Ibm in the City-5% of Tv Budget Yeilds 7000% Roi

8/6/2019 Ibm in the City-5% of Tv Budget Yeilds 7000% Roi

1/24

IBM in the City5% of TVs budget yields7,000% ROI

Exemplifies the power of business-objective-driven communications

planning and implementation to shift the brand perception in one ofIBMs most valuable customer communities: the City of London.

Angus Jenkinson

Professor of Integrated Marketing

Luton Business School

[email protected]

The Centre for Integrated Marketing has been funded by industry to research best practice anddevelop intellectual and other tools on behalf of leading marketers and their agencies.


2/24

Centre for Integrated Marketing, University of Luton 01/02/2006 Page 2

Contents

Integrated Marketing 3Identity management 5Mobilising everyone 5

IBM and global Integrated Marketing 6IBM COL and Integrated Marketing 7

1. Investing in valuable customers 82. Optimising the whole customer relationship 93. Building reputation through ethics and brand values 104. Creating relevant service for each customer community 115. Creating customer value first 156. Managing the relationship at all appropriate touchpoints. 177. Designing customer experience with imagination 198. Learning 209. Creative use of technology 2210. Making it good for everyone 23

Conclusion 23

First issued as a case study for the IDM in 2001 and then edited and re-released in

2004. With grateful thanks for IBM personnel who assisted in providing the data.

Integrated Marketing is a holistic discipline that involves the whole organisation in

developing congruent, sustainable and high-value brand experience for all

stakeholders.

Permission is given for this paper to be copied, forwarded, distributed or quoted from

provided that the authorship is acknowledged.

For further information and case studies, visit the Centre website on

www.integratedmarketing.org.uk


3/24


Customer Relationship

ManagementIntegrated Marketing

Internal media

and customer

touchpoints

Project rollout includes web,call centres, sales force andother channels supportingobjectives and idea.

Internal marketing activities. Database enhancement. Knowledge management.

Culture, vision and brandalignment.

Seamless customer-facingorganisation.

Total communications planningand execution.

All-stakeholder value.

Integrated Marketing

Communications

Relationship Marketing

Marcoms

Media:

Brand Media Neutral Planning Big creative idea harmonising

communications across mediaand disciplines

Co-ordinated marcoms planincluding PR.

Sustained brand positioningand communication harmony tomaximise brand equity.

IMC deployed in relationship-management programmes tooptimise customer equity.

Investment in one-to-onemanagement competence.

ManagementRange

Seasonal Sustained

Timeframe

This case-study demonstrates the role of Customer Relationship Management

strategy within the wider Integrated Marketing framework. The example is from

business-to-business marketing by the third most valuable brand in the world, IBM.

IBM has been active in CRM-related thinking, technologies and practices for over 20

years, developing local and national marketing databases, integrated call centres and

direct business channels since at least the early 1980s, as well as being a pioneer

and leader in multi-channel sales and service, customer-aligned sales and service

organisations and, more recently, e-business marketing and distribution.

In the mid-1990s IBM planned and implemented an ambitious global marketing and

contact database system, MSM, which enables IBM not only to manage local

marketing campaigns but also to consolidate data on a regional and global basis for

analysis and planning. The new generation of CRM technology, partnered by Siebel,

has been operational since 2003. The CRM discipline and associated technology is

viewed by IBM as a key aspect of their Integrated Marketing practice.

Integrated MarketingThe emergent discipline of Integrated Marketing builds on the principles of

organisational alignment, leadership, lean management, and 360-degree brand

experience, effectively extending and deepening the traditional marketing paradigm.

Integrated Marketing is a holistic discipline that involves the whole organisation in

developing congruent, sustainable and high-value brand experience for all

stakeholders.

Integrated Marketing develops existing marketing thinking and practice into a

harmonized whole (see Table 1).

Table 1: Integration practices

CRM deals with best practice in developing customer equity, sustained brand

building and touchpoint management, and Integrated Marketing Communications


4/24


(IMC) and its more evolved form of Media Neutral Planning (MNP) focus on best

practice in the use of commercial communications media. Integrated Marketing (IM)

not only merges all of these but also integrates them with best practice in other

organisational fields such as strategy, finance, production and HR. Integrated

Marketing proposes three inter-related objectives:

1. A customer experience that satisfies the customer and feels relevant,

congruent and coherent across all touchpoints/media and builds brandand customer equity.

2. The whole organisation works as an aligned, creative team. Processes

smoothly deliver value to customers, employees and

company/shareholders.

3. The marketing team, including agencies, harmoniously executes best

ideas across optimum platforms and leads in the development of brand

alignment.

