BtoB articles from May 2005

BtoB archives from May 2005

Customer scorecards: Four keys to success.(Special Report: Database Marketing)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Todd King and Ken Wells These days, when budgets are often stretched beyond recognition, business marketers can't afford fuzzy logic. The more clearly you can discern potential opportunities and threats, the more effectively you'll...

Communicating with the channel; Portals and e-mail can help cut printing costs, feed leads to resellers.(NetMarketing)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Karen J. Bannan Kestler Financial Group resells financial and insurance products for large mutual funds and insurers through a network of more than 6,000 independent agents. Since rates can change quickly and new products are...

No. 9 InformationWeek; CMP powerhouse expands on the Internet and overseas.(Media Power 50)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Byline: R.S. InformationWeek, the flagship IT publication of CMP Media, has emerged from the tech downturn with an impressive 33% share of the IT market and last year dwarfed its closest competitor by 1,200 ad pages, according to Michael...

Campaign touts the 'other IBM'; Goal is to raise awareness of company's strategic business consulting expertise.(Advertising)(International Business Machines Corp. Business Consulting Services)
May 2, 2005... Byline: KATE MADDOX To promote its strategic business services, IBM Business Consulting last month launched an ad campaign with the theme, "The other IBM.'' The campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather New York, is the first major one for...

HP mines for customer gold with analytics.(Special Report: Database Marketing)
May 2, 2005... Byline: ROGER SLAVENS Sometimes sophisticated data mining can't be done with out-of-the-box software and you have to invent the process yourself. Of course, it helps if you're a multimillion-dollar company with loads of resources and...

Primedia may sell business info unit; Company hires CSFB to explore options as b-to-b media M&A activity increases.(News)(Credit Suisse First Boston)
May 2, 2005... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN On April 25, Primedia Inc. officially announced what many had long anticipated: Primedia Business Magazines & Media is on the block. Primedia has hired Credit Suisse First Boston to explore the sale of the...

No. 10 "Closing Bell,' CNBC; Afternoon show wraps up the markets, reels in C-level execs.(Media Power 50)(Consumer News and Business Channel Partnership)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Byline: R.S. Many business executives have a new definition of must-see TV, thanks to CNBC's highly successful two-hour program "Closing Bell.'' "Buying daytime for business sounds like an oxymoron, but there's a new way of thinking...

Consolidation threatens marketing services shops.(News)
May 2, 2005... Byline: JAMES B. ARNDORFER They've streamlined their media and creative agency rosters. Now a growing number of marketers are eyeing their below-the-line shops. As the $271 billion marketing-services business becomes even bigger in...

CRM expert talks up new acronym: ROC.(News)(customer relationship management)(interview)(Interview)
May 2, 2005... Byline: CAROL KROL Martha Rogers and Don Peppers, the duo who coined the term customer relationship management and wrote the definitive book on CRM in 1993, are back with a new acronym-and a new book due out in June from Doubleday. BtoB...

Begin brand planning long before merger.(Opinion)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Daniel Hoexter Why is it that so often so little thought is given to marketing and branding issues prior to the announcement of a merger or acquisition? Only after the announcement does the absence of a clear naming, branding and...

Thinking out loud about blogs.(Opinion)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Ellis Booker I don't have a blog, and I don't plan to start one. Please don't feel bad for me. Blogging, the latest online craze, is the subject of this week's BusinessWeek cover story, which announces "Blogs will change your...

No. 2 Google; Flush with cash from its successful IPO, Google invested in tech, new products.(Media Power 50)(initial public offering)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Roger Slavens Last year, Google's harshest critics said the search giant was ripe to lose ground to growing competition from the likes of Yahoo! and Microsoft. They also said Google's highly publicized and unorthodox initial public...

No. 5 ESPN SportsCenter; Popular show's predominantly male prime-time audience is a hit with advertisers.(Media Power 50)(Entertainment and Sports Programming Network)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Roger Slavens Advertising has been sold out on ESPN's flagship program "SportsCenter'' since February and looks to be tight through July, said Lou Koskovolis, exec VP-multimedia sales leadership for ESPN and ABC Sports Sales. ...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
May 2, 2005... * In the interactive agencies list in BtoB's "Interactive Marketing Guide 2005'' (p. 36) an incorrect location and phone number were given for Media Logic. The agency is located in Albany, N.Y. Its phone number is (518) 456-3015. * Also in...

Komatsu saves time, money with extranet.(NetMarketing)(Komatsu America Corp.)
May 2, 2005... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN Vernon Hills, Ill.-based Komatsu America Corp. is the second-largest supplier of construction equipment in North America. The company also manufacturers mining equipment. It sells its products through resellers-40...

