Lynne Jones, UK marketing director at Logica (now part of CGI) shares her feelings on the recent merger, the next big thing in B2B and what marketing challenge she’s currently wrestling
What was your first B2B-related job?
Cable & Wireless; bundling products and services into value-adds for business clients.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
It is always changing. When I first started working in marketing, digital didn’t exist, and in the last few years social media has become more important. I’m always learning, and working with an international team, I learn how others do things and how they get around different cultural issues, such as the French cultural resistance to DM.
Which B2B brand do you most admire?
Of course I am going to say CGI. Logica and CGI have recently merged and having come from the Logica side of the business, I am learning a lot about the CGI culture and business model. There’s a ‘stand up and be counted’ mentality which is incredibly refreshing in a world where many companies ‘review’ but don’t ‘fix’.
Whose job would you like most?
Marketing director for the Olympics must have been a lot of fun. I imagine you’d need four years off afterwards though.
What’s the best piece of marketing advice you’ve ever been given?
Listen to the client.
What is your proudest achievement?
Winning a sales award voted for by the sales team, being the only marketer to get one in the company. I’m really proud of that because it showed they saw what could be achieved with B2B marketing.
To succeed, a B2B marketer must…
Adapt and innovate.
What’s the next big thing in B2B marketing?
I think possibly a shake out in the conference and exhibition market. I have a sense the model needs to adapt to the increasingly busy working lives people have and the need to spend time hearing useful stuff rather than product pitches.
Our jobs would be easier if…
Our customers weren’t so busy.
What are the traits you most and least admire in yourself?
My father told me good manners are 90 per cent of management and I like to think that’s something I hold dear. My admin is probably a bit shocking, fortunately I am looked after by an assistant who is brilliant at it.
My biggest extravagance is…
Probably flowers and taxis.
What marketing challenge are you currently wrestling with?
The increasingly blurred boundaries between the work person and the leisure person. Social media sites such as Facebook create a cross-over and the rules of engagement are morphing into a hybrid area. The language and formality in businesses is changing as a result.
What was your last marketing epiphany?
We are just making an animation for a client and I couldn’t work out how to make a story about outsourcing come alive, and then I was talking with someone about Formula 1 and it struck me that it was a great analogy we could use. All the messages just worked; getting ahead by using excellent teamwork, exploiting the best technological advances, having good, rapid intelligence to make your decisions. It was all there, I pitched it to the team and they went with it. If they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been such an epiphany.
Which marketing or business books would you recommend?
I’m still a Kotler fan even after all these years and I loved Freakonomics.
Which individual has had the most influence on your career?
Early in my career I worked in the marketing strategy department at BMP DDB Needham and was lucky enough to meet the great John Webster – the creative director. He was so approachable and had time for the most junior of staff. He was a very inspiring individual who encouraged me.