Archive for the ‘Management’ Category

Chicken Biryani and B2B Marketing

Paul Hague this week reflects on how an understanding of the decision making process in everyday life helps us to better understand and influence the decision making process of our prospective customers.

I was out for dinner the other evening with a colleague and we were eating in an Indian restaurant. The restaurant had the usual extensive menu we have come to expect in such places. Now I’ve got to thinking that restaurants would be an excellent place to segment people. Who takes the lead and calls the waiter? What do people look for when choosing a meal? How influenced are they by price, the specialties and variety? How much information do they need to make their choice? How decisive are they? Do they stick to their choice or does it get changed at the last minute?

My colleague sat happily chatting and would never have looked at the menu if I hadn’t suggested that we take a couple of minutes to look it over and place our order. After a good five minutes of puzzling she quizzed the waiter about every type of rice on the menu, enquired how the sauces were served, and queried the provenance of just about every meat and fish dish. Then, just as I thought we had game, set and match, she called the waiter back and chose something completely different. A man from Mars would, without hesitation, have put her into the bucket of ditherers.

And the man from Mars would have been completely wrong. I know this person well and she is a high-flying consultant in human resources. She commands a daily rate that makes my eyes water and is courted by some of the largest corporates in the country for her decisive advice. With her considerable riches she has recently moved into a palatial new home, bought a sizeable Mercedes as her main car and a little Citroën as a runabout. How is it that a powerful woman who can instruct a board of directors on what they should do to avoid mass disruption in a workforce and who can readily invest thousands of pounds in bricks, mortar and metal, cannot order a chicken biryani?

This paradox got me thinking about decision making. How do we choose things? How do we decide what actions to take from something as simple as a meal in a restaurant to an investment in a company?

Every decision is driven by a need – an objective, if you like. Somehow our brains synthesise the available information and guide the best course of action; the decision. It may appear strange that the decision to buy a house, the biggest investment most of us ever will make, is often based on a couple of visits to the house, an hour or two walking round it and some dodgy advice from an estate agent. If we analyse the cost per minute of the house investment decision versus the cost per minute of the chicken tikka masala decision, we see a difference of at least 1,000 to 1. It is clearly out of proportion.

So what is going on? When we buy a house or a car, we very quickly narrow the options down to just five or six choices with our final selection based on a critical issue. In the case of the Indian meal, there is an overload of information. There may be little to choose between the different meals and, let’s face it, any of the options would be reasonably acceptable. There is too much choice and too much information to synthesise for a very modest return.

I am reminded of a story that I heard years ago about Tootal, who used to be one of the largest manufacturers of ties in the UK. Tootal had a range of ties that was so large it would have embarrassed Sainsbury’s toothpaste display. They reduced it to the 35 best sellers and lo and behold, sales increased and profits rocketed. They made decision making easier; they simplified choice.

The insight I share with you is one of the most crucial in b2b marketing. We need to help customers make their choice – and we need to make sure it is in our direction. To do this we need to understand how our customers are different, we need to recognise their different needs and, now the difficult bit – we must be strong in simplifying our offer so that it resonates better than any others with what they are looking for. If we do this, our products will stand out, they will be snapped up by those who like them and, of equal importance, they will be rejected by those who are looking for something else. And we will all get home earlier.

Read more about the subjects touched in today’s Thursday Night Insight in our following white papers:

Why Is Business-To-Business Marketing Special?
Market Segmentation in B2B Markets

Posted in Decision making, Leadership, Management, Needs, Paul Hague, Thursday Night Insight |
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The Importance of Employees

Your employees are one of your company’s greatest assets. What they say about your company, how they act in the workplace, and how happy they are in their roles all impact on your brand, your image, your levels of service and ultimately your customers’ satisfaction. B2B Marketing recently published an article entitled BRANDING: Motivating employees to be your ‘brand carriers’. The article, which is shown below, makes interesting reading.

Many B2B companies have gone through mergers and takeovers, with the associated churn in staff, sense of insecurity, loss of implicit knowledge and know-how… So, more than ever, B2B companies need to re-address the way they interact with their employees. Positive interaction, fostering brand engagement, can have a massively beneficial impact on your company – and your bottom line.

