B2B is a vital and complex field of marketing
B2B marketing is an enormously rich and complex field with its own specialist concerns, issues and techniques. The growth of B2B marketing spend relative to consumer marketing shows that B2B is now a vital and important part of the marketing world.
Agencies in the B2B field have spent many years beating the drum about how marketing B2B products services and companies needs a proper understanding of this environment.
The most obvious argument for using a specialist B2B agency is that B2B marketing is aimed at a completely different audience to consumer marketing and therefore needs to be constructed, and created differently. This is of course nonsense. The people who buy a high-technology information system for their business still go out and buy Colgate toothpaste.
Understanding the emotional and rational influence on a purchase
People in business are people at work but still people. Most specialist B2B agencies understand this and understand how to balance both rational and emotional appeals. A good B2B agency will know what part of the buying cycle needs to appeal to an emotional brand centric instinct, and what part of the cycle needs to convey a more rational argument for selecting the product.
In an article in the April 2006 issue of Admap, Chuck Young of Ameritest noted that even ads to consumers work best when conveying both emotional (brand image) and rational (brand or product positioning) concepts. In B2B marketing the blend needs to be even more carefully considered and for a good B2B agency this will be second nature.
Supporting and encouraging the decision making unit
This need for emotional and rational balance is similarly reflected in the way buying decisions are made in business. B2B agencies are always aware of the roles played by not only the main target of their efforts, but the advisers, purse-holders and rubber-stampers who influence the decision to buy.
A good B2B agency will recognise the need to appeal on an emotional level to their main target, but also how to give them rational arguments to persuade their boss. People at work make emotional or heuristic based decisions, but they do need to appear to be making them on rational grounds.
Distilling the value proposition of complex products and services.
It is not only the decision making process which is different in B2B, but of course the frequently complex nature of the products and services compared to consumer marketing. This means that for an agency to do its job properly they must really understand what the product does.
A specialist B2B agency is practiced in getting underneath the skin of the products and services they are marketing. They usually have the people and culture to not only understand the product, but to really tease out the essential value proposition they need to focus on. Of course, it is not enough to understand that product x will do things faster, or better, the agency should take it a stage further and be able to understand what difference this makes to the lives of the potential buyers. A good B2B agency has the ability to take in a huge amount of information about the product, and distil it into meaningful and memorable concept that has real appeal on all levels.
Creating with purpose to communicate and persuade.
This ability to distil and communicate the essential value proposition outlines a fundamental attribute that a good B2B agency will have – creativity. Good B2B agencies are creative with a purpose, and creative within a more structured framework than in consumer fields.
B2B agencies will look to make that essence, the distilled proposition, into appealing memorable eye-catching but relevant concepts. This perhaps above all else, marks out the best B2B agencies and highlights why you should use a specialist.
I could have highlighted many other differences between B2B and consumer that agencies will be aware of – the media, the need for integration, the planning, but the most compelling reason to use a specialist B2B agency is creativity with purpose.
There is often resistance in B2B markets to producing original creative work. The best B2B agencies will demonstrate the ability to produce great work without losing sight of the objective and structured framework they are operating in.