B2BC: The business-consumer blurs traditional lines of marketing communications
By Jeff Rodgers, Nelson Schmidt
In today’s world of on-the-go media and communication, the lines between traditional B2B and B2C audiences are more blurred than ever. For most, long gone are the days of punching in and out of the 9 to 5′er. We’re working from home. We’re on personal email and social media at work. Our jobs are our lives and our lives are our jobs. With iPhones, Blackberrys, Netbooks and more, we rarely leave ‘work’ at the office. And while at work, are seldom very far from our personal lives.
Being an iPhone user myself, my work and personal responsibilities are thoroughly integrated in the large mixing bowl that is my daily & nightly schedule. I regularly answer work emails from my couch at home and have also bought movie tickets from my iPhone app during the day. I’ve read trade pubs while on vacation and brought personal magazines to work. My life is a union of my work and my home life.
So why do the communications targeted to us as professionals have to be so different than those targeted to us as consumers?
My Executive Creative Director likes to say “B2B and B2C marketing are the same. They’re both marketing to people.” and I tend to agree. As our lives in and outside of the office are blended, do we really put on different hats to receive different messages?
With this thinking in mind, I consider myself a ‘business-consumer’. With very little separation between my professional and personal life, I find myself floating in a space between two traditionally different target audiences. I appreciate thoughtful, creative and impactful marketing campaigns no matter the delivery channel; and push my agency to create the same for our B2B clients.
With a changing landscape of audiences, it’s important that we shift our thinking of B2B creative work. If agencies want to succeed in this transitional environment, they will have to rethink their view of B2B audiences and depart from traditional B2B branding. My agency is working to deliver outside-the-box, exciting B2B work. Is yours?
Related posts:
- B2B Brand Debate Topic — Brand Council
- B2B Brand Debate Topic — Category Definition
- Walk Softly And Carry A Big Brand: Part 2
monica levy on 09 Oct 2009 at 3:12 pm #
jeff: a timely topic. earlier in the week you wrote this post, i had some of the same — and some different — ideas.
my contention is that B2P (brands to people) marketing means that we have to focus much more strongly on key marketing elements — identification, attraction, engagement, retention … and ultimately, turning customers into advocates for products, brands and companies.
you can see rest of the rant at http://monicaonmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/09/acronym-soup-and-other-pointless.html