Archive for the ‘Matt Harrison’ Category
Friday, August 27th, 2010
This week father-in-waiting Matthew Harrison reflects on the imminent addition to his family, and what this tells us about industrial branding.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that buying a house and getting divorced are the 2 most stressful experiences in life. Frankly this is a statement I find it difficult to agree with, and not only because my in-laws are coming to stay next week. Looking for and buying a house is one of life’s pleasures, bringing with it the opportunity to tread mud through strangers’ houses and chuckle at their patterned carpets. As for getting divorced, so long as I resist insulting my wife’s family on my company’s blog I am optimistic that this won’t happen.
No, by far the most stressful experience of my life has come these past 8 months – the duration so far of my wife’s pregnancy. The sources of my angst are too numerous to mention. Is the baby healthy? How is my wife feeling? Am I capable of looking after another human being when I can’t even look after my household’s Christmas card list? Will I find my way to the hospital without getting lost? What the hell is a BabyBjorn? And how will I know when I start dilating?
Even these worries pale into insignificance, however, next to the decision that will affect the success or failure of our future child’s life: what shall we call our future offspring? Of our two current labels, ‘it’ is frankly derogatory and ‘Bump’ would most likely result in playground bullying. These may be adequate descriptions for a child we are yet to meet and who – despite my rapidly expanding wife – remains abstract to us, but a more personal name will be required once the baby enters the big wide world.
Naming a baby, it seems to me, is rather like choosing a brand name for an industrial product. A brand is something that is asked for and referred to by name. It is, however, far more than a mere descriptor. A brand name must reflect the product it refers to both in its personality and in its aspirations. It should be individual enough to be memorable, but not so individual as to invite ridicule. A successful brand name is backed up by closely aligned brand values. These values, in turn, should inspire. Everyone working on behalf of a brand lives up (or down) to the expectations set by that brand (what would be the implications of calling a product or indeed a child ‘garbage’, for example?). It is clear that the choice of my baby’s name is of the utmost importance.
In-depth market research maximizes the chances of getting a brand name correct, exploring issues such as the target audience’s likely reaction and whether there any other companies with a similar brand name. Having trawled through a number of baby-naming books and websites, my wife and I conducted desk research, Googling potential names and seeing what the world’s leading search engine churned out. ‘Audley’ was crossed off the list when we were reminded of Audley Harrison, the erstwhile Olympic boxer (a glance of my physique would tell you why). ‘Tina Catherine’ is also out of the question when you learn that TC Harrison is a second-hand car-dealer in Leicestershire. And how could we realistically call our child George?
The target audience’s reaction was judged scientifically, through a series of informal interviews with friends and family. This research was aimed at drilling down into the darkest recesses of the audience’s imaginations and prejudices. “Sounds like a 13th century poet” guffawed my Dad as we broached the name ‘Theodore’. “Is that an industrial lubricant?’ harrumphed my drunken friend as we debated the name ‘Alexa’ late one Friday evening.
Some people name their children after themselves, which strikes me as either egotistical, unimaginative or both. More importantly, a brand that is not clearly distinguished from the competition – like a son who shares his father’s first name – is by definition consigned to a life of anonymity. My father (Martin) only shares an initial with me, but it didn’t stop him opening my post for 18 years.
So, where did this research take us and what does this tell us about industrial branding? Well, my wife and I eventually agreed on male and female names that we both liked, resisting the temptation to analyze them too deeply or seek the views of anyone outside our own front room. I also thought of some of the world’s most successful brand names and it struck me that most of these are based on relatively mundane criteria such as the original geographical location of the company, the founders’ name or the initials of companies that have merged into the corporation over time. Most successful brand names have no intrinsic meaning beyond the superficial, and only gain real meaning through their activities and interactions over the years.
Building a business-to-business brand, like bringing up a child, is a task that requires continuous investment. The name itself is rather like the wallpaper in a maternity ward – so long as it isn’t offensive, no-one is likely to notice. The final proof of this came when I Googled ‘Matthew Harrison’ and was left agog at the wide range of activities undertaken by my namesakes. A Las Vegas musician, a Rastafarian spokesperson, a Missouri Lutheran Church president and – horrifyingly – director of the film ‘Kicked in the head’ were amongst those conspiring to keep yours truly out of the top 10 pages of the search. I am hoping that, like the best industrial brands, I eventually grow into my name and make it my own.
