BtoB articles from April 2004

BtoB archives from April 2004

Guest Column: ROMI outlay brings high yields to b-to-b marketers.(Special Report: Research)
April 5, 2004... Byline: William A. Cook Increasingly, boards and CEOs are calling for hard empirical evidence that proposed marketing expenditures will yield greater profitability. An Advertising Research Foundation survey of CEOs in 2000 revealed that...

Editorial courage and integrity honored at Neals.(Opinion)
April 5, 2004... Byline: John Obrecht Last month I had the good fortune to attend American Business Media's 50th Annual Jesse H. Neal Awards ceremony in New York. After serving as a first-round "screener'' for the Neals four out of the past six years-a...

Is local search really the 'next big thing'? Skeptics doubt growth predictions, local small-business adoption key to success.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL Local search is being promoted as the next lucrative frontier in the $1.6 billion paid search advertising game, but the nascent industry's growth may be slower than some expect and its ability to entice local...

Will e-mail ever be great again? Clutter, spam, legislation ... Marketers grapple with the mess the medium has become.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL Tragedy has befallen e-mail marketing and it's anyone's guess if the medium will recover. Tom Gaither, team leader of the Sales & Marketing Solutions division at D&B, likens it to the "Tragedy of the Commons,'' a...

Guest Column; COWBOY: Six e-mail metrics nobody told you about.(NetMarketing)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Andy Sernovitz Learn about your e-mail marketing COWBOY-six metrics that are essential to tracking the true health of your e-mail program. C=Capture rate: How many visitors to your Web site signed up for an e-mail list? How...

Research Resources.(Special Report: Research)(Directory)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Source: BtoB and ARF Company: Ameritest/CY Research Location: Albuquerque, N.M. Phone: (505) 856- 0763 Key Exec: Charles Young, president and CEO Services: Copy testing Company: The ARS Group Location: Evansville, Ind. Phone:...

Ask The Expert: Test often for best e-mail marketing results.(NetMarketing)
April 5, 2004... Question: What are good target numbers for my e-mail campaigns, such as open rates and click-through rates? Answer: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? No one knows, and there are no great sources of e-mail response data....

Sounding off on the future of e-mail.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL E-mail is a powerful tool for successful customer relationship marketing, but marketers for the most part continue to shy away from using it as an acquisition tool. That was among the conclusions drawn by a panel of...

Know why sales are down?(Opinion)
April 5, 2004... Byline: James Obermayer Sales is a process; control the process and you control your future. The following are the top 15 of 53 questions I ask my clients to review when they are in a sales jam. 1. Killed your momentum? What happened...

By Design: Edify relaunches Web site with audio capabilities.(NetMarketing)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Kate Maddox Company: Edify Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. Web site: www.edify.com Launch date: March 11, 2004 Agency: Clear Ink, Berkeley, Calif. Design: Edify Corp., which develops voice and speech applications for...

Quick Hits; IDG's 'CIO' wins Grand Neal Award.(Briefs)
April 5, 2004... International Data Group's CIO won the Grand Neal Award at the American Business Media's 50th annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards. It was the second consecutive Grand Neal for CIO. The magazine won for "All Systems Down,''...

IDC projects increase in tech budgets.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX Indicating a long-awaited recovery in the technology industry, tech marketing budgets are projected to increase 2.1% during the first six months of this year, according to IDC's Tech Marketing Barometer, released last...

Wise use of space is key in fractional ads.(Chasers)
April 5, 2004... We've long advocated that a b-to-b advertiser should look like a leader in a publication. Go big or stay home. That means prominence in the size, position and, of course, the look of the ad. But what if the budget doesn't allow for such a...

Cut to the Chase: Print.(Chasers)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Company: Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. Agency: McCann-Erickson, San Francisco Market: Applications programmers Quick chase: The term "think outside the box'' entered the realm of cliche long ago. But Microsoft came up with a fresh way of...

Cut to the Chase: Television.(Chasers)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Company: Verizon Wireless, New York Agency: McCann-Erickson, New York Market: Telecommunications managers Quick chase: Choosing the wrong wireless service can be a career breaker, at least it can be if your boss is a tough-minded mogul like...

Goat or Gloat; A quick comparison of recent work by competing advertisers.(Chasers)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Company: Lancope, Alpharetta, Ga. Agency: In-house Market: Network administrators, security executives Quick chase: A metaphorical image is worth at least a thousand words but not when people have seen it a thousand times before. Such is the...

BtoB Q&A: McCann executive takes on new role; McLaren tapped to be director-global accounts on Microsoft.(News)(Interview)
April 5, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX McCann WorldGroup last month named Michael McLaren exec VP-director of global accounts on the worldwide Microsoft Corp. business, reflecting the agency group's expanded relationship with the software giant. ...

Quote Unquote.(Opinion)
April 5, 2004... "As marketers, all of us are about to kill the best thing we have to keep in touch with customers.'' Monica Luechtefeld, exec VP-global e-commerce at Office Depot, as quoted in "Will e-mail ever be great again?'' this issue, Page 1.

In Direct; Noonan leaves AIM for Return Path.(Direct & Database)(Kevin Noonan)(Association for Interactive Marketing)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Kevin Noonan has left his position as executive director of the Association for Interactive Marketing, a division of the Direct Marketing Association, to become sales director of Return Path, an e-mail services provider. DMA spokesman Louis...

Clients are from Mars, agencies are from Venus; Study shows dissatisfied marketers ready to move on with review process.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN A new survey released last month quantified what many people in the b-to-b marketing community have experienced firsthand: The agency-client relationship is in a bad way. The survey was commissioned by Citigate, a...

