With sophisticated media to success
No return on investment without the right media selection
Rapidly changing media usage behavior, increasingly also among B2B decision-makers, requires creativity, coupled with strategic thinking, a great deal of experience and commitment, also in the media planning area. This is particularly evident in complex global media strategies. Today, almost every medium-sized company, and even more so every large company in the industry, is a global player that realizes a significant part of its brand business abroad.
International media campaigns, especially in the B2B sector, are a special challenge that belongs in the hands of dedicated and experienced media planners.
Standardized media plans are not to be found here, but rather comparatively small media budgets in relation to the individual markets, for which customized, creative and efficient media strategies must nevertheless be found with relatively great effort in order to be able to transport the brand message successfully and efficiently even in many, very heterogeneous submarkets.
Whereas in most European countries, an experienced media planner with industry experience can still work with reasonably useful media and target group analyses in order to make a suitable media selection for the communication objectives defined in the context of a B2B campaign, in many markets such as Russia, China, the Middle East or Southeast Asia, such planning requires the involvement of those who are familiar with the media landscape in the individual countries: the company's own employees, partner agencies in these countries and customers. In addition to the profound market and media knowledge of an experienced and committed media planner, it is often first-hand information from experts on the ground that provides decisive clues as to which media have which status in the concert of B2B communication channels, where decision-makers in the national markets obtain their specialist information from, and which of these are the global players with whom cross-national synergies can be created.
A strong brand through integrated strategy, creativity and communication
When brand building becomes a strategic objective in the company, when marketing measures and media planning build on profound decision-maker insights from all markets, when positioning is credible, focused, relevant and differentiated, when communication is clear and at the same time inspiring, appropriate to channel and target group, but always with a consistent, recognizable brand message, across disciplines, channels, media and countries, which is supported and lived by all employees, then a company can become a strong brand. With strong customer and employee loyalty and strong customer and employee appeal. Then it becomes a brand that inspires trust, that is valued and perhaps even loved for its stability and reliability.
This article is the third part of an article written together with Ingrid Wächter-Lauppe and Marco Ludwig in the GWA-BtoB Yearbook 11.
