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CATCHING LEADS VERSUS BULDING BRAND: Choose Your Marketing Weapon Wisely

This ITAC roundtable event was held on June 22, 2005.

The Panel

Yvonne Gibson, Director, Corporate Communications, CGI
Michele Rebiere, Vice President, Global Marketing, Financial Models Company Inc.
Sandra Pakosh, Manager, Marketing Communications Brand and Enterprise & Public Sector, Hewlett Packard (Canada) Co.
Don Chapman, President, Novell Inc.
Jeff Watts, Senior Vice President, Channels & Marketing, SAP Canada Inc.

The discussion was moderated by Bob Becker, Principal, SMA.

Brand - what is it, what does it mean?

Branding is a promise that you stand for something, a connection between the customer and the company. It also stands for a tangible quantifiable number on the balance sheet.
Our primary branding channel is our employees. Communicating the essence of our company to our employees passes this along to the customer.
Big and small companies no longer have the luxury of large marketing budgets. PR is a good vehicle to get the word out – has shifted from traditional advertising and tradeshows to PR.
There is a difference between being aware of brand and its relevance. Branding is what you stand for. Awareness is getting the message out -- it’s important to make that distinction.
You need to have the brand exude through everything you do. In today’s market, people are trying to solve problems – branding that’s credible and relevant will lead to a sale.

Lead generation - what is it, what does it mean?

The shift of our focus has been towards business building – move your business to where the market shifts. Lead generation is dependent upon what you and your competitors are doing and what you need to build the business.
The further up the value chain you go, the more important the brand is. We focus on brand differentiating – what we do differently from our competitors is utilized for lead generation.
Market segmentation is very important. Customer lead generation is very different from prospect lead generation. Determine the right approach and vehicle – get the metrics and balance right.
Correlation between lead generation and branding = YIELD. Branding can help shorten the sales cycle.

Should hi-tech use branding and awareness to generate sales - like consumer products - how do we do that?

We have to use all weapons to increase purchase consideration. The value of managing your PR firm effectively can generate business.
Often, an organization is known for something they wish to change – shift in the brand. PR is an opportunity to shift brand, focus on market segment and improve purchases.
Brand builds demand – when HP merged with Compaq, customers were curious about the new brand – where were we going to go with it. Our brand was watched and needed to resonate with the customer to drive leads.
Branding can be a problem in hi-tech. Constant changes within IT make it difficult for your brand to stand for the same thing for any length of time. Changing the brand is expensive but hi-tech is constantly changing.

ROI with branding - how do we know it is working?

Determine what the metrics are in where you spend the money – different markets will measure success in branding differently.
If we stepped outside the IT industry you would get a faster answer. You don’t see the measurement consistently in IT.
Test branding with analysts and an advisory board of clients. CEO meets with C-level clients and non-clients to evaluate effectiveness of brand – to see how the story is resonating with the market.
You have to look at the cost of tracking – we get caught up in the trap of ROI. If you have good alignment between sales and marketing, this will drive you to a model where marketing initiatives drive leads and make it less important to try to justify the marketing ROI.
Branding starts with the CEO’s leadership. When you have a CEO who understands branding and the importance of marketing, then ROI on marketing has less importance in the organization
Marketing and branding need to be de-mystified. Educate the CEO and CFO – align with them.
Traditional marketing agencies have not evolved to support our industry. Traditional marketing is tired and our industry needs specialized boutique services such as SMA to help us target specific markets.

Branding in a global environment versus local issues - how do we deal with this?

We have more of a problem with integrating the companies we buy into our brand than local versus global. Our tactic is to brand from the ground up. Ultimately the brand is the culture of the company and really shouldn’t be different from country to country.
Canadians expect an advantage when dealing with a global organization. How do you leverage this advantage?
Our brand is managed from U.S. corporate office. Regions and countries are represented on a board to ensure we have a voice at the table for our country. Lead generation is more difficult to manage globally versus locally as each market needs to be touched differently.

How do you value and use the Web in branding versus lead generation?

We are using the Web more – it is another touch channel. It means different things to different segments.
The Web is a great example of the ability to do global marketing – trying to focus on something that works across all markets.
Information travels faster on the Internet than it does even within an organization. The Web is a powerful communication tool. Switching to webinar events has been successful. It provides a tremendous opportunity to communicate brand and create lead generation.

Question from Audience:

Ninety percent of marketing is focused on the company itself and not the customer - what have you done about that?

Customer success stories are important – the true message comes through.
You have to start with the customer and work out -- NOT start with the product and work out. You need to address the customer need.

Where will marketing be in a year or two, and how can we add value?

At an executive level, they know that any organization needs marketing. What may change is how marketing is being executed. Look at the client out, not the product out.
The question of ROI will be heightened. Determine key metrics and formulate the process to determine what will justify marketing.
Our role is to lead – we have to show leadership and approach the business by determining what is driving it and continue to align with sales. Turn marketing into an investment and not just an expense.
Align marketing with all senior level departments. Lead generation is only successful with marketing and branding. Branding needs to be ingrained into core of the organization.
We need to better understand our “internal” customer – need to better align ourselves within the organization.