 5 step guide to appointing the right marketing agency for your business.

Step 1 – How do I know this agency in the first place?

How did this marketing agency come onto my radar? Did they send me an e-newsletter, direct mail piece or corporate brochure? Was it their press release or their advertisement I saw published in my trade magazine? Were they at the top of the search engine listings or did I see their online banner on a website? There are many ways to find a new supplier and the route you take to find yours can tell you a lot about their strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you used Google to search for ‘branding agency’ or ‘direct marketing’ or ‘brochure design’ then you can be fairly sure that the agencies at the top of the list are pretty good at SEO (search engine optimisation). Alternatively, if you have been receiving regular mailers or e-newsletters from the same supplier for several months or even years, you can rest assured that these guys understand the rules of engagement for direct marketing within a business to business marketing communications context.

How you found an agency in the first place and furthermore, how easily you can research them will tell you a lot about how good they are at their job.However, it is worth noting here that it is not advisable to disregard an agency on this basis alone, (or any other single criteria) because let’s not forget that even the best plumbers in the world sometimes have leaky taps. Good agencies should be visible but if they are not on the first page of your search results, this does not automatically mean they are no good.

Step 2 – Can I tell if these people provide the services that I think I need?

The reason this step states “…think I need?” rather than simply “need,” is because it is not always obvious to you as a client exactly what you do need. You will undoubtedly have an objective or set of objectives, but how you achieve these objectives is the reason you’re looking for a marketing agency in the first place. So the next acid test is how easy (or otherwise) it is to establish whether this agency provides the type of services you might need.

If they are struggling to convey their own brand proposition then what chance do they have with yours? Moreover, if a b2b communications agency cannot communicate with you then it should raise some serious doubts about their suitability for promoting your brand to market.

Step 3 – What has this agency got to say that I am interested in?

Companies from a broad range of industries keep their knowledge very securely locked away. This is to either prevent competitors from stealing it or to stop you getting their expertise for free. There are good reasons why a technology company would keep its R & D function hidden from the public gaze but there is no good reason why a marketing agency should adopt this secrecy. A good marketing agency should be actively promoting its insight,intelligence and its understanding in any way possible. After all, self-promotion is very important to agencies because we operate in a very competitive sector. However, there are ways and means of doing this with integrity and authenticity.

This can be best summed up by what the Americans call the ‘cocktail party rule.’  This is the scenario when somebody whom you have only just met believes that you are just desperate to hear every last detail about their amazingly interesting lives. This stereotype of the boring, self-obsessed socialite is one that most of us would recognise in our private lives but perhaps not so much when it comes to our professional life.

When looking for a marketing agency, it is important to look at what they have to say to the market. Are they sharing something that you find useful or something that you could apply to your own circumstance? Do they demonstrate an empathy with or understanding of the challenges you face? Are they simply selling a homogenised set of services or are they addressing your needs as a client? The question you need to ask is are they the cocktail party bore talking incessantly about themselves or are they actually saying something useful, relevant and interesting?

Step 4  – How do they react to my brief?

If your shortlist of potential marketing agencies ticks all the boxes above, then it’s time to get in touch and give them a brief. (A brief is the term we use to describe the specification for a job.) How they react to this brief provides a real insight. Forgive me for this massive generalisation but agencies can sometime be a little…ahem…precious. They emphatically should not be. The first hint of ‘spoilt-child syndrome’ should be admonished. Even if your brief is inadequate the onus is on the agency to find out more. The agency is the expert in the realm of creative briefs, not you. And as such they should be proactive in making sure they have all the information that they require in order to do their job properly. All you need do is make sure you are open and available to answer questions and provide clarification.

Step 5 – How well do they fit with us?

This falls into 2 categories. This first is the quality of the creative work that they present at your pitch and the second is whether you think you can work with them on a medium to long-term basis.

