BtoB articles from February 2002

BtoB archives from February 2002

B-to-b advertising scarce during Super Bowl XXXVI; Many marketers bet on less expensive Olympic spots.(News)
February 11, 2002... Byline: KATE MADDOX Call it the battle of the Roman numerals. With two major sporting events happening just one week apart, many b-to-b advertisers chose the Winter Olympics XIX over Super Bowl XXXVI to run ad campaigns. ...

MeritDirect chief: Cultivate existing customers.(Direct Mail List Management)(Ralph Drybrough)(Interview)
February 11, 2002... Byline: MATTHEW SCHWARTZ Ralph Drybrough, a 14-year veteran of the list-management industry, joined several of his colleagues from Direct Media Inc. to form MeritDirect in February 2000. In just two years, the Stamford, Conn.-based company...

Infrastructure investments to make in '02.(Opinion)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Whit Andrews There's nothing like a long queue of Whismos to put the fear of you-know-who into the folks in the budget office. What's a Whismo? It's a whimsical word for ``Where is my order?'' and it's a big chunk of the calls...

Goat or Gloat.(Chasers)(Toshiba America Business Solutions)(Canon Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Company: Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc., Irvine, Calif. Market: Office equipment Agency: DGWB Advertising, Santa Ana, Calif. Quick chase: The Chasers sympathize: How do you sell unexciting commodity products like copiers? Toshiba...

Info glut clutters marketers' ability to reach analysts.(News)
February 11, 2002... Byline: KATE MADDOX In an attempt to find out how industry analysts absorb information and evaluate advertising, b-to-b ad agency Doremus & Co. last fall conducted a proprietary survey titled ``Life on the Street,'' which it will use to...

Media News.(Business Media)
February 11, 2002... Dow Jones revamps 'Journal' Web site Dow Jones & Co. introduced a new version of The Wall Street Journal Online (www.wsj.com), widely viewed as the best example of a successful subscription strategy on the Internet. Investment in the...

Cahners' new CEO not caught up in Web; Media company Chooses B-to-B magazine veteran Casella, shifts focus from Internet ventures back to print products.(Jim Casella)
February 11, 2002... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN For the second time in a row, Reed Elsevier plc selected a former Internet executive as the CEO of its Cahners Business Information unit. At the peak of the Internet bubble in February 2000, Marc Teren, who headed...

Direct agency leverages database for `IT Solution Journal'; New magazine targets highly qualified audience.(Business Media)
February 11, 2002... Byline: MATTHEW SCHWARTZ Byron Crowell is betting the database he's developed over the last seven years will help his newly launched IT Solution Journal thrive in what continues to be a brutal advertising market for technology...

Guest Column: Build relationships with list brokers.(Direct Mail List Management)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Ruth P. Stevens Working with a great list broker and great list manager can make your life very sweet. A broker who finds you the best lists, gets you excellent prices, always comes up with new ideas on how you can run your...

After Anthrax: Direct mail picks up, but so do e-mail and scrutiny.(Direct Mail List Management)
February 11, 2002... Byline: MATTHEW SCHWARTZ Five months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and four months after the initial anthrax scare, the volume of direct mail is back to its normal level, industry executives say. But things haven't returned to...

New Campaigns.(looking at internet ads)
February 11, 2002... British Airways lays out sideways ad To grab the attention of international business travelers, British Airways is using a unique online ad to promote its ``Fly flat. Fly free.'' campaign. The ad, which began running Jan. 14 on...

Trade shows start to recover; Industry still struggling with sluggish economy, travel and security concerns.(News)
February 11, 2002... Byline: KATE MADDOX The b-to-b trade show business, which relies on travel, exhibitor spending and advertising, is witnessing a slow recovery as the nation bounces back from Sept. 11 and struggles out of a recession. Certain sectors, such...

Agenda.(Calendar/Datebook)(Calendar)
February 11, 2002... Date Event Organizer Event city Location Phone Web site March 4-6 CRM Summit Gartner Conferences Chicago Sheraton Chicago Hotel (203) 316-6100 www.gartner.com/us/events & Towers March 4-8 Exhibitor Show 2002 Exhibitor Magazine...

IAB issues Net ad metrics standards; Long-awaited Guidelines establish definitions for consistent measurement in five areas.(Interactive Advertising Bureau)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Kate Maddox Advertisers and agencies say they support new online ad guidelines issued by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, although they say there is still much work to do before the measurement issue is resolved. In early...

