Trendwatching’s latest caught my eye more than most. The headline screams one word: “Functionall.” The subhead: “Why simple, small & cheap appeals to all.”

The definition of Functionall: Captures the phenomenon of simple, small and/or cheap products and services designed for low(er)-income consumers in emerging markets, with cross-over appeal to consumers in mature consumer societies.

Hmmmm… “function for all.” Love the idea.

As a designer, this resonates with me. I think Evers is on to something important here. When designing products for emerging markets, several important aspects must be considered. One or more of these factors might be incorporated to ensure success.

• Limited features to keep pricing low, or smaller in size.
• Simple, easy to use; especially good for consumers who may have limited experience using products in developing markets.
• Energy efficient or requiring little, if any energy; and/or easy to repair; and/or creating little waste.
• Ruggedly made: remember developing markets are sometimes “rugged” markets.
• Designed with “democratization” in mind. Translation: no matter where these products are designed and/or made, they will have global appeal, even for consumers in developed countries who demand more from brands.
• Offer ways that help users to help sustain themselves.

A couple of years ago, this whole article might have been solely about consumers in the developing world. But the recent global recession has reverberated around the developed world creating continuing ripples that are changing consumers in profound ways.

Think about it. Consumers everywhere have eschewed luxury for practicality. They’re proud of their new-found frugality, as well. Consumers are looking to simplify their lives. They still want and need convenience, though.

And how about the urban consumer? Transient, upwardly mobile customers want the newest, latest and greatest, but please: can we do it simply, with as much built-in convenience and value pricing as possible? And please: can it be smaller in size to fit apartments the size of shoeboxes?

Does this mean more expensive, upscale or luxury brands are dead? No. But it does signify new thinking as far as many consumer brands are concerned. If companies want to be global, then they’d better think “global”. That means getting up to speed on all that entails.

So the challenge for the latter is: how can brands from both developed and developing societies come up with innovations that are cheap yet rugged, convenient, easy to use, offer energy efficiency, cut down on the waste stream and empower people in new ways? Whew! Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it?

But remember the starting point is: Function for All.

You know what? The design community and the world community are up to the challenge. Just turn us loose. For examples of currently available Functionall products, check out the article link.

Questions:

• What kinds of recent brands can you think of with Functionall offerings? What kinds of products fit in with this philosophy?
• What kinds of consumer products do you think best suited to this Functionall thinking? That would have massive global appeal?
• Do you see ways in which this thinking could have broad appeal to what Trendwatching refers to as “eco-(status) conscious consumers”?

I’d love to hear from you.

Related posts:

1. Big CPG Players: Going On Offense In 2010?
2. Making the Customer Your CEO
3. FREECONOMY

But most important are the members of our program advisory committee who provide us with their observations and opinions about what the challenges are on the frontlines of B2B marketing. The members of our program committee are leading the marketing charge for their companies and clients and are eager to find new and innovative ways to reach customers more effectively. I’m grateful for their insights. Through all of the research I’ve done in the past few months, here’s what I’ve learned.

B2B marketing is still fundamentally about generating leads—that has not changed. Many marketers are generating leads, some more effectively than others, but nurturing those leads seem to be the real challenge. Understanding where those potential customers are in the sales process, what their pain points are and knowing how to move them along the funnel still eludes many marketers. Then there is the confusion around which technologies are best to help with this process.

Measurement & ROI is a HUGE challenge! Being able to prove marketing’s worth to overall business goals is essential and not easy to do. Just marrying up your analytics from different initiatives and different software systems is enough to make your head spin. Where do you start to put together the big picture?

Integration is another big issue. One member of the program committee, Mary Ann Kleinfelter, said it perfectly: “we now need to integrate new channels when the old ones aren’t even integrated yet.” Social media is still new to many B2B marketers and they still need to understand how to set policy around it and learn how to incorporate it into the larger marketing strategy.

Strategy . . . that’s another challenge. Marketers are so focused on tactics in the effort to get something done quickly that the big picture strategy is getting lost.

