14 Marketing IT supplement
B2BM MAR 08 – www.b2bm.biz
The growing role of C-level influencers has made understanding the typical IT decision
making unit increasingly complex, says Mark Tobin
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
here is no typical IT decision maker.
T
There, we’ve said it. It would be
simple if there were, we could paint a
picture of a middle-aged man, reading the FT
and The Telegraph with a rolled up copy of
Computer Weekly in his raincoat and ZDNet
bookmarked on Internet Explorer. He would
travel home at night in his BMW, to his lovely
wife and two perfect children. Unfortunately
the real world is a little more complex, and
when it comes to marketing to technology
buyers, things get more complicated still.
“In large B2B organisations there is no such
thing as an archetypal IT manager,” says Chris
Sykes, MD at Volume. “You can’t think this title
exists in this context. The decision making
criteria are a lot broader.” you to advance. Until you finally reach the CIO. respondents argued that the two most important
Audience growth
“By the time you get to see the CIO you can influences when making major supplier decisions
In the past decade the average IT buying team
assume that they have done all the checks were “information from existing suppliers” and
has grown to seven or more people, cascading
about product and information,” says Paul “personal and business networks”.
down from the CIO to include various other C-
Cash, MD of Hurricane. “At this stage your There is also an inordinate amount of poorly
level roles (CEO, COO, CFO) as well as team
message should be about what you can do for targeted and irrelevant communication being
members representing functions outside of
his business – become that trusted partner.” thrown at the market. Respondents attend an
technology. Technology decisions are now
The trick is in knowing what different average of five supplier events each year, yet
business decisions and the buying process
approaches to take with each level. As Liane receive five invitations per week. Most worrying,
reflects this shift.
Grimshaw, MD of Pavilion Communications decision makers are deluged by 29 emails each
“The way to look at it is to view your target
alludes to in the main feature, each person in day and 20 direct mail shots each week. Less
as an entry point to a whole eco-system of
the chain will respond to different messaging than a quarter of these are seen as relevant.
important people,” explains Peter Hansen,
through different channels. The marketer’s job The relevance of communications is of huge
director of strategy at Masius. “Decisions are
is to know the audience well enough to have a importance and the audience themselves say
not made by one guy, they are made by the
real insight into what will work. that the top four factors affecting the
people he works with, such as vendors and The market speaks
relevance of the messaging are:
alliance partners. It takes a community to The Marketing Practice commissioned a
Benefits relating to their business issues.
make a technology decision.” research project which interviewed 110 IT
Credibility of the originating brand.
Factor in the fact that sales cycles are often decision makers across major private (FTSE
The timing of the communication.
between 12 to 18 months, and you’ve got a 250) and public organisations in the UK. Over
Personalisation to their situation.
marketing challenge that requires a three quarters of respondents said that Reinforcing the fact that channel choice is a
sophisticated approach. “The long sales cycle is marketing approaches by new vendors are tertiary concern for decision makers, 74 per
tough,” says Hansen. “The thing to do is to “poorly targeted”, making it easy to say with cent of respondent to The Marketing Practice’s
reassure the decision makers. That’s where a existing suppliers. research believe that new media activity will
credible and trusted brand is useful. It takes Almost half (48 per cent) said that IT add to the burden of ongoing communications.
some of the pressure off the decision makers and suppliers do not know how to communicate “I believe this demonstrates the audience’s
puts it onto the brand.” information about their products and services. desire for building relationships rather than
Like Pac-Man, each decision maker This figure was higher still outside of IT being on the receiving end of channels,” says
represents a level. Each maze you negotiate, departments, for example among CFOs. Paul Everett, marketing director of The
each collection of ghouls that you quell, allows Proving that credibility is all-important the
Marketing Practice.
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