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Sometimes your channel is your brand
“There is very little loyalty left. Manufacturer X is mercenary. They just want to make money, and I’m mercenary. In other words, Manufacturer X doesn’t care about me, and I don’t care about Manufacturer X. They just make a good product.” This quote from a recent study sums up the state of many of the channel relationships we see across a range of technology and industrial B2B markets.
Read MorePositioning challenges for technology startups
When we look at the cyclical patterns of startups vs. legacy systems we feel this time around will go much smoother than last major round of startups – the .com era. Today’s IT executives have been through this process before and know where the risks lie and how to mitigate them as much as possible. In a silver lining to the sluggish economy’s grey cloud, budgets are tight so even the most hyped technologies (e.g. mobile) receive much more attention and systematic evaluation than previous .com initiatives ever did.
Read MoreWhy likability matters
Likability is also one important criterion we use to test advertising. Even as advertising and advertising research have become much more sophisticated over time, likability continues to be a useful predictor of effectiveness.
Read MoreMarketing and selling to the reptilian brain
Tim Riesterer’s recent HBR blog post about stimulating the customer’s “lizard brain” to make a sale correlates with Isurus’ work on messaging and sales effectiveness. Riesterer points out that most sales messages fail to compel buyers to move away from the status quo because our “lizard brain”—the brain stem and other structures responsible for our survival instincts—prefers safety and avoids risk. Implicit in this message is the idea that a purely logical message often isn’t enough to drive change. To make a sale that breaks the status quo, the sales message must appeal to the lizard brain.
Read MoreWhat have you done for me lately? Marketing short-term benefits
Across a diverse range of b2b and consumer product categories studied by Isurus in the last six months, the messaging strategies that best resonate are ones that speak to short-term benefits. Messages that speak only to long-term benefits failed to motivate buyers, even when the eventual benefit is very meaningful (a life-saving therapy, a significant ROI, etc.).
Read MoreUsing primary market research to create custom content
If you’re thinking about conducting primary market research to support custom content, here are a few recommendations for getting the most out of the investment.
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