Integrated Marketing implies a systemic approach. It recognizes the relative value of

isolated initiatives but it calls for integration if any of the above objectives are to be

met. This means that Integrated Marketing consists of a vertical creative alignment

throughout the organisation and a horizontal creative alignment throughout all

media, channels and touchpoints, as shown in below.

The diagram

shows a model of

the Integrated

Marketing

framework with its

vertical creative

alignmentthroughout the

organisation and

horizontal creative

alignment

throughout all

media, channels

and touchpoints


5/24


Integrated Marketing ideas are essential to contemporary leaders if they are to meet

their business challenge. Figure 2 illustrates the Integrated Marketing model for

action, the three areas for management:

Figure 2: The three key areas of Integrated Marketing action

Identity management

Organisational identity should reflect the companys true character rather than being

merely a faade. The value that it delivers should reflect its uniqueness and make the

organization easily identifiable. In addition, it must identify a set of aspirations that are

coherent with its character. Who are we really, why are we different, what are our

aspirations, what value do we offer?

Mobilising everyone

Leaders are responsible for implementing change. Their success depends on the

level of support they are able to achieve across the organisation and external partiesinvolved. Any change encounters an initial degree of resistance and can only happen

if people believe that they (individually and/or collectively) will benefit from it.

Contact management

The understanding of what constitutes marketing communication must be broadened

out away from the traditional media silos, and must embrace the management of

every possible customer touchpoint. Managing touchpoints effectively entails

exploring wholly open ideas about communications.

Identity

Man

agement

Con

tact

Manage

ment

Mobilising

Everyone

Ideas


6/24


IBM and global Integrated Marketing

IBM is committed to global Integrated Marketing strategies. To achieve this, it invests

in new services, systems and other collateral including technology systems, solution

research and development, business partnerships, employee development and

internal marketing, website resources, white papers, global and regional road shows,

global TV, PR and one-to-one communication campaigns.

Much of its marketing communication is planned at least as outline at a global level,

and many of the communication properties are designed and executed for global

rollout, particularly TV communication. Most communication is also organised and/or

approved on a regional basis, in the case of the UK by IBM EMEA (Europe Middle

East Africa) . Depending on the size of the local market, communications are then

tailored to a greater or lesser extent based on local needs.

To facilitate global/international Integrated Marketing Communications, IBM has

appointed global business partners for each of its major disciplines (mass

communication, one-to-one solution selling, one-to-one product demand generation,PR, event marketing and media planning and buying). This enables more integrated

planning, development, tailoring, execution, feedback and learning. Most of the

partners belong to the WPP group in order to enhance synergy and reduce the

potential for conflict or competitiveness.

According to both IBM's senior marketing executives and its agency partners this

leads to:

1. Development of communication properties and resources that could not be

afforded at the national level.

2. Global alignment, consistency and focus of businesses, message and brandpositioning/image.

3. Greater mutual commitment, and enhanced knowledge, co-operation and

business practices among IBM and its partners.

4. Superior output and results.

IBM's customer-centric planning is based on identifying major market/community

opportunities where it is ideally suited to provide solutions and where, by focusing on

the needs and requirements of the community, IBM can leverage its brand image and

competencies to achieve increased market and mind share. By harnessing its highly

sophisticated CRM and IMC skills within the over-arching discipline of Integrated

Marketing, IBM has achieved significant marketing success.

This case-study is of IBM COL (City of London), a CRM-focused Integrated Marketing

campaign implemented through a series of campaign initiatives between 2000 and

2002. That campaign now serves as an exemplary new role model for the IBM

Corporation, and it is a superb example of classic CRM strategy principles applied

within an Integrated Marketing framework.


7/24


8/24


It should be noted that IBM guards its TV budget very carefully, resisting any

encroachment from tactical campaigns and market adversity. Hence, getting even

this budget for the projects represents a major strategic thrust.

Learning from the early stages of implementation also contributed to a reorganisation

of the EMEA Northern Region marketing function into a more effective IMC structure.

This is also now seen as a potential international role model within IBM. Regional and

global participation consisted of approval and positive support for the initiative.

The implementation of IBM COL brilliantly demonstrates the principles of CRM

strategy as a key aspect of Integrated Marketing:

1. Investing in valuable customers.

2. Optimising the whole customer relationship.

3. Building reputation through ethics and brand values.

4. Creating relevant service for each customer community.

5. Creating customer value first.

6. Managing the relationship at all appropriate touchpoints.

7. Designing customer experience with imagination.

8. Learning.

9. Creative use of technology.

10.Making it good for everyone.