Online fever sparks revitalized AD:TECH; Conference enjoys record attendance as forecasters see continued surge in spending.(News)
May 2, 2005... Byline: KATE MADDOX Proving that online advertising is back in full force, a record 6,000 attendees jammed the AD:TECH online conference in San Francisco last week, up 50% from last year's event. More than 180 exhibitors demonstrated...

Data quality assurance no longer a luxury.(Special Report: Database Marketing)
May 2, 2005... Byline: ROGER SLAVENS According to Dun & Bradstreet Corp., 246 business telephone numbers will change or be disconnected, 58 business addresses will change, 81 company executive management changes will occur, 41 new businesses will open,...

Agenda.(Calendar/Datebook)(Calendar)
May 2, 2005... May 3 Blogging Goes Mainstream: Is Your Company Ready? Business Development Institute Microsoft Customer Briefing Center, New York www.bdionline.com/blogevent May 9-10 Digital Asset Management Symposium Henry...

Media Power 50; Our annual list of the top b-to-b advertising venues demonstrates that change is good.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Sean Callahan Many of the top properties in this year's edition of BtoB's Media Power 50 are protecting their esteemed brands not by standing pat but by changing constantly. Venues ranging from the venerable (The Wall Street...

Escaping b-to-b's black hole.(Opinion)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Bob Schmonsees There's a crisis facing b-to-b companies that's driven by a growing disconnect between their marketing and sales organizations. This dysfunctional relationship often consumes costs, time and resources the same way...

Media Notes.(Business Media)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... ABM expands BIN categories tracked American Business Media announced it has augmented its Business Information Network reporting model for tabulating b-to-b ad sales. Beginning with the first quarter of 2005, BIN reports will expand the...

Seeking security; As customer data breaches and identity thefts increase, so does the pressure to find a solution.(Special Report: Database Marketing)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Carol Krol Direct marketers can't seem to catch a break. Just as target-driven marketing becomes the top priority for marketers, and increasingly sophisticated database services help clients cherry-pick the best customers, in...

Panasonic's Toughbook PC muscles into niche.(Vertical Insight: Government)
May 2, 2005... Byline: ROGER SLAVENS Roughly 12 years ago, what's now known as Panasonic Computer Solutions Co. introduced the Toughbook, a rugged laptop that could endure the rigors of out-of-the-office conditions ranging from construction sites to...

Quick Hits; Online ad spending rises 33% in 2004.(Briefs)(advertising)
May 2, 2005... Online ad revenue totaled $9.6 billion last year, up 33% over 2003, according to the final Ad Revenue Report for 2004, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Consumer advertising led online advertising in 2004, making up 49% of all...

Beyond the Biz; Goodbye, Rocky; Hello, Dali.(News)
May 2, 2005... SALVADOR DALI'S VISAGE ON THE STEPS of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the steps Sylvester Stallone's Rocky made famous, is hard to miss. Created to promote the museum's retrospective of the surrealist artist's works, the steps feature a...

Quote/Unquote: "What are your plans for print advertising?''.(Opinion)
May 2, 2005... "We're using print advertising comprised of first-person employee testimonials to drive awareness and understanding of our business strategy.'' John F. Beering, director-marketing, Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engine Business "As we...

New Campaigns.(Advertising)
May 2, 2005... Adobe Systems "Everything but the Idea'' Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco Target audience: Graphic artists and designers Campaign objective: Drive demand for Adobe's Creative Suite 2 Media placement: Print...

How to market to government.(Vertical Insight: Government)
May 2, 2005... Byline: ROGER SLAVENS On the federal, state and local level, governments within the U.S. spent an estimated $2.234 trillion on goods and services in 2004, according to Global Insight, a Waltham, Mass.-based economic and financial data...

No. 3 BusinessWeek; McGraw-Hill's "BusinessWeek,' now in its 76th year in print, positions itself as a multichannel news source.(Media Power 50)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Marie Griffin BusinessWeek, which celebrated its 75th birthday last September, "is still a very solid business publication,'' as Donna Mercer, partner-media director at Howard, Merrell & Partners, put it. BusinessWeek's print...

Methodology.(Media Power 50)
May 2, 2005... In making the selections for the Media Power 50 list, BtoB editors employed both objective and subjective criteria. They evaluated data such as ad revenue and audience, and interviewed about two dozen top media buyers, advertisers and industry...

No. 7 Forbes.com; Business news site offers 10.3 million unique monthly visitors and a guarantee to boost advertisers' brands.(Media Power 50)
May 2, 2005... Byline: M.G. Jim Spanfeller, president-CEO of Forbes.com, recognizes that "a brand is a brand-but the iteration of that brand in different media is not the same. I don't see Forbes.com as being apart from Forbes magazine, but people employ...