The quality of the work should be assessed, first and foremost, on whether it meets the brief. Has the creative route being offered met our objectives? Can we see how it works without seeking too much clarification from its originator and just as important, how much love and care has been put into its presentation? If what they are presenting to you does not meet high standards in terms of the print quality, the quality of the mocking-up, the materials supporting the creative treatment and the ‘leave-behind’ documentation then serious questions need to be asked as to why. If an agency is unable to find the time, energy or flair to impress you in a pitch situation then they are simply not qualified to work with you.Reputation means nothing without application.

The second aspect of this final step is all about personalities. You won’t be expected to invite these people around for dinner but a good working relationship is essential to both your quality of work life and a successful outcome. Make sure you can get on with the key people you’ll be working with, otherwise you’ll be stuck with them.

B2B Marcomms is a hard working, honest and extremely talented marketing agency. We care deeply about the work we do. If this sounds like the kind of marketing agency you need, then get in touch now.

Click here for more information or call us now on 01924 470900.

British Petroleum (BP) - $4.6 million

Designer: Landor 2008

London 2012 – Logo – £400,000

Designer:  Wolff Ollins  2007

BBC3 – £400,000

Designer: Lambie-Nairn Agency  2008

New pepsi Logo – $1million

Designer: Arnell Group 2009

Nike Swoosh – $35 (yes just $35)

Designer: Carloyn Davidson 1971
($2 per hour  rate)

You get what you pay for… Or do you?

Most people have a computer and can easily create a logo with standard design software (Polite note to clients: Microsoft Word is NOT design software), pre-made templates and clipart. The trouble is that like in any trade, training and experience are the all important ingredients. Anybody can cook but can they create a dish as creative as Heston Blumenthal? Would we even understand the composition of what we’re cooking and why certain ingredients go together? The same thing applies when coming up with a logo.

A good logo design takes time and research, it is not a simple case of making it look pretty. It needs to be functional too. And herein lies the problem. A case in point would be a friend of mine whose company recently pitched to a group of school children. This is all well and good and a lovely gimmick for the client but the questions that followed the pitch revealed a fundamental problem with the process i.e. a lack of understanding as to what good design needs to do. As bright as little Tarquin and Cressida were they didn’t understand that a logo needs to have meaning.  This is clearly not their fault but to leave the success or failure of a pitch (that took 5 days to prepare) in the hands of 14 year olds is not a sensible policy.

Experience and training is what really counts. Of course flair is important but let’s face it, you can put 21″ alloys, a big rear spoiler and tint the windows of your Range Rover Sport but it won’t make it go any faster (and you’ll still look a twat.)

You don’t need to worry about being charged a £1million if you commission B2B Marcomms  to create your new logo but we do believe an effective brand needs research, time and above all, an understanding of  what works and what doesn’t, if it is going to be successful. 

Whether you need a full brand makeover or simple sprucing up, B2B Marcomms will help you look your best.

Phone: 00 44 (0)1924 470900

Mail: richardf@b2bmarcomms.com

Site: b2bmarcomms.com

Brand Loyalty

It is a well know fact that winning new customers is more expensive than retaining your old ones. With that in mind, how can you make sure that your corporate brand encourages those existing clients to remain loyal? Probably best if we start by defining what a brand actually is.

Brand is how others perceive your company or organisation.

In reality this means that your what company says and does, directly effects how highly (or otherwise) your customers regard you. In the recent past, these perceptions were more to do with what a company said than did. PR enable companies to gloss over weaknesses and misdemeanours by deploying an effective public/press relations company. The advent of the interent means it is much more difficult to do this now. This balance has since shifted and more emphasis is now placed on the actions of company.

There are numerous reasons for this shift from reliance on PR and spin to more tangible demonstrations of social corporate responsibility. The most compelling reason is the evolution of the internet and communication. We now have review sites like trip adviser, who offer prospective customers the inside track on whoever it is they are thinking of doing business with. So, if there’s any skeletons in the closet, you can rest assured they won’t be there for long. More recently, there’s also the fallout from the banking crisis and the expenses scandal, which has led to less trust, a more robust and rigorous approach to the decision making process and greater demand for transparency and better service. Company’s who are serious about brand strategy need to reflect the new market conditions.

