If you are lucky you have all of your holiday gift shopping finished.  Even luckier if you have all the gift wrapping done.  For me, the gift wrapping is the most challenging part.  Not every gift is a perfect rectangular size, or fits neatly in a department store box.  So thus the dilemma begins.  How do I wrap this gift and make it look appealing enough so that the recipient will surely think “what beautiful wrapping, this gift must be something special.”?  This dilemma is not that different from the challenge B2B marketers face. 

The vehicle that is used to deliver the message is just as important as the message itself.  If you receive a really great gift, but it was half-wrapped in a trash bag with duct tape all the way around it, you would get the sense that the person giving it to you just didn’t have great wrapping skills, or didn’t want to take the time to deliver 100% satisfaction.  When it comes
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Early in the book Kotler and Pfoertsch introduce their Guiding Principals concept: a path you must follow for brand success. The first decision - whether to brand or not to brand. The authors don't pull any punches in taking on this issue claiming "most B2B companies share a modest growth rate throughout their whole lifetime." Their indictment about why these companies do not achieve "acceleration"
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Lately, I have been reminded of a former client who said two decades ago, “I know everything there is to know about B2B marketing communication”. Well Jay, I think you were wrong. (By the way shortly after making this statement he decided to persue another career path.)

If you are present in this business today there is absolutely no way that you could make this statement. The evolution of how B2B audiences are choosing to get their information and thus how B2B marketers must deliver it is moving at a faster and faster pace. For some the adaptation that we are making is painful. If Jay was still in the business I am sure he would be stressed.

I personally believe much of the stress is self-induced. Induced by a case of media myopia. If your perspective is that you tell your story to suspects, prospects and customers only through belly-to-belly connections made by your sales force and attending tradeshows, or your
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Having recently gotten married, people often ask me, “How is the cooking coming along?” It got me to thinking. While it is sometimes challenging, at least I have clearly defined recipes to help me. And, on top of that, the wonderful thing about cooking is that I will know (after about 350 degrees and 30 minutes), whether or not my creation is a success.

Boy do I wish public relations would be like cooking! Unfortunately, in these two aspects in particular, cooking and public relations are quite different from each other. Public relations is primarily about building awareness and it takes time to build relationships and make an impression. It certainly isn’t instant and there is nothing that can clearly designate how long it will take to make an impact. There is no clear recipe to follow—every company is different and we can only use the case studies of those who have come before us as a guide.
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Recently the internet has experienced an evolution from a one-way conversation or Web 1.0, to a two-way conversation or Web 2.0.  Web 2.0 has allowed publishers to create websites that are more than just the electronic version of their printed products. By utilizing technology associated with RSS (really simple syndication), blogs, videos and frequent news updates, publishers are more or less attempting to create communities based on their printed properties.  The theory is, that the more a person feels “at home”, the more time they will spend on a site, and thus the greater the chance for an advertising message to reach them.  Here is list of some of the websites in the design engineering space that are striving to create an online community.
 
    www.designnews.com
    www.packworld.com
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I read an editorial in the October 2006 issue of CREATIVITY Magazine written by Jonah Bloom, an editor at ADVERTSIING AGE. The title of the editorial was, “It’s not your clients, it’s you.”
He begins the editorial, “Memo to agencies: It’s time that broken record about your poor work being the fault of your clients was consigned to the storage locker with the rest of your vinyl.”
Ouch!
I admit, on occasion, I have used that excuse. I agree with Jonah that we on the agency-side often assume that since the client lacks the craft skills, they aren’t creative. Craft skills and creative are both essential but completely different things.
I know we have presented work that clearly demonstrates our craft skills but may be lacking true, innovative creative. Our clients may indeed lack the craft skills but they may the ones offering the real creative.
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Sports fans know all about metrics. We call them stats. In football, fans, coaches and players immerse themselves in statistics. Average yards per pass, average yards per run, passing efficiency, third down conversions, number of plays, time of possession…and my favorite -- YAC, which means yards after catch, or yards after contact. Why track so many stats? Because every statistic tells something that will contribute to overall success. Uninformed fans may boo a boring play because it doesn't result in a score. But knowledgeable fans know it’s only one play, not the whole game. What a great metaphor for marketing metrics! It’s in vogue today to say that marketing activities that don’t generate sales, or leads, aren’t important or valuable. That's a very simplistic view of marketing. Knowledgeable marketers know that every ad or mailer or email or press release plays a part of achieving the larger objective.
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Perspective is a good thing. Many perspectives, even better….I think. One thing is for sure, there is no shortage of ways to measure brand equity.  Jonathan Knowles and Wolff Olins have aggregated a variety of branding methodologies/models to consider. Their short dissertation on “relevant differentiation” is, from my point of view, excellent.
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It’s the beginning of planning season, a time when clients ask us to take a look at their media budgets and schedules and offer up new ideas.  “I want something outside of the box” is the cliché we often hear.  This something different, new, exciting applies not just to the creative execution, but to the delivery of the message.

In the B2B world, traditional trade magazine advertising is still the backbone of a solid plan, and arguably quite important.  But, for the most part, trade publications are way ahead of advertisers, and are offering more and more ways to connect a message with their readers - especially online.  Magazine websites have come a long way from simply a digital copy of their print edition.  Many now offer breaking news and RSS feeds, educational webcasts, e-newsletters, white papers, keyword sponsorships, video clips, interactive games, and unlimited possibilities in rich media executions.  Some
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