Advanstar to sell several market clusters to start-up.(News)(Advanstar Communications)
May 2, 2005... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN Advanstar Communications announced April 4 a $185 million deal to sell several of its smaller market clusters to Questex Media Group. Advanstar agreed to sell its Advanstar's Information Technology &...

Apprise Media to buy Canon Communications.(News)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN Apprise Media, which is backed by Spectrum Equity Investors, announced April 21 that it has agreed to acquire Canon Communications from a private equity fund operated by media merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson....

No. 1 The Wall Street Journal; Still the gold standard, the "Journal' continuesto launch new products to boost its ad base.(Media Power 50)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Sean Callahan The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Co.'s flagship newspaper, appears on the surface to be an icon, an unchanging institution. But the reality is that the newspaper has undergone numerous changes in the past decade....

No. 6 Fortune; Magazine succeeds by offering hard-hitting reporting, marketing packages with other Time Warner properties.(Media Power 50)(Fortune)
May 2, 2005... Byline: S.C. So far in 2005 Time Warner's Fortune has brought down one CEO. Well, that may be stretching the facts a bit, but some observers believe that Fortune's Feb. 7 cover story by Carol Loomis, titled "Hewlett-Packard: Why Carly's...

Smaller firms stretch limits to compete; In-house creativity, cost-saving measures make up for tight budgets in market share race.(News)
May 2, 2005... Byline: KATE MADDOX In a recovering economy, b-to-b marketers are taking pains to make every marketing dollar count, from using more in-house resources to finding innovative media strategies. Although ad budgets overall are increasing,...

No. 4 USA Today; Executive readership studies show Gannett Co.'s flagship holds its own against "Wall Street Journal,' "New York Times'.(Media Power 50)
May 2, 2005... Byline: S.C. Over the years, some observers have dismissed USA Today as a lightweight, dubbing it "McPaper.'' But when it comes to delivering a top-level business audience, the Gannett Co. flagship can go toe to toe with such heavyweights...

No. 8 CNET Networks; IT stalwart is expanding into more general b-to-b.(Media Power 50)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Byline: S.C. CNET Networks is generally known as a tech site designed for consumers looking to compare PCs or digital cameras. But the company also boasts several robust sites for IT professionals. These prime destinations are: a tech...

'Media Business' names Top Innovators; Wood, Strakosch and Kann among executives selected.(Business Media)(WWD Media Worldwide)
May 2, 2005... BtoB's Media Business announced the winners of this year's Top Innovators in Business Publishing Awards in its May issue. Media Business inaugurated the Top Innovators awards last year to recognize publishing professionals who've found new...

Marketing needs to make its case quantitatively.(Special Report: Database Marketing)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Elana Anderson Some industry pundits call for the end of marketing as a standalone department, recommending instead that marketing functions be absorbed into sales, product and corporate groups. While we at Forrester Research...

Goat or Gloat.(Chasers)
May 2, 2005... Company: Earthlink, Atlanta Agency: Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami Market: Mobile executives Quick chase: We like it when the product is the hero of the ad. We like it when callouts are used to highlight product features, in this case, on the...

Cut to the Chase.(Chasers)(U.S. Postal Service's web site)(Acrylon acrylic foam's advertisement )(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Organization: U.S. Postal Service, Washington, D.C. Agency: Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich. Market: Shipping managers, office managers Quick chase: A woman walking through her office with a package is confronted by co-workers who want her to take...

Boldly going up against b-to-c ads.(Chasers)
May 2, 2005... What are such b-to-b stalwarts as Microsoft, Siemens and Toshiba doing swimming in the consumer advertising-oriented mainstream of America's two leading newsweeklies? They're looking for business decision-makers, of course. The b-to-b...

Marketers score big with sports deals; GE piggybacks `preferred partner' status onto NFL broadcast rights; sponsorships mean sales.(News)(National Football League)
May 2, 2005... Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN When the National Football League announced its new prime-time broadcast deals last month, the media spotlight focused on how "Monday Night Football'' would move from ABC to Walt Disney Co. sibling ESPN after next...

Google adds features to ad platform.(News)
May 2, 2005... Byline: CAROL KROL Search engine leader Google has begun testing a new advertising product that features animated graphics and the capability to specify where and when these ads appear on Web sites. Some marketers and publishers...

Media Power 50 List.(Media Power 50)
May 2, 2005... Newspapers Financial Times Phone: (212) 641-6550 URL: www.ft.com Circulation: 132,000 Ad revenue: $28.5 million (for U.S.) Ad rate: $45,300 for 1 page 4/C Comment: For international-minded readers, Pearson's...

Database debate; Experts survey legislation, security issues in shifting environment.(Special Report: Database Marketing)
May 2, 2005... BtoB convened experts from major database marketing providers for a virtual discussion through e-mail regarding database marketing. The discussion covered a range of topics, producing comments on everything from handling legislative issues in...