Another factor that effects how a brand is judged is the extremely competitive nature of the marketplace, whereby our clients have much more choice than they did in the past. This means that in order to stand out and compete for the loyalty of our existing clients (and attract new ones), we need to do one of 2 things – compete on price or offer more value.

Reducing prices is all well and good as a short-term fix to cash flow or new business issues but if you want your brand to increase customer loyalty then this will not help. In fact, there’s a strong argument that says the effect will be the opposite. Moreover, in offering a price reduction you are telling your customers that the cost of your product should be the decisive factor in their decision making process. By doing so you are encouraging the exact behaviour that you want to avoid. Reducing prices does not encourage brand loyalty. Furthermore, reducing prices can do long-term damage and cheapen your brand and this is a notoriously difficult process to unwind.

What does improve brand loyalty is reputation. The fact is that people still want to buy from a company with a good image. This image could have been cultivated by offering the best product, the most efficient processes or the best customer service. It could have been further enhanced by being a good employer, by paying suppliers on time or by having an effective environmental policy. Bear in mind that even in the deepest, darkest recession people are still prepared to pay more to buy from a company with a good reputation.

Building a good reputation in business can be simplified into 2 interconnected principles.The first is based on the quality of your product or service and how successfully you deliver it. The second is how well you can communicate this success.

Customers rightly expect quality, particularly if they are paying a premium price. And they will continue to pay the premium for that perceived quality, if they understand where the value lies. Shoes are a fine example of how this works in practice. The inherent value of a shoe made by Church’s is not necessarily in the style (although this does play a part). The inherent value lies in the fact that it is incredibly well made and therefore robust and strong. The benefit of this is that the shoe lasts a long time. So whilst you can buy a similar shoe for a lot less money, this comparison only reflects the initial capital expenditure and does not factor in the most important consideration. That is, how many pairs of ordinary shoes would have worn out by the time you need to replace your Church’s shoes? The obvious lesson here is that the reason why people pay a lot more for a pair of Church’s shoes is because they know that they will actually save money in the long run – they can see this inherent value because Church’s maintain a strong reputation for quality through an effective brand strategy.

If you want to keep clients loyal to your brand then a consistent, coherent and continuous message is the key to success.

If you want to know how B2B Marcomms can help develop an effective brand strategy for your company, then get in touch now. Visit our website for more information or call us on 01924 470900.

Our appreciation (or otherwise) of certain objects is often put down to coincidence.  We assume that we like or dislike something due a personal preference for one thing above another and not because it follows a set formula. This can apply to literature, films or art. For example, I might like George Orwell books whereas my colleague Wak prefers Barbara Cartland.

But are our personal predilections solely based on the nature of our character or is there a more preordained force at work?

As a B2B marketing and branding agency you will not be surprised to hear that we do not believe in coincidence or luck. We rely on data and the trends that that data shows. Aesthetics are all well and good but if they get in the way of form and function they have no place. This is where the golden ratio or ‘Phi’ comes in. Throughout the 20th century, and some would argue for 1000’s of years before, objects that comply with the golden ratio are said to have been more aesthetically pleasing.

What is the Golden Ratio?

The Golden Ratio, like π is also an Irrational Number. Informally, this means that it cannot be represented as a simple fraction, a number with no arithmetical solution. The decimals just keep on going into infinity without ever repeating themselves, in this case as such; 1.61803398874989484820…

So what?

Well, it just so happens that the Golden Ratio appears over and over again in geometry, art, architecture, business and finance and nature. Some artists and architects believe the Golden Ratio makes the most pleasing and beautiful shape and that the human appreciation of beauty is therefore not random at all but predetermined by this common factor.