The entire IBM COL campaign was very much based on measurement and learning,

from its initiation (in the recognition of the problem) to the ongoing evolution of the

campaign and to the changes in internal marketing structure and practice that it

generated. CRM technology played an important part in the management of IBM

COL, but it also demonstrated the central and vital importance of people, with

technology merely the tool that made them more effective. The campaign was

recognised as a success, but it also led to new ways of working that have been

approved by customers, IBM and IBM business partners. It has also generatedsignificant improvements in brand equity, financial equity and knowledge equity.

1. Investing in valuable customers

IBM identified a named set of prioritised customers and prospective customers and

focused their resources on these sets.

In 2000, the City of London represented a $4.5 billion market for information

technologies within the fastest growing financial services sector in the UK. Financial

services companies in the City of London run on IT and make huge investments in thelatest systems, infrastructures and software. IBM had a relatively powerful offering

and as a result of its size and business partners was one of the few companies

capable of providing end-to-end solutions for many of the needs of COL companies,

and yet it had a relatively low share of wallet. Focusing on this strong market with

high ROI opportunities therefore made excellent business sense.

IBM's prioritised approach to the market/community demonstrated classic Pareto

thinking (that only a vital few factors are responsible for producing most of the

problems). They identified approximately 30 existing major accounts, which at the

time were worth approximately 80% of IBM's COL revenue, and designated these

'managed accounts' to receive higher levels of sales and service resources. They

then identified a further 450 development accounts tiered into major opportunities


9/24


and significant opportunities, and then developed and implemented contact

strategies and service resources for these.

IBM funded all of this by taking just 5% of their general TV advertising budget,

applying it to a more potent and targeted opportunity.

2. Optimising the whole customer relationship

The primary aim of the City of London campaign was to understand the acquisition

and development barriers that were leading to reduced market share, and to find a

way to shift or overcome them. Within this aim there were three primary objectives:

1. To enhance relationships with existing customers, increasing their

share of wallet with IBM.

2. To build a platform for recruiting major new customers, by developing

new awareness of IBM solutions, and by ensuring that IBM was

included more often in the consideration set during major

selection processes.

3. To put barriers in place to prevent losses of custom and customers.

Furthermore, the project as implemented represented a major commitment to

managing long-term business relationships with this important customer community,

rather than just running a localized communications campaign.

Figure 4: IBM focused its resources and its most valuable customers and prospects

in the City.


10/24


(Reproduced by kind permission of IBM from the campaign plan)

3. Building reputation through ethics and brand values

In partnership with their lead advertising agency Ogilvy, IBM invested heavily in

understanding and communicating their brand signature (which Ogilvy calls theBrandPrint). This is used in briefing all marketing communications. IBM also invests in

brand tracking studies and takes the commitment to live the brand very seriously.

Brand attitudes were identified as being at the root of the problem in the City of

London situation. Most specifically, senior business people in the City who

understood technology and how it could be applied needed to have their faith in IBM

as a major partner in consultancy, services and technology, renewed or enhanced.

The problem was that IBM was not seen as an expert in "City solutions", which as

understood by City business leaders also meant leading-edge and business-critical

solutions. The City of London financial services companies (through their business

and technology managers) were well versed in IBM's solutions for back-office needs,

and here IBM had a strong market share. However these technologies were

increasingly regarded as relatively uninteresting, and money and commitment were

being focused on front-office business solutions such as dealer trading floors, and on

solutions to integrate, enhance and protect the overall technologies and business

processes of the company. In these areas, despite actually having an extremely

powerful set of solutions to offer, IBM had not acquired the reputation of being a

major player. Indeed it is possible that IBM's historic strengths and residual image

actually played against their participation in new trends applying technology solutions

to business problems.

This demonstrates the way that customer loyalty and commitment can erode orstagnate if not continually maintained with an evolving understanding of needs

and value supplied.

As a result of this brand image problem, technology managers tended to turn to IBM

for technology kit to meet routine business needs, rather than for strategic

consultancy and solutions. This in turn perpetuated perceptions that positioned IBM

as a seller of technology rather than a provider of strategic business solutions.

The maintenance of such brand attitudes could have increasingly locked IBM into a

positioning at odds with its capability and strategy. Furthermore, the City of London is

an extremely influential market. Its companies are powerful opinion leaders andtherefore the effect of better or worse positioning could have had a major impact not

only within the City but also throughout the UK and world markets.

The City of London campaign therefore needed to restore trust in IBM as a provider

of critical business solutions based on leading-edge technology systems and

consultancy. Customers needed to experience and be reaffirmed in the values of the

brand. Indeed, as Figure 5 shows, IBM's global brand reputation is based on the

perception that IBM has the imagination and expertise in business and technology to

see and seize opportunities that convert into business advantage for their clients.

