The changed marketing landscape

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This is ClientSide from Fox Agency.

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Nathan Anibaba:

Jan Kämpfer is the Marketing Director for Panasonic Connect, Europe. Jan grows business by building high performing marketing teams that deliver real pipeline for sales. Panasonic Connect is a new business within the group, which leads the B2B solutions business. The company’s name change reflects the goal to connect their customer’s operations to a better future. Jan Kämpfer, welcome to ClientSide.

Jan Kämpfer:

Thanks, Nathan. And thanks for having me here.

Nathan Anibaba:

Let’s start at the beginning, because you’ve been with Panasonic now for 20 years, from business development, product marketing and marketing various product categories during your time there. What are the most significant ways that you’ve seen the business change over the last decade?

Jan Kämpfer:

Yeah, quite a lot I must say, when I think about. And the business position process gets more complex than it ever was. And more people are involved those days, into the buying group and into the purchasing decision. And then ultimately also for the marketeers, there are more personas out of something you need to target and you need to talk to.

Jan Kämpfer:

And on top, of course, the buying behavior has changed from the customer, that they’re doing a lot of research by themself, remote, passive on their side, before they contact the sales team. Also, again, that’s of course a new challenge for the marketing teams. Content is king. It’s better and suitable target group related content you provide. It’s better you serve the new buying process.

Jan Kämpfer:

And then of course, the lead over process from marketing to sales is also a little bit changed. So, that marketing is more longer in the qualification process. So in the past, I guess the marketeer was quicker handing over a lead to sales, but now those days, the nurturing process and customer listing process has been expanded, and marketing is more there in the front role and nurturing longer the leads before handing over to sales, which is not necessarily bad, it gives much more attention and weight to the marketing, all in B2B companies.

Nathan Anibaba:

So we’re going to speak about that in more detail in light of the pandemic, and how sales and marketing has changed over the last two to three years over the pandemic. But give us a little bit more context to Panasonic Connect. What does the business do? What problems do you solve for your customers?

Jan Kämpfer:

So basically, Panasonic was founded in 1918 and contains at the moment out of eight independent companies, if you like, total Panasonic Group had last year, net sales with €54 billion.

Jan Kämpfer:

And Panasonic Connect itself, you can also describe that as a business solution company from Panasonic, focusing on B2B. So, that was established on the 1st of October of 2021. So quite recent. We have a headquarter in Wiesbaden, but it’s a European international group and contains our four main businesses. And one is our Mobile Solution Business with rugged tablets and handhelds. Our Media Entertainment Group, focusing on high brightness and reliable projectors. Or our Broadcasting and ProAV division with PTZ, studio cameras and modern switchboards.

Jan Kämpfer:

And then we have the Business and Industry Solution group, which focus on customized industry solutions, focusing around logistics. And finally our Panasonic Factory Solution division, which marketing on automated, electronic manufacturing equipment and robots and welding systems. So quite a good variety in the B2B area, I must say.

Nathan Anibaba:

And as Marketing Director, what’s your role and responsibility?

Jan Kämpfer:

So basically I think that, not differentiates much to any other roles, it’s a KPI management, it’s public relations and PR, and focusing on the development on our social channels. Social, of course it’s not a secret, gets more and more important.

Jan Kämpfer:

But also looking on cost BU, demand, lead demand, gen campaigns, but also have a certain focus on our digital systems and tools. Basically, there we spent quite some time to bling them up to the latest level and technology. And of course, try to connect them with each other, that they talk with each other. So you’ll get more out of your system orchestra.

Nathan Anibaba:

And as we know, B2B marketing has changed tremendously over the last two to three years, let alone the last 10 years. What levers are you pulling to drive growth for the brand? Both from a demand gen side and on the brand building side of things as well.

Jan Kämpfer:

I think in the past, there was the big wind campaigns, the big heritage and brand campaigns. And still in the digital world, we do a little bit of display marketing, but there’s also getting less and less in Europe, because of the new cookie policy. The retargeting with display ads gets less and less efficient.

