Advertising campaigns: WHO are you paying
to impress with your
B2B advertising?

Who is your B2B advertising campaign intended to impress — your target group...or YOU?

The accepted reality of advertising is that companies look for "suitable partners" from among the ad agencies to whom they give the planning of their B2B ad campaign.

The going concern is that the ad agency should be of similar magnitude or stature than its client.

Or, to put it another way, the B2B company looks for an ad agency that's sufficiently recognised so that it will be in harmony with their own level of excellence.

Yet what is excellence?

Is it status or image of the ad agency? Or perhaps how many awards they've won (in one of those countless award ceremonies the advertising industry arranges annually to award itself)?

Or is it... results?

"Results" as in "how many of the campaigns you've done for B2B companies have returned the investment paid for the campaign and THEN some?"

I don't think so.

Oops... I've let the cat out of the bag. It's true that ad agencies don't bear any responsibility over what the campaigns they create actually PRODUCE in terms of income.

In fact, they don't want to know. That's why they never do THAT kind of "after sales" surveys.

But wouldn't it be logical that THAT would be the first thing they'd want to know from you after the campaign...?

That's of course IF they actually believe themselves to be able to create you a campaign that can return your investment and keep on bringing in the cash.

Right...

Oh, well, be that as it may, let's look at HOW your average ad agency will create a B2B campaign.

B2B advertising campaigns — creation without boundaries

Ad agencies pride themselves with that they're very creative. And they are.

But sometimes you can have too much of the good thing. And so it is with ad agencies when it comes to creating B2B campaigns.

They just create and create.

They go absolutely MAD with creation.

They splurge in it. They compete amongst themselves to create more and more powerful ideas.

They look for something that will surprise. Something NEW, something FRESH... something UNIQUE.

And that's all fine... for the CONSUMER market that is.

For the B2B sector it's actually BONKERS!

Let me tell you something about "new."

"New" means unfamiliar. It suggests no connection with anything. It denotes "untried, never seen, unfamiliar."

Now compare those concepts with what you know about bringing a new innovation into the realm of acceptance and recognition.

It can take DECADES to make something TOTALLY NEW actually KNOWN and ACCEPTED to sufficient degree that you can start SELLING IT in abundance.

So I don't think "NEW" or "FRESH" is really a good idea when it comes to B2B advertising.

You would be better of taking the "tested-proven-accepted" -route with your campaign. So the "new" lineup doesn't work well for the B2B sector.

But that's not the worst of it.

Not by a wide margin...

B2B advertising campaigns — absolutely nothing to do with its target group?

See here: Would you create a new technical device without any consideration on WHOM IT IS FOR?

Would you not check out if there's a NEED for such a gadget, investigate what's it is needed in connection-with, WHO will need it, what they think about the problem that this apparatus would solve... things like that?

Or would you just become "a mad inventor" and spend colossal sums of money innovating something that may not have ANY potential to be sold?

But let's take the analogy further. Would you also consider it worth your while to invent a machine of whose function, area of application or suitability of interface with anything in the world you had absolutely NO CERTAINTY?

You know, create a gizmo that no-one knew what it does, what problem it solves, what application it has if any?

And would you invest tens of thousands of pounds in it, based on those criteria?

Hmm, I don't think so.

Well, obviously not. It would be silly.

So... why is it OK for the ad agency to go about creating the campaign for our B2B company that way?

Why is it fine for them to NOT survey what the TARGET GROUP — those whom their campaign is supposed to impress... those for whom it is — wants, thinks, considers important, wants to hear, longs for but can't find... things like that?

But I'm afraid that's the reality of it. The way ad campaigns are created in this age is by guestimate, relying on invented facts that do not have anything to do with facts.

It's a fact that they are assumptions, so at least SOMETHING about it is factual... (grin).

Aside from that one "fact," ad campaigns are built on air.

"But..." you may think, "don't they have the expertise to KNOW... and won't MY views explain how the target group thinks?"

Well, no, I'm afraid.

The ad agency creative team haven't a clue, obviously.

Acting with certainty is not the same thing as knowing with certainty. And that's what ad agencies do... they know how to act with certainty and authority.

So what about YOUR views on what the target group wants, thinks and so on?

Here, we are much closer to the actual truth. Unfortunately NOT close enough to risk a large sum of money and all the hopes that go with what you expect as results from your ad campaign.

Your view is close, sometimes almost identical. But it's YOUR view and, as such, an opposite viewpoint to that of the target group. It's much like a woman telling the man what he thinks, or man telling her how she thinks.

It's close... but no cigar.

And it has to be SPOT-ON, absolutely dead-centre of the target if you want to produce RESULTS.

So whichever way you look at it, the only sensible thing is to conduct a thorough marketing survey BEFORE creating the message or an ad campaign... or ANY marketing communication, for that matter.

That's because you cannot deduct the overall views of a target group from one or two people.

But your ad agency doesn't have to do that in order to impress you with their idea for your campaign.

B2B advertising campaign — who are they trying to impress?

Here comes the killer. This fact is so unbelievable that chances are you won't believe it either.

But I'll come out with it anyhow.

Here's the darkest and deepest insider secret of the advertising industry:

When you ask them for a quote and some presentation of ideas (usually in form of a competition between two or more ad agencies), the TARGET whom they aim to impress with their campaign... are YOU.

Now you understand why they've never awoken to the need of conducting a survey of your target group. Your target group is not THEIR target group... YOU are.

And they can pick your brain when you brief them. No survey needed, see? They pride themselves acting "totally ignorant" and thus asking you just about EVERYTHING regarding your company, goals, preferences, opinions, ideas, likes and dislikes...

...so, not surprisingly, their knowledge of YOU is quite extensive.

So, while you pay a few hundred pounds per hour per every guy who's present in the briefing, much of what really takes place there is that you pay them for listening while YOU teach them how to impress YOU.

And that's exactly what you get.

They plan their campaign to the dot along what YOU want, how you would like to see your company, how you would like to see your target group see your company... right down to the last detail.

So you LOVE the campaign. It's just so very impressive in your view... and so it should be... after all, it was created to impress you.

So they get a sale.

And so you will feel absolutely GUTTED when the campaign produces little or no results. You cannot understand WHY.

But how could it have succeed when the whole campaign was created to impress YOU, not your target group?

You see the logic (or lack thereof) here.

Unless you are AWARE of this little insider secret, you will never suspect anything untoward.

You certainly will not consider that the ad agency did something wrong. In fact, you'll defend them fiercely if anyone so much as suggests that they could have done a better job.

Clearly it cannot be the fault of the ad agency since their campaign was EXACTLY according to the brief.

And so it was.

But now you know how, when & where the sleigh of hand occurred.

If you want to find out more on advertising and how it pertains to the B2B sector, click here to read our main article on B2B advertising.

If you're interested in finding out how your advertising and promotional materials work for your target group and not you, please read the presentation of our Marketing Analysis introductory service which could offer a lot more insight into advertising and marketing your products and/or services.

If web site presentation is important to you, click here to read about our Internet Marketing & Search Engine Optimization Analysis.

Above all, trust your own instincts and common sense. Things are not always as they appear in the world of advertising... but logical thinking will always reveal the pitfalls!

Best wishes,

Harry Kafka
HDK Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead RH19 2DR
West Sussex, United Kingdom
Tel. 01342-328 116
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