A wonderful B2B advert
Category: B2B Marketing
Build ‘mental availability’
“A lot of advertising is geared to persuasion rather than building mental availability. Persuasion is about assuming you’re in the room and you’re arguing your point, whereas mental availability is about getting into the room.”
Jenni Romaniuk, Ehrenberg Bass Institute
A few key planning questions for all marketing communications
What customer response do you hope for (and what will stimulate that response)?
What customer problem are you solving?
What is the real impact you will have on a customer’s life?
Why should the customer trust you?
Classic B2B marketing philosophy
A customer’s path to purchase will quite probably involve a series of questions. B2B brands need to predict and answer those questions.
What we must offer customers
Brilliant marketing communications advice from advertising legend, Dave Trott…
“If we want them to pay attention, we’ll be entertaining.
If we want them to listen, we’ll be interesting.
If we want them to understand, we’ll make it simple.
If we want them to remember, we’ll make it catchy.
If we want them to do something, we’ll be convincing.”
Do you have a clustomer problem?
A lovely B2B campaign, from Intuit
Creating value for customers is critical
Cost cutting is finite (as a sustainable strategy), whereas value creation for customers is infinite.
Professor Malcolm McDonald, renowned marketing expert
Mediocre brands sell ‘product’. Great brands sell ‘value’.
Alex M H Smith, strategist
Bravery. A B2B marketing poem, by Brian Macreadie
It’s lonelier on the road less travelled
It’s isolated on the open sea
It’s scary walking all alone
Pioneering requires bravery
Because it’s harder finding discoveries
where many have trampled before
If we aspire to make breakthroughs
we must venture and explore
And just as fresh discoveries
are best found on new terrain
It’s only fresh marketing tactics
that bring extraordinary gains
You can’t win hearts and minds
with marketing that’s boring
Trying evocative tactics is
both more fun and more rewarding
Plus repeating tired old formulas
is also forgettably unfulfilling
And it almost certainly won’t
get our target audiences clicking
We’re each contesting competitive ground
and must carve out a distinctive place
But there’s more room at the margins
Pushing boundaries creates space
And finding space from others
is the way to get us seen
It’s easier standing out when
you’re not one of the sardines
So it’s not risky being different
It’s risky not standing apart
Being distinctive’s not a brave move
It’s simply being smart
So go where others aren’t
and try what others won’t
Experiment more than rivals
and do the things they don’t
Let’s take the road less travelled
and sail on open seas
Let’s try doing something special
and reveal wondrous opportunities
There’s a lesson in here for all professional communicators…
These tips apply to so many forms of marketing communication, not just speeches…