Their image resonance of Bright Blue is based on the perception that IBM has the

intelligence, assurance and global resources to provide insightful solutions to major


11/24


business challenges. In the City of London, Bright Blue was looking a little dull and it

needed polishing.

Figure 5: Extract from IBM BrandPrint as developed by Ogilvy for IBM.

(Reproduced by kind permission of IBM. This is only an edited subset of the IBM

brand signature. Other content is removed to protect proprietary insights.)

Advertising was never going to be enough to change such perceptions, and it wasrecognized that without an effective Integrated Marketing approach that preached

and practised the message simultaneously and consistently across the board, it

would be difficult to leverage a significant shift. The strategy that was designed by

IBMs UK brand manager at the time, Lorraine Peel, and that is still being applied, is

based not only on a customer-centric Media Neutral Planning approach, but also on

the Integrated Marketing approach of shifting negative attitudes and reinforcing

positive ones across the entire range of customer-brand interactions.

For example the campaign strategy involved:

1. Demonstrating presence in the world inhabited by the customer.

2. Executing messages that demonstrated IBM's competence in andcommitment to the issues that mattered to COL executives.

3. Investing in resources to provide consultancy, solutions and services

that demonstrated the brand living up to its essential core values of

insightful, relevant and business transforming competence.

4. Creating relevant service for each customer community


12/24


The City of London is a financial services powerhouse and one of the major centres in

the global economy. As has already been indicated, it is also a club, a network with

its own language and customs.

In addition to housing many financial services companies, the City of London also

includes the headquarters of many British firms as well as regional or national

headquarters for overseas firms; hence the very powerful impact on opinion of the

practices of its financial services companies.

Historically, the City of London recruited many of its senior people from British public

schools, and today many of the most intelligent and successful university graduates

go to work there. The network of interdependent firms through which City workers

move and interact, the small geographic area, its historic architecture, practices and

customs, its work and play ethic, its traditional clubs and considerable power and

influence, all together create a significant micro culture. Inclusion or exclusion from

the club can have a significant effect on business success.

IBM research showed that as a result of historic decisions IBM was not fully

accepted as a member of this club nor, as indicated above, was it seen ashaving powerfully relevant solutions.

Within the larger culture of the City of London community, research further identified

a series of micro communities of interest driven by the key business issues that were

then affecting different IT managers and board-level leaders. Suppliers that did not

talk their language did not get on their agenda. These micro communities were based

on either the issues that belonged to the function that the individual played within the

decision-making unit or category, or on specific business issues for which they

needed solutions, including:

1. E-business and internet enablement.

2. Risk Management.3. Customer Relationship Management.

4. Operational efficiency, e.g. straight-through-processing.

5. New market opportunities, e.g. virtual exchanges, M-commerce.

IBM was well-regarded as a major global player, in other words people understood

the universal brand values in principle, but they did not believe that these had been

translated into solutions relevant to their needs, other than for marginal and less

valuable elements of their purchase mix. This strongly demonstrated the importance

in brand management of understanding the way that the universal brand values

needed to be articulated according to the different language and drivers of its key

communities.


13/24


Figure 6: Types of IBM customer(Reproduced by kind permission of IBM; edited extract from IBM strategic marketing

plan.)

IBM uses community signatures, or CustomerPrints as their agency partner

OgilvyOne calls them, in order to generate more creative insight into its customer

communities. Community signatures are based on researching and understanding the

core customer communities. These are then transformed into imaginative word

portraits of the communities by demonstrating an archetypal customer interacting

with the brand. An example excerpt from one of the IBM CustomerPrints is as

follows:

Excerpt from community signature:

Trevor loved the culture of Goldman, the buzz of the dealing floor - if he was

honest he loved the elitism of the financial markets. The reliance on

technology in his industry made him feel important. In the dealing room, time is

money. Every minute that a dealers system is out of action, billions are lost... It

was very competitive.

The fully automated process that Trevor had been responsible for, with the help of

IBM and Reuters, meant that the whole settlements procedure can now continue

untouched by human hands and unseen by the human eye. This was an achievement

for him and his team. He knew the majority of the business didnt really appreciate or


14/24


understand the benefits - IT is a thankless task. Trevor wasnt phased by this - he

wasnt after praise

Source: OgilvyOne campaign brief, reproduced by kind permission of IBM.

Two-mode behaviour

A further aspect of the different modes in which customers respond to the IBM brand

is that research showed that IT managers switch their modes according to the kind of

solutions that they are looking for. This illustrates another important principle of

customer management: recognising that the customer can have two or more different

ways of relating to a brand depending on time and situation-related psychological

drivers. In this case, IT managers switched mode between solution-search and

transaction-best-buy modes.