If this is the case then surely history will be littered with examples proving this theory to be correct and thereby dismissing all notions of good taste or bad. We’ve done our research and come up with a timeline of incidences purporting to represent the Golden Ratio. Coincidence? Decide for yourself.

The Ancient Greeks

In the pseudo-scientific world of high finance it’s easy to forget how much we owe our Greek friends. Let me remind you of a tiny fraction of what the Greek nation has contributed to the world.

Phidias (circa 500 BC – 430 BC), a Greek sculptor, painter, architect and mathematician studied Phi and applied it to the design of his sculptures for the Parthenon. Commonly regarded as the greatest sculpture that has ever lived, did he know something his contemporaries did not?

Plato (circa 428 BC – 347 BC), in his views on natural science and cosmology presented in his ‘Timaeus, considered the golden mean (or golden ratio) to be the most binding of all mathematical relationships and the key to the physics of the cosmos.

Euclid (365 BC – 300 BC), in “Elements,” referred to a dividing line at the 0.6180399… point as “dividing a line in the extreme and mean ratio.” This later gave rise to the use of the term ‘mean’ in the ‘golden mean.’  He also linked this number to the construction of a pentagram.

Physical Beauty

Evidence shows that our perception of physical beauty is hard wired into our psyche and based on how closely one’s features reflect Phi in their proportions.  Our attraction to another person’s body increases if that body is symmetrical and in proportion. Likewise, if a face is in proportion, we are more likely to notice it and find it beautiful. Scientists also believe that we perceive proportional bodies to be more healthy.

Dr. Stephen Marquardt, maxillo-facial surgeon, developed a beauty mask overlay based on the Divine Proportion (or Golden Ratio). If an individual’s face conforms to the beauty mask, then the face will be beautiful. There is a beauty mask for males and females based on the Divine Proportion regardless of race or age.

The Telly

The shape of a TV has changed over the years to create the perfect viewing experience. Widescreen TVs (including all HDTVs) and most widescreen DVDs have a ratio of 16 x 9, or 1.78:1. This allows most films made in the past half-century to be shown full-screen with little or no letterboxing. Many cinema display computer monitors have a 16 x 10 (1.6:1) ratio. That is extremely close to 1.618:1, the golden ratio.

Nature

The unique thing about this number is that it can be found incorporated in all known organic structures. From the bone structure of human beings to the seed pattern of a sunflower to the spiral of a seashell, the Phi proportion is there, underlying all biological structures, seeming to be a geometrical blueprint for life itself.

Art 

The Golden Ratio is also prevalent in art. Unsurprisingly Leonardo Da Vanci, keen mathematician as well as artist and inventor, seemed to understand the power of the Golden Ratio. It can be found in Da Vinci’s most famous painting, ‘The Mona Lisa,’ as well ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘The Vetruvian Man.

B2B Marcomms is a B2B brand, marketing and online agency with a scientific approach. ROI is our middle name. Get in touch.

Phone: 0044 (0)1924 470900

Mail: richardf@b2bmarcomms.com

Site: b2bmarcomms.com 

We are currently living through the most tumultuous economic times in living memory. We are told that this is down to excessive borrowing on the part of governments, businesses and citizens. Moreover, that the mature western economies are dependent on infinite growth in a world of finite resources and that this growth has been achieved through accruing debt.

As a generalisation this would make sense. Growth depends on fuel for growth, which is money. Money is supposed to be a promise of value however it seems it is more of a hope of value these days,  akin to a commodity whereby the price/value goes up and down depending on supply and demand. For example, print more money in the form of QE and you reduce the value of it, meaning things cost more. If you don’t earn more, then you need to borrow to make up the shortfall.

Many blame inflation on exactly this reason and feel that QE may have helped repair the balance sheets of the big banks but it has made life tougher for SME’s. The consequence of QE in the current financial climate for an SME  is that we effectively have to sell our products more cheaply twice over. Firstly we have to sell cheaper in a literal sense to compete against the backdrop of a diminishing demand in a stagnant market and secondly, in the context of the broader problem of the pound in your pocket promising you less value than it did the day before.