Clients split on using multiple agencies for interactive needs.(News)
February 11, 2002... Byline: KATE MADDOX When it comes to interactive marketing, clients are evenly split between using a single shop or multiple agencies to handle their accounts, according to a recent survey by Jupiter Media Metrix Inc. The report,...

Detail oriented; Marketers starting to demand richer, targeted e-mail lists.(Direct Mail List Management)
February 11, 2002... Byline: MATTHEW SCHWARTZ E-mail can be an effective marketing tool when executed properly and used to supplement snail mail. Still, industry observers say that while e-mail lists are gaining in sophistication, they have a long way to go...

E-Champs: Donato touts concept of Web services.(E-Commerce)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Byline: RICHARD KARPINSKI Craig Donato, president-CEO of Grand Central Communications, solved his first major b-to-b e-commerce problem when he was senior VP at one of the early b-to-c high-fliers, Web portal Excite@Home. There, he had to...

Embattled Motorola maps out new focus with Digital DNA ads; Tech company cuts branding ads, looks for results.(Company Profile)
February 11, 2002... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN If there's an epicenter of the current technology- and telecommunications-driven recession, it might be the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg. That's where Motorola Inc. is headquartered. Known primarily these days...

Cut to the Chase: Print.(Vericept Corp.)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Company: Vericept Corp., Englewood, Colo. Market: IT security Agency: Cultivator Advertising & Design, Boulder, Colo. Chase: The headline, which is written in the style of a ransom note, is a grabber: ``We have the network and are not giving it...

Comings & Goings.(appointments)
February 11, 2002... * Art Medici to president-CEO, Logilent Learning Systems Inc., Lafayette, Calif., from president-CEO, SmartSoft. * Bryan Kennedy to COO, Epsilon, Burlington, Mass., from chief technology officer. Also, Temple Elliott to VP-direct response...

Definitions of key metrics.(Advertising)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Ad impression: Measurement of responses from ad delivery system to ad request from the user's browser, recorded as late as possible in the delivery of the creative material to the user's browser. Click: User reaction to Web content or...

Postal and e-mail 'combos' gain favor with marketers.(Direct Mail List Management)(Enterprise Marketing Solutions Inc., )
February 11, 2002... Byline: MATTHEW SCHWARTZ When b-to-b marketers go out of house to pitch new customers, they rent either traditional postal lists or the rapidly developing e-mail lists, with the choice largely dependent on the kind of company doing the...

Call to the Chase.(report really good or bad ads)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Have you seen any ads that you thought were really good-or really bad? Ads that made you laugh, cry or feel sorry for the poor soul who must have lost a job for coming up with that idea? The Chasers are always open to suggestions, so let us...

Interactive association site not very interactive.(Sites)(Association for Interactive Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Organization: Association for Interactive Marketing, New York Web site: www.imarketing.org Launch date: Jan. 24, 2002 Agency: In-house Design: The Association for Interactive Marketing (the subsidiary of the Direct Marketing...

Beyond The Biz.(various news briefs)
February 11, 2002... Laid-off exec lets off steam, unloads fish How do you land the perfect job in the midst of America's most competitive corporate climate? Don't ask Joe Mozian, the laid-off marketing exec behind www.hire meseriousinquiriesonly.com. Mozian,...

Skinny business books now serving meaty ads.(business to business advertising)
February 11, 2002... At the height of the Internet frenzy, b-to-b advertising was so full of pie-in-the-sky promises, it was raining key limes. Business Week, Forbes and Fortune were filled with ads from all sorts of companies promising a New Economy, wonderful but...

Build partner loyalty in tough times.(e-commerce management)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Richard Karpinski There's no doubt the past year has been tough for b-to-b e-commerce. Spending on e-business projects has fallen precipitously, and much-hyped developments, from public e-marketplaces to collaborative e-commerce...

Too much complexity may suggest scandal.(business)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Ellis Booker One positive byproduct of Enron's meltdown could be a broad push among businesses to simplify their models and processes. Many companies already have initiatives in place to pare back the thicket of business processes...

Publishers' debt worries media buyers.(News)
February 11, 2002... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN The severity of the current media recession has left many b-to-b media companies scrambling for cash to pay the long-term debt they piled up in the go-go days of the Internet bubble. ``Debt is a four-letter...

