EMS Buzz

Virtually as Good as a Trade Show

July 12th, 2010

As a B2B marketing person I’ve always loved trade shows. Where else do all the trade press and your competitors and customers converge in one place—all with common interests? People who are looking to buy are all in the same room with people who are looking to sell. Trackable sales leads are flowing like a river from an identifiable source. Gotta love it.

But according to a Forbes article, trade show revenue in the U.S.—about $12 billion annually—was expected to contract nearly 7 percent last year. Trade shows require significant investment—booth space, exhibit design, videos, collateral materials, and most expensive of all—travel and expenses for the sales team. No wonder people don’t think they can afford trade shows.

There is, of course, a cost for not participating—lost opportunity. You can’t get sales leads from trade shows if you’re not there. But now, with virtual trade shows, you don’t have to be physically there. You can “man” your booth from your office computer, or, well, any computer anywhere. That saves a bundle in T&E. Other things are cheaper, too, in the virtual world. Entry fees, exhibit design and build. All you need is one representative from your company to be on deck to instant message visitors to your virtual booth.

I do still like the visual, physical, meet-and-greet trade show. There’s no substitute for seeing faces, talking to actual people in person. But if it’s a luxury your company can’t afford, check out the virtual shows.

Tags: accountability, B2B advertising, B2B branding, marketing, marketing ROI, sales leads, trade shows
Posted in marketing | 2 Comments »

Manufacturing Manufacturing Jobs

July 5th, 2010

Back in the ‘80s I worked for a Fortune 500 company that had manufacturing facilities all over the place. They built massive things, like railcars, but they decided it was more profitable to stop creating products and start buying them elsewhere. At the time, this saddened me, even though I was all for increased profitability.

It seemed a bit penny wise and pound foolish to have invested in people and equipment for decades and then just stop. All that expertise down the drain. All those jobs gone overseas. All those people here in the U.S.—whole towns—idle. Seemed like a waste, even though items being manufactured had become commoditized and could be produced cheaper elsewhere.

There’s an interesting article by Andy Grove in Business Week that articulates the problem with more nuance. He says, “Not only did we lose an untold number of jobs, we broke the chain of experience so important in technological evolution. As happened with batteries (that are now being manufactured overseas), abandoning today’s ‘commodity’ manufacturing can lock you out of tomorrow’s emerging industry.”

I’m not sure there’s an emerging industry we’ll miss by not building railcars, but maybe. You don’t know for sure unless you continue to build them. But you do know it’s more satisfying to actually produce something, a physical thing you can touch and be proud of. And you do know it’s a good thing to create jobs, not lose them.

When you manufacture things, you also manufacture jobs.

Tags: B2B manufacturing, jobs
Posted in Manufacturing | No Comments »

ROI Is King

June 29th, 2010

At least that’s what “roi” means in French, “king.” What does “ROI” mean to marketers?

I just saw the term used loosely again, in a feature article of B2B magazine. A sophisticated marketer referred to his program to measure marketing effectiveness as his ROI program—you know, click-throughs, webinar sign-ups, landing page hits. Aaaugh!

Why do marketers insist on using this term incorrectly? It has a very specific meaning. Basically, ROI is the profits generated over and above the initial investment and expressed as a percentage of the investment. It’s a financial gain—not an increase in awareness, not market share, not the number of leads you get or click-throughs to your web site.

As marketers, we should be aware of the importance of language. We should understand that precise wording makes meaning clear. We should know that it’s critical to be accurate with words if we want to communicate with the best possible results.

Yet, we continue to misuse this term, Return on Investment. Worse than sloppy language, its misuse demonstrates—no, trumpets!—our ignorance. We must use the term carefully, because we need to interact with people in our finance department if we want to calculate ROI according to best practices in our own company. We need guidance from finance to determine what constitutes gross margin, how to define what our investment is, and so much more.

How can we ever hope to work with our finance department if we persist in using finance terminology incorrectly? It’s a problem I’ve been kvetching about so long that I wrote a book, www.marketingroitruth.com. Okay, I’ll get down off my soapbox. For now.

