Kathryn Roy, marketing consultant and friend of The B2B Lead, has a great eBook, Seven Infectious Diseases of B2B Marketing — And Their Cures, that we want to share with all of our readers.  We will post excerpts that cover the diseases one by one but feel free to download the entire eBook here.

There are seven problems I find so rampant in B2B companies that I suspect they are infectious – passed along as marketing people switch companies or work with contagious agencies. In each blog post I will cover a diseases, its symptoms, probable causes, and suggested treatment.

Branderhea is a delusional psychological condition in companies that believe prospects will invest time to memorize vendors’ cute names for products and services that aren’t related to blockbuster consumer categories.

When Lotus conducted brand market research in the ‘90s, they learned to their surprise that many end users did not associate their spreadsheet, 1-2-3, with Lotus. These users thought 1-2-3 was the product and the company name.

Many startups, ambitiously anticipating the launch of multiple product lines, invest in both company and product names. Given the prevalence of URL claim-stakers who have locked up almost all valuable URLs in hopes of selling them at a future date for exorbitant prices, most of these new names are anything but descriptive.

To get prospects to begin to remember one of these names takes repeated exposure in relevantcontexts.

If you double the number of names a prospect needs to remember in any interaction with your company, you halve the probability that they will remember either.

B2C companies can use trademarked names for ingredients to impress consumers: “Try our facial cream with Rejuvens^TM microcapsules.” This technique doesn’t translate well to B2B companies unless you simply use the ^TM sign simply to stress some attribute such as

“One-minute-install^TM.” In this case, you don’t really expect anyone to remember the name but simply hope that the TM helps people notice your differentiator in speedy installs. It is not recommended with newly minted words. Limit ^TM use to recognizable phrases.

SYMPTOMS

More than one ^TM symbol per marketing deliverable.

SUSPECTED C AUSES

Insufficient interaction with prospects.

Asking friendly customers if they like your brainchild.

TREATMENT

Limit the number of “brands” to one for every $100m in revenue.

About the Author
Kathryn Roy is a marketing and strategy consultant with over 20 years of experience helping some of the most successful and fastest growing B2B companies including IBM, Avid, CA, Lotus, AT&T and dozens of other technology companies.  She has helped companies:

• hone strategy, positioning, and messaging via primary research
• boost sales productivity through sales enablement training and tools
• evaluate and prioritize market opportunities