The Indium Corporation hosts many high school and college job shadow students, interns, and the like. We enjoy every aspect of it. We gain valuable insight into these people (generationally, technologically, sociologically, etc.), we're forced to explain ourselves to someone exploring the basics (always a learning experience - in both directions), and we love supporting these tremendously bright and curious students - and our community. Also, it's just plain fun!

Today a high school junior sat in my office, looked at a poster of my rock band, looked at posters of two magazine articles of a custom motorcycle that I designed and crafted, then looked at my business card and asked (with total innocent sincerity), "Why are you here?"

I knew this was going to be a special moment, and that I was talking to a special person. How many 16-year olds would put all that together so quickly, then risk asking this question?

My response, "Please expand on your question."  I wanted to be sure I understood exactly where she was, and what kind of answer she needed.

She went on to ask that, if I am so enthusiastic about motorcycle design and building, and song writing/guitar playing/performing, why aren't I doing those things for a living. Ahh, to be so innocent.

My answer: "I AM doing those things."

I then went on to explain how every element associated with writing a song, conceiving of a bike design, crafting custom motorcycle parts, arranging a funk song, putting together a band, cutting and welding steel, and entering a bike in a show or performing at a concert are EXACTLY the same elements associated with B2B Marcom.

My musical audience has needs, wants, options, and desires:  just like my B2B customers. My band is a collection of personalities with various skills, capabilities, and interests: just like my Marcom, Sales, and Technical Support teams.

Conceiving, cultivating, and developing ANY truly successful Marcom project requires a visceral understanding of the target audience, working with teams, drawing upon creativity (as well as tried and true tools), taking risks, getting hurt, being surprised, respecting constraints, focusing on the goal, and more. These exact words can be applied to forming a band and taking the stage or drawing up a bike design and breaking out the torches.

Don't, for a second, believe that B2B Marcom can't rock. Because it's not about the subject, it's about YOU! Everything you do can rock.

You just gotta' rock it!

I just bought a Marc Ecko shirt. As I detagged it in preparation for its maiden voyage, I noticed what seemed to be an "extra" tag mixed in with the pricing and branding stuff. The tag told a story.

The story goes like this:

"My grandfather was a tailor. It never provided him great wealth, but he was rich in skill and love for his craft. I chose the symbol of the garment shear as a reminder of a time when craftsmanship wasn't mechanically engineered, but rather measured by the skill of the maker.

"I'm pleased to have the opportunity to offer this garment to you. Its workmanship would have made my grandfather proud."

Mark Ecko

I love a good story. Seth Godin does, too. He wrote: "If what you’re doing matters, really matters, then I hope you’ll take the time to tell a story. A story that resonates and a story that can become true."

Before I even put that shirt on, I felt like I owed something to Marc, and to his grandfather. I felt a thread of connection to Marc's grandfather. I felt like I had to wear this shirt just a little "better", with more dignity and respect. That's how a good story works.

Seth also shared this cartoon, sent to him by a reader who saw it in the Denver Post. It addresses the issue of honesty head-on. Yes, we can fabricate stories and hoodwink our audience, but not for too long.

A B2B Marcom professional HAS stories, real stories - but, like a precious gem, they need to be sought, extracted, polished, and presented. When we start seeking our stories, we often discover that we have too many to tell. So, how do we determine which few stories to take to market? We need to determine which messages resonate with our target audience. The personas and motivations differ, sometimes greatly, between groups as diverse as buyers, specifying engineers, R&D scientists, etc.

If you don't truly know your target audience, you can't present a compelling story to them.

I'd like every single one of my B2B industrial customers to feel the same affinity and sense of responsibility for my products that I do for my new shirt. I've got my work (ahem) cut out for me.

I just attended the 2012 International CES in Las Vegas last week.  While the show was overwhelming and exhausting, the comprehension and implementation of these technologies and products was even more so!

A total of five Indium Corporation executives attended the event, along with 150,000 other people. We witnessed many new products, services, and concepts that ranged widely, from furniture, to kitchen electronics, to microprocessors, to monitors, to iPad covers.

When we regrouped to review what we had all learned, there were five different stories, experiences, and opinions. Each was valuable, as well as wildly incomplete and non comprehensive, and filtered through a unique lens - reflecting the person's personal background and perspective. After we all testified to our experiences, integrated each other's observations and conclusions, and synthesized the whole thing into one big story, were we able to get a good handle on what had occurred.

To me, what it all boiled down to is that:

1. unlike in "the old days" none of us will ever be an "expert" in any one field. I define "expert" to mean a person who is THE resource for info on a topic. These days, no matter how much a person knows about anything, another person can simply turn to the internet and gain much more information on any topic.
2. so many things are changing on so many fronts that, in order to maintain a respectable level of awareness and competence, a person can NEVER stop learning at a furious pace. Even WITH such an investment, a person can never become an "expert".

This felt quite a bit like the last several years in B2B Marcom. There is so much to become aware of, to experiment with and understand. To integrate. To measure. To evaluate. To change.

As B2B marketers, we need to become ultramarathoners – capable of a long, grueling, seemingly never-ending, experience. And we must be SMART! Our journey is doomed if we aren’t always learning, growing, well informed, making excellent decisions, and aren’t capable of making critical decisions on the fly.

Most importantly, no one person is capable of knowing it all, being able to take it all in, and become "the expert".  These days, it takes a team - it is the era of "we".  We need to learn together, we need to observe and experience things, we need to make decisions, and we need to review the feedback so that we make the best decisions.

CONCLUSION: Hand-select an incredibly bright and capable team, keep everyone in constant learning mode, and always work as one unit. If you don't, then expect another B2B Marcom team to beat you.

Your audience doesn't want to read stuff from a person who is fishing around for things that customers want to read about.