Set against this rather depressing backdrop it would be easy to imagine that the future is out of our hands and that prosperity or otherwise is in the lap of the dreaded “markets.” Adopt this attitude and you may as well give up, however remaining optimistic does require great faith and one does have to be careful to be realistic about misplaced optimism, which brings me to the question in hand.

Should we compromise on the values that compelled us to start out in business in the first place to make a fast buck or should we remain loyal to those values and play the long game?

The easy answer is to say follow the money. Globalisation seems to have convinced us all to like the same things anyway so why try and be different? We all think we are free thinkers and innovators but we’re not really. We have been homogenised, or commoditised if you prefer. Whether it’s ipads, Jamie Oliver’s latest cookbook or the most recent X-Factor clone to have been imposed on us. By and large we all buy the same stuff.

I encountered an example recently. I was one of the lucky ones (depending on your point of view) who managed to acquire tickets for the forthcoming Stone Roses reunion. Afterwards I was reading a blog about the reunion and many of the comments were ridiculing the band and expressing their disdain at their apparent inability to look ‘cool.’ One particularly tedious commentator said sardonically that this was a ’glorious success for the PR company.’

For me this crystalised the entire argument and the analogy is clear. Do we want the long-term credibility that is acquired as a result of our deeds or do we care more for the instant gratification that is derived from jumping on the latest bandwagon and following the crowd?

One thing is for sure, which is that not everything can be valued in cold hard currency. What price reliability and credibility, what price loyalty and trust, what price genuinely caring about and taking pride in what you do?

In difficult times it easy to forget the values and virtues that define who we are. It’s easier to acquire 1000 new Facebook friends at the click of a button that nurture those relationships that have been formed over many years of mutual respect and trust.

Our advice?  Don’t needlessly abandon the very virtues that made your company successful in the first place. It is these very same values that will differentiate you from everyone else and help you secure the long-term profitable business your company needs. Substance wins the day over style every time. Always has done, always will.

For advice on how to get more from your brand, get in touch.

Phone: 0044 (0)1924 470900

Mail: richardf@b2bmarcomms.com

Online: b2bmarcomms.com

Have you ever wondered about the origins of a company’s logo? Ever wanted to know what this says about the history and traditions of some of the world’s most well known brands?

A logo is the centerpiece of a brand and so much hinges on whether the logo is doing its job successfully and encouraging brand loyalty or whether it is inviting ridicule or worse still, offering an insight into a controversial history. We’ve picked out favourite logo stories from brands around the world.

We’d love to hear your thoughts or some of your own interesting logo stories.

1. Coca Cola

Where better place to start than with the grandfather of the logo. Love them or loathe them Coca Cola, the alleged creators of the modern day Santa Claus, have built up brand recognition beyond any other company in the world today – there is no more recognisable image than Coca Cola’s logo. Why is this? Coca Cola’s famous scripted logo has not changed since 1888 when Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name and distinctive cursive script. The typeface, known as Spencerian Script, was the dominant formal handwritten style in the United States at the time and has not changed since. The circular style of the letters is rhythmic, carefree are very engaging. The name itself has great aural alliteration too with the repetitive C’s matching the flowing and warm feel of the visual. Corporate website.

2. Pepsi Co.

Whilst we are on the sugary beverage isle we may as well take a look at Coke’s great rival, Pepsi. When it comes to rebrands Pepsi is the polar opposite of Coca Cola. Pepsi is known for slogans such as ‘For those who think young’ and ‘The Pepsi Generation’ both of which give you an insight into Pepsi’s target market. This youthful, energetic image and Pepsi’s iconic circle logo, and variations thereof, have been paramount in building Pepsi into a corporate behemoth. Knowing who your market is helps a great deal. Previous Pepsi rebrands have paid dividends and in the mid 80’s they had narrowed the sales  gap with Coke to 2 – 1. Corporate website.

