B2B Trends for the Contrarian Marketer

Three macro-trends that won't change and that you can count on for the next decade

1) The War On Brand

• Right balance short term (activation) and long term marketing (branding)
• Sales activation: short term sales
  vs.
  Long term marketing / Branding:

1. short term sales  
2. long term sales
3. pricing power (stronger brands can demand higher prices)  
4. category optinaliy
5. talent acquisiton (best brands get the best workers; higher response rates)
6. competitive moat (ability to maintain competitive advantages in order to protect its long-term profits and market share from competing firms)

→ if you want future growth, invest in brand building

→ 60:40 branding:direct response (but predict 80:20 for the future)

2) The Rise Of Blockbuster Marketing

• Monetize creativity

• Creative principles

  • Big bets:

    • Big bets are profitable

    • E.g. Salesforce: annual state of sales: one big report

  • Surprising familiarity

    • Movie: sequels are really popular

    • People crave familiarity

  • Consistent distinctiveness

    • Salesforce: Astro (character)

  • Total merchandising

    • Same creative, different channels

    • Ein thema (star wars): spielzeug, dvd, kleidung, …

→ if you want profitable creativity, invest in blockbuster finances

3)  The Death Of Hyper-targeting

• future: broadly targeting big audiences (instead of narrowily targeting small audiences)
• Reach = growth
• optimization beats prediction
• hyper targeting vs. broad targeting vs. no targeting → broad targeting most efficient
• try category targeting: who am I trying to reach?
  • Everbody who works as … AND who lives in … (2 parameters)

→ if you want category leadership, invest in category targeting