It is a misconception that advertising only concerns companies that sell consumer products to consumers.
Ask chip maker Intel Corp. or networking company Cisco Systems Inc. or consulting firm Accenture Plc. Ask mining company Vedanta Resources Plc as it tries to assuage fears that its projects threaten tribal communities. Or Switzerland-based timing and data handling company Swiss Timing that after the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi has striven to quell doubts raised by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding overpricing of its timing, scoring and result devices compared with what the firm charged in the 2006 Melbourne Games.
Twenty years after it told computer buyers that its microprocessor was the brain powering the machines on their desks, Intel still boasts that its 1991 “Intel Inside” marketing campaign was the “first time a PC component manufacturer successfully communicated directly to computer buyers”.
Businesses selling to other businesses—so-called B2B companies—usually have little reason to reach out to end consumers.
Yet, there are occasions when these companies have to emerge out of their marketing shells. Consider these examples:
Swedish carton manufacturer Tetra Pak would like more milk sold in its packages. Milk consumption is growing rapidly in India as incomes rise.
Yet, of the 100 billion litres of milk that Indians consume every year, most is sold loose while 16 billion litres are in plastic pouches. Only 300 million litres of milk is currently sold every year in India in the eponymous tetrapaks, says the company.
The company continues to battle several perception issues. The first misconception is about the product, says Jaideep Gokhale, communications and environment director, Tetra Pak South Asia markets.
The name, used synonymously with the aseptic packages and cartons it makes, is also associated with contents such as milk and juice, which are, in fact, products of its clients—Parle Agro, PepsiCo Inc.’s Tropicana, Nestle SA, Karnataka Milk Federation and Dabur India Ltd.
The other end of the pendulum is complete ignorance about the product that does not separate the packaging from the beverage brand. The company, through its “protect what’s good” TV campaign, has addressed consumers’ concerns on the ability of Tetra Pak’s packaging to shield perishable liquid foods like milk and juices. Tetra Pak’s clients such as Tropicana and Dabur have also referred to Tetra Pak’s packaging in their advertisements. Other concerns relate to how environment-friendly the product is. Tetra Pak’s cartons and packages contain, on average, 75% paper, with the rest being aluminium and polyethylene. Gokhale says the paper used by Tetra Pak is 100% recyclable. To show this, the company does point of sales campaigns by flagging the reusability of its products, be it the paper, the polyethylene or the aluminium at store aisles.
Customers are also encouraged to bring back used packages to designated stores where “Tetra Pak and its partners arrange to recycle them back into useful products”. Like their peers who sell directly to consumers, B2B firms have to sometimes reach out to explain their side of the story against doubts raised by activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), policymakers and the media.
For Infosys Technologies Ltd, the challenge is to quell the negative sentiment towards outsourcing in the US at a time when there are widespread public fears there that Indian firms are taking away American jobs. Kris Gopalakrishnan, managing director and CEO of Infosys, says the firm, while aware of the problem, does not believe in advertising publicly here or in the US because “people know it is the company paying to talk about itself. We would rather do something concrete like create more jobs there and have others talk about us”. Taking the longer route to this end, Infosys Foundation has started a programme with the New York Academy of Sciences to coach students from the poorer sections of society in science, technology, engineering and math.
Swiss Timing, on the other hand, decided to issue a full-page advertisement clarifying the facts on its contract to provide timing and data devices at the Commonwealth Games.
Tetra Pak, Infosys and Swiss Timing all hope their respective actions will harness goodwill for them. But business and competitive imperatives also make “B2B companies execute pull marketing strategies wherein through broad-based awareness building initiatives, end consumers start demanding from their suppliers the products or services of a B2B company,” says Jessie Paul, proprietor of Paul Writer Strategic Advisory, a firm that advises B2B companies on their marketing strategies and author of No Money Marketing.
This is the case with companies such as Intel and Cisco and even others such as Microsoft, IBM and GE. Although they have both B2C (business to consumer) and B2B offerings, they do generate more revenue from B2B sales. “At a fundamental level, B2B differs from B2C only in that a company versus a consumer is doing the purchasing,” says Paul.
Punj Lloyd Ltd, which started out in 1982 as the Punj Lloyd Pipeline Division of the Punj Group, knows that all too well. It worked its way up as a full-fledged EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) company by seeking and fulfilling contracts by winning tenders for construction and oil and gas tank projects.
Punj Lloyd has a conservative B2C advertising plan for highlighting its work to the general population. The timing of its campaigns is controlled though. In 2007-08, when Punj Lloyd completed the 506km Dhaj (Gujarat) to Vijaypur (Madhya Pradesh) pipeline (DVPL) in a record 270 days despite the bad weather and the tough terrain, it boasted of its success through its “achieved the impossible” ad.
Its campaigns have been interspersed with lulls, like the times before and after We are Punj Lloyd, by far the company’s largest campaign in terms of reach. It was launched after the 2006 acquisition of Singapore-based Sembawang.
“We wanted the community, our clients and the common man to know that the acquisition had been done and, more importantly, the kind of projects we can undertake by virtue of the acquisition,” says Louise Sharma, group head, corporate communications, Punj Lloyd.
The acquisition brought them higher profile projects such as the infrastructure project at Changi Airport in Singapore as well as more complex ones such as “underground tunnels and operating in live refineries” and also opened an opportunity to attract a higher calibre of candidates into the organization.
Here, too, they were discerning in showcasing these developments doing more than they typically would as a B2B company, following up the We are Punj Lloyd campaign with a less intense Done the Punj Lloyd Way.
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