As I was reading Chapter 2, I kept thinking this is interesting but how can I apply this to my day job. As a B2B marketer, innovations in the cereal vertical don’t really translate to my job. Also, we have a whole other group dedicated to product development. The marketing department has some input in new products especially since we are the target audience but it is definitely not what I focus on day in and day out. I did find some useful information from Lateral Marketing that I felt I could translate to B2B. There are the 6 techniques for applying lateral marketing:

1. “Substitution consists of removing one or several elements of the product and changing it.
2. Combination consists of adding one or several elements to the product or service, maintaining the rest.
3. Inversion consists of saying the contrary or adding “no” to an element of the product or service.
4. Elimination consists of removing an element of the product or service.
5. Exaggeration consists of exaggerating upward or downward one more more elements of a product or service or imagining a perfect product or service.
6. Reordering consists of changing the order or sequence of one o more product or service elements.”

While the authors intended these ideas to be implemented in product development. I think these can be a place to start your creativity for your next marketing campaign or event. Combination is just another way of saying integrated marketing campaign. When it comes down to it these are really just ideas for differentiation, and don’t we all want to stand out from the crowd?

Do you have any examples of using one of these techniques, possibly unknowingly?

Be sure to check in next week for our posts on chapters 3-5.

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As I went back to Chapters 1 and 2, I immediately remembered what stood out most for me. Page 4. I hadn’t read Differentiate or Die, Survival In Our Era of Killer Competition by Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin. So this was all new stuff for me.

The summary started with out with some very interesting numbers on grocery store SKUs, interesting but not really applicable to my B2B Marketing job. I got to the next page (page 4) and this sentence jumped out at me. “Those that don’t stand out will get lost in the pack.”

I went on to read…”Indeed, companies must address differentiation in three key ways:

• If you ignore your uniqueness and try to be everything to everybody, you quickly undermine what makes you different.
• If you ignore changes in the market, your difference can become less important.
• If you stay in the shadow of the larger competitors and never establish your “differentness,” you will always be weak.”

Differentiate ourselves and highlight our uniqueness, we all get that I’m sure. But how? Here’s an example of how we “went different” to stand out. ReachForce business cards not only have the typical contact info. on them but they also include a few points that describe that person’s ROLE at ReachForce. This helped reinforce our role vs. title messaging and was a great conversation starter when meeting new people and exchanging cards.

Anyone have other cool “stand out” stories to share with the group? Or anything else from the first 2 book summaries that stood out for you?

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Continuing your relationship with your current customers is always a challenge. In today’s online world there are many more options for B2B Marketers to stay connected to their customers like through social networks and online communities. At ReachForce, we decided to mix a little old school with some new school and start a book club with a twist. Instead of meeting at a local coffee shop to discuss the book, we will be discussing it here on The B2B Lead. If you are a ReachForce customer, you should expect to receive our first book soon, if not already. If you are not a customer, click here for an online discount.

Our first book is The Marketing Gurus - Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of all Time. It is a “best of” collection of Marketing books from the past 15 years. Each week, Leigh Anne and I will share our perspectives to get the conversation started but will rely on you to join in to share your thoughts, opinions and ideas. We will begin the conversation next week in order to give everyone a little time to get started. Next week we’ll be reading and chatting about chapters 1 & 2.

Happy reading!

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