B2B Marketing Strategy for the Social Era

B2B Marketing Strategy for the Social Era

Over the past few months, I’ve begun to realise that there’s a great deal of confusion about the difference between strategy and plans, goals and objectives, and the tactics that deliver them.

In fact, I wonder if too many of us in B2B marketing focus too much on the marketing plan itself and the tactics that are needed to deliver that plan, without first getting to grips with what we are really trying to achieve for our businesses.



The best article I’ve read recently on the subject was written by Mikal E Belicove in Forbes last autumn: ‘Understanding Goals, Strategy, Objectives and Tactics in the Age of Social’. Mikal articulates this better than anyone else I’ve heard or read:

• A goal is a broad primary outcome.
• A strategy is the approach you take to achieve a goal.
• An objective is a measurable step you take to achieve a strategy.
• A tactic is a tool you use in pursuing an objective associated with a strategy.

Simple, concise and very clear…thank you Mikal! Broadly, I interpret this as meaning that the marketing strategy is where we want to go and the marketing plan is how we’re going to get there. And this is a critical distinction, because if we don’t know where we’re going, we’ll end up just doing a lot of ‘stuff’ that may or may not have an impact for the business.

I continue to believe B2B marketers can and must learn from the B2C world. So, I was at Marketing Week Live last week and spent all day Thursday in The Big Debate sessions. There were some truly outstanding speakers and presentations by the likes of Coca Cola, Virgin Media, Direct Line and Severn Trent Water. But, for me, the stand-out speaker of the day was Marc Mathieu, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for Unilever.

What really made an impact on me was the way Marc spoke about Unilever’s marketing strategy. Practically the first thing he said was that their strategy is not about customers, it’s about people, with four basic tenets to their strategy:

• Craft brands for life
• Put people first
• Build brand love
• Unlock the magic

Wow! What a simple yet compelling strategy for any era, not just the social era. This is a strategy that encompasses ‘not just product truth, but human truth’: a strategy created for the long-term, no matter how the business environment may change, and a strategy that all marketers can relate to, forming the touchstone for every marketing activity.

But strategy is hard. And an awful lot of our organisations simply do not have a marketing strategy.

Does yours? I’d love to hear about it!