1. Boost the role of employees in brand communications
   B2B companies’ employees are one of their most powerful assets and need to be recognised as such in any brand communications programme. Including an ‘employee engagement programme’ as a part of your brand plan is a good start. The role of the employee in branding the company is critical – whether it be sales, customer services, or technical support, all have direct customer interface. In effect, they are the brand.
2. Understand the networks that employees use
   Customers and suppliers form relatively small, interlinked professional worlds. Many of them know each other, often from previous employment positions. Markets talk, so it’s time to start listening to what your employees are saying about the company – document both the good and the not so good.
3. Get top management buy-in
   Bottom-up employee engagement initiatives only work if they are joined up with company strategy and senior management. Before spending masses on large-scale employee engagement surveys, give management a ‘weather check’ on the mood of the company, and pinpoint areas that need addressing.
4. Avoid stale jargon – be honest
   Whatever communication tools are used to engage employees – surveys, newsletters, web-casts, intranets, away-days with specialist consultants – it’s crucial that senior management avoid soundbites that sound like lipservice.
5. Address disconnects between company behaviour and communication
   Successfully communicating in today’s Web 2.0 world means addressing inherent distrust and cynicism. Honesty and transparency are important: how a company behaves rather than what it says sends out the strongest signal. If your company really is driven first and foremost by shareholder value, then admit that.
6. Reward honesty in feedback
   Many corporations tend not to interpret negative feedback in the right way, taking it as a way to sideline people who dare speak their minds. This needs to be addressed, otherwise potentially timid employees will be too frightened to voice their opinions.
7. Use social media for employee engagement
   Companies need to go beyond traditional one-way communication vehicles and embrace the world of modern, democratic and conversational-driven media. The industry networks that exist offline – industry events, forums, trade-fairs – are being complemented by these increasingly popular social media channels.
8. Consider hiring employee engagement professionals
   Corporations can get involved with their employees by hiring community engagement professionals, whose job it is to listen and engage within industry forums, read blogs, pick up where the company image is, and re-engage with individuals directly or with influential members of the group in question, to identify problem areas, address them and ensure that change wishes are followed up.
9. Define the experience you wish the customer to have
   In a world where product differentiation is increasingly difficult to achieve and maintain, aspects of service and experience branding – employee branding in this instance – are becoming ever more critical in making a difference. When the technical director or buyer of a client company is asked on a forum, or at an industry trade fair, by a previous colleague or acquaintance, “What are those people at Corporate X like to do business with?” you want them to give a positive picture.
10. Boost word-of-mouth
    What employees say about their company to friends is likely to carry huge weight – more weight indeed than an ad in a traditional B2B industry magazine or a new corporate brochure. If employee views are valued, companies can genuinely create enthusiasm that will spread through the organisation, impacting positively on a range of areas leading to enhanced customer satisfaction.

So maybe it’s time to switch the focus from the voice of the shareholder or the customer to the voice of the employee – the employee as brand ambassador.

• Find out how easy and cost effective it can be to monitor your staff satisfaction levels – click here.
• Read our white paper on employee satisfaction, Understanding and Developing your (People) Assets

Posted in Branding, Corporate Identity, Employee Satisfaction, Employment, Human Resources, Management |
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As Seen On TV

B2B International have been chosen to take part in a new and exciting television series from Director Television called ‘Business Excellence’

The series of programmes will contain contributions from leading organisations and advisors from the public and private sectors who are performing at their very best and who can provide guidance on how to achieve “business excellence” in their speciality industry sectors.

The series of programmes will examine the help and advice directors and senior management teams need on a range of critical issues. The first programme called ‘Modern Day Marketing’ looks at how important marketing and market research is in the current business climate and how the internet and technology have changed the rules of the marketing game. 

Presented by Nicholas Owen, the programme can be viewed on the Information TV channel (Sky Channel 166 and BBC/ITV FreeSat Channel 406) on Monday 23rd March at 9pm (GMT).  For all our international clients overseas, you will be able to view this over the internet via links on leading and relevant websites (for instance, on the CBI website)

Posted in B2B News, Management, Market Research, Marketing, Television |
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