Jan Kämpfer:

So we’re focusing there a little bit more to PPC, Google ads, and keyword ads, and SEO, for example. But the reason we made also some good success with LinkedIn lead chance, for example, and Syndicate Marketing using their platforms like Adnet or OnDot Media, for example. And having there also quite some good success.

Jan Kämpfer:

Of course, all this leading to our integrated ABM and ABX strategy. That’s the umbrella of all the things. But underneath, to highlight something, Syndicate Marketing seems to be having a renaissance, if you like. And we’re seeing some quite nice success at the moment.

Nathan Anibaba:

Now, some have criticized ABM and performance marketing as being reductive for B2B marketing. Yes, it’s effective. But as far as driving preference for the brand, as far as driving an emotional component in the minds of customers, ABM and ABX is somewhat limited in that regard vis-à-vis your more traditional brand building approaches. How do you respond to that?

Jan Kämpfer:

Yeah, of course, ABM, ABX is lead gen focused, customer building focused, and it’s close working with sales on developing and building customer success stories.

Jan Kämpfer:

But on top, of course, you always need to have a flavor on brand, because your brand works long-term. Where the ABX is maybe mid-term, short-term ABM. Brand is more the long-term angle, which you have. And of course, in some critical times where the business is a little bit tight, you always focus on the short-term success with lead gen. But you as a marketeer, you should never forget also, look on the long-term to build up your brand, because in the long-run, this will build back to you.

Nathan Anibaba:

Let’s talk a little bit about how B2B marketing has changed in the last two to three years, as far as the pandemic is concerned. And you said recently, quote, “adapting to a world without face-to-face events has sparked a digital transformation in marketing. The traditional reliance on the annual calendar of key events and conferences backed by direct marketing has almost disappeared. And a positive new digital hybrid approach is emerging.” What does this look like now that so many people are allowed to meet in-person and face-to-face again?

Jan Kämpfer:

I guess I could rewrite the statement again, when you’re asking me today, which you do, so let me therefore rephrase it. So what we see as fortunately, the live events coming back, we see a lot of catch-up effects from ourself, from our customers as well. So the attendance on exhibition itself, on general exhibition or vertical or industry exhibitions, is a little bit less in terms of numbers, maybe around 20% to 15% less attendees at exhibitions at the moment.

Jan Kämpfer:

However, the enthusiasm of the people meeting us or joining us on the stand is relatively high. And the quality of leads we are choosing, even with the lower attendance of people, is almost at the similar range as before COVID times. So therefore we see at the moment, and we can unfortunately only talk what’s happening at the moment, nobody knows how this goes in the autumn time. But at the moment we’re seeing a really positive impact on exhibitions, and also personal events, seminars.

Jan Kämpfer:

The customers are really overwhelming, joining those sessions, because they also missed that over a long time of things. So the engagement level is quite high and therefore as much as possible, we will reinforce that and boost that further.

Nathan Anibaba:

What else have you noticed about how sales and business development has changed over the last two years? Especially as it pertains to sales teams being more efficient at selling digitally and remotely. What else strikes you as significant in the last two to three years, do you think?

Jan Kämpfer:

Yeah. You mentioned it already, almost. So the sales teams now are using much more marketing tools, or you can also say are more reliant on market tools as ever they were before. So they’re using digital showrooms, sales rooms, all rooms where they can exchange stuff with the customer they’re using, digital 3D drawings, showrooms. We were mapping out digitally all our physical showrooms and providing that on a virtual platform for our sales and engineer teams to use that in front of the customers, which is a great deal. And which they’re making a lot of usage out of.

Jan Kämpfer:

And that’s, I guess, what we’re seeing. It will not replace the face-to-face and the touch and try on our B2B products. Because we have Panasonic with many other hardware RAMS as well, our products they need to be seen, they need to be touched and need to be tried out. The quality needs to be looked with the eye, with a personal eye and seeing the quality of the product.

