Reason # 1 — We’re Not Natural Members of the Marketplace
We marketers are (generally) not a member of the Tech marketplace we’re marketing to. In B2C spaces, we’re all familiar with the products we market—Milky Ways to mattresses to whatever. We use them, we know someone that uses them, or at least we’ve seen them used: we’re members.
Not so in our world. Marketers are very rarely users of storage farms or omnichannel OS’s or ERP systems. That means we have a lot more to learn than B2C marketers before we can even begin to connect relevantly with our marketplace. How well we do that–how well exposed we are to the mindset and needs and even personalities of our targets–drives the quality and outcome of our Marketing.
Reason # 2 — Agencies Don’t Understand What We Do
B2C has it easy when it comes to agency relationships. There are lots of good ones to choose from and they all come to the table, since they’re consumers too, pretty much understanding what it is their client makes, who the market is, how to approach the market and so on. It may be the first client they have that makes television sets . . . but TV is not an unknown. There’s a learning curve—demographics, brand strategy, corporate messaging and so on—but it’s a straightforward one.
B2B technology companies have no such resource—at least not very often. With few exceptions, every tech product is—in its market, its features, its processes—a mystery to agencies. You may be introducing them to their first transport layer or their first federated database–much to learn.
Engagements with agencies involve a learning curve that’s much steeper than in B2C. The brunt of that learning process falls on your primary contact people who are working with the agencies. It’s really they who have to explain the product and its value, and then work through the agency’s output, correcting it, shoving it back on target, removing misstatements, weak imagery, conflicting messaging . . . before it gets sent up the ladder where everyone’s just waiting for something to shoot at.
That’s a tough job. It’s harder to make things right than to make them sizzle.
Reason # 3 — We Have to Tell the Whole Truth
B2B or B2C: neither can lie in their Marketing. But B2C gets a pass on telling the Truth. They’re free to make improvable claims: “gets your whites the whitest”. They’re free to play on our emotions: “This holiday, drive the car you’ve always wished for.” They’re free to make Giant Promises. And let’s not forget that side order of sex with our hamburger ads. Good brand marketers use all of these tools—and more—to connect their brand and product stories with consumers.
Lucky them. We can’t do any of this. We have to do more than not lie. We have to tell the Truth. More than that, we have to tell it accurately. We can’t say “blazing speed”: we have to say “up to 100,000 IOPS.” We can’t say “you’ll save money every time you compute!” We have to say “up to 30% reduction in CAPEX.” (That almost mandatory “up to” is a real pain, isn’t it?) We can’t say “the in-memory database you’ll love forever!”
We have to work harder at our messages across all the media they’re deployed. We have to do more research. We have to go through more review cycles with more people involved. We have to exercise a much higher attention to detail.
And still, without all those great B2C tools, our stories have to be creative. Our production values excellent. Our campaigns interesting to the marketplace. It still has to be good Marketing.
Would be a lot easier to just market SSD with sex, don’t you think?
<IMAGE> One of the hamburger girls, in the traditional hamburger costume of her people.
<VO> “Acme Solid State Drives. Bringing a whole new layer to the storage stack.”
Took me two seconds to come up with that.
B2B is lots harder.
Reason # 4 — We Have to Market More than Just Outcomes
I went deep in my archives, on a 5.25 inch floppy, to find this treasured Marketing Maxim:
People Buy Holes, Not Drill Bits
That’s very true for B2C. The buying motivation is very singly focused on Outcome (some major exceptions, like automobiles, but still generally the case I think). If I buy this, will I get that? A promise of Yes fulfills the market’s core barrier to entry. There are really no other considerations (like “will this detergent mean I have to expand my laundry room?”). Marketing can focus on making its messages as emotional, appealing and memorable as it can.
Not us. Oh sure, our markets demand a positive Outcome. But they also want to know how that Outcome will be reached, how it will affect other Outcomes of other systems, what other ongoing costs there will be to maintain that Outcome over time, which Outcome architecture it uses . . . oh they want to know all kinds of stuff before they get serious with a sales rep. That makes it a harder message to deliver, a harder story to tell well . . . and a much more demanding audience to tell it to.
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