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B2B Marketing Market Assessment 2011
Key Note Publications Ltd, April 2011, Pages: 98
Recent times have witnessed the UK weathering economic turbulence and uncertainty; the unprecedented financial recession was followed by a change of government, and subsequent massive public sector spending cuts provoked national protest.
Consumer confidence has largely remained low, and the cost of living is still rising — yet B2B marketers remain confident and optimistic, seeing, and seizing, opportunities where others see economic gloom and stagnation.
B2B marketing has eschewed its previous status as a ‘poor relation’ the more glamorous consumer strand, not least because many consumers are too busy paying off their credit cards to be quite so susceptible to the marketing messages directed at them. Businesses, however, are relying ever more heavily on B2B marketers in tough economic circumstances.
The authors invited a selection of experts from across the B2B marketing industry to give their opinions on the main issues currently facing marketers, and to discuss the trends that are moving the industry forward. It is important to assess how the industry is coping with the recent cuts — especially in relation to those who are heavily reliant on public sector clients. One prominent agency has already folded, having lost the Central Office of Information (COI) as a client. The answer, of course, is that those agencies are increasing their private sector workload.
Agencies are also looking to expand their international operations. They are doing this in two ways — through merging with larger international agencies, which have the capabilities to provide a full international service, or through strengthening their involvement with networks of international independent agencies. Working within a network allows UK-based agencies to offer local campaigns to overseas network clients, and to offer international campaigns — via network partners — to UK clients. This can be achieved without the significant overheads of running a larger operation, although some agencies continue to open offices in strategic territories. China is perhaps viewed as offering the most opportunities; this report contains discussion on how best to market to China, with information from a B2B research agency with offices there. It also contains details of information sources regarding exporting to other territories.
This report examines the leading B2B agencies, as well as providing an overview of the traditional B2B marketing channels, but has a particular focus on the use of digital channels. It also looks at the implications of the popularity of social networks for B2B marketers, given that these networks are a tool already used extensively by consumer marketers.
The tightening of marketing budgets has led the authors to question — are marketers being asked to prioritise lead generation over brand awareness? Expert responses indicate that for professional B2B marketers there can be no simple split — the two endeavours go hand in hand.
Despite a lack of specific data available with regards to B2B marketing expenditure, the authors estimate that B2B marketing spends have increased over the past 3 years, and especially in the digital sector. Will this expenditure continue to grow? In turbulent times some channels will attract a greater share of the marketing wallet than others — at risk especially are those, such as print, which were already in decline prior to the economic crisis.
When budgets are restrained, clients demand more for their money. The authors sought to find out if marketers are getting better at demonstrating return on investment (ROI or ROMI — returns on marketing investment). On the whole the experts surveyed agreed that necessity has dictated that they have. Digital marketing is easier to measure in terms of clicks and web pages served (either to PCs, laptops, tablet computers or, increasingly, mobile phones) which can easily be counted. CRM (customer relationship management) systems are developing apace, to embrace social networking and provide the tools marketers need to develop a deeper understanding of customer behaviour.
The industry is, along with the rest of the economy, still weathering challenging circumstances, but in many ways B2B marketers have much to be optimistic about.
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