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Say Marketing Collateral (MC) and thoughts of standees and leaflets start swimming around in your head.
What i see around me is the explosion of ideas that has not only transformed the way products are being marketed now but the amount of innovation that it has brought in and therefore infused awareness in the users of the products.
Getting the basics right is important though. Looking the at forest and then at the trees is the mantra most top guys follow. Also, looking at the forest from all possible angles would certainly help. Then come the trees.
I'll elaborate...
For MC difference of material that goes into roping in an institutional Buyer (IB) as opposed to a one time buyer.
For an IB, there is always the financial factor - get that right and you would be well on your way. Dealing in software products gives you a particular insight which is significant because it tells you the way software guys think.
The Forest:
I started developing MC for a product some time back and wanted to categorize it in terms of industry relevance. What turned out was that i had to categorize it NOT only in terms of industry relevance but in terms of the hierarchy of the organization that i would be pitching it eventually to. This was interesting since i had not seen this aspect earlier. (though that doubled the work!)
Since i did not have control over who in the organization would see what at which time - i had to be very careful as to what i would be including into the content, and more importantly what i would not!
Another aspect would be the environment that i would be making this pitch in. For instance if it was a sales conference and industry biggies are going to look at this material, i obviously cant get into the nitty gritty of the products and start detailing as to how it would impact bottom lines or improve overall efficiency (that's what they are interested in any way - money!) i would have to be more expansive in my approach and my material would have to be more generalized to relate to any industry. (I am btw in the software storage and so my content is related to that). Only after luring in the fish, would you bring out the club. Bludgeon him with information - which is mostly live cases and referrals that you have in your arsenal simply because if the guy does not want it right away - your money proposition would hit the right nerve the first time. At the same time pepper it with information on how it would impact overall efficiencies and business processes and you have a winner!
The whole point being - have a fish hook, but also keep a club handy.
The Trees:
Another aspect that i would like to touch upon is the core concept of the product that one would be dealing with. Now for instance, i was selling a bike, no matter what i do, it would take you from point A to point B. Now the difference here would be that it would take you there in the least amount of time or would take you there most comfortably or would take you there with the least fuel consumption - would all be subject to the brand identity and message that your branding team has formulated. (in my case i am the 'everything') Infusing these into your MC would highly appeal to the target audience and in case of IB's would give a clear picture of the philosophy that your product subscribes to. And don't worry there - if you have a financial topping to make the deal sweeter, throw it in, but more often than not, the IB's are going to see the moolah then and there.
These thoughts are more from the perspective of software marketing but i saw the parallels with others and therefore i am having an "out of industry experience" to talk about it!
What i see around me is the explosion of ideas that has not only transformed the way products are being marketed now but the amount of innovation that it has brought in and therefore infused awareness in the users of the products.
Getting the basics right is important though. Looking the at forest and then at the trees is the mantra most top guys follow. Also, looking at the forest from all possible angles would certainly help. Then come the trees.
I'll elaborate...
For MC difference of material that goes into roping in an institutional Buyer (IB) as opposed to a one time buyer.
For an IB, there is always the financial factor - get that right and you would be well on your way. Dealing in software products gives you a particular insight which is significant because it tells you the way software guys think.
The Forest:
I started developing MC for a product some time back and wanted to categorize it in terms of industry relevance. What turned out was that i had to categorize it NOT only in terms of industry relevance but in terms of the hierarchy of the organization that i would be pitching it eventually to. This was interesting since i had not seen this aspect earlier. (though that doubled the work!)
Since i did not have control over who in the organization would see what at which time - i had to be very careful as to what i would be including into the content, and more importantly what i would not!
Another aspect would be the environment that i would be making this pitch in. For instance if it was a sales conference and industry biggies are going to look at this material, i obviously cant get into the nitty gritty of the products and start detailing as to how it would impact bottom lines or improve overall efficiency (that's what they are interested in any way - money!) i would have to be more expansive in my approach and my material would have to be more generalized to relate to any industry. (I am btw in the software storage and so my content is related to that). Only after luring in the fish, would you bring out the club. Bludgeon him with information - which is mostly live cases and referrals that you have in your arsenal simply because if the guy does not want it right away - your money proposition would hit the right nerve the first time. At the same time pepper it with information on how it would impact overall efficiencies and business processes and you have a winner!
The whole point being - have a fish hook, but also keep a club handy.
The Trees:
Another aspect that i would like to touch upon is the core concept of the product that one would be dealing with. Now for instance, i was selling a bike, no matter what i do, it would take you from point A to point B. Now the difference here would be that it would take you there in the least amount of time or would take you there most comfortably or would take you there with the least fuel consumption - would all be subject to the brand identity and message that your branding team has formulated. (in my case i am the 'everything') Infusing these into your MC would highly appeal to the target audience and in case of IB's would give a clear picture of the philosophy that your product subscribes to. And don't worry there - if you have a financial topping to make the deal sweeter, throw it in, but more often than not, the IB's are going to see the moolah then and there.
These thoughts are more from the perspective of software marketing but i saw the parallels with others and therefore i am having an "out of industry experience" to talk about it!
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