A prospective client I met with a couple weeks ago asked us about ways to address their challenges in gaining industry exposure as an "ingredient brand." I gave an answer, which I'll share with you, but it got me thinking. In a way, MOST B2B companies are ingredient brands. If what you make is a step removed from impacting regular people in their day-to-day lives, you're an ingredient brand to them. Think about everything from servers, smart grid software tools, and B2B professional services to machine tools, medical systems, and commercial airplane manufacturers, not to mention literal ingredients in processed food. In each case, there is an organization and a third-party professional between you/your product and the general public. That organization might be a healthcare provider, a consumer packaged goods company, a commercial airline, a retailer.
I will grant there are deep ingredient brands for which earning attention and gaining resonance with the public is harder. For everyone who is at least one step removed from "everyday impact," however, there are about three approaches you can use to break through the clutter.
Humanize your company. People are people. If you have creative minds and compelling stories about your people and you can tell them in relatable ways – including through video – you'll get attention. This can happen both through executive equity programs as well as through fascinating tales of your own star employees.
Decommodify yourself and figure out why your differentiation really matters. There are certainly true commodities – corn, flour, oil, lumber. For everyone else, two questions: First, what truly makes you distinctive? That's the easy question. Second, how does that differentiation help your customer make a better product or deliver a better service? You need to be able to memorably articulate this before moving on to No. 3. So you're the first to support a faster chip. Is that going