Among the many marketing challenges and choices that must be made to effectively communicate your company’s “story” is the definition of value. What value does your company deliver? To whom do you deliver it?  How is your company’s value communicated? These are key questions that will be answered in the best way possible during this web seminar. These days the real questions that need to be answered are:

 

 

Because we are all in love with our product and services, these questions are frequently answered incorrectly. The answers are often couched in “me” language instead of “you” language.  The result: a value proposition that is just a thinly disguised advertisement of your product or service. 

 

While that is optimal in the best of times, it clearly misses the mark with prospects dealing with economic pressure. The core message is centered on “here is what we have to sell and here is why you need to buy it,” rather than a clear customer-focused statement that demonstrates your knowledge of the customer situation or experience, followed by a specific offer to help them address it. Taking into consideration the impact of the current economy on your prospect will be key in crafting a value proposition that will get their attention.

 

1.   How to really define what your customer’s objective is in their language.
2.   How to frame your offer to address only their specific needs.
3.   To develop and deliver benefit statements that make you stand out and create action in the customer’s mind.
4.   Identifying and addressing the key economic drivers that are top of mind for your prospects and customers.

 

Who Should Attend:
Presidents/CEOs, Business Owners, Sales and Marketing professionals, Business Development professionals.

 

Date:  April 20, 2010

 

Time:  10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. CST

 

Cost:
BMA Members - No Charge
Non-Members - $99

Registration:
1. Click here to register.

2. Reserve your slot in the web seminar. After registering, a receipt page will open. On this page, click the link asking you to reserve your slot to complete the reservation process.

 

About the Presenter:
Lisa Dennis, President, Knowledgence Associates, brings over twenty-five years of marketing and sales to client engagements. She has hands-on experience with both the marketing and selling of business-to-business and business-to-consumer products and services.  She also has system enhancement and design experience for marketing and sales applications.  Her consulting firm serves clients in high technology, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services. Clients include Akamai, Mutual of Omaha, Tufts Health Plan, GTE, and Quaker Fabric.
 

BMA has established a program to help members should they become unemployed — the BMA Bridge Program.

With the Membership Bridge Program, BMA membership can be sustained without dues payment during a period of unemployment. This allows unemployed members to retain access to valuable BMA resources as they seek new employment

Here’s how the Membership Bridge Program works:

 

The rules have changed in naming and branding for B2B marketing in today’s digital age. To help B2B marketers understand the five converging trends and how to know if their brand will sink or swim, Minnesota chapter of the Business Marketing Association (BMA-Minnesota) will host “Brand Naming for the Digital Age” on April 20, 2010.

 

The session will be led by John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell, founders of Pollywog, a naming and branding agency in Minneapolis. Stucker has more than 15 years experience helping clients create and develop their brands. His work is the recipient of several awards from institutions such as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and industry trade magazines, How and Print. Treadwell’s 20 years of experience include work on many leading brands, including the Walt Disney Company, Paramount Home Video and 3M. Her work has won several creative awards including The Show, The One Show and the Art Director’s Club.

 

“Branding has evolved enormously over the years for B2B,” said Heidi Wight, vice president of programming for BMA-Minnesota. “With more and more products and services vying for consumers’ attention, a powerfully positioned name and brand will help a business compete and succeed in the future.”

 

Pollywog’s presentation will address:

-          What a brand name needs to succeed in the digital age

-          Converging Trends Affecting Naming for B2B Marketers

-          Is your brand working for you or against you?

 

The event will be held on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Golden Valley, Minn., and will run from 8 to 9 a.m. Registration and breakfast will begin at 7:30 a.m. The cost of the event is $30 for BMA members and $45 for non-members. Attendees can register online at www.bmaminnesota.org through April 16, 2010. There will be a limited number of walk-up registrations also available. A member’s only networking event will follow immediately from 9 to 9:30 a.m.

 

Founded in 2007, Minneapolis-based Pollywog is an unconventional branding agency with a state-of-the-art naming process. Pollywog has overhauled the traditional approach to naming and developed the world's first patent-pending brand creation process. Its unique perspective grew out of the founders' experience as creative professionals working for some of the world's largest advertising and marketing agencies.

John has been helping clients create and evolve their brands for over 15 years. In addition to his naming and branding work, John’s broad experience in design and advertising has helped him develop a rare facility with both visuals and words which ideally suits him to lead naming and branding projects. Before founding Pollywog, John created strategic communications in virtually every medium from brand identity to packaging, print ads to Web sites. John has worked as a consultant, art director and designer for a wide range of agencies including Campbell Mithun, Rapp Collins Worldwide and BBDO. His work has won awards from such institutions as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, How magazine and Print magazine, and his brand identity work has been published in Print’s Best Logos.

 

Prior to founding Pollywog, Devon had been an independent consultant and copywriter/associate creative director with some of the world’s leading advertising agencies, including J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles, and Young & Rubicam, Bozell and Campbell Mithun in Chicago. Over the 20-year course of her career, Devon has worked on many leading brands, including the Walt Disney Company, Paramount Home Video, Coffee-mate, 3M, Southwestern Bell, @Home, Berlitz, Best Buy, Harmon AutoGlass and Mexicana Airlines. Her creative awards include The Show, The One Show, the Art Director’s Club, the Gold Addy, Print’s Regional Design Annual, the International Advertising Festival of New York, and others. Devon holds a Masters of Advertising from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.

As part of the strategic planning efforts in 2010, Eva Keiser spearheaded a survey of the B2B marketing community in the Twin Cities to determine their needs for communication from the Business Marketing Association.

 

To all of those that gave in-depth and thoughtful feedback, thanks very much!

 

The results of the survey provided some confirmation that the current communications plan was on track, as well as guidance for future improvements.

 

In the spirit of providing open communication within the community, highlights (and constructive criticism) were as follows:

·         Marketers currently get most of their updates and information about the BMA from   email blasts and LinkedIn.

·         The preferred frequency of updates is once or twice a month

·         The most important pieces of communication are related to event details, networking, member information/directory, and event presentations

·         There were some comments that requested more information about the benefits and value of membership, more news and point of view materials about B2B marketing, and more opportunities to connect within the chapter

 

Based on these recommendations from current and (hopefully) future BMA-MN members, communication will be improved as follows:

·         Refine the BMA-MN brand; clearly articulate value and differentiators

·         Focus efforts on enhancing Web site, Email, and LinkedIn vehicles

·         Develop monthly e-newsletter

·         Help make connections

·         Promote events!

·         Make it easy for WOM and pass along communication

 

Look for updates via email, this blog, and at events for future communication improvements. Again, thanks to all that participated and to our members for their ongoing support.

 

We’re always open to feedback from the community, so please provide any reactions or additional ideas in the comments section.