For example an IT executive might attend a seminar or presentation as part of

researching a solution to a complex business problem. Here the desired mode of

interaction is consultancy selling, with an extended decision process and widerdecision-making unit. However, during the coffee break, the manager might need to

buy some technology such as servers, PCs or printers, and now he or she changes

mode into a transactional selling style looking for convenience, availability, value for

money, rapid delivery and so on. In this mode what matters is the availability of

instant information in a mode that supports transactional decision-making.

In both cases the brand can deliver value through tailored service, but the way that

that service needs to be tailored is utterly different. In the second case, during the

coffee break, the customer is an expert looking for product information and a

convenient buying/delivery process. The telephone, a catalogue, a web site might all

be instruments that meet his or her needs. During the rest of the day, the customer'sexpertise lies in other areas, such as developing and judging requirements and

knowledge.

IBM responded to this by providing alternative modes of access to its services, using

a Siebel-powered call centre and its e-business infrastructure to support the

transactional selling mode, with the branch office, seminars and other events fronting

the consultative mode backed up by knowledgeware on the web.

Employees and partners

Finally it is important to understand that IBM's communities include not only

customers but also other major stakeholders including employees and partners.

Communications needed to be tailored to meet the interests and needs of these

important stakeholder communities. In particular, the ability to offer and deliver value

through solutions depended in many cases on partnerships with key suppliers. IBM

needed to use its communication and investment programmes on customers to

leverage its relationship with these other stakeholders and vice versa. Business

partners of stature have a choice of both platforms and partners, and were more likely

to commit to more intensive working with IBM if they believed it was committed and

relevant in the City, and that their support would in turn increase IBM's ability to

achieve this.


15/24


The future

Recognising the customer communities in this way and putting them to the forefront

is now adopted as IBMs primary organisation method in EMEA Northern Region. A

customer-group based marketing organisation will routinely outperform otherstructures in a CRM intensive environment.

5. Creating customer value first

IBM's development of a new value proposition was based on the key ingredients

outlined above:

1. Understanding the different customer sets or communities.

2. Understanding the key issues that drive them.

3. Researching, developing and/or renewing solutions.

4. Creating an upgraded and tailored selling and delivering capability.

5. Developing and executing communication platforms and programmes.

Elements of the new value proposition included:

1. Dedicating a City Branch headed up by a manager with 15 years City

trading experience, and a team of consultative sales people (account

managers) and consulting specialists with relevant background and

expertise. This commitment provided the vital element in the premium

one-to-one encounter at critical moments of truth, from high-value

partnership-based bid proposals to lunching/eventing together.

2. Tiering services into Managed and Development Account teams. In the

case of Managed Accounts there was a one-to-one relationship

between the account manager and the client organisation, while

Development Accounts typically had approximately 15 accounts per

account manager, backed up by telemarketing support, with each

account manager 'buddied' in the Siebel-based call centre.

3. Researching key issues, and using these to drive the development of

marketing, sales, service and solution collateral. For example, IBM

reinforced existing business partnerships or developed new ones toensure that it could offer best in-class solutions. Its journey to market

was then taken in conjunction with companies such as Reuters,

Temenos, Siebel and Pacemetrics.

4. Specialist training to ensure maximum credibility and added value.

5. Knowledgeware in the form of white papers, presentations, events and

seminars to support the consultative selling mode.

The Integrated Marketing Communications campaign was both a component of the

value proposition and a means of communicating it. For example a dedicated IBM


16/24


web site area was used to communicate commitment and also provide value in the

form of Knowledgeware.

Committed support from top IBM management helped to demonstrate not only IBM's

commitment but also its high-quality thinking and insight. Senior leaders are often the

most powerful exemplars of the brand values.

Using the Cloverleaf Model, IBM's value proposition (as indicated in the diagrambelow) was tailored to the brand values and community issues as follows:

1. Knowledge: increased awareness of IBM solutions and capability;

integrated marketing communication platforms and programmes; think

pieces, presentations and seminars providing solutions and knowledge

in the mode required, e.g. the consultative or transactional; ideas, skills

and insights through people and tools.

2. Customer process: eased access to IBM business solutions by

enhancing visibility, access, consultative sales process and alternative

mode contact and communication.

3. Performance and deliverables: developed and renewed solutions with

major partners; packaged IBM offerings to meet specific issue-based

needs; developed the consultancy base, delivering millions of dollars of

additional solutions.

4. Relationship: dedicated branch office to improve one-to-one service,

particularly for major managed accounts; IMC demonstrated that IBM

was in the City and shared their values and drivers.