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Branding, Matt Harrison, Thursday Night Insight |
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Monday, July 12th, 2010
ESOMAR recently published the results of its eighth annual Global Prices Study 2010, which evaluates the pricing of different types of market research around the world.
One of the interesting points highlighted by the study – which was conducted among 100 countries – was the huge variety, not only of prices, but also of research methodologies favoured or employed in different geographies. For example, online research is not available in every market; similarly, face-to-face interviewing is not conducted everywhere.
However, one of the most notable findings from the perspective of B2B International, which researches markets worldwide from its offices in the UK, USA and China, was the fact that the USA topped the rankings as the most expensive market globally in which to conduct research.
Matthew Harrison, Director of our New York office, explains why the results of the survey did not come as a surprise to him:
“There are actually a number of fairly understandable reasons as to why the cost of research in the United States can seem high. Firstly, it’s a pretty large country, which brings with it all the challenges you would expect when reaching respondents across a wide geographical area – not to mention that a larger sample size is often sought in order to give a true reflection of opinions and facts.”
“Secondly, of course, the US boasts a high standard of living and high average incomes. As a result, those involved at every stage of the research process – from focus group venues to online survey providers through to full service agencies such as ourselves – incur higher costs, which ultimately have to be passed on to the end client.”
“It would, however, be remiss of me not to point out that the United States is probably the most developed and advanced research market in the world, with many top-class market researchers. Equally, American research buyers are very sophisticated and require a high level of analysis which needs to be built into the cost of the study.”
Harrison, however, additionally points to a slightly more unusual contributor to the high prices associated with the US:
“Another consideration to be taken into account is the high reliance of many business executives on voicemail. Whereas a small number of attempts at reaching an individual may be necessary in many parts of the world, in America it is not uncommon to ring a business respondent seven or eight times in order to secure a telephone interview with them.”
These facts aside, Harrison is keen to point out that while the actual price of research in the States may appear on the high side, the return on investment gained from good quality market research should never, ever be underestimated.
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Market Research, Market Research UK, Market Research USA, Matt Harrison, Return On Investment, Service |
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Thursday, June 10th, 2010
Taking us on a tour of his opulent Beijing hotel, Matthew Harrison this week explains why segmentation of a target market remains crucial.
I am writing this latest installment to Thursday Night Insight from my hotel in Beijing. Beijing is a city I know well and I have become accustomed to its hospitality – the faultless service in restaurants, the branch of Subway that delivers my foot-long sandwich for free, and the animated army of traffic lieutenants who bark at passers-by if they so much as lean over the road when the pedestrian light is on red. Sadly they don’t afford the same courtesy to the smoke-belching construction trucks that make it their business to run over pedestrians when the lights eventually change.
Variety being the spice of life and ‘adventurous’ being my middle name, I decided to sample a new hotel for this latest visit to our Chinese office. The Japanese-run Jinglun has served me well over the years, but having been charged the equivalent of $10 for half a pint of warm Tsingtao during my last visit, I decided to venture further afield to the Jianguo Hotel – a lengthy 1-minute hike away and self-proclaimed Garden Hotel of Beijing – which for some reason was offering luxurious rooms at knock-down rates.
Upon my arrival I was immediately impressed, as I always am when Chinese hospitality is involved. The politest man in the world took my case from the cab without asking. I never saw him again, but by the time I arrived at room 739, my luggage would be waiting for me. The garden theme was plain to see, the labyrinthine corridors snaking round a series of open-air ponds and trellised courtyards. The sight of a French restaurant adjacent to an English pub at the corner of the foyer meant that I immediately assumed I was in heaven, even if the 3 photocopies of my visa, passport and credit card seemed an excessive way of granting me entry.
One of the five-strong gaggle of receptionists eventually gave me my room card, contained in a small cardboard booklet advertising the English pub, French restaurant and 3 other onsite establishments, including Shang Court Chinese Imperial Cuisine – or, as its catchy tagline reminded me, ‘The only luxurious restaurant with the imperial palace and feudal official mansion cuisine of the Shang Dynasty in Beijing’. I made a mental note to return later and find out whether the food was as stodgy as the advertising.
