When I first meet Steve Snaith, marketing director at Dulux Trade, he seems your archetypal B2B senior marketer. Male, middle-aged and donning a fairly unassuming grey suit. Yet that suave, slightly cocky characteristic that seems to emanate from some heads of marketing, is replaced instead with an academic quality that reminds me of a past university lecturer.
It comes as little surprise then when I learn that Snaith began his 29-year career at ICI Paints AkzoNobel as a science graduate working in research and development before making the unlikely switch to the sharp edge of sales and marketing. Snaith admits that the move was a “massive, massive change”. And you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to appreciate this.
Beginning his career in 1981 as a chemistry graduate at ICI Paints (as it was called then), Snaith is one of those rare examples where the term ‘job for life’ still rings true. Moving up through the ranks, Snaith became UK technical manager in 1989, before venturing to Kuala Lumpa to set up a regional technical centre for the company.
Returning to the UK in 1995, Snaith discovered that his previous role no longer existed. “When I got back, there was no job in research and development – the role had moved,” he matter-of-factly explains. However, keen to remain a part of ICI Paints, Snaith made the somewhat radical career move into sales and marketing. When probed about this decision, he reiterates what a “big change” this was for him, “Research and development is based on fact, and while there is some fact in selling – it’s very different. It’s more about relationships and understanding the customer – and understanding this was the biggest change for me.”
Survival of the fittest
Snaith’s chameleonic ability to adapt to the working environment appears to have been the making of him, both in the early days and today as he helps the organisation to keep up with an ever-evolving marketing landscape. “The market is changing. Our customer’s requirements are changing because their customer’s requirements are changing, and expectations are growing all the time,” Snaith reveals, citing Dulux Trade’s ‘Proven in the real world’ communications campaign as an example of how the company adapted to the market during the recent recession.
Snaith’s slightly unconventional career path is mirrored by the diversity of Dulux Trade’s customers – many of whom no longer come from traditional industry backgrounds either. Instead, Snaith explains that the organisation finds itself dealing with “the stockbroker turned decorator” – an example of those that have abandoned traditional white-collar jobs to pursue own-business dreams of interior design and property development. This evolving arena of new customers, as well as a mosaic of other tradespeople, from one-man band decorators to huge construction companies, undoubtedly presents Snaith with a hefty marketing challenge. However, he seems to take this in his stride with an analytical, no-nonsense approach – perhaps evidence of his former science background.
Common sense and conservatism
Whether or not it’s a result of his longevity at the company or just innate qualities, Snaith seems to epitomise the Dulux Trade brand: conservative, traditional and yet consistently high performing. And what’s interesting is that despite many marketers thinking that there is too much conservatism in B2B marketing, Snaith is quick to point out that this is not always such a bad thing, “When you’ve got a product or a service and it works in a B2B environment – that’s very important. If it goes wrong, it’s not just loss of product and layman’s time, it’s your reputation. So sometimes it’s not about being conservative, it’s about moving forward in a very proven and quantified way.”
Despite a somewhat old-school persona, reflected in his monochrome business attire, every now and again Snaith reveals a glimpse of an altogether more modern side. His passion and contemporary attitude about the effects of colour on human perception and behaviour is unexpected. Similarly, his thoughts on social media are also forward thinking. While he recognises that “digital media is impacting heavily on the industry”, he also admits that “We don’t know where we fit in with that environment. From a B2B approach, [social media] is still in its infancy and we need to first understand what it means for the customer, because if it doesn’t mean anything to them, then for sure we’re wasting our time and effort.”
Snaith does point out however, the success that Dulux Trade has had with its CRM programmes and mobile marketing. He attributes this success to a strong focus on the customer, in particular the “time and effort into segmentation” to get to the bottom of individual customer’s or groups of customers’ needs.
A drive for success
With a combination of conservatism, properness and a slight hesitancy to show too much joviality (at least in a media interview), there’s something quintessentially British about Snaith. So it’s no wonder that Dulux Trade’s sponsorship of the MSA British Rally Championships is right up his street. He explains that the point of this exciting new venture is to offer a campaign with an “emotional connection”, drawing on common interests between the motor sport and construction and decorating industries. It also aims to reach out to a wider audience – especially given Dulux Trade’s evolving customer base, “Dulux Trade is a strong blue-chip brand so we need exciting campaigns to continue to be relevant. You can’t just stand still. You have to try something new”
As ever, Snaith insists that the sponsorship campaign will be closely monitored, its effects measured and ROI analysed. Monitored, measured and analysed… maybe science and marketing aren’t poles apart after all?