Jan Kämpfer:

And therefore this part will never be replaced, can never be completely replaced by a digital experience. But talking about marketing, certainly the marketing role also here got more attention, because the pre-cycle, the pre-purchasing cycle of course, is more covered with digital tools. And I’ll mention a few. For example, we are also building with our Broadcast and ProAV team a mini-metaverse or a digital world, where basically the customer can immerse into and can look digital all related products and solutions, which they want to consider.

Jan Kämpfer:

So basically there are also more work and weight on the marketing, but the final bit, when it comes to the qualification and the closing sales deal still needs to be in a face-to-face environment where physically products been found out and tried out.

Nathan Anibaba:

Now, you make a great point on the consumer side, because Panasonic has got huge mainstream consumer awareness. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in the world that doesn’t know of the brand Panasonic, but I’m just interested to know how you translate that awareness into the B2B proposition? What things do you take across? What things do you leave behind?

Jan Kämpfer:

So I think we benefit quite greatly from the superb brand, from Panasonic. Also in the consumer world there’re great vans like Lumix for the camera or Panasonic techniques for the AB equipment, or talking about the high quality 4K OLED TVs, to mention just a few products from the consumer side.

Jan Kämpfer:

And this brand heritage, of course we’re benefiting from B2B. Because what our products have common from consumer and businesses, they’re all working with the strong USB, latest technologies, but also very good product quality and reliability. And this is common for all products from Panasonic. So therefore it’s quite easy in that case to pin the brand, which goes from consumer to B2B.

Nathan Anibaba:

I want to go back to something that you said earlier around brand building and the importance of brand building, because you said in our pre-interview that, quote, “people in business don’t buy on brand, they buy on service capabilities, and how you support the customer. Brand is less important.” Explain that.

Jan Kämpfer:

Yeah. So also here, I’m not sure in which circumstance I have said this quote.

Nathan Anibaba:

I’ve listened closely to it, you said-

Jan Kämpfer:

You’re listening very closely to what I’m saying. But also this, I may need to rephrase slightly, because of course, I’m a marketeer, and that is important also for B2B. And without a strong brand foundation, also your B2B approach will struggle.

Jan Kämpfer:

So therefore, that’s not a question. The only thing, I guess, what I try to make here, is to say that while in consumer, you measure your brand recognition every day in and out. While this exact event and surveys and so on, are less important at B2B. There are more things like the net promoter score, plays a role, for example. And you’re relying more also on a good product, of course. But more also on a good fee and post-sale service and support.

Jan Kämpfer:

And if you want to retain a customer, you cannot only just ship a product, you need to also make sure the whole package with the after service has been tied and it’s been in place. And I guess that was more the comment.

Nathan Anibaba:

Makes sense. Just before we bring the interview towards a close let, let’s talk a little bit about the skill sets of the modern marketer, because it seems as though, obviously in the early days in marketing, the skill set was more based on being a creative and strategy. Now it seems as though you need to have a degree in data science and performance to be a marketeer. It’s far more digitally and analytically data-driven.

Nathan Anibaba:

What do you feel are the skill sets of the modern marketeer? It’s hard to be an expert in all of these areas, but from your own point of view, as a leader of a B2B brand, what are the skill sets that you feel are important to you in your role? And what would you say are the major skill sets that are important for the modern marketeer today?

Jan Kämpfer:

Yeah, I think so, that also the job profile of a marketeer in B2B has changed over the time. And in the early years there was just, you needed to have a good mark, home skill set, maybe a good eye for colors and mark, home set ups. So that was already good enough, working close with the agencies, making good briefings and re-debriefings.

Jan Kämpfer:

But those days, we talked about this earlier, Nathan, so the digital landscape in marketing has completely changed the entire approach, but also the skill sets. You don’t need to be a perfect data analyst, but you need to have a feeling of it. You need to have skills on setting up complex converse lead flows like Alukva or Marketo for example, you need to have that type of data, analytics skills, or at least a little bit of flavor for that as well, those days.