Then there are a million other things marketers need to think about: 

• How is mobile marketing going to affect B2B marketing?
• How should I be preparing for it now?
• How do I develop content that will resonate with my prospects and customers and who is going to develop it?
• How do I optimize my content to gain the best search results?
• How can I use email more effectively?
• How can I use video to engage customers?

I could go on… I empathize with B2B marketers. They have so many challenges, not the least of which is simply a limited amount of time and resources. I’ve done my best to put together an educational program for the MarketingProfs B2B Forum that will help B2B marketers with these challenges.

If I missed any big issues you’re struggling with, feel free to let me know.

Related posts:

1. MarketingProfs B2B Forum Ramp Up: Join In The Social-Media Case Study Challenge!
2. MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum: It’s all About the People
3. Join the MarketingProfs LinkedIn Group

I recently read an excellent post by Paul Dunay on Social Media Today presenting the 4 C’s of B2B marketing. We’ve known about the 4 P’s of marketing for years: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Paul argues the 4 P’s are primarily a B2C mix. The 4 C’s, however, (Content, Connection, Communications, Conversion) illustrate the marketing mix for B2B. Sounds great, but how should B2B organizations implement the 4 C’s marketing mix into their campaigns? I would like to highlight an approach that has served our B2B agency very well: The 4 Pillars of a B2B Marketing Campaign.

We have found that the combined effectiveness of four key aspects of B2B Marketing determine the success of a B2B campaign: Insight, Strategy, Creative and Metrics (we call them pillars). Each pillar is essential in supporting the campaign, whether it be online or in print. One could argue that this holds true for B2C as well, however, B2C makes heavy use of media buying (TV, Radio, etc), a marketing strategy that B2B rarely requires.

Think of each pillar as a leg supporting a table. Short-cut or remove any leg and the marketing campaign either becomes very shaky, or it can completely topple over and crash to the ground. The four pillars provide a solid framework for mixing the right marketing activities in order to create engaging campaigns.

Not to be confused with the 4 C’s of B2B Marketing, the 4 Pillars are the critical stages in the life cycle of a B2B marketing campaign, whereas the 4 C’s are key the ingredients within a B2B organization’s annual marketing plan. During a 4 Pillar campaign, one must always check to ensure the 4 C’s are addressed accordingly at each stage.

Insight – Get The Right Ideas
All ideas start with insight, and all great ideas require great insight. Insight enables you to see and understand what your audience is all about, and marketing without insight is like marketing blind. Many B2B organizations make educated guesses at what they perceive to be the wants and needs of their customers. However, true marketing insight is generated through carefully considered interpretation of business intelligence and financial data. It’s the stuff that’s gathered through the process of analyzing market research, together with everything already known about the target market. It provides vital information and data that helps us craft killer ideas and creative ways to communicate to our audience.

Strategy – Get Integrated
Marketing in the B2B space is not like marketing to consumers. I love Paul Dunay’s analogy: if B2C marketing is a sprint, then B2B marketing is a marathon. Let’s face it. We are living in an age of information overload. It’s a noisy landscape. That’s why it is so important for B2B organizations to cut through that noise with integrated marketing that’s both strategic and creatively crafted. In the everyday bombardment of messages and tweets, it is pointless to hope to stand out and be heard without consistently engaging our audience. An integrated B2B marketing strategy helps organizations successfully connect with their customers because it helps them get branded, get online and get social in relevant and meaningful ways.

Creative – Get Experienced
Creativity is no longer just an embellishment to brand management. It has become a strategic imperative for creating killer content and a core driver of innovation and differentiation in a crowded marketplace. Creative thinking is drastically transforming online experiences by separating great content from mediocre content. Why? Because creating great content is hard. It’s not a creative writing or pixel pushing project. You can’t “just create something” out of thin air. Content creators know that great content involves so much more than “clever buzzwords” (if there is such a thing). Great content requires a balance between function and form, both written and visual, in order to deliver an experience that is both relevant and meaningful to the customer.

