Tag Archives: b2b

B2B Lust

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It is possible to create a passionate desire in the minds of B2B technology buyers, but beware of lustful nerds. Humans, including IT people, are of two minds, namely the practical and the desirous. We all need and want things, even in our daily jobs. Back when I was running big iron for a national retailer (my pre-marketing guru days), I had a boss who had a messianic drive to convert all of IT to UNIX. I took fiendish joy in finding the precise moments to demonstrate why it was, in the short run, foolish and extravagant, thwarting his sundry attempts to drive my proprietary platforms into non-use. But I did save the company millions in unnecessary short-term costs, so I don’t feel too bad. My boss had UNIX lust, and it overrode his objective thinking. This is a major part of consumer marketing – generating irrational desire for products. … Continue reading →

Cost, Effective

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What is effective may not be inexpensive. Then again it may be. I stumbled upon two marketing maven surveys, one that reported how effective some lead generation options were and another on how low cost they were. Coming from two different organizations, there were gaps in what was surveyed and reported, but there was enough connecting tissue to make an intelligent review of B2B promotional options. Before I ramble on too much about the details, what was striking is that options for lead generation in social media never scored in the top half of all options by effectiveness. This isn’t to say that social media is to be avoided, but that as a lead generation tool, it isn’t worth a lot of investment. This will shock many here in Silicon Valley because the endless local mantra is that everything is possible with social media. If it were, then social media … Continue reading →

B2B Socially

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I’m hoping for antisocial media.  I can see how to make a buck off of that. Meanwhile, social media continues to gain dominance in marketing, and for good reason.  Humans, and even politicians, are social animals.  We commune for pleasure, profit and procreation (which pretty much describes a day in the life of Eliot Sprtizer).  Even the most sterile of pursuits requires some social aspect.  Every poor blogger, alone in his office, hammers out prose in order to asynchronously connect with other humans. Business-to-business (B2B) activities are thus social interactions.  Oracle commits social acts when it interacts with other enterprises, aside from the select few it eats.  Thus social media should be a component of B2B. The oddest aspect of B2B social media concerns who in the relationship needs to socialize and why.  The failure to think through these two questions have led to various B2B social media catastrophes including … Continue reading →