I headed down 3 corridors, around 4 gardens, under 2 pagodas, through a pond, over a crocodile infested ravine, up 6 floors, down another corridor and into my room. It was a sight to behold. A huge plasma screen looked down on me imposingly. A green velvet sedan-chair lazed seductively in front of the window. Beneath 2 glass shelves stocked with Dragonseal 2008 vintage, the mini-bar hummed its sensuous hum, pouting its lips and beckoning me towards it with come-hither eyes and lovestrewn promises of Heineken straight from the can.
The room was as confusing as the hotel itself. As if the boastful attention seeking of the plasma screen wasn’t bad enough, its brash identical twin was suspended just feet away. I counted at least 4 waste paper baskets – why? The bath had 3 taps, one less than the number of telephones dotted around the room. 5 mirrors vied for space with 6 cabinets, a desk, and a mysterious contraption that looked like a zimmer frame for a man with 3 legs.
20 hours after leaving home, I threw the 17 decorative cushions onto the floor and collapsed onto the king-sized bed, determined to let fatigue take its toll. The minibar hummed with dejection whilst the Dragonseal glared its hateful blood-red disapproval.
But this room would not let me sleep. It was just too much. Too much attention, too much fuss for a half-asleep Englishman. This beautiful hotel, this monument to sino-european chic, was not for me. I began to long for the wide wildlife-free corridors and blanched, single-screen rooms of the Jinglun hotel. The Jianguo was wasted on me.
This hotel was forgetting the basics of segmentation, which divides a target market into groups with distinct needs, the supplier charging each segment a price aligned with the benefits received. In selling me this room, the Jianguo made a crucial mistake – it provided me with a luxury offering at a bargain basement price. The effective segmenter would have dealt with me in one of 3 ways:
- Provided me with a more basic room, in line with my requirements and the price I was willing to pay.
- Sought to upsell the luxurious room, highlighting its benefits and charging me extra for them.
- Not done business with me at all. Crucial to effective segmentation is to know who your customers are, and who your customers are not. The only customers in a properly segmented market are those whose needs and budgets are aligned with the benefits they receive. Resources and time are only spent on the segments that the supplier chooses to serve.
Segmentation should be regarded as a strategy, not a tactic. Whilst it is tempting in the short term to ‘leave value on the table’ in order to ensure a sale and increase cashflow, in the long term this is just as self-defeating as raising costs too high. High costs will eventually erode margins and alienate the target audience that is prepared to pay for the benefits you offer.
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China, Matt Harrison, Needs, Segmentation, Thursday Night Insight |
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Monday, March 29th, 2010
The March 2010 issue of Quirk’s Marketing Research Review featured an article contributed by B2B International’s very own Matthew Harrison. In ‘Open for business’, Matt outlines many of the advantages that online focus groups can bring to the world of B2B research.
The article can be viewed on the Quirk’s website (registration required) or the full, original white paper can be accessed by clicking here.
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Friday, March 12th, 2010
This week Director Matthew Harrison draws the key marketing lessons from his (now dormant) seduction techniques.
Each and every year, the month of March is a joyous occasion for me. The brutal New York winter dissipates and makes way for 8 months of glorious sun. The English football season reaches its climax, as along with the rest of the Western world I fix my attention on Nottingham Forest’s promotion challenge. Most importantly and joyously of all, the month of March marks the anniversary of my wedding, which I should highlight (just in case she’s reading) was a day of unparalleled perfection.
And so this week my mind took a surreptitious walk down memory lane to a warm September day in 1997, a lucky 13 years ago. This was the day when I targeted my now-wife and (eventually) convinced her that I would fulfil her every need. Now, as a marketer first and lady-magnet second, thoughts of this distant time got me thinking. What, if anything, could my seductive exploits of the late 90s teach me and the wider marketing community about appealing to their target audiences? If I can successfully target that most notoriously demanding of audiences, the attractive female, surely there is no limit to my marketing prowess?
That sunny day in 1997 had been an inauspicious one, at least from a professional point of view. My finest achievement had been to break the photocopier and spend 90 minutes failing to fix it. As I returned home at 5.30, I frankly needed a beer. I delicately broached the subject with my housemate Dave, who pondered my request before suggesting we go to the pub immediately.
Two hours and 5 pints of Kronenbourg later Dave and I were deep in discussion, our agile minds flitting between the meaning of life and whose turn it was to buy the next drink. I was just about to walk towards the bar when I noticed the door open and two girls in their early twenties walked in. I salivated, ordered another round and began plotting my next move. My mission: to make the blurred, dark-haired girl on the right fall in love with a drunken photocopier-wrecker. Mercifully, Dave told me a joke about Camilla Parker-Bowles, distracting me for the rest of the evening.
