Tentative
segmentation of ICT marketing
B2C (Business to consumer, aka consumer,
ICT products marketing)
This is certainly the most popular type of ICT marketing and it is
inevitably drawing on standard consumer marketing techniques.
One of the main differences though is that it won’t apply
to perishables but durables or semi-durables instead. Because
new technology and hi-tech products are increasingly successful
with the general public, ICT Consumer marketing is naturally
closer to the marketing of household appliances and mainly
that of sound and video systems. As a matter of fact, traditional
products such as computers, PDA’s etc. and sound and video products and now being merged into hybrid devices which combine
high-end multimedia with IT and vice versa in order to produce
increasingly sophisticated systems aimed at broadcasting –
or should we say ‘narrowcasting’ instead – multimedia
contents, where video plays an ever increasing role, and where
wireless technology is ubiquitous. In a little more than three
years, the good old stereo has now been replaced by more sophisticated
equipment. It may even disappear in no time.
B2B
(business to business) ICT marketing
This type of marketing,
which is aimed at professionals, is also well known. The necessary
divide between Corporate and SMB B2B marketing however, is
far less known, or at least, field practice shows that very
few people master the subtle difference between diverse B2B
segments i.e. Soho, SMB and corporate accounts. Large
corporations often are international; in fact, very few aren’t
if we except central government bodies. Their number is limited
and they require face-to-face, personalised contact over a
long-term period. Selling to large corporate accounts mobilises
large account-teams, which can amount to dozens of dedicated
professionals in certain cases (sales, business consult engineers,
and delivery….). This investment in sales resources is justified
in so far as the revenue, which is generated by such mega
accounts is proportionally huge too (sometimes above €100
m p.a. for one particular account).
Conversely, SME’s are
more varied in shape or form and they are more difficult to
describe. First and foremost, SME’s can be segmented in more
than many ways: size, number of employees, revenue, international
presence, whether it is independent or part of a larger group…);
secondly, because SME’s differ greatly from one another. How
could you compare an independent organisation of 15 employees
with another larger entity, whose staff goes beyond 500, which
is scattered across 3 different sites and, lastly, which belongs
to a large multinational group? These two organisations would
not be said to have much in common at the end of the day,
I would say.
As a result, marketing
products or services to SME’s is a job in itself for it requires
a lot of sub-segmentation. Selling to SME’s is all things
to all people; sometimes on the fringe of consumer marketing,
some other times on the fringe of corporate marketing. At
the bottom of the SME market segmentation, one can find the
so-called SO-HO market. The behaviour patterns of the latter
are very close to those of consumers. The smaller the target
customers, the more ICT marketing techniques and know-how
will be necessary to maximize the hit-rate/contact-cost ratio.
B2E
(business to employee)
B2E marketing is a little
less known than the previous categories, which we have just
described. B2E covers those activities aimed at corporate
employees, mostly service-orientated. One of the most striking
examples I know of is Dominique Beaulieu’s Accor services
concept (née Affiniteam). The concept hinges upon the notion
of “Cliemployee” an interesting concept, whereby Beaulieu
advises corporations to treat their staff as if they were
clients, which as a matter of fact they have really become,
by dint of recurring job-frailty and difficulties on the employment
market, which naturally lessen corporate loyalty and emphasize
more self-centered strategies on the part of individuals.