Is 'social networking' the next app?(Opinion)(Column)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Ellis Booker Several times in the past few months, my in-box has contained requests for me to join one or another "social network.'' Some requests have come from friends and colleagues, others have come from unknown individuals. (I...

Randall gains edge with EDA; Equipment-buying data aids publisher in bolstering its media properties.(Business Media)
April 5, 2004... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN It's no secret that larger b-to-b publishers have transformed themselves by moving away from their reliance on trade magazines and into subscription information. In a recent example, PBI Media acquired the Chemical...

Case Study: Buffalo uses research to enter new market.(Special Report: Research)(Buffalo Technology USA)
April 5, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX Buffalo Technology USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese networking company Buffalo Inc., had two major challenges: entering the U.S. market and introducing a new product. In 2000 and 2001, the standard for wireless...

Case Study: Association uses analytics to target e-newsletter content.(NetMarketing)(Association of Equipment Manufacturers)
April 5, 2004... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN Since its formation in January 2002, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers has sent out e-mail newsletters that summarized industry news and included promotions for the organization's trade shows and events....

Big changes ahead for pharma market; FDA regulations may force drug companies to seek efficiencies in manufacturing, information tech.(Vertical Insight: Pharmaceuticals)
April 5, 2004... Byline: JUDITH NEMES Pharmaceutical companies will be more prudent about where they spend money this year and beyond as they prepare for a big shift when the new Medicare drug benefit takes effect in 2006, industry observers say. ...

The ROI of RESEARCH; Marketers have begun re-investing in research, but they are returning to a different game in which outsourcing reigns and measurable results are key.(Special Report: Research)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Kate Maddox B-to-b marketers are carefully managing their market research investments in a recovering economy to better understand their target customers and how to sell to them. For many companies, research was one of the first...

E-MAIL METRICS THAT MATTER; The numbers you need to know when determining the success of your e-mail efforts.(NetMarketing)(RisMedia.com )
April 5, 2004... Byline: Karen J. Bannan RisMedia.com disseminates news and information through daily e-mails to more than 300,000 real estate and relocation specialists around the U.S. Last year, that business was in jeopardy; each day, more than 100...

B-to-b ad spending trails overall growth; Minimal growth attributed to weak fourth quarter; technology, manufacturing among sectors hit hard.(Advertising)(Column)
April 5, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX In 2003, b-to-b print ad spending lagged overall ad spending, which grew 6.1% to $128.3 billion, according to a report released last month by TNS Media Intelligence/CMR. Ad spending in b-to-b publications in 2003,...

CNET debuts rich media b-to-b ad unit; New format guarantees to serve to 1.4 million unique users over 5 days.(News)(enterprise launch unit)
April 5, 2004... Byline: KATE MADDOX CNET Networks last month introduced a new rich media ad format, CNET Enterprise Launch Unit, designed specifically for b-to-b advertisers. The unit offers a combination of branding and direct response messaging. ...

Experian buys CheetahMail; Deal is part of larger trend of data firms acquiring e-mail services providers.(Direct & Database)
April 5, 2004... Byline: CAROL KROL In what could be the first of several deals this year between data companies and e-mail marketing services providers, Experian last month acquired CheetahMail. The move signals Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Experian's bid to...

Glossary: E-mail terms, definitions.(NetMarketing)(Brief Article)(Glossary)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Karen J. Bannan Click-through rate: The number of recipients who click on links to additional information in your marketing messages. Hard bounce: Undeliverable messages that come back due to a variety of reasons. Some hard...

Case Study: NoInk targets pharma firms with integrated campaign; Meetings with prospects are measure of effort's success.(Vertical Insight: Pharmaceuticals)(NoInk Communications)
April 5, 2004... Byline: JUDITH NEMES NoInk Communications, a company that develops hand-held solutions for the medical industry, this month is launching an aggressive marketing campaign targeting pharmaceutical companies. The Indianapolis-based company...

Industry Outlook: Medicare drug benefit, election hot spots in '04.(Vertical Insight: Pharmaceutical)(Richard T. Evans)(Interview)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Judith Nemes BtoB: In the next year, what industry trends will affect the way decision-makers at pharmaceutical companies make purchases? Evans: Currently, the government represents about 16% of the pharmaceutical purchasing...

New Campaigns.(Advertising)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Chicago Mercantile Exchange shows off ideas The Chicago Mercantile Exchange last month launched a new print campaign to showcase futures products traded on its Globex electronic trading platform. The campaign, with the tagline "Ideas that...

Beyond the Biz; N.Y. deputy mayor seeks new marketing deals.(Briefs)(Daniel Doctoroff)
April 5, 2004... Daniel Doctoroff, New York's deputy mayor for economic development, said he's "prepared to go the extra mile'' in striking advertising deals that leverage what he called the city's many "unique assets'' and generate revenue. Doctoroff made the...

April 1944: Undue credit; Hindsight A b-to-b time capsule.(Opinion)(Industrial Marketing)(Brief Article)(Reprint)
April 5, 2004... Sixty years ago in Industrial Marketing, a short editorial chastised advertisers for campaigns that went beyond supporting the war effort and sought to take credit for the troops' success: This department has been criticizing-for a good two...

Penton's Kemp resigns as chairman-CEO.(Business Media)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Sean Callahan Penton Media confirmed the resignation of Thomas L. Kemp as chairman-CEO, first reported by BtoB on March 23. Kemp, who has been CEO of Penton since 1996 and chairman since 2001, agreed to remain with the company...