Client description: Marketing agency

Practice area: Market Research, Strategic Positioning

Geographic scope: US

Industries involved: Marketing and media, E-commerce

Services applied: Voice of Customer, Competitive Intelligence, Brand Perception & Awareness, Industry Analysis, Strategic Positioning

Business challenge: Due to a highly competitive landscape, client wanted to reassess its strategic positioning in the integrated B2B marketing and communications space. In order to do so client required an understanding of the future of marketing and communications, what customers want from agencies now and in the future, market dynamics, services offered in the market, opportunity gaps, competitive landscape and international market considerations.

Methodologies: Comprehensive secondary research reinforced with 37 qualitative in depth interviews (IDIs) with current and lost clients, B2B marketers and competitor agencies.

The result: A systematic in depth analysis of the B2B marketing landscape; main services in demand; marketer challenges and unmet needs; marketing technologies; competitor agencies positioning and profiles; what customers think about client agency and its value proposition; and the strategic path client should take.

Findings revealed that B2B marketing is on the rise with emerging and evolving trends and technological tools. In B2B marketing, customer experience is becoming more important along the entire decision and purchase process. Customers want agencies to understand their industry, business, and specific needs. B2B is now all about content marketing and the landscape is rapidly evolving and changing the way agencies position themselves and compete. Marketing automation and content management optimizes the customer experience pre-purchase, and drives/supports customer acquisition. Improvements in content strategy and quality are expected.

As part of the recommendations, client needed to be clear in its positioning in terms of how it provides what services to who. Agency was advised to specialize in a single service or in a bundle of services, exclusively in B2B. It was necessary for them to focus on few industry verticals, of certain client size & persona, and companies in certain geography. Companies should have higher than average focus on customer acquisition, digital marketing, data & analytics spending. Client was advised to focus on top areas of marketing spend such as website development, tradeshows and events, online marketing, email marketing and direct marketing. Based on data collected Geo Strategy Partners developed a differentiation strategy to strengthen and realign the organization.