Overview of value creation:

Figure 7: Cloverleaf Model source: Valuing Your Customers, Jenkinson, 1995.


17/24


6. Managing the relationship at all appropriate touchpoints.

An IMC campaign was first rolled out in the summer and autumn of 2000. Marketing

communication then continued through branch office, telemarketing and web site

based activities supported by event marketing and some PR, including conferences,(and of course the general IBM brand advertising). The next major phase of COL-

based advertising, which would have run in the autumn of 2001, was held back as a

result of the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, and was eventually launched

early in 2002.

The concept behind both campaigns was to have a big creative idea driving all

marketing communication, emphasizing the brand promise and ensuring consistency

and integration, supported by image properties that could be used across the range

of media and disciplines. The wide range of media and disciplines included PR, event

management, outdoor and ambient, direct mail, telemarketing, press and new media

advertising, interactive (banner and website), and sales disciplines, notable

exceptions being TV and radio. The range of communication was based on the

customers world, not the media planners.

Images from the

campaign: IBM on the

streets, on and in taxis,

and on the web Source:

IBM/OgilvyOne


18/24


This is classic customer-centric communication, for example: in the streets of the

City; accessibility when looking for issue-base ideas, e.g. on the web; meeting with

and listening to thought leaders, e.g. at conferences, on financial TV, at seminars; in

the Press; communications to the desk; and getting proposals on solutions.

Consider how a customer executive might have experienced the Integrated Marketing

Communications campaign, which was designed to demonstrate IBM as a provider of

solutions for the City

One day in June 2000, walking out of Liverpool Street Station in the heart of

the City of London, a common route to work even for senior people, they

might have met an interesting IBM poster such as a Mensa puzzle, then been

confronted by people scooting about on the busy streets and roads on the

brand new mini scooters that were then just becoming trendy as a quick way

to get about, with others wearing curious gear offering orange juice and

umbrellas, all tagged with the 2000 strapline, Solutions for the City. If they

hailed a taxicab they would have been offered a free journey anywhere in the

City of London, compliments of IBM, with the taxi carrying a similar intelligent

advertising message.

Should they have missed this, they would have been able to read about it as

a result of press coverage. Later, reading major media used by City

executives, they would have found an ad carrying the same message with a

creative treatment, and probably an article, perhaps featuring an interview

with an IBMer or a journalists comment. And in the pub at lunch (or more

probably in the evening) there would have been beer mats carrying another

variation on the theme, offering mental teasers that connected to the City

self-image of clever people enjoying themselves in a competitive world.

Assuming they belonged to the right segment, they probably received direct

mail inviting them to register at a specially designed IBM City of London website where there were think pieces and other seminar invitations designed to

address their specific issues. Email invitations to seminars and events would

have followed for those who signed up. In any case, as they surfed the Web

or visited key COL websites, they probably noticed some highly creative and

City-oriented banners inviting them to the exclusive web site. 11,000 hits to

the COL Web site shows that many people visited, but the objective was

primarily quality rather than quantity: remember the main focus was on just

480 accounts, the rest was about creating a positive environment. The

campaign obtained the activity, interest and names of 456 qualified senior

people.

An IBM salesperson would have phoned or spoken to these, and depending

on the outcome (the same or another person) would then have visited to

discuss needs. They might also have attended an IBM breakfast meeting or

seminar. If they were a senior person in a major or interested development

account, they would have got to know their IBM account manager and his or

her resources and solutions rather well, especially if they invited IBM to bid.

Later still, they might also have read a promotion for one or more of several

dozen different third-party Conferences on the different key issues of the day,

and have noticed that an IBMer was giving a keynote speech. Press releases

of major wins by IBM in the City of London, including a substantial contract


19/24


awarded by the London Stock Exchange, would have further reinforced the

developing awareness of IBM as a major City player.

7. Designing customer experience with imagination

The IBM agency, OgilvyOne, saw the imaginative challenge as weaving together the

Citys most relevant human and IT issues within a creative concept.

In 2000, the creative idea was based on the very simple but directly-to-the-point

message, Solutions for the City, providing both a verbally and conceptually

integrating theme. The aim was to generate an IBM and City of London wake-up call,

demonstrating that IBM was a serious player in the City and that their e-business

solutions could solve the Citys everyday business and technology problems. By

establishing empathy with the City's problems, they aimed to reposition IBM in theCity from a relatively poorly-known supplier of IT with little relevance, other than in

low margin back-office opportunities, to a well-known supplier of solutions that

address the needs of COL institutions. A practical measure of success was for IBM to

be more often considered for high margin opportunities in the middle- and front-

office, and ultimately for IBM to be on the short-list of IT players in the City of London

indeed for IBM to be seen to be entering the City club.

