Marketing
Issue No. 42 - August/September 2008
Modern roots of B2B marketing communications
by Kimon Lycos
With all the innovation and technology banging about in Sweden there is one other thing to consider - marketing the stuff. It so happens not only do Swedes dominate coming up with great ideas - Sweden is 7th for the number of patents registered in Europe - they are damn good at marketing them, too.
This has fostered a vibrant industry of specialists who only focus on B2B marketing communications. Of keen interest is that many of the groundbreakers in B2B marketing communications come from Sweden and were among the first to go international, much like the clients they represent.
In essence there were two main players, to which many current B2B marketers can trace their creative and strategic roots. The fact that these two entities started in Sweden and then spread internationally provided many people, myself included, with the opportunity to be exposed to proved and well-documented thinking
and standards.
I can’t help but first consider Anderson & Lembke, an agency that quickly spread from Stockholm to establish itself in the USA and the Netherlands in the early 1970s. Ironically, the company closed its operations in Sweden in the ‘80s, but still remained the largest of its kind for years to come, servicing the Swedish technology and innovation market worldwide.
While I won’t go as far as to say that Anderson & Lembke ‘started it all’, the fact is many of the directors and senior managers who went through the doors of Anderson & Lemb...