Tags: accountability, Marketing Communications, marketing ROI, metrics, ROI
Posted in Marketing Communications | No Comments »

50+ Years Later, Brand Basics Remain

June 21st, 2010

There’s an iconic B2B ad by McGraw-Hill Publishing from 1958 that’s been played and replayed over the years. I first saw it in the ‘80s, and now it’s been reprinted in the current issue of B2B magazine. It’s a fabulous photo of a grumpy businessman sitting in his office chair on a white background, glowering at the reader. Here’s the copy:

“I don’t know who you are.

I don’t know your company.

I don’t know your company’s product.

I don’t know what your company stands for.

I don’t know your company’s customers.

I don’t know your company’s record.

I don’t know your company’s reputation.

Now—what was it you wanted to sell me?”

It’s a classic ad, as true in 1958 as it is today. Yes, things have changed significantly, but it’s still important to build your brand, maintain your reputation and be memorable in the marketplace. It’s still important to pre-sell your audience, regardless of the vehicle you use. Of course, in 1958 there was only one practical vehicle, and hence the final line of copy in the ad:

MORAL: Sales start before your salesman calls—with business magazine advertising.

Now sales start with web sites, e-mail campaigns, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and so much more. But the fundamental concepts haven’t changed a bit.

Tags: B2B branding, marketing, Marketing Communications, reputation, trust
Posted in Branding | 2 Comments »

When Your CEO Chokes on His Own Foot

June 14th, 2010

It’s been a few days since we’ve heard from BP’s Tony Hayward. I envision his PR team struggling with rope and duct tape to bind and gag him in the boardroom, posting sentries at the door. The man just kept spewing gaffes like, um, oil in the Gulf.

To recap a few of his most egregious utterings:

“What the hell did we do to deserve this?”

PR lesson #1: It is not about you, Tony, or even your company. It is about the 11 people who died, and the people whose livelihoods are destroyed, to say nothing of the environment. How can a CEO be this tone deaf? People’s lives are lost. Keep priorities straight.

“The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it [the Gulf] is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”

Are you trying to tell us this is not much of a problem, Tony? If so, here’s PR lesson #2: Tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do not attempt to downplay or understate the problem. It just irks people deeply when you assume they are too dumb to know the biggest environmental disaster in history when they see it.

“I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.”

Tony, Tony, Tony. See PR lesson #2.

And finally, the ever famous, “I’d like my life back.”

PR people everywhere are checking their records to see when they’ve last updated their CEO’s media training. For years I tried to get one of my clients to develop a crisis communication program that included CEO training, but they always had other priorities. And yes, I understand that. It’s easy to put off and invest the money in more urgent initiatives that have obvious payback.

But if a disaster strikes, it’s too late for media training. You’ll have to get out the duct tape.

Tags: BP, crisis communications, media training, PR, reputation, reputation management, trust
Posted in Branding | No Comments »

Presto, Change-o Communication

June 7th, 2010

In times like these, EMS companies often have to make strategic changes to stay competitive. In the midst of these changes, whatever they may be, employees can be resistant. Because, like all humans, employees don’t like change.

Worse, trust in all corporations, by employees and everyone else, is at an all time low. So executives leading the change are facing a doubly whammy—fear of change and distrust of management.

A recent Wall Street Journal article, “In With the New,” by Mitchell Lee Marks, says employee communication is the answer. Okay now, everybody raise your hands if you’re thinking, “Well, duh.” But the article goes on to specify communication that works best to effect change, and that isn’t always so evident. Or if it is, it’s good to be reminded of what should be common sense.

For example, it’s a good idea to make communication two-way. It should be more than a top-down diatribe. Yes, management must make clear what changes will take place and the reasons for them. But employees need to communicate too. They’ll have questions, They’ll have complaints. They’ll have misgivings. Or maybe they’ll just want to vent. Management needs to provide a safe way for employees to do so. By “safe,” I mean a way to vent so their comments won’t be held against them later.