The first campaign was broader and more general, aiming to create a buzz and

awareness of IBM as relevant and committed to the City. Intellectual puzzles and

solutions carried the message that IBM had sharp solutions to City issues, from traffic

to clever games to e-business. A specially designed image property interwove IBM

Images from the

campaign

Source: IBM/OgilvyOne


20/24


blue, the City, and the idea of cutting through the mess together, and it was used

across direct mail, web sites and other media.

Instead of simply talking about technology, the stance in 2000 was to position IBM as

a City player and club member. The aim was to use a media neutral approach to

planning, using each medium and discipline on its own merits as a brand-building

plus action-stimulating tool, for example: employing ambient and outdoor media to

provoke interest; press ads to communicate core campaign propositions; PR todemonstrate IBM as a participant and major player in key City issues; conferences

and seminars (IBM and third-party) to communicate high profile, leading edge

thinking and performance on these issues; the web site as an exclusive source of

high-value knowledge; direct mail as a brand communicator and action generator; the

telephone as a relationship initiator and maintenance resource; and the account

manager and consulting team as power-performers and lead brand exemplars.

The later campaign, in 2002, was based on the key COL proposition: IBM, together

with its partners, delivers custom made e-business solutions for the City. This

message was tailored for different customer segments or groups and exploits the

name generation, increased image and success achieved in the first campaign, and

maintained thereafter by the City branch office. This represented a more targeted and

focused message, building on the earlier platforms of awareness, data and success.

Execution was also more closely tied in to general IBM advertising, to benefit from the

wider communication weight, to improve overall integration, to help to leverage

reaction to the dual-mode response of IT executives, and to consolidate IBM, with its

partners, as a multi-talented solution-oriented player also committed to City issues.

Slightly fewer media were involved.

However, it is noteworthy how in the age of new media, database-driven personalized

direct mail still has a powerful contribution to make. Its tangibility, presence,

interactivity, one-to-one creative potential and record as the low-cost medium of

choice when communicating complex argument made it an important part of the mixin this campaign.

8. Learning

A strategic framework should never just emphasize measurement - measurement

without learning is pointless. This principle shows up powerfully in the IBM approach.

However, its worth noting how successful the IBM COL campaign was.

Results included:

1. Immediate boost in awareness.

2. Attributable new business of 70x investment (7000% ROI) in the first

year alone, growing at approximately 10 times the rate of the market.

3. By way of example, a major new relationship and revenue stream from

the London Stock Exchange.

4. Improved relationships with existing customers e.g. by inviting them

to participate in events, increased and broader business, etc.

5. Enhanced association with professional associations: recognised as a

player, IBM invited to participate in events etc.


21/24


6. Enhanced relationship with financial market

analysts/journalists/conference organizers, gaining substantial press

and conference coverage.

7. Over 40 journalist interviews.

8. Approximately 10 conference organisers in each of Q1/Q2 approached

IBM for further participation, some for months ahead.

9. Increased profile of IBM Head of Finance.

10. Interviews broadcast on CNBC, Sky Digital TV, BBC Radio 4.11. Interviews with nationals, published in the Financial Times, Sunday

Times, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Business, Independent, Independent

on Sunday, Financial Mail on Sunday, Guardian, Evening Standard.

12.Participation in major Roundtables.

13. Internal benefits include enthusiastic acceptance/welcoming of

marketing efforts by the sales team and product-line management, and

enhanced awareness of the City of London among senior IBM

managers.

14.Partnership benefits include more on-the-ground bidding and joint

marketing/selling collaboration, and even greater acceptance as a

serious City player by key applications partners (Reuters, Temenos,

Siebel, Pacemetrics etc).

15.546 new active contacts, with City-relevant database of over 8,000

contacts.

16.Over 11,000 hits to www.ibm.com/cityoflondon/uk during

measurement phase of COL1.

In addition to the measurement of success, there is also the best practice objective of

learning. Good work is always based on good research, and however good the work

there is always new learning, whether it is good ideas to repeat or things to do better.

Learning also needs to cover organisational and system issues as well as

communication planning. Having the opportunity to put into practice a complete

campaign provided valuable learning opportunities. Key learning in this case included:

This case-study in itself is based on a fundamental internal desk research analysis

initiated by Lorraine Peel that identified the core issue of nderperformance. Quick, low

budget research by a specialist agency confirmed some of the general issues. One of

the realizations, however, was that while this latter research was effective in

highlighting the issues, it did not identify a significantly effective benchmark for

ongoing improvement measurement. This was later rectified.