Quick Hits.(various news briefs)
February 11, 2002... Executives not sold on Web advertising A new study by Internet Profiles Corp. finds that U.S. advertisers are still not convinced about the effectiveness of online advertising. Web analytics firm I/PRO, which is owned by TopicalNet Inc.,...

New Web service for global marketers.(Digital Impact Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Ellis Booker E-mail marketing outsourcer Digital Impact Inc. this week will release what it describes as the first self-managed online direct marketing application built specifically for Global 2000 marketing teams. Called...

What a difference a year makes.(Commerce One, Ariba)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Commerce One A year ago: Pushing its MarketSite network and upcoming MarketSet collaboration platform. Today: Delivering Commerce One 5.0 with a focus on smaller, more manageable applications such as procurement and sourcing. ...

Commerce One emphasizes tools; Firm shifts from e-marketplaces toward purchasing Management applications.
February 11, 2002... Byline: RICHARD KARPINSKI A year after the e-marketplace boom-and subsequent bust-leading b-to-b e-commerce vendors are going back to basics with tools that help companies manage their purchasing programs. Leading the way is Commerce...

Beware the pitfalls of bypassing the channel.(electronic commerce versus traditional distribution)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Ted Kemp When business strategists talk about the benefits of circumventing traditional distributors by selling direct through the Web, they often point to the success of one company: IBM Corp. The technology giant sold $12...

XIX Winter Olympics: marketing hot spot; B-to-b advertisers spare no expense at what most agree is the most important sports venue of the year.
February 11, 2002... Byline: KATE MADDOX B-to-b advertisers are going for the gold at the XIX Winter Olympics, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into what most agree is the most important sports venue of the year. ``The environment it creates and the...

Case Study: GE Plastics' Web tools score $2.8B in online orders.
February 11, 2002... Byline: David Joachim GE Plastics may not have come up with the idea of turning Web pages into functional business tools, but its b-to-b toolbox may well be the largest. Product engineers at manufacturers as varied as Lego and Ford...

Secrets of the e-commerce elite; Why Kinko's, GE Plastics and FedEx focus on creating value instead of selling products.
February 11, 2002... Byline: David Joachim It's still one of the best-kept e-commerce secrets, but FedEx Corp. was wise to it nearly eight years ago. Even before the Internet boom, in 1994, the shipping titan used the programming equivalent of duct tape to...

Briefs.(various news briefs)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Smaller firms to drive enterprise software Small and midsize companies will be the driving forces behind growth in the enterprise software market over the next few years, according to a report from Jupiter Media Metrix Inc. Jupiter...

You must measure, or fail.( )
February 11, 2002... Byline: Mike Kozub In a fragile economy, companies need ways to generate sales now, not a year from now. The big winners in this recession will be those that master the emerging science of ``immediate marketing''-automating all processes,...

Corrections.(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
February 11, 2002... An incorrect photo appeared with a profile of Jeff Carr, chairman-CEO of Motiva Inc., in the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of BtoB. The correct photo appears on the right. CAPTION(S): Jeff Carr

'BtoB,' BMA to present 'The New Fundamentals' seminars.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... The Sales and Marketing Institute of Scottsdale, Ariz., is launching a multi-city seminar series that tackles today's hottest issue: What b-to-b sales and marketing managers must do to integrate the new technologies of the last 10 years with...

Quote Unquote.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... "In a knee-jerk reaction, they cut their marketing and violate the rule that Sam Walton used to tell me: Whenever you get confused, go to the store." Roy M. Spence Jr., president of advertising agency and brand consultancy GSD&M, on the...

Hindsight- January 1999: A Tale of Two Vendors.(Straight Up! Software, Accrue Software )(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Not every vendor of Web site traffic measurement tools made it to the finish line. Such was the case with Straight Up! Software, a San Diego-based Internet tracking and reporting company that had high hopes for its $2,500-a-month service. In...

TechTarget finds conference niche; Company starts new division to focus on narrowly targeted technology sectors.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Byline: PHILIP B. CLARK Undaunted by the recession and the grim technology trade show market, TechTarget has started a conference division to support a series of new conferences. The division will back five technology conferences:...

Detail oriented; Marketers starting to demand richer, targeted e-mail lists.
February 11, 2002... E-mail can be an effective marketing tool when executed properly and used to supplement snail mail. Still, industry observers say that while e-mail lists are gaining in sophistication, they have a long way to go before they possess the richly...