Key Findings – B2B
Is Your Brand Story Doing Its Job?
According to a recent study by McKinsey, there may be a disconnect between your company’s core messages and what matters most to your customers. Even worse, your customers may not be able to tell you from the competition by your messaging.
McKinsey reviewed public documents of Fortune 500 and DAX30 companies and developed a list of about 13 themes and topic areas companies use to position their brands. They then picked the top 90 global B2B companies on market capitalization across six sectors to review.
Customers in the study judged the strength of brands by their perceptions of a company’s effective supplychain management and specialist market knowledge. Yet, themes such as social responsibility, sustainability and global reach dominated most B2B company messaging. McKinsey also found customers had difficulty distinguishing one company from another when comparing messaging.
Suggested fixes for this include making use of market research, and asking sales reps to gather intelligence on exactly what customers value about your product or service. Then, engage salespeople in helping marketing stay in tune with customer needs and perceptions. McKinsey also warns to stay abreast of market shifts, evolve and be consistent.
Bullets
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Some 54% of American consumers are now on more than one content platform, such as desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets.(marketingprofs.com)
- 23% of social media messages include links to content , including published articles, videos and photos. (AOL-Nielsen)
- Blogs on company sites result in 55% more visitors, and companies with blogs get 97% more inbound links than others. (contentplus.co)
- Both business customers and recreational travelers indicated that wireless was the No. 1 priority at hotels and in the rooms and 34% of business travelers won’t stay at hotel without Internet. (motorolasolutions.com)
- Consumers are spending time researching on their smartphones (15+ hours a week), their research starts with a search engine (vs. a mobile site or app), proximity is important (69% expect businesses to be within five miles of their location), immediacy is key (more than half want to purchase within the hour) and mobile influences their purchase decisions (93% go on to buy). (googlethinkinsights.com)