January 2009

For one, I think Marshall McLuhan’s classic line, “the medium is the message,” is more relevant than ever to many b-to-b marketers.

More and more companies are enhancing customer perceptions simply by shifting their media mix (slightly or in a major way) from traditional to newer media and other communications pathways.

A great example of a company that has benefited from making the medium at least part of the message is telecommunications equipment maker Tellabs, whose external marketing head, Mike O’Malley, will tell us his company’s successful story on Jan. 8.

Of course, there is a danger in over-shooting your customer base if you make too radical a transformation, so the advisability of making the medium part of your message depends on who your customers and your customers’ customers are.

Winter-Spring “6-Pack”

While this fall BMA served up an eclectic mix of speakers—talking about marketing the Olympics, FedEx, and yourself (LinkedIn and SpencerStuart)—this winter and spring we revert back to the more traditional b-to-b case-study format.

Starting with Tellabs in January and followed by Underwriters Laboratories in February, Grainger in March, Boeing in May and AT&T in June, BMA will bring you six straight classic b-to-b marketing cases in six months. (April’s speaker will be announced soon.)

Register for ALL six winter-spring luncheons by Jan. 6, 2009, and earn a $5 discount per luncheon for a total savings of $30. Click here to purchase the Winter-Spring “6-Pack."

Web Site Revamp Under Way

I want to thank BMA board member and Schneider Electric marketing executive Tom Insprucker for his Web site committee’s work this summer preparing for a revamp of our Web site.

As a result, BMA has secured the pro bono support of Symmetri Marketing Group to take Tom’s committee’s findings and implement many of the recommendations, including a design overhaul, over the coming months. Thank you Carl Triemstra, Mark Masseur and Michael Smethurst!

Thanks also to the tireless efforts of BMA member Stan Bond, CEO of Hamilton & Bond and BMA’s long-time Web master, who built BMA’s current Web site back in 2002 and who will work closely with Symmetri on the revamp.

The new site, which will include expanded Web 2.0 functionality, will be live by the end of Q1 2009, if not sooner. Watch, though, for some much quicker cosmetic improvements to be made within the next several months.

Important News on Event Registration!

BMA has converted to a new member database system, Computility, and we want you to be aware of one change.

Even if you have registered for past BMA events, the very next time you register, you will be asked to create an account. This step will enable us to better track what events you are attending and have attended.

Despite a little extra up-front work, here’s the benefit for you: You will no longer have to enter contact information each time you sign up for a BMA event. So far the system is working well, but please give us your feedback as you begin to use it.

If you are not already a member of BMA, please consider joining today. You can join, register for BMA programs and subscribe to the BMAIL through the BMA Web site.

Enjoy the holidays, and we hope to see many of you at our 2009 events, beginning with our Jan. 8 MarketingMasters luncheon program with Mike O’Malley of Tellabs.

All the best,