Jan Kämpfer:

And to bring on top, a different angle, what also comes more and more is a requirement for, let’s call it modern marketeers of course, performing in front of the camera. So things we are presenting. Things has also completely changed.

Nathan Anibaba:

As we’re doing here now.

Jan Kämpfer:

Now everything needs to be on YouTube. And we also have a professional production studio at Panasonic, at almost all of our locations. Yes, because some of the equipment or most of the equipment we can deliver.

Jan Kämpfer:

And then basically the marketeer is there and all of a sudden acting as equal to a TV moderator, and need to present as much as professional in front of the camera. So completely new skill set also here, all of a sudden comes on the range, which is not necessarily bad. I think the variety and skill set has been boosted up and the demand on a B2B marketeer here, has with this, raised up, and this is good. This is good for the industry. This is good for B2B marketeer. And it’s good for the personal career of each of them.

Nathan Anibaba:

So you say that the modern marketeer has to become much more comfortable with YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all these modern…

Jan Kämpfer:

Fortunately, or unfortunately, yes.

Nathan Anibaba:

That is the case. And that’s the case in point right now, we’re producing content now. But that leads me to an interesting point, because there’s this demand now, increasing demand, for all businesses to create increasingly more content. And content creation has never been easier to produce, the volume of content has to increase.

Nathan Anibaba:

Talk about the importance of content in a world where your buyer expects not only accurate and up to date information about your products and services, but a deeper understanding of who are the people behind the brand, creating the content. There’s this importance now that we all have to be, all have to develop our own personal brands as well. Talk about the importance of content in a world that is increasingly more focused on digital.

Jan Kämpfer:

Yeah. Certainly it is. So basically people want to know who are the persons behind the brand. So that’s why we’re constantly trying to stimulate people to create opinion pieces and support them on this, to really show the face, let them talk about what they’re doing, what’s their values and what they’re thinking about working for Panasonic.

Jan Kämpfer:

And then of course, we’re for marketing, try to support that and channel this. So the right media channels. But from the business or for the market itself, you mentioned that, yes, they expect content, but they expect also that the content is target group specific, suitable, tasty, not too long, not too short and reaching them at the right moment where they are in their product decision process or life cycle process.

Jan Kämpfer:

And that’s also a challenge now for marketing. Not only produce the content, it needs to be target group specific and it needs to reach the target group at the right time and the right channel. So, that’s also something to consider.

Nathan Anibaba:

And, to your point about not keeping the content too long, it’s time to bring the interview towards a close. As you think about the next chapter in the business’s evolution, what do you think is the most effective next chapter for Panasonic Connect, do you think?

Jan Kämpfer:

Definitely we want to continue to boost our product business. And I think I said at the beginning, the development of products we’re featuring. On the same time also, we want to expand on our solution offerings in the area of logistic and supply chain.

Jan Kämpfer:

There recently with Blue Yonder, one of the leading supply chain software companies has joined the Panasonic group. And some while ago Cetus, a system indicator, are famous for goods ID and personal ID. And with those together, we want to really make footprint in the logistic and supply chain industry. And exciting times in front of us, I would say.

Nathan Anibaba:

Really exciting. Watch this space. Jan Kämpfer, thank you for being on ClientSide.

Jan Kämpfer:

Nathan, thank you very much for the time. A really pleasure. Thank you.

Nathan Anibaba:

If you’d like to share any comments on this episode or any episode of ClientSide, then find us online at Fox.Agency. If you’d like to appear as a guest on the show, then please email ClientSide@fox.agency.

Nathan Anibaba:

The people that make this show possible are Zoey Woodward, our Executive Producer, Hannah Teasdale is our Podcast Executive, Jennifer Brennan is our Digital Strategist supported by Sofia Ravanis and Alice Winterburn, our Social and Digital experts. I’m Nathan Anibaba. You’ve been listening to ClientSide from Fox Agency.

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