So What’s Different About INDUSTRIAL Marketing Communications?

One of my Twitter followers asked me a question today: “What’s the difference between industrial marketing communications and regular BtoB marketing communications?”  In the Twitterverse my answer could only be 140 characters long and it was: “Smaller, more targeted audience; less feelings driven and more problem-solutions driven; limited options for message delivery.”  (I obviously didn’t get to answer as comprehensively as I would have liked.)  In order to satisfy my need to fully express (and provide more information for my Twitter friend,) here’s a more detailed answer to that question.

Key to the discussion is the definition of “industrial marketing communications.”  I’ve read some articles recently that use the term to describe more traditional marketing communications methods (printed materials, print advertising, trade shows) as opposed to broadcast and digital media. While this is debatable, for my purposes the definition is:

Marketing communications created to promote an industrial service or manufactured product sold to industry.

The key is “sold to industry.”  It would be possible to offer what would be considered an “industrial service” or to manufacture a product that are NOT sold to an industrial company or target audience.  Here’s an example:

Industrial Marcomm:

Maintenance company specializing in and targeting refineries, chemical and petrochem plants

Vs.

BtoB Marcomm:

Maintenance company specializing in and targeting large office buildings and retail establishments

In the first example, the decision maker for the service is probably going to be the plant’s maintenance manager, maintenance engineer, or if it’s a smaller plant, a GM.  In the second example, the decision maker will be a leasing company procurement manager, a commercial real estate broker, the owner of the property, or possibly a building manager.  Not only will their “maintenance needs” be uniquely different, the communications style and messaging for the two maintenance services will need to be different as well.

Typically, in “industrial marketing communications,” you are marketing a product to an audience that is mechanically or engineering minded. They are usually mid level operations management, as opposed to executive management.  They are usually a much smaller and sometimes more easily defined target audience.  Because they are a smaller, niche audience, the options to communicate with them are more limited than standard BtoB marketing.  Radio, television, newspapers, and direct marketing vehicles like Val-Paks will not be financially feasible or make sense.

Here are some other distinctions between industrial marcomm and standard BtoB marcomm that I’ve learned over the years:

1)      Engineers don’t always have the best opinion of advertising and advertising  people. I have found that they will quickly dismiss an ad that uses an artsy or gimmicky concept. Since engineers are basically scientists, they do not like to view themselves as being influenced by slick graphics or ad copy (Artsy and gimmicky CAN be quite successful in many BtoB advertising campaigns.)

2)      Someone with a more technical view of their job will generally make a decision to buy a product or service based more on logic than emotion.  I realize that Advertising 101 stresses that an ad needs to trigger emotion, and this is effectively true in standard BtoB marketing.  I’ve found that most technical and industrial operations personnel will weigh FACTS and make comparisons based on the product or service that best meets his needs.

3)      Industrial audiences want to know features, not just benefits.  They want to know things like physical properties, performance characteristics, technical specifications, and efficiency ratings – so they can make an intelligent decision. Typical BtoB ads do not stress this type of information; in fact, they most typically stress features and benefits.

4)      Engineers and other technical types don’t go glassy eyed when they read lots of “industry jargon” – in fact, they like it. If you use jargon when you speak to an engineer, you’re showing him that you speak his language.  Don’t just consider text as industry “language.”  Engineers also have a visual language.  Depending on their specialty, they use charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, drawings, and mathematical symbols and equations on a daily basis.  When you use these visual devices it says to the engineer that he’s seeing solid information – not just marketing fluff.

It would be wrong to say that the same marketing principles don’t apply.  They actually do; but they’re applied differently.  I usually try not to plug my own business too much in my blog, but I have to stress that working with someone who truly understands the industrial sector and has experience marketing to this more technical audience can be the key to getting it right straight out of the gate – or floundering while an agency with no industrial marcomm experience tries to grasp and understand the difference.