For this week's class, I'm happy to be joined by two practitioners who have a wealth of experience in B2B Marketing. For the benefits of our viewer, let me have them introduce themselves. Alex? Thank you, Doctor. I'm Alex Teo here from Singapore, running a B2B business for 18 years. The name of the company is Zero Spot, we are in the textile services for 26 years and hopefully we can see if we can continue to explore different markets and different countries and create more value for consumers. Hi, my name is Prasanna Meduri. I've worked for IBM and Microsoft over the last 18 years. I recently joined Graphene to help our team here, as a startup, look at analytical services, and grant management services across the Asian landscape. Our goal is to work with businesses across this incredible region to see if we can lend interesting ideas across the various geography. Thank you, gentleman. Let me start with Prasanna. Let's keep this very simple. How is B2B marketing different from B2C marketing? I think the primary difference in B2B marketing is the decision-making process is quite different. In some cases it's more complex but in most cases it's very, very different because of the complexity of the organization that ultimately consumes the idea, consumes the marketing that we sell to them. Because of that we have to understand the nature of the organization that we sell to. The subtle nuances of what makes that organization succeed internally as well as externally, and build our messaging to resonate with that entity in that way. Which is quite different from B2C marketing- Right. because it tends to be quite a lot more complex than the way we do. Right, right. And in your experiences here in Asia, is that concept similar between the West and here? One of the things that I had the opportunity to do is take global ideas and land it in the context of Asia and what we've seen actually is very different. Okay. We've learned that just because it works in another part of the world doesn't necessarily mean it is easy to transplant that idea into this geography. And I think it's true for almost any other set of any other region as well but what we found is the complexity of Asia does add that extra dimension. We've learned over the years that change or adoption of change is very different in Asia both internally and externally. Inside an organization, how we deliver changes as well as how it translates into the marketplace is very different. So all of the selling methodologies that we've learned has been very successful in the West don't necessarily translate well in our model. Neither do the marketing strategies sometimes. because we say, here's a set of ideas that resonate all businesses across the world and we've tried to take those ideas and put them in the Asian context, that haven't necessarily worked. Okay, can you give us some examples of that and how can we found these differences occur? The total cost of ownership is one interesting concept. Many times, when we justify the value of a product or a business, we use the concept of the total cost of ownership. Trying to suggest that you don't just look at the cost of purchase, but the cost over the lifetime of the product, of the usage over the lifetime of the product. What we've found is that the single biggest factor that impacts TCO is cost of labor. And given lower costs of labor in Asia, that whole selling methodology doesn't really work for us, doesn't really resonate. Right, right. And so the way we've had to take that and adapt it so that it works in the Asian context varies from company to company, but it's been quite consistent that we've not been able to take that idea very easily and put it here. Similarly with value selling, the way we've defined the value for customers varies in the West and in Asia. And what we've learned is just taking an advertisement from a market like the US and trying to transplant it rarely succeeds, even in the business context. And so we needed to understand how people react in their decision-making process and how the communication that you put in front of them enables that and assists that transformation and decision-making. Okay, let me now turn to Alex. Based on your experiences what are some of the important factors of B2B Marketing here in Asia, here in Singapore, let's say? I guess I will speak on the Singapore context. I guess in many of this B2B Marketing, we have to take care of many differences, I expect, after particular organization because like what previously he said is the complexity, a decision is not made based on the rationale or sometimes numbers. I guess there's a lot of emotions part of it also, very clear especially in Asia and in Singapore.. So a B2B is not like a consumer where you actually can fulfill one person at least. You actually have to fulfill the entire organization's decision-makers. Everybody will have a say and everybody will try to make the best of the decisions. And more importantly, and in back of this step, might be hidden key decision-maker. [LAUGH] That has actually had a big influence over the entire so-called decision-making, right? So it's, likewise, it's a little bit more complex. And of course, that's why sometimes in a B2B branding. Okay. We also have to find how we justify this kind of branding so it's then in how can we build a good very propositions to these so-called partners. Okay In B2B, we are more like partners more or less, not so much of being a consumer or of being a one time off. It's a long-term partnership that we try to do. Right, right. So there's a lot of methods when you talk about partnerships, then there would be a lot of complications, a lot more things to consider, also. Right. How do you build these partnerships, these relationships? How do you keep that sort of very long? Okay. Okay, I guess it's a lot of just understanding what our company can create, or what our company values. And these values were actually right in, we call it DNA or culture of this company. And in order to have this cultural aspect of this company, and knowing what we can create for our partners, then this bonding will start to take place. Meaning that we understand the next steps, understand the needs of our partners, and try to give them even better than what they expected. Right. Right, so these are the relationship buildings, this is where the wanting and the trust is being built. Right, so this is, I would say, the next different levels of creations, relationships, or even satisfactions, talking about. Right, so this I guess is all starting from the beginning from top-down and it ends up to getting how these organizations can build this together and any organization how this bond is going to be stronger in years to come. So there's a lot of other factors that we have to put into consideration.
