B2B Marketer
Issue No. 48 - August/September 2009
the undiscovered country
by Kimon Lycos
Australian B2B marketing potential: it’s harder to pick than a broken nose. You might not know it, but there is a small group of marketers out there who are neglected, abused, misunderstood and ignored.
They are rarely seen, and hardly ever get any recognition for what can be a tough gig. They are, B2B Marketers, the ones who help sell technology and innovation to other companies.
These are people who typically work with companies that don’t like marketers all that much, and can be outright hostile to the very idea of marketing.
While adverts that go “pop” and jingles for new shampoo formulas make their creators famous, B2B marketers do their best to convince senior managers, engineers and other party animals why they should invest in new technology or ways to improve manufac turing.
In Australia, B2B marketing and advertising get scant notice. B2B is often confused with direct mail, telemarketing or cold-call selling. The very term, “B2B” is not known, and hardly discussed by marketing institutions, associations, universities, or even by those who practice the discipline.
To put this into context; I lived in Sweden for about 10 years, where B2B is widely known, understood and highly recognized as part of the local advertising scene.
You either work with B2C (i.e. dog food, beer or shampoo) or B2B (i.e. engineering, science or >manufacturing). Amazingly enough, B2B had its own awards (100 watt), own media publications and education. If you look around in the US, Germany, Holland, France and the UK, you’ll find similar maturity and recognition, but not here in Australia.
Why? I think it has a lot to do with the media-commission business model most advertising agencies operate under. If a client spends $20 million on TVCs and you get 17.5% of that for thinking up ideas involving puppets being dragged behind cars, why would you look at the B2B market?
Typically, media spend in B2C is very small. You have ...
