It used to be that in the summer, most marketing activity was pretty much redundant, as it was seen as a poor time of year to get your message across to business customers who were busy thinking about their holidays. However, more recently, the summer months have become as good a time as any to market B2B products or services, as more people take holidays throughout the year, instead of just one annual vacation, and climate change means summers are hotter and longer than ever (this year excepted).
Of the many ways which B2B brands can take advantage of the seasonal conditions to promote their message, probably the most obvious is field marketing or experiential marketing, which enables face-to-face access to their target audience. Office staff are more likely to be out and about in their lunch hours during summer months, providing more opportunities for engaging them in dialogue, as demonstrated by the campaign of the month, produced by DNX for Webex (see page 16-17).
Alison Williams, chairman of the DMA’s field marketing council, and of agency FDS Group, is understandably keen to promote the medium, and says that the ROI on running a field marketing campaign is high. We’re currently running a B2B field marketing campaign for a client who is getting nearly £6 for every £1 of spend. This kind of marketing can be multi-dimensional with staff talking to the end-user, answering questions and highlighting differences between their product and a competitor’s, she explains. As long as the campaign is well-thought through and employs trained staff, it can be a good opportunity to make the most of warm weather.
Whilst getting out and about on the streets attempting to literally grab your target audience may work for B2B brands in certain situations, sometimes a more sophisticated, strategic approach is called for, particularly when specific individuals are being targeted.
Perhaps the best way of achieving this is through corporate hospitality. With deadlines less pressing and colleagues likely to be away on holiday, summer is a period when key decision makers may be able to justify a day or an afternoon out of the office for a ‘jolly’, particularly if the event is enticing enough. The likes of Wimbledon, the Derby, test match cricket and the Chelsea Flower Show all offer excellent opportunities for invaluable one-to-one access to clients or prospects.
Targeting specific decision-makers and treating them to top-end hospitality can be excellent for relationship building, comments Drew Nicholson, MD of agency DNX (which was responsible for the Webex field marketing campaign). However, it’s expensive, it can be hard to get the right people along and if it’s a bad product, ultimately, no amount of dressing up can make it work.
The lesson then, is that like all things in marketing, hospitality has to be well planned, communicated, executed and followed up. In other words, it must be thought-through just because you invite people to a day out, it doesn’t mean you are going to be able to influence them.
As well as leveraging the prestige and excitement of existing events, the summer also provides the opportunity for B2B brands to organise their own bespoke events, perhaps more loosely tied in with major sporting events. (Examples of this kind of event can be found in the feature on sponsorship on page 28.)This may cost more, but allows the organiser to dictate the message and potentially communicate more consistently with a larger audience.
Nathan Colle, marketing executive at The Corporate Merchandise Company, believes events are potentially a highly potent summer marketing tool, which can be boosted through creative use of promotional merchandise. Although B2C companies are more recognised for event marketing initiatives, B2B companies are increasingly seeing the benefits of integrating promotional merchandise into their marketing strategies, he says.
Carole Bull, editor of Tarsus’s Promotional Merchandise website, agrees that summer offers a great opportunity to use promotional merchandise, but adds that it’s important to plan in advance when linking products and services to the season. Get advice from the suppliers as they know the ‘hot’ products or visit their websites some have ‘hot product’ spots.
She continues, You also need to consider the brand you are promoting and the target market make sure the product echoes the brand values and is relevant and desirable. So for example, when targeting senior decision makers it could be an idea to offer luxury summer products, such as branded picnic baskets.
Promotional merchandise can also be used to increase cut-through on DM campaigns, and can be highly effective in promoting a strong visual message, according to Gordon Glenister, director general of the BPMA, trade body for the promotional merchandise industry.
Businesses don’t always have to think of summer products, but could offer traditional tried and tested merchandise with a strong summer message, he comments. For example, they could use the tag line ‘How hot is your office this summer?’ on a branded thermometer or a mouse mat with a summer landscape on it. It doesn’t need to cost the earth to capture the spirit of summer and B2B companies need only ask themselves the questions, is it quality, relevant and will it be used and retained?
One B2B marketing medium that traditionally has not been strongly associated with summer is PR. However, despite this opportunities do exist if brands are willing and able to invest some creativity and imagination.
Last year, Aon Corporation provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage issued a press release in July highlighting the risk of sunburn-causing cancer as the biggest new threat to the building industry by generating huge employers’ liability claims in the future, and advising contractors across the sector to warn their employees to slap on the suntan lotion.
It suggested cancer from sunburn whilst at work could be the ‘new asbestos’, whose highly-publicised yet still emerging claims could cost UK industry in the region of £20 billion over the next few decades. It also offered practical tips for employers during a heatwave.
Alexandra Lewis, PR executive at Aon, says that the aim was to offer advice to its clients and prospects as well as raise awareness of the company’s services. We targeted building companies of all sizes but focused more closely on SMEs, which were likely to be less aware of the health and safety issues than larger companies, she explains. The press release was sent to all of the building trade press as well as regional and national papers. The result was 30 cuttings as well as five radio interviews. It was picked up by a range of media releasing it in July was very timely, relevant and made a lot of sense. It was a simple message, which helped too, she adds.
For companies that sell summer-related products or services to offices such as air conditioning units or water coolers, there is an even greater need to embrace a summer message.
When it comes to marketing such products, it’s important to be prepared and plan well in advance as although this kind of product is usually a distress rather than planned purchase, you need to have a strong campaign in place in order to strike while the iron is hot (as it were).
Chris Harvey, MD of Harvey Fuchs & Partners, who was behind the first ‘consumer-facing’ air conditioning brand Heatbusters when it launched in 1989, says it’s important to start building awareness early in the season. Obviously, this kind of sale is heavily weather-dependent, so although it’s partly about praying for hot weather, you also have to have a strategic plan in place to make the most of it when it happens, he says. The brand was famous for its tube cards on the London Underground, which Harvey said was, a great context sell it’s so hot and sweaty on the tube in the summer that people could instantly relate to the message. The story approach was good because it got people involved with the brand so they remembered it. The tube cards would be launched in late May and will run for three months and then whenever the temperature hit 22°C the brand’s radio ads would be broadcast in drive time. Direct mail was also planned on a weather-related basis.
This year, the company decided to use digital technology to advertise its products and launched its first viral campaign in May to drive traffic to its website and increase sales of air conditioning units. Viral agency Tamba Internet created the game, which brings to life characters such as Philip Marlowe, the cool detective featured in the brand’s marketing collateral. Called, ‘The day the office melted’, players take control of Mr Heatbuster and must thwart Ms Dee Hydration’s attempts to melt everything in the office, created in the same comic book style as the rest of the marketing material. Its message to workplaces is that it needs to ensure their environments are cool over the summer.
The water cooling industry is also beginning to take a more unconventional approach to its summer marketing campaigns. Lauren Brookes, author of the West Europe POU Report and European research analyst for beverage consultancy Zenith International, says, The summer months are a hugely important time for water cooler players, a fact illustrated by the British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA), which recently estimated that for every degree the UK temperature rises above 14°C, water sales increase by 5.2 per cent. In such a competitive market, it’s vital that companies stand out to their target audience.
Brookes adds that due to their well-established nature, the water cooler industry is more active in the promotion of both their products and also the concept of staying hydrated. Industry insiders describe a certain level of ‘telesales fatigue’ among customers and are therefore utilising other tools to attract and sustain customer interest such as door-to-door sales teams, elaborate websites and more tailored marketing activities. These have taken the place of the standard Yellow Pages advert, she says.
Medina Bailey, deputy editor of water cooler trade magazine, Cooler Innovation, agrees. The industry is seeing a move towards appealing directly to the end-user by promoting hydration and water generally. She cites water cooler company Eden Springs’ interactive ‘Well-being at work’ campaign, which comprises local language websites and promotional materials, providing consumers with advice about hydration and encouraging them to increase their water intake. This is especially important given the current obesity debate and the importance placed on improving lifestyles.
Highlighting the commercial benefits of the product as well as the comfort factor is also important in marketing this kind of product, adds Harvey. When we launched Heatbusters, we dug around and found figures that suggested that at certain temperatures, staff productivity, performance and morale decline, he says. So not only were we targeting office staff via a strong branded campaign, but also company directors the ones who would have to justify the cost.
Activity to acquire customers is important, but good customer service is another factor for suppliers of seasonal products to consider during the summer months when usage and maintenance are much higher. A survey conducted by Cooler Innovation, which polled facilities managers of 500 top European companies discovered that when it comes to water coolers, quality of service was seen to be the top decision-making criterion ahead of price. However, another survey, which polled 70 water cooler companies, found this wasn’t being picked up on with frequency of contact per customer being extremely low.
Maintaining good customer service is not the only challenge for marketers when planning a strategy for seasonal products, such as air conditioning or water coolers. Harvey adds that it is important to remember that although this kind of product is often a distress purchase, it is also necessary to encourage businesses to see it as a precautionary purchase too. At the heart of any seasonal campaign the challenge with every weather-related campaign, is to be there when the problem is most obvious, but equally to encourage businesses to think ahead and reward early commitment with a better deal.
Whatever your product or service and whatever your brand, there are significant opportunities to promote for B2B marketers during the summer months. To leverage them, practitioners must plan ahead to make the most of this time of year it may be the silly season for some, but it could just be the sensible time to launch a memorable message.
