Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on August 26, 2010

There is no doubt about it that being first counts. iPhone and Kindle are definitely a testament to that notion. Even though Droid phones and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are comparable products respectively, they are still not selling as well as the market leaders. Personally, I prefer Nook over Kindle. I actually think it is a superior product if reading books is your passion. My eyesight isn’t quite what it used to be so both the text size and general readability of the Nook’s screen is clearer than Kindle.

But the point is, really, that if you’re ‘first,’ you set the expectation of the marketplace. Apple, in general, has been able to tap into the tech-greedy appetites of consumers by being first to introduce a number of personal computing and communications devices. Now all the other electronics and computing developers are trying to catch up, as it were, and take some of that market away from Apple. And Apple, in turn, is homing in on other markets too, such as Amazon.com’s Kindle.  A recent Associated Press article, Amazon says latest Kindle is its fastest selling, explains how Amazon.com not only upgraded its product but also lowered its price to stave off competition from Apple’s iPad e-reader.

It’s an aggressively competitive marketplace right now, with everyone vying for a share of what the lion has! In order to turn a profit and keep investors interested, companies are working hard to anticipate what will be popular among consumers.

For B2B companies the market is even tougher and competition even stiffer. Machine manufacturers, for example, are struggling to make ends meet as demand has all but disappeared because companies are not investing capital in upgrading machinery. What’s to be done? How can one be innovative if nothing is moving at all? We all know that B2B has different challenges from B2C. Consumers may be fickle or tightwads at times but they can be motivated and persuaded by tactics promoting one’s desire based on personal wants that are miraculously converted into perceived needs. The business marketplace doesn’t work like that. Companies have to justify each expense on criteria that encompass a great deal more than “I want it.”

Conducting market research to uncover the immediate and anticipated needs of your targeted buyer companies may shed some light on what needs to be done to stimulate their spending. Armed with the information you learned from your research, try one of these innovation approaches: 1) identify something they used in the past and were successful with and present a solution with a new twist on an accepted method/product or 2) develop something so completely different that you are establishing a completely new expectation for a totally different approach.

Consider working with a marketing and business development professional if you need fresh ideas or your ideas just aren’t working. There are ways for you to stimulate spending among your targeted buyer groups by being first or being different. Even though today’s marketplace is challenging, if your targeted buyers are still in business, you can be sure they are still spending.

Categories: behavioral targeting, business development, industrial marketing, manufacturing, Sales
Tags: business development, industrial marketing, stimulate spending