Also, communication must absolutely be honest, without corporate-speak. This can be harder than it seems. Sometimes there’s a tendency to soften the blow by predicting rosier outcomes as a result of the change. Or by minimizing the pain that will be required to make the change. Or by obfuscating the message with highfalutin words that don’t make your meaning clear, but have long been accepted in the C-suite (i.e., corporate-speak). There are plenty of ways to avoid being completely honest. Resist them.

Inviting employees to enter into an honest conversation about new directions your company is taking works like magic. Employees need to understand the business reasons for the change. They need the opportunity to let go of their old ways of thinking, often by talking through their concerns. When that happens—presto, change-o—the whole change process becomes smoother.

Tags: change management, contract manufacturing, employee communication, EMS
Posted in Manufacturing | No Comments »

A Mess of Stress

June 1st, 2010

Quick, think of the most stressful job you could have. Firefighter. Surgeon. Police Officer. Yup. Check, check and check.

But according to ThomasNet News’ Industry Market Trends, two of the top 10 most stressful jobs are, get this:

Public relations officer and

Advertising account executive.

No wonder I’m a mess. I’ve been doing both those jobs for most of my career. And yes, they can be stressful, but typically I haven’t had to face life and death decisions on a daily basis like, say, a surgeon does.

But I do recall one spectacularly stressful morning when I walked into my office and the phone was ringing. I hadn’t had my cup of tea yet when I answered and heard, “Hello, this is John Q. Reporter from CBS. You’re live and on the air. There are 28 people dead at your Good Hope facility. What do you have to say about this?”

Well, my immediate desire was to say, “No speak English.” But instead I had to say that I knew nothing about it. It was a little after 8 a.m. and none of my colleagues was in the office yet. I told the reporter I’d get back to him, asked him his deadline, and promised to call by then, whether I had all the info he needed or not.

Then I had to try and figure out what happened, which was a bit tricky because I worked for a Fortune 500 company with multiple subsidiaries, about three of which could have been involved in this tragedy. As it happened, the 28 people who died were on a ship that crashed into a dock at our Good Hope facility. And while we owned ships and barges, this particular ship was not ours.

Once I had the facts straightened out, I was able to prepare a statement for the press. But then I had to get the approval of someone—anyone—above me in the chain of command. And there was only one guy available who said, call the PR consultants in NYC and do whatever they tell you.

And here’s where the stress came in. The yahoo at the PR firm (well, I won’t name it, but it was famous at the time) said, “Tell the press that the damage to our dock is minimal.”

What about the loss of human life? Not our concern. Tell reporters our assets remain intact. Or some such rot. Really.

So I ignored our PR pros who were paid a kingly retainer fee, and by doing so I ignored the exec who was several notches above me in the pecking order. Instead, I went with common sense. Which was to deliver a statement to the press: While the ship does not belong to our company, we deeply regret the loss of human life near our facility.

And our company’s name never appeared anywhere in the press. Which is sometimes the greatest achievement you can have as a PR person—NOT getting mentioned.

And yes, it was stressful, but still nothing like being a cop on the beat.

Tags: crisis communications, PR, reputation, reputation management
Posted in Marketing Communications | No Comments »

EMS Outsourcing and Trust

May 25th, 2010

Circuits Assembly recently had a couple blogs with some interesting topics:

1) Nokia is outsourcing again after a year of pulling the work in-house. This can only be good news for our business.

2) Some opine that it’s best to manufacture electronic products in the region into which the product will be sold.

And what about outsourcing in the region in which electronic products will be manufactured? Isn’t that a good idea?

With all the talk about globalization, do things just come down to the fact that people like to do business with their neighbor? Is there some kind of comfort level we have when we deal with people in our own region? Is there greater trust?

Because, in fact, trust is everything when you’re doing business. Recently some financial and petroleum companies, among others, have seen trust in them erode. It would be interesting to determine how lack of trust has affected their bottom lines on a case-by-case basis. Because surely it has to some degree. I’d like to see how much.

Then we could quantify the importance of trust and reputation. And then we’d have an idea of the value of maintaining that reputation. Which would make all of us in PR breathe easier.

Tags: EMS, marketing, metrics, reputation, reputation management, trust
Posted in Branding | No Comments »