Black Friday: lessons for B2B Marketing

With Thanksgiving Turkey dinner not even fully digested and plenty of leftover still to be eaten thousands have been whipped into a buying frenzy all over the America, hunting irresistible bargains just in time to put them under the Christmas tree.  What is of interest in Canada and elsewhere globally the targeting of discounts by Canadians on line and the rebuttal sales campaigns by Canadian retailers to ensure they made every effort to capture buyer's dollars before they flew south for the winter bargains.  As a marketer whose main focus is international technical mining equipment and other technical products, what lesson does this retail extravaganza have for B2B Marketing? 
Well, in a nut shell it is the ability to affect positive buyer behaviour.  We sadly in the B2B space have in many instances convinced our selves that our markets buy predominantly in technical, reason based factors and are thus immune to emotionally charged calls to action.  The reality is emotionally charged factors are at work in all purchasing decisions whether they are retail or capital in nature, because to put it bluntly we are dealing we real people.  As such, it would be erroneous for B2B marketers to not seek to develop campaigns aimed at charging buying prospects with time based incentives, elegant value adds that are limited to a specific campaign and a sense of high drama when launching or introducing new technical products.  Our customers will by their very nature evaluate comparatively our technical specification and total ROI, but underneath all this left brain thinking the right brain emotional balances will be weighing many of the intangibles that are key to any buy decision making:
-Status and related status affects of ownership
-personal, career risk management and group approval
-reduction of effort and or workload-peace of mind

We need to look at Black Friday, Cyber Monday and many other retail events to see what triggers such as  price and related buyer behaviours can teach us so that we to can ignite positive sales engagement and growth on demand.

5 ways to Create real Value: B2B

What is really needed into todays ever competitve market place is to genuinely provide value for both existing and prospective customers, but the age old question is who is going to do it, pay for it or deliver this added value?  The more refined question is how can we create real value with what is already available, what elegant trade offs can be provided to create real added value to customers.

Here are a list of useful ideas:

1) Industry standards explained:  I don't know how many times I have contracted or commissioned a service only to discover that their where added fees, permits or taxes that only after purchasing turn out to be standard practises  perculiar to this industry such as airport taxes, courtesy fees etc.  Many new clients would appreciate and value having a clear report/brochure outlining such standard practises and reducing unwelcome surprises.
2) Comparison information: Many complex product offerings require near expert level understanding to adequately compare features and benefits.  A simple, direct feature-benefit card or link could assist and inform buyers decision process, which is a real value to busy buyers.
3) How to: Simple direct videos and instructions should be provided already but any stand alone video, even of low production quality that assists a common use or feature is greatly appreciated. Such as crowd sourced video of best way to pack your product for travel, mount on car, etc. Will win friends in the market.
4) How not to videos: Many product suppliers shy away from such negative content but common problems are best explained by reacting what causes the problem to educate customers not to do this.
Timex after their famous 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking' ads of the early 80's had some major warranty issues with consumers who had hit their product with a hammer on purpose, this of course was sorted by a what not to do video ad.
5)Crowd sourcing: Without a doubt this is becoming the best elegant trade off in marketing today, think Wikipedia for your products.  The more you can build a community that is passionate, informed and willing to share insights, answers and suggestions to it product community the more value can be provided with little extra resources.

New Boss in China- Real Branding opportunity for China

Like so many others in the industrial and mining global marketing space, we have been trying to digest the recent one party leadership or succession plan/race in  China.  At first glance, many of the elements of choosing a new leader within the planned communist system have similarities to  engimatic and cloistered procedure for choosing a new Catholic Pontiff.  While, the Politburo decision (25 member council)  is conducted by the directions of the central committee, consisting of 371 seating party members, the choice really rests in the upper echelon of the standing directorate of 9 members.  With a limited two term mandate of five years each this procedure has led to little in the way of surprises in the transmission of one of the most coveted and powerful political positions in the world today.
What is interesting from a B2B marketing perspective is given the enormity of the role and the global attention being directed towards the proceedings in Beijing, its quite puzzling the limited public exposure both locally and internationally about the character, history and temperament of the key candidates. With pundits predicting that Xi Jinping will bag the top seat as President and most likely Li Keqiang the Premiership, the question is who are these guys?
The nature of a one party system and the penchant of Chinese inscrutability its not surprising the limited public profiles on offer in stark comparison to western 'tell all' democratic campaigns.  The internal alliance building strategies of the Chinese Communist party are well known and can account for many of the gaps in our knowledge of the prospective leaders.  Given the global and local influence these men (at least in this round of key delegates) wield it will be a real challenge diplomatically to ensure China's new bosses are positively accepted both locally and internationally.
  As an open mental marketing exercise, I would suggest this challenge could if handled skillfully turnout to be a real opportunity, much like the initial warming to the west that Deng Xiaoping orchestrated in the early 80's after the demise of Mao Zedong.  What seems critical is to fill in many holes in the bios and at the same time to ensure policies related to trade and the environment are maintained, and if change is on the cards that it allows some collaborative elements to the wider global audience.  It would be my deepest hope that given the economic and political rise of China the new faces seek to smile warmly on increased trade and access to local markets.