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Somehow this article slipped by me – and it is now more than a month old, see “The Future of Selling:  It’s Social” (Forbes, December 3, 2011)   But it is chock full of great information and ideas from Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of OglivyOne Worldwide, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies.  He provides some brief highlights of research OglivyOne conducted on sales professionals in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and China.  The results show quite a variance in the role of social media in personal selling across different countries.  The article also suggests some strategies for companies and salespeople.  While there has been a lot of talk about social media in consumer markets, this suggests opportunity in B2B as well.  File under international, social media and personal selling.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

I find it nice to have short little case study examples for students.  They work particularly well when they describe the success of an entrepreneur.  This is a very interesting story about how a small company got its sweetener on the shelves of Wal-Mart.  You can read about how the company got its name, packaging colors, and used a collaborator with a guerilla marketing campaign to win over Wal-Mart.  Check out the article, “Skoopz:  Sweet-Talking Wal-Mart” in Bloomberg Businessweek (October 21, 2010) or the Skoopz website.

This might work well as an example for B2B selling, entrepreneurship, or marketing strategy planning.

Many of us are covering pricing soon in our Principles classes.  So it is nice to see a couple of recent Wall Street Journal articles that address timely pricing challenges.  In “Dilemma Over Pricing,” (WSJ, October 21, 2010) rising commodity prices are pressuring profit margins at companies ranging from General Mills to Domino’s and Harley Davidson.  Of course the economy has many cautious, price sensitive customers — so firms are treading carefully.  In “Raising Prices Pays Off for Some,”  (WSJ, October 27, 2010), you can read how a few small companies have raised prices in the current environment.

A recent post described the difficulties that B2B firms had with social media, see “For ‘B-to-B’ Companies, Finding Facebook ‘Friends’ Can Be a Struggle” (Teach the 4 Ps, October 24, 2010).  Now I see a few more success stories reported in B2B Online.  In “Facebook:  The latest b2b frontier” (October 11, 2010) you can read how SteelMaster Building, which makes steel buildings, generated 6500 “likes’ at Facebook.  And while I wish this article had some more specific examples, “How Rockwell integrated direct marketing with social” (BtoB Online, October 25, 2010), emphasizes the importance of a well coordinated integrated marketing communications program.

Think about using these examples when you cover Promotion for some B2B examples or business buying.

Duh!  Not sure I find this very surprising – “For ‘B-to-B’ Companies, Finding Facebook ‘Friends’ Can Be a Struggle,” (Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2010 – non-subscribers link here and click on article).  While I believe there are some opportunities for B2B communication via Twitter and Facebook — and this article offers a few success stories — I think there are other social media vehicles that work better.  At this point most people use Facebook for personal connections and possibly to keep up on brands they enjoy as consumers — not as business buyers.  That may change.  What do you think?  Where are the opportunities for social media with B2B?  Some discussion of this might fit in when you cover social media in a class on Promotion — when offering for B2B examples.  Note:  also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

UPS is leaving its “What can Brown do for you?” campaign behind.  The new campaign – “That’s Logistics” – targets small and medium size businesses that “love” logistics.  See this article, “UPS Leaves ‘Brown’ for New Love (Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010 or click here if the link to the article doesn’t work) for more details.

Package-delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. is launching a global ad campaign to promote its expanding logistics business to small and medium-sized businesses that want to sell their wares globally.

Of course I love logistics — but most of my students find it kind of boring.  This ad might be used when you discuss logistics, organizational buying, or segmentation and targeting.  It is always nice to have a few B2B examples.

OK, here you go fell B2Bers – two B2B examples in a row.  This is an interesting interview with Intel’s global search manager who explains how Intel uses search as a marketing tool.  The article is probably a bit technical for the intro course, but it helps explain some of the growth trends in online spending.  Check out “Intel Corp.’s Carrillo on search marketing success” (BtoBOnline, July 28, 2010).

I know we never have enough B2B examples here at Teach the 4 Ps.  Well, there just isn’t as much written about them.  But this is is nice short article about how “FreightCenter uses email to build b2b customer base” (BtoBOnline, September 2, 2010).  I think it is important for our students to know that targeted and customized e-mail messages can work in B2B.

Customer referrals have a powerful influence on business buyers and consumers.  We have previously reported on the Nielsen survey that found recommendations from others as the most trusted source of information.  Articles in Inc. are usually practical — and this one fits that bill.  In “How to Get Customer Referrals” (August 27, 2010) you will learn how to get referrals as well as when and how to ask for them.  We all talk to our students about the power of word-of-mouth, but we should make sure they understand that marketing managers can influence customers to offer more referrals.

B2B has always utilized custom communications — usually through the sales force.  But now more and more B2B companies are trying to provide content that is useful and meaningful for its customers — often on their websites.  The forthcoming 18th edition of Basic Marketing (October 2010) really emphasizes this as a source of “publicity” and “found media” (as customers typically search for and find it online).  BtoB Online has a nice article, “Committed to Custom,” (August 16, 2010) that reports on this trend.