The strategic use of the general advertising budget for more targeted and result-

intensive opportunities was proven, and has been accepted as a new practice (as

demonstrated by IBMs continued commitment to this).

Research by OgilvyOne was undertaken to understand the core drivers of the City

and to determine the community types (leading to their CustomerPrints). As a result

of its proven success, the importance of doing this on an even more systematic basis

is now recognised. Indeed, this thinking and practice has powered a reorganisation.

IBM COL contributed to a major rethink of how to organise the IMC group at IBM

Northern Region EMEA by the Regional Marketing Director at the time, Kevin Bishop.

This was rolled out early 2002 and is now operational as a new role model structure

that the Corporation s investigating. This structure belongs to another case-study, but

basically ensures that the brand is organised along customer-centric rather than

discipline or line-of-business factors. As a result, IBM UK (and other Northern Region


22/24


countries) moved from line-of-business management of communication to integrated

community-of-interest management.

The second campaign was considerably more targeted and also succeeded in

communicating a special message to the City of London communities while

integrating more dynamically with other IBM advertising.

IBM UK has put in place new processes and commitment for communicating resultsto the direct agencies it works with. Historically IBM, like many other brands, has

been cautious about releasing sensitive data to outside parties, which can lead to the

understandable but weak practice of having agency partners operating in ignorance.

As a result of the new organisation, agencies now work more closely together, and

the IBM direct-marketing discipline leader, Sue Takhar, has instituted full and open

disclosure of results, with immediate benefits in morale and thinking.

As part of this, and in association with new technology plans, IBM is investing even

more thinking and energy into lead-tracking and results evaluation.

Finally, notice the value that IBM places on each qualified customer name, a core

principle of both CRM and Integrated Marketing.

9. Creative use of technology

Although this case-study focuses on CRM as a key aspect of Integrated Marketing, it

is not primarily about technology. CRM should never primarily be about technology; if

it is then the technology will get between the brand and the people. The more

effective technology is, the more it disappears into the background. This case-study

is also about IMC (as a core aspect of Integrated Marketing), but it is not primarily

about media, because IMC is primarily a tool that refracts the brand according to theindividual customer attitude and touchpoint.

Figure 10: IBM systems architecture

However, good technology was central to success in IBM COL. Key technology

elements in this included:


23/24


A community-specific web area and landing page, plus banners and personalized

emails.

Telemarketing systems used to support primary interaction, and contact management

software and data to manage ongoing relationships.

Investment in the customer marketing database and direct mail campaign production.

A scoring algorithm for lead management.

Technology to track interactions, whether through cookies at the web site,

telemarketing response codes, or scanners to record attendance at an IBM event.

10. Making it good for everyone

Researching the case-study, it is noticeable that there have been positive outcomes

all round, what we call 3D-worth (good for the customer, company and employees):

Customers have had the option to buy what they consider to be a superior solution,

and have done so. They have also gained from IBMs consultancy and knowledge,

and perhaps even had a free taxi ride, enjoyed a puzzle, or avoided getting wet.

IBM has increased financial equity, knowledge equity and brand equity. This has

practical outcomes in terms of new organisation, practices and systems, a potential

new role model, new customers with their future revenue streams, and new

relationship equity with important opinion leaders.

Employees of IBM who were involved in the marketing are enthusiastic about the

work and clearly enjoyed doing it, despite the additional work it involved. They have

learned and developed from the projects, and gained internal recognition. Sales and

consulting employees have also endorsed the marketing efforts and enjoyed the fruits

of sales success, important new customers and better data.

Business partners have gained from the opportunity to work in the City with the

worlds fourth most powerful brand.

Agency partners now have a more effective way of working with IBM, which they

have all privately endorsed enthusiastically. They have enjoyed success and IBM

commitment. Their initiative, for example in the research, and their creativity are

valued by IBMers.

Our observation of good marketing over many years confirms that such a win-win-win

outcome needs to be endorsed as an objective on each and every occasion.

Conclusion

This case-study of CRM as a key aspect of Integrated Marketing offers an excellent

example of integrated thinking, from strategy to practice and back again, most

particularly noting how good strategy shows up throughout all of the details that build

brand and customer equity. It also demonstrates:


24/24


1. How to read the thinking of companies, rather as consumers do

unconsciously, to critique their performance.

2. How to systematically develop business value through integrating

sales, service and communication for customers more effectively.

3. How technology needs to act as a means of delivering CRM thinking

CRM thinking is never there to deliver technology!

Date post:	07-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	golrok123
View:	215 times
Download:	0 times

Ibm in the City-5% of Tv Budget Yeilds 7000% Roi

Documents