3. Volkswagen

Volkswagen, which translates as ‘peoples car’ has a logo almost as iconic and recognisable as Coke. Unfortunately for Volkswagen, their history is intrinsically linked to Hitler and the Nazi’s. In actual fact the Swastika can be seen clearly in the original logo. This is due in large part to Hitler’s involvement with the company before WWII when the German economy was in such bad shape, Hitler raised the idea of a cheap ‘peoples car.’ The logo was re-designed after the war and Volkswagen became the world’s foremost car manufacturer. With iconic cars like the Beetle, the VW Camper and the Golf GTi in their stable, the quality of their product has always matched their mastery of branding and marketing. Corporate website.

4. General Electric

Along with Coca Cola and BMW, GE have a logo that has lost none of its familiarity in over a 100 years. The company was formed in 1892 by the merger of Edison Electric Light Company (no introduction necessary) and Thomas Houston Electric Company. This basic logo has changed very little in that time with only the protective circle being added and eventually the blue. This commitment to the original idea has served them extremely well, with GE being the biggest company in the world for a time and currently standing at, a not too shabby, 16 on the Fortune 500. Corporate website.

5. Adidas

No list of this kind would be complete without the indomitable German beast that is Adidas. The company was formed by German brothers Adi and Rudolf Dassler who wanted to offer athletes the finest sports gear possible. The 3 parallel striped design symbolises a mountain which is to point towards the goals and challenges that lay ahead. Adidas outdoes almost all other sports/fashion brands for loyalty and has managed to stride mainstream conformity and underground culture with ease being associated with everything from lawn tennis to football casuals. Truly unique. Corporate website.

6. Royal Dutch Shell

The Royal Dutch Shell Group was created in February 1907 when the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and the UK “Shell” Transport and Trading Company merged their operations. This move was largely driven by the need to compete globally with John D. Rockefeller‘s Standard Oil. Whilst the Shell logo, which is a scallop shell, has evolved over the last 100 years it has always been a very simple design, presumably to ensure that the company could reproduce it easily. Interestingly, the additions of the red and yellow coincided with the company launching a major operation in California. Whilst the addition of colour was clearly an attempt to make the logo stand out more it is also said that Shell adopted these particular colours because they are the colours of Spain, where many Californian settlers were born. Corporate website.

7. Apple Mackintosh

The road to success did not always look as easy as Apple make it look today. When Apple set out in business their logo was a complex affair depicting Isaac Newton sitting under a tree. The rationale behind this style is clear but the execution is hugely overcomplicated. When the new logo, the coloured bitten apple, was launched it was rumoured that it was in memory of Alan Turing who committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide. (Turing was an English mathematician who was hugely influential in the development of computer science. The rainbow colours were alleged to be in homage to Turning’s homosexuality.) Corporate website.

If you need to get more out out of your brand then get in touch.

Phone: 44 (0) 1924 470900

b2bmarcomms.com 

OK, now we have got that out of the way I’ll explain what I mean. However, before I do I would like to reference my colleague, Nick Hague, whose own recent blog inspired me to pen this tribute to the joys of wondering round the woods in the pissing down rain at 6.30 in the morning, stopping only to bag up a turd. Wonderful stuff.

This opening gambit may seem facetious but I can assure you I am being deadly serious. There are only 2 things that I can be certain the working day will bring. One is that I will swear a lot and the other is that the day will start with myself and the dog walking side-by-side debating current affairs and business issues. These critical discussions are often interrupted by other dog walkers with whom I tend to engage in a brief conflab, usually around the same subjects – generally this is either the temperature today in comparison to the previous day or how unruly their dog has become. We Brits are pretty good at this kind of inane chit-chat, in fact we’re the best. Oddly I am much more happy to tolerate it at this time of day than I am later on.

This tolerance is symptomatic of my whole attitude and mood on the morning walk. Even on the back of a few beverages the night before (rarely happens these days) I can plan strategies to diffuse potential conflict (not always), I can come up good ideas for client jobs (usually), I can remember to make more of an effort on the domestic front (most of the time) and I can resolve the previous days problems that have been left to simmer in the ‘overnight cooker.’ I can play music on my ipod with no chance of being disturbed, I can see what guest ales are currently available in my local (they have a sign outside) and I can be back in time to make breakfast for my family before the day starts proper. What’s not to like?

The importance of gathering ones thoughts and having the time to consider things without interruption is something I would not be without and something I would heartily recommend. You may not be into the idea of taking the dog for a walk (you may not have a dog) but taking precious time out on your own during the day to plan and to resolve will work wonders for your productivity.

If your company operates in a b2b market then your database is very important for generating new sales enquiries. A shop on a busy high street with plenty of footfall will have a high volume of new customers. This type of footfall can be compared to the number of contacts on our B2B database.

But this is only half the story.

If your high street shop is in a town dominated by pensioners and your shop sells skateboards, then you might have a problem.

So in a B2B context, having a large amount of data is only an asset if the data you have is clean/up-to-date and furthermore, if the data is relevant to what your company has to offer.

The next point you need to consider when using your data is the number of contacts you should use. A shop with too few sales assistants during a busy period would be unable to cope with demand and as a result, valuable commercial opportunities would be lost. If your own sales team is not able to handle enquiries quickly and professionally then you have too many contacts on your database.

Once you have decided that you have the right amount of data and that your contacts are relevant, you need to start using it. Back to the high street – In general it is very simple to ascertain what business a shop is in from their window display. In B2B marketing and communications, by and large, we do not have a window display so we use our brand to define our corporate message.

This means that before embarking on a direct marketing campaign, you need to make sure your corporate brand does 2 things. Firstly, it should tell your audience what service/product you sell and secondly, it should clearly define what makes you different from the competition i.e. your brand values. Your differentiator/brand values may relate to price, innovation, an exclusive product offer or it may focus on the quality of your client service or aftercare. Whatever your brand values are, they need to be communicated just like a shop window would promote new stock or a sale.

The final factor to consider in this crash course on data management is brand loyalty. Grabbing a coffee and a bacon butty from the same greasy spoon every morning may be facilitated, to a degree, by convenience but do not underestimate the power of that customers brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is achieved through consistency, which in turn creates familiarity, which we humans like. If your brand is presented to your data regularly this familiarity will develop into trust – the aforementioned holy grail of b2b marketing and communications.

Admittedly this is a rather rudimentary explanation on how best to use your company’s marketing data but we’d be only too happy to fill in the gaps. Give us a call 44 (0) 1924 470900.

Project

Services: B2B branding, B2B corporate literature, B2B social media, B2B direct marketing, B2B online including B2B social media, web, and SEO.

Synopsis: We were appointed by Bampton Packaging back in October 2011 to provide a complete overhaul of their corporate identity including an appraisal of their existing brand and development of a new B2B brand and marketing strategy.

Bampton Packaging provide a comprehensive range of packaging services from wholesale packaging materials through to MoD packing and packaging manufacturing. They were established in 1926 and wanted to convey not only their expertise, but also their vast experience. Having enjoyed a fantastic couple of years growing at a rate of 20% PA, in spite of very difficult trading conditions, Bampton wanted to capitalise on this momentum they had created by clearly defining their corporate message and presenting this to market in a concise and engaging way. Bampton Packaging offer the market a bespoke package that is borne out of addressing a clients specific needs rather simply providing ‘off the shelf’ solutions.

With such a strong set of B2B brand values built up over decades of offering clients a premium service it was a great company for B2B Marcomms to work with. The brand we have created conveys these brand values and demonstrates to Bampton clients that they can be trusted to protect not only their product, but their reputation as well.

B2B Marcomms is a business-to-business marketing agency. We specialise in delivering innovative b2b marketing and b2b brand strategies that always deliver an excellent ROI.

Call us on +44 (0)1924 470900 or visit the site.