Advertising, Branding, Communications, Content Marketing, Innovation, Lead Generation, Social Media, Strategy
B2B Marketing needs a stronger Why
Paul Dunay is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with more than 20 years’ success in generating demand and creating awareness for leading technology, consumer products, financial services and professional services organizations.
Paul is the global vice president of marketing for Maxymiser a leading web optimization firm, and author of four “Dummies” books: Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley 2009), Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies (Wiley Custom Publishing 2010), Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley 2010) and Facebook Marketing for Dummies 2nd Edition (Wiley 2011).
His unique approach to marketing has led to recognition of Paul as a BtoB Magazine Top 25 B2B Marketer of the Year for 2010 and 2009 and winner of the DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth in 2008. He is also a finalist for the last six years in a row in the Marketing Excellence Awards competition of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), and is a 2010 and 2005 gold award winner in Driving Demand.
Buzz Marketing for Technology, Paul’s blog, has been recognized as a Top 20 Marketing Blog for 2009 and 2008, a Top Blog to Watch for 2009 and 2008, and an Advertising Age Power 150 blog in the “Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.”
Paul has shared his marketing thought leadership as a featured speaker for the American Marketing Association, BtoB Magazine, CMO Club, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and ITSMA. He has appeared on Fox News, and his articles have been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, BtoB Magazine, MarketingProfs and MarketingSherpa.
Paul holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Computer Science from Ithaca College.
Paul, I have to admit that I have had many conversations with people who often struggle with the WHY. We spend so much time focused on getting the message out, making sure we use the proper buzz words, double checking that we are not upsetting legal departments, positively positioning ourselves above the competition, and on and on and on we blur the focus of the WHY. In my opinion, that’s what people are really most interested in. Users are great at giving us the why if we are willing to listen and act on their tweets, videos, likes, etc. Thanks for your insight.
I deal with this often with clients.
Jobs was talking about Wny years ago. It dovetails with the idea of purpose in the purpose-driven life. Perhaps those fellows deserve the credit, and someone still to be identified who came before them,
My two most successful clients began with strong Whys, each of them over 20 years ago. Their Why’s are deeply entrenched, understood by their market, and a leverage point with most prospects.
The problem now is that other organizations decide that they need a Why, and summons a meeting to figure theirs out. But most organizations have walked too far down their path to look back and say, Why’d we start anyway? The founders may be gone; their intent may have been purely commercial and selfish anyway. And the Whys around the table today may be as numerous as the people in the room. Plus many Why’s may be selfish, too, and unattractive–even repellent– to prospects, clients, and customers.
This isn’t to say that Whys aren’t compelling. They are–if they are deeply and widely held. But if you have to search long and hard for a Why, and even then fail to get deep and wide agreement on it, is Wny anything more than another hollow theme? Is it just another effort to find competitive advantage somehow and where in what is a virtually commoditized category?
@Jerome – I agree we spend way too much time working on the basic mechanics that we often get overrun and don’t have time to think about the why. We gotta fix that.
@Harry – first off let me say how honored I am that you are commenting on my blog – What a great way to start my day!
Your comment reminds me of a wonderful book I read called “Its not what you sell – its what you stand for” by Roy Spence which talks about the concept of a purpose driven organization.
I agree (and have lived inside) some organizations that have wanted to do what I call “archeological marketing” to rediscover their purpose which often sounds like a hollow theme mostly because as you say the market has shifted and they find themselves in a commodity like position.
thanks for commenting
I enjoyed the post, Paul.
The challenge you address is not a new one.
I have always advocated that the very best marketing is strategically relevant and creatively arresting. In an ever-noisier environment, the latter becomes all the more critical. But if the audience cannot decipher the “why” of the marketing, then it has failed on the first point.
And the “why”, as Harry has said in a different way, is entirely in the eye of the buyer. Before a company can create value for its owners, it must create value for its customers. It must present a compelling answer to the customer’s question, “Why would I buy this?”
@Francis – good point – the why is in the eye of the beholder!
You talk about the why which is true if you look at it from a messaging perspective but if you back up to a business view the why is really about what business problem are you solving. If you don’t know that you really don’t know what product to build or messaging to create or anything else. I recently wrote about my experience with that at a startup in which because we were not really clear about the business problem our messaging was a mess.
I love the stat on the volume of information we are creating but for another reason. I think this is one of the most powerful values of social networks in the future. Because of the volume of noise your filter becomes your trusted network of friends. This does not mean all of your friends you are connected to on facebook or twitter but the people you really trust. When they talk about brands or products you listen. If you ask advice you will listen. This is why B2B marketing for social networks needs to be very strategic in building relationships and not just blasting their message. This would really seam to make word of mouth even more critical. What do you think?
@Matt – that is so true – ideally the strong why should radiate from the business strategy. Marketing so often gets called in to “message” at the highest level of the company when in reality it is trying to solve for the lack of a strong business strategy.
Paul:
Thanks for the insight, as always succinct and profound. The need for B2B firms to better articulate a noble purpose is rampant. While the purpose relates to the business problem the firms’ offerings solves for clients, it transcends this to a bigger idea around mission.
I’d also add that a companion set of core values is critical to bring the mission to life. Clear core values provide the compass to help employees make decisions that contribute to the mission and avoid actions that detract from the mission.
Good Point Margaret – I hadn’t considered the Values angle as well and syncing the two would create a rocket ship that few B2B orgs have
Great post and discussion here, Paul. I love the focus on “why” and the comments you’ve inspired. I totally agree with Harry that the why needs to be deeply and widely held, and with Margaret that articulating a more noble purpose than simply selling more stuff (even if it’s good stuff) is ideal. Rosabeth Moss Kantor’s book SuperCorp provides some interesting cases for Margaret’s point.
Apple is a great example, as you say, but it’s really hard to keep this focus even if you get it in the first place. Starbucks had it for a long time, but it kind of faded; Dell had it in its earlier days of clarity around a new way to make, sell, and deliver PCs but the mission is much less clear now that it’s expanded more widely in B2B. I think some of the top Indian IT services companies had it for a while, but they’ve also struggled to evolve it as they’ve grown and tried to move up market.
On the other hand, Salesforce.com has done a great job articulating and evolving its core mission over the years, and IBM’s whole Smarter Planet push is perhaps in the early stages of becoming a powerful, deeply help mission for them, which is pretty impressive for such a huge, established and diverse company. GE is trying to do the same with initiatives like Ecomagination and Healthymagination, but it’s still early for them.
Smaller marketing companies like Constant Contact, Communispace, and HubSpot are good current example of companies with a strong “why” that is deeply held, and they’re all able to do strong and coherent marketing as a result.
Sorry for such a long comment! I guess the real question, as you suggest, is whether or not executive leadership and marketing leadership are willing to put in the serious, sustained effort to create and “make real” a why if they don’t have one, and, even tougher, to keep at it and evolve it over time as the world changes. I think this level of commitment is rare, but I guess that creates some great opportunity for those willing to make it!
@Rob – fantastic examples especially the B2B ones like HubSpot, Communispace and even Constant Contact – we need more of these in our minds so they just roll off the tongue!
Hopefully I can get Avaya there in the not to distant future