Several evenings later, a group of friends and I decided to meet up in the same bar. Word was that a selection of females would be present, some of whom would be more than happy to meet the man of their dreams this evening. Even better, one or two discrete enquiries amongst the local cognoscenti revealed that the blurred girl was called Caroline and would be making an appearance along with her friends.
I sensed my chance, and quickly set about polishing my shoes, getting Dave to iron my shirt, and splashing myself in enough Fahrenheit to make a cactus wilt. I donned my leather jacket and, fusing debonair cool with rugged Anglo-Saxon masculinity, unbuttoned the top 2 buttons of my shirt. It would be no exaggeration to say that I looked irresistible.
Scanning the bar as I arrived mid-way through the evening, I immediately saw Caroline, chatting with her friends in the far corner. She was tall and slender with long, dark brown hair. Her dark knee-length skirt and tailored jacket clung enticingly to her figure and her top revealed a hint of décolletage. Her outfit reminded me of the perfect hors d’oeuvre: just enough to keep the interest; not quite enough to make me feel queasy and rush for the exit. I wonder if anyone’s ever delivered a finer compliment than that to her? I do hope so.
Rather than striding confidently towards her and delivering a killer chat-up line in front of her friends, I bravely decided to wait until she was on her own and then pounce. This must have been my lucky day because a few minutes later I found myself standing next to her at the bar.
We started talking. Now when I talk to attractive ladies, I have something of a magic touch – I start talking and they immediately disappear. Strangely, however, for an apparently sane woman with all of her faculties intact, Caroline responded – and not with a restraining order. She laughed at my jokes. She nodded as I told her all about my big-shot job in the photocopying room. She gasped with relief as I finally asked her a question. She seemed to believe me when I said that it must be the man behind me that stank of vinegar.
We met up a few more times over the following week or two, each encounter becoming slightly more relaxed than the last. I took her to a restaurant and tried to show off by buying some expensive wine that I’d never heard of. We went to a football match with a group of friends. Gentlemen, I hope you are learning as you read this. After 4 or 5 ‘meetings’ we were officially an item and I was congratulating myself on my marketing expertise.
So, when I look back at the seductive marketing techniques I employed in my early 20s and reflect upon how they changed the course of my life, I am struck by how similar the art of attracting a business-to-business customer is to the seduction of a beautiful woman. I therefore leave you with my key tips on how to attract and keep the most demanding of b2b customers:
Make the first impression count – A sober, well prepared marketing approach is always likely to be more effective than an impulsive dash in the direction of the target customer. This applies to all aspects of the marketing mix, from promotional materials and interpersonal contact through to pricing and proposal preparation. By the time you get to undoing an early bad impression, the object of your desire will already be looking elsewhere.
Expect the sales process to take 4 or 5 contacts – Business-to-business buyers, like women, are complex creatures. The quick ‘hard sell’ is far less suited to their multifaceted needs and their focus on interpersonal contact than it is to the more impulsive and impersonal world of consumer marketing. It is critical to take the time over a number of conversations to understand customers’ rational and emotional needs, before providing a personalized solution built around these.
Ask lots of (intelligent) questions – Like the most boring of inebriated men, bad b2b marketers focus so much on their own offering that they forget to ask the target customer what makes them tick and what would make their lives better. This is a fatal mistake when each target customer has needs that are often technical, complex and unique.
Always leave them wanting to find out more – Successful business-to-business marketing is a long-term, dynamic process built around frequent conversation and mutual exploration. The effective b2b marketer answers every question concisely, whilst hinting at new, intriguing ideas that make the target customer want to find out more next time.
Tell a coherent, authentic story and stick to it – This is the most difficult and most critical trick of all. Just as the single man identifies an overall impression he wants to project to the fairer sex and attempts to dress, smell and speak in a way that authenticates that impression, so the successful b2b marketer must identify the story that target segment wants to hear and ensure that every customer touchpoint authenticates that story. This requires consistency, and – most fundamentally – a deep and accurate understanding of what the target market wants from you. Master these two basics and you are on your way to becoming a seductive b2b marketer.
Posted in
B2B Marketing, Business To Business, Customer Satisfaction, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Matt Harrison, Needs, Price, Pricing Strategy, Thursday Night Insight |
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