The people that truly matter to an organization want to read what excites YOUR staff.

The secret to this is hiring your industry's thought leaders and turning them lose.

When that is achieved, sparks fly.

Ultimately, our business-to-business marcom skills, capabilities, execution, and growth boil down to people. When we're vibrant, progressive, and in tune, we rock! When we're complacent, bloated, lazy, and unimaginative, we fall to the middle, or back, of the pack. Remember, we don't get paid to be average!

Travis Stanton gets it! He is the editor of EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE, a publication that EVERY B2B Marcom professional reads, or ignores at their own peril. The message in his editorial (November 2011) is critical for us all to internalize: Invest in fresh, bright talent - then let them change you for the better.

What I love most about Travis' position, and message, is that he calls himself out on certain weaknesses, and takes action to address them. I love it when he says, "All you need to do is follow my initially clumsy lead and be truly open to new ideas and fresh perspectives." EXCELLENT! Admitting that you need to change, accepting that your transitions will not be smooth and perfect is the first step. Accepting, embracing, and dealing with the issues follows. At Indium Corporation we always talk about "failing forward" - same idea.

It is scary revealing our failures, weaknesses, past errors, confusion, uncertainties, fears, and thoughts to others. But, if we are not open with ourselves, and our marcom team, we can only hope to blend in with every other weak competitor we know. And we will be doomed to become a follower. To me, THAT is scary!

Honesty, bravery, self-confidence, self-respect, and wisdom are necessary to be comfortable following Travis' advice. The good news is that you don't need to score a 100% in each of these categories to launch. You just need to have enough - and a plan to get more.

When Travis' editorial is published online I will make the link here. Meanwhile, subscribe to EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE and learn.

Today I was asked,

"Why Is Blogging Important?"

I replied:

Because:

• Time is important (time kills deals – people need to move fast)
• Competitiveness is important (customers must know more and move quicker than their competition)
• The Internet is important
• Search is important
• Google is important
• Baidu is important
• 3^rd-party endorsements are important (when I am forwarded, I win)
• Mobile is important (increasingly, people have no desks, they work on the fly, 24/7)
• Authenticity is important (no Madison Avenue spin-meisters, no stock photography, no spokesmodels)
• Brand & image are important (it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you!)
• Long-tail is important (people need highly-specialized wisdom on extremely specific topics)

• LinkedIn launches crowdsourced news aggregation service
• Forrester predicts B2B spending to rise 6.7% in 2011
• Chrysler’s reaction to a mistaken tweet

• Eric Schwartzman @EricSchwartzman who has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications programs through public speaking, hands-on training seminars, consulting and the development of corporate policies on social media usage.

• Paul Gillin (@pgillin) of Paul Gillin Communications.  Paul was founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget, one of the most successful technology media entities to emerge on the Internet. Before that, he was editor-in-chief and executive editor of the technology weekly Computerworld for 15 years.

An analogy. Follow me on this one.

RESIDENCE "A":
This Saskatchewan sod house was built in 1907 with the tools and technology of the day – for that region. The people did what they could with what they had.

While they may have wished for enhanced materials and tools, what they were focused on is shelter, safety, and security. Their goal was NOT to wield tools, it was to survive, cook, sleep, and recharge so they could tackle another day. You can bet each person had a role to play and a set of duties to perform. Each function carefully addressed the situation.

RESIDENCE "B":
Here is another example of a residence. This time it exists in modern times, was designed with modern technologies, built with modern tools - to address a modern goal.

The people who live here are no doubt focused on issues far beyond survival. They are concerned with making the proper impression, hosting appropriately-sized and -appointed parties.

The roles the residents play in this situation are not at all like the roles we imagine for the sod house.

Two homes, two goals, two situations, two very different sets of duties. It is preposterous to imagine living a 1907 sod house lifestyle in a modern mansion. The "organizational design" and "job descriptions" are wildly different.

So, ask yourself this ... are your 2011 B2B Marcom job descriptions a lot like traditional 1965 job descriptions, or are they uniquely suited to modern conditions?

Do you have only the traditional "Marcom Manager", "Product Line Manager", "Communications Specialist", etc? Or, do you have titles like "Owner Of The Space", "Industry Go To Girl", "Process Rock Star", "Content Curator", etc?

Sounds crazy, right? Not as crazy as designating a 2011 mansion dweller as the "shepherd", "plowboy", and "water girl".

No, you wouldn't be average with these job titles in your 2011 B2B Marcom department, but ... are you paid to be, and achieve, "average"?

COMMENT and tell me the titles we need today.

Sod House Image

Mansion Image

10 Lessons for young designers

These are some insightful and thought-provoking lessons from Wieden+Kennedy’s Executive Creative Director, John C Jay: 10 Lessons for young designers.

1: Be authentic. The most powerful asset you have is your individuality, what makes you unique. It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.
2: Work harder than anyone else and you will always benefit from the effort.
3: Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture. Life is visceral.
4: Constantly improve your craft. Make things with your hands. Innovation in thinking is not enough.
5: Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know.
6: Being original is still king, especially in this tech-driven, group-grope world.
7: Try not to work for stupid people or you’ll soon become one of them.
8: Instinct and intuition are all-powerful. Learn to trust them.
9: The Golden Rule actually works. Do good.
10: If all else fails, No. 2 is the greatest competitive advantage of any career.

AMEN!

• Gun Control
• Politics
• Religion

• the organization behind the nuse: it cheapens your value proposition when you use news to indirectly imply that your products or services are superior - or that those of your competition are inferior.
• the media: when news is used to inflate readership and attention, it weakens the moral high ground that media could command.
• the target audience: when the readership, the target audience, begins to distrust parts of the media, and the organizations behind the stories, they begin to distrust ALL that they receive.