Metrics – Get Optimized
Planning and executing a marketing program is a good start, but how are the results measured? What’s working? What’s not? Accurate metrics involves consistent and persistent monitoring, measuring and adjusting along the way. The process becomes truly valuable when the right data helps make intelligent business decisions. A critical component to achieving the right data is testing. At Ad-Tech, last April, I learned that less than 30% of companies test their marketing. Those 30% saw their marketing ROI increase by more than 70%! That means the majority of companies rely on gut instinct and misinformation. No wonder marketing is perceived as an expense rather than an investment! When in doubt, test… and then test again, because testing illustrates what the customer really wants.

Thoughts?

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Achim Klor is the President and Creative Director at SterlingKlor Communications. Reach him at connect@sterlingklor.com.

Related posts:

1. Guest Post: Social Media and the Seven Marketing Blind Spots
2. Guest Post: When Navigating The New World Of Sponsored Tweets…
3. Guest Post: Marketing in 140 Characters or Less

We talk with Seth Godin about his new book: Linchpin

Marketing Over Coffee with Seth Godin

Direct Link to File

Show length 23:30

00:52 What’s Linchpin about?

02:30 How do entrepreneurial linchpins fit in to large organizations?

05:40 Who are the artists?

06:55 Can you get beyond Dunbar’s Number? Gary V. is using Twitter to add two zeros.

08:10 What is The Resistance? What is Emotional Labor?

11:22 Thrashing – a classic Marketing problem, and yes, Duke Nukem! Real artists ship.

14:16 Is there any future for mass media advertising?

15:30 What’s are the trends in privacy?

17:15 Zen Habits – Read Leo’s Blog

18:40 Making dreams come true and having Super Powers

21:12 Where the books come from

Our theme song is called Mellow G by Fonkmasters from the Podsafe Music Network.

Related posts:

1. Seth Joins In!
2. Seth Says: Discuss Amongst Yourselves
3. Seth Godin’s New Book (& New MarketingProfs Seminar!)

A Brand = A Reputation

The term “brand” can be confusing. Think of a brand as a reputation. Building a reputation in any new market involves a first impression. This first impression forms through the initial interactions someone has with your company, products, and services. It can be formed in many ways, including: advertising, media, word-of-mouth, and contact with your products or services. Through additional exposure over time, you build a reputation among your potential and existing customers. This reputation is your brand.

Getting Started

As you move through this following four step process you should constantly measure what you are doing as it relates to your new customer. Each step of the way, ask these filtering questions:

To my target customers, am I being Relevant?

Do my offerings make a difference in their lives? Do they translate, both literally and figuratively, to their life and lifestyle?

To my target customers, am I being Appropriate?

Am I pursuing things the proper way? This includes culturally, legally, traditionally, etc

To my target customers, am I being Remarkable?

Do I stand out from the competition? What make you unique in the mind of your customers?

Key Steps

STEP 1) Re-Examine Offerings (Ensure Demand)

Proven success with your current target audience, that doesn’t automatically mean that your new target will connect in the same way with your products or services. Use the questions you used to build your initial business plan and re-ask them for the new market.

First and most important you’ll want to determine if a market exists for your product? If so, make sure the want or need isn’t already being well met by someone else. If there are existing competitors, what (in the perspective of your potential customers) makes you remarkably different? If you do see a need, but competition does NOT exist, make sure you find out why. (e.g. It is not permitted by law, it is provided through another method, etc).

If you don’t have a formal business plan from your first go around, pick-up a guide on how to writing a business plan or use online resources. A formal plan will ensure you don’t forget to ask any important questions. (Inc.com has a great section called “Business Plan Building, Section by Section”

STEP 2) Determine Your Logistics (Ensure Supply)

Make sure you can get your product to, or manufactured within, the new market. Import and manufacturing laws vary from country to country. Before you go any further, ensure you can make your products reliably and consistency available to your new target markets.

STEP 3) Re-Examine Your Identity

Now that you’ve established demand and supply, continue asking relevant, appropriate, and remarkable filtering questions (mentioned above) with regard to your identity. You now should ensure your company and product names, logo, packaging, registration, and trademark status are relevant in your new market.

• Company / Product Names
  Ensure product names make sense to the customers in your new markets – this includes both in their English form and/or in the local translation.Re-brand Locally – Similar to the way auto manufactures change the names of their cars to appeal to local markets, perhaps you need to re-brand your key product to be locally relevant. Many companies re-name their products to find the local language equivalent. Don’t simply use translation tools for this stage. You don’t want what you think is an effective name to mean something opposite or offend potential customers. Work with someone locally who can help make sure you communicate what you intend.Here’s a true story. One of the most popular Christmastime lattes at Starbucks Coffee in North America is the Gingerbread Latte. However, the first year it was offered in Germany it was surprisingly unpopular. Germany nearly invented gingerbread – they love it! The marketing team realized in Germany that flavor isn’t called “gingerbread” but rather, lebkuchen. So the next Christmas they changed the name on the menu to Lebkuchen Latte and they sold like crazy.
• Logo
  Ensure that any logos or symbols you use have the same meaning locally and don’t offend. Do research to make sure your logo isn’t similar to that of another international company. Ensure your use of color is culturally appropriate. Color choice to make packaging stand out from competition in the US may not suit the color meanings in your local market. Consult a local marketing or design firm to confirm.
• Packaging / Labeling
  Does your packaging permit your products to exist among your competitors? (e.g. Your package uses a clear plastic shell that hangs from a rod, but the competition puts theirs in a box that sits on a shelf). While packaging may help to differentiate you, be sure it doesn’t prevent proper merchandising. Do your labels contain the legally required and locally desired information? Learn the local standards and ensure your packaging includes any necessary regulatory information and meets transportation standards.
• Registration / Trademark Status
  Follow the process in your market to ensure you preserve patent and trademarks. Thanks to the NAFTA Treaty your marks may already be protected in Mexico and Canada. If you’re doing business in the European Union filing for a Community Trade Mark (CTM) will protect you. (Please find an expert to help you with registration and trademark – this is not my expertise.)

Find local resources to help. It is nearly impossible to understand local culture simply by visiting a country. If you don’t speak the language, don’t assume you can translate – Google translator ain’t gonna cut it. Find local customers, local translators. Two years of French language in high school doesn’t make you qualified to understand the French market, nor perform your own French translations.

In the same way consumers’ needs are different in Rhode Island from those in Florida or California, so differ the needs of customers in Paris from Marseille. (And perhaps completely different from those in Italy, or Ireland, or Spain).

See how the best of the best do it. Download the Interbrand Surveys & Research “Best Global Brands” study [PDF] as a guide to research great global brands.

Step 4) Communicate & Build Awareness

Communicate
The manner and tone in which you engage your potential and new customers is as important as the words you choose. What will be the tone of your conversation? Manner and tone will come across to customers through your packaging, advertising, online, through your sales people, and the way you answer the phone.

What types of interaction you will have with them? What will be the tone you choose? What types of sales process and policies will you use? Be sure to take note of what the competition and other businesses are doing. What may have seemed witty or charming in the United States may be misunderstood in your new market. Be careful playing the “old and established” angle. “Old” is a relative term. An old company in US can sound impressive, but you may be doing business in a country that has cheese older than your company.

Build Awareness
The key to building awareness, trial, and sales is the same all over the world. Craft and communicate a message that is relevant to the needs and wants of your customers. Deliver this message:

• in the places they are receptive to it,
• in terms they can relate to and understand, and
• through the channels that will truly reach your potential customer.

The research you do during Step 1 should provide nearly all you need to know to do this successfully.

For your website, while a domain ending in “.com” is the universal, truly being relevant to local customers includes registering your website to the country domain as well as translating to the local language.

Using these key four steps as a guide will help you build your brand in a way that is locally relevant and will create a positive reputation for you.

Questions to Ask

• Do your homework – Be sure to fully research and understand your new markets. Look before you leap.
• Visit before you commit – Spend some time where you want to sell your products. See what the competition is doing. See what they’re doing with the competitions’ product.
• Find a local ally/resource – Don’t go it alone. Get advice from someone locally who can help you fill in any gaps in understanding the local market, customs, and customers.
• Make no assumptions – What seems logical and “a given” to you may be completely different in your new market. Ask too many questions.
• You are the foreigner – Local traditions and customs – as foreign as they may seem to you – represent the local way of doing things. Add value where you can, but realize you’re the outsider and should respect the way it is done locally.

Resources

Online

• Community Trade Mark (CTM) – The Office for Harmonization in the International Market (OAMI) – Trade Marks and Designs – You can file for your CTM online.
• International Branding Organization – non-profit organization dedicated to establishing branding as a specialized area of expertise.
• US Department of Commerce US Commercial Services site BuyUSA.gov – An excellent resource if you need to figure out how to export and or find local resources in another country.
• Google Search for “international branding agency OR firm”
• Import & Export – article from MyBusiness.co.uk
• US Commercial Services (US Department of Commerce) – helps U.S. companies find new international business partners in worldwide markets.

Books
While the authors may not specifically address international branding, the same concepts apply. If you didn’t use these books when you first built your brand – you’ll appreciate them as you prepare for your new markets.

• The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, by Guy Kawasaki
• Free Prize Inside!: The Next Big Marketing Idea, by Seth Godin
• Why Johnny Can’t Brand : Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea by Bill Schley
• Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands by Marty Neumeier
• Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity edited by Janeen Arnold Costa and Gary J. Bamossy

Perform an online search of your favorite bookstore for titles that may be specific to the countries where you plan to expand.

I originally wrote this article in August ’08 for Inc.com. It sat mothballed until this February 1, 2010 it when ran re-written with additional interview content gathered by Elizabeth Wasserman. You can read her version here.

Related posts:

1. Building a Global Brand: Start by Educating Your Customers
2. Madonna’s Brand Build H&Ms
3. Think Reputation, Instead of Brand

• Know who you’re pitching and what they’re after
• Tailor your pitch
• Don’t bcc a “mailing list” of pitch recipients (pitchees?)
• Don’t pitch journalists when they’re on deadline

When it came to print journalists, that last bullet translated to “don’t pitch journalists after around 2:30 or so.” I’ve stuck to that as much as possible since that time (of course, it varies for radio and television depending on when the show runs, and hence when people are around). However, a conversation I had recently with my colleague Karen Nussbaum has got me rethinking that approach.

New rules for timing pitches?

Here’s the theory:

The idea of print journalists’ deadlines has always centred around the 24hr news cycle, where stories were assigned in the morning, researched and drafted during the day and which culminated in a deadline for the story to be filed mid-afternoon. Trying to call a reporter anywhere near that deadline would result in you getting ignored or (sometimes) told off for not respecting their time.

In today’s media environment, stories are filed for the web throughout the day. Often they’re filed multiple times, with information being added as stories develop. As a result, the afternoon deadline has turned into constant pressure and ever-looming deadlines. For the media relations folks, that means:

1. Journalists are always pressed for time (as one said to me a little while back when I asked if it was a good time to talk, “it’s never a good time – I’m always busy”).
2. Afternoon pitching is no worse than morning pitching. In fact, it may be better as they’ve had a chance to clear out their inbox from the morning… and if everyone else is calling in the morning, you may have a better chance of getting through in the afternoon.

What’s more, the emergence of email as a pitching tool means initial outreach can be asynchronous- if journalists are busy they can read them later.

Is it time to re-think the old rules around when to pitch print journalists?

Public relations pros: does this picture fit with your recent experience?

Journalists: does this ring true for you?

Related posts:

1. Vocus Demonstrates How to Screw Up Blogger Relations
2. The Top 3 ‘New’ Rules of Marketing and PR
3. Be Mindful Of Tech News and Timing

It’s been said the phrase, “this time is different” is one of the most dangerous sentences in business. That’s because executives keep making the same mistakes again and again say economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff; “We gullible humans (believe) that the laws of financial physics have been repealed for us.”

Why do humans keep making the same mistakes? Perhaps it’s because over optimism—and resulting speculation—is very much a part of the human psyche. We like to believe those who have previously failed just didn’t have the right information, or that a new paradigm has emerged. And sometimes changes are so fundamental and drastic that they do create new markets. But more often than not, we’ve exchanged our money, time and hope for worthless swamp land.

Now what does any of this have to do with marketing?

An important role for marketing executives is to provide direction to our business leaders regarding trends, white space, and best areas in which to compete or avoid. We do this via a thorough understanding of competitive, social, governmental, and economic forces within a market.

In adding a potential new product or service to our portfolios, we need to ask ourselves, is this market sustainable —or does it depend on unstable factors? How long will this market exist? At what stage of the lifecycle is the market? Does my company have the capabilities to compete? Can my company make a profitable impact?

And this is where diagnosis of a market bubble comes into place.

Now let’s be clear. Not everyone believes in economic market bubbles. Some economists are convinced that people have all the information they need and therefore always make rational decisions. Efficient and rational market theorists from the Chicago School of Business, in particular Eugene Fama, don’t believe in unstable and wild market inflations. “I don’t know what a bubble means,” Fama recently declared to writer John Cassidy.

However, since there’s an abundance of evidence for market euphoria, let’s assume economic bubbles do in fact exist. The next step is identifying whether the market in which you plan to participate is in fact prone to speculative behavior (even mania), and if so, should your company compete or walk away from the opportunity?

These are a few questions that could have been asked by senior management at Lehman Brothers as they jumped headfirst into frenzied markets.

In the book, “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense; the Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers,” former Lehman Brothers vice president, Larry McDonald cites how then CEO Dick Fuld and his second in command Joe Gregory made bet after bet, first in derivatives such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and credit default swaps (CDS) and then grandiose real estate purchases.

These purchases—with borrowed money—were made with the following inherent assumptions:

1. the market would keep rising indefinitely,
2. there would always be a market for securitized debt, and
3. what’s profitable for competitors must also be the same for Lehman Brothers.

Sadly, we know how the story ends. McDonald relates, “When a high rolling market goes wrong, history tells us that it happens with lightning speed, as everyone stampedes for the door at the same time.”

Indeed, as the market for derivatives self destructed, Lehman was stuck with a bag full of product than nobody wanted, to the tune of sixty billion dollars. Senior management failed to ask themselves, “how long can this market sustain itself?” or even “what’s our current position and what happens if this bubble pops?”

It seems that it’s quite easy to get caught up in the euphoria of a new market, especially when everyone appears to be making boatloads of money. An ebullient market looks like it will never end.

However, it’s very possible to enter at the very top of the market and not know it, effectively joining the party just as the host removes the punchbowl. And this is where very careful analysis from the marketing function can come into play.

While a frothy market may be pretty easy to identify, it’s difficult to know when it’s going to end. Participating in a market bubble is a risky proposition and timing (getting in and out) is everything. And for those analytical types, even if deep market analysis is performed, it’s possible your timing may be off by just a bit, leaving you short or long. After all, as John Maynard Keynes once said, “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”

One thing is for certain, history repeats, or as others have said, it rhymes. Lehman Brothers stood for 158 years but participation in one of the largest asset bubbles in history brought this noteworthy firm to the steps of bankruptcy court. Lehman rode the bubble and didn’t “get out”. The musical chairs stopped with nary a seat.

It really wasn’t different this time.

________________________________________________________

Marketers, do bubbles exist? Is it possible to discern a bubble? How can one discern when to “get out” of a frothy market before it implodes?

Related posts:

1. Marketing Lessons From The Collapse Of Lehman Brothers
2. Marketing Lessons Learned From Micro-Finance In India
3. Marketing Lessons Learned from the F-22 Raptor

The goal: To gain more sales volume, brand equity and good will among consumers. The social media tactic: Asking customers to guide product design. The article: “Rubbermaid Taps Customers for Feedback” demonstrates how this approach can pay handsome dividends.

It seems these days many consumer product companies are inviting input for product development from a number of sources: inventors, product engineers, designers as well as end users. It also seems results are a mixed bag: some companies have been quite successful while others haven’t been.

Now we know that many CPG companies are using Twitter and Facebook as SM platforms of choice. This approach can be effective, but I think it’s worth considering what Rubbermaid is doing to engage consumers and gain valuable insights.

So what’s Rubbermaid’s secret to success? Simply put: the company has been quietly, steadily soliciting customer input and courting engagement for some time. Recently, Rubbermaid invited customers to post ratings and reviews of specific products—sink mats–and to suggest ways in which they might be improved and better designed.

The company then took the comments directly to the appropriate brand managers, who found out directly from their customers which product features they really liked, and which needed work. This information directly influenced the end design.

Interestingly, Rubbermaid then took an additional step. The article states: “Rubbermaid reached out to customers who had previously posted a negative review to offer a sample of the new sink mat that had been redesigned based on their feedback. The response from these customers was overwhelmingly positive about the Rubbermaid approach and brand”.

Now, I think that speaks volumes. Rather than decrying the lack of brand loyalty these days, companies might take a page from Rubbermaid. After initially reaching out to the customer, it’s a great idea to thank them for their input, and show them how valued that input was by offering to send a sample of the end product they helped to design. Brilliant!

Currently, Rubbermaid is encouraging customers to post ratings and reviews through February 28th. Six winners will be chosen; they will receive 20 piece food storage sets. Check out a current review page on the Rubbermaid web site at the following link: http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?Prod_ID=RP091319#reviews

Analysis of customer reviews and comments have helped Rubbermaid to boost their product positives, sales, and overall brand perception as a result. When consumers recently indicated confusion on how to use “Produce Saver” food containers, Rubbermaid posted more use and care instructions on its web site, boosting consumer product ratings significantly.

What’s most significant here is Rubbermaid’s commitment to fully utilizing customer feedback. Since July 2008, the company has consistently turned to a social commerce platform provider, outsourcing this to a company with expertise in social media.

Questions:

• Do you think most consumer product companies would benefit by adopting Rubbermaid’s social media approach?
• If so, do you think companies should ask their marketing departments to add this kind of social media to their duties and responsibilities? Or should it be outsourced?
• Do you think that even with social media in place, there is a danger in companies’ not sharing the information in a timely, meaningful fashion? Or that this information might be disseminated to brand managers along with other marketing data and lost in the shuffle?
• Given limited resources of time and personnel, do you think companies should take the extra step of reaching out to consumers who have posted negative reviews, ratings and comments? Or should they email a “thank you for participating in our ratings and reviews” instead?

I’d love to hear from you.

Related posts:

1. Restaurants Are Obvious Choices To Engage In Social Media
2. Using Social Media to Deepen Customer Relations
3. Consumers in Chrysler’s Boardroom?

What does the session entail?

Featuring big and small businesses alike, you’ll discover 4 very *different* case studies where social media was integrated into marketing programs, along with more traditional marketing channels, and how it yielded ROI. Specifically, we’ll cover: 

• Goals and Strategies. Each businesses’ over-arching business goals, their respective marketing strategies, and how they integrated their unique programs into their marketing plans.
• Metrics. The metrics and measurement results that show the success of each campaign and how the integration of social media led to that success.
• ROI. Both qualitative and quantitative points of ROI.
• Lessons and Tips. Key lessons learned from each company—and top tips they learned from their time spent deep in the social media trenches.
• All panelists will be shortly announced (and the winner of the Case Study Challenge will be announced April 1st!)

What will you leave the session understanding?

You’ll leave this session having a better understanding of how you can integrate social media into YOUR marketing and gain similar results. And you’ll also leave with rock-solid examples of how other B2Bs, both large and small, used social media to generate awareness and leads and grew relationships and revenues for their organizations.

How can You enter your company for the challenge?

It’s easy, fast and free. To enter the B2B Social Media Case Study Challenge just fill out the form located here. Businesses large, small and in-between are encouraged to enter as the criterion for the winner is (1) how well you demonstrate the measurable value of how the integration of social media raised the ROI of your marketing program and (2) the *uniqueness* of the social media strategy you implemented. It’s truly a chance to show-off all your hard work and clever programs, so c’mon and join the challenge!

When do you need to submit your social media success story by?

You need to submit your entry no later than March 12th, with the winner announced April 1st. Enter here. To learn more about the many sessions and speakers at the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum, please go here… and I hope to see you there!

Related posts:

1. MarketingProfs B2B Forum Ramp Up: What I Have Learned About B2B Marketing
2. MarketingProfs B2B Forum: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and More
3. Why Social Media Kills the Competition:Yelp.com Case Study

That’s what Sandy Carter told me when I had asked her about the appropriate level of executive engagement in social media.

“It’s a question of credibility,” she explained, adding that it was “almost unethical” for executives to advocate use of social media and not be engaged themselves.

For her part, Sandy started a blog in 2005 because she saw the potential and wanted to lead by example.

And lead she did. Her IBM blog, “Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) — Off the Record,” eventually garnered a million followers, making her one of the highest profile B2B bloggers on Earth. (When I mentioned that I was not yet writing for a million people, Sandy was kind enough to say, “You’ll get there!”)

Lesson 2: Ask the right questions

“The question I get asked most frequently is, ‘How do I get started on Facebook (or Twitter or Second Life, etc.)?’” Sandy said, “It’s always something very specific. ‘I saw my competitor on [fill in the blank], how do I do that?’”

She continued by saying, “I think that people should be asking, first, ‘Where do I start?’”

The answer to that question begins with answering this one: “Where are my customers?” For example, IBM ran a B2B campaign on Facebook which failed. They ran it again on LinkedIn and it was a success. Why? LinkedIn is where you’ll find B2B folks ready to do business.

The other question that Sandy thinks people must ask is, “How does this fit in to what I’m already doing?”

“You can’t have someone on the side doing social media to see what happens,” she added, “it has to be integrated.”

Lesson 3: “Social media is not just about marketing”

Lesson 3 follows from Lesson 2. When thinking about social media and how you might leverage specific tools, you need to focus on the whole organization and not just a particular function.

“Social media is about social business,” Sandy insists, “and ’social business’ means leveraging social media within your entire business.”

“It’s greater than marketing,” she went on to say, “Social media can transform everything from service and support to inventory management. It can even be part of your commitment to corporate social responsibility. For example, holding virtual events in Second Life was one way we chose to implement our green strategy.”

Let’s Review!

Sandy Carter is an executive committed to social media in the enterprise because she has seen first hand how it can work.

Her experience has taught her that executives have to “walk the walk” if they want the organization to adopt social media technology, that getting social media right means starting with fundamental, business-focused questions, and that social media can and should be used across the enterprise, not just in marketing.

She’s also learned the most basic lesson of social media success: Listen.

“50% of social media is about listening,” she says, “So the ultimate question you need to ask is, ‘Have you listened?’”

Related posts:

1. Q&A with IBM’s Sandy Carter: What’s the Recipe for Marketing Success with Social Media?
2. Help! I Have Social Media Rejection Syndrome!
3. People Are Really Using LinkedIn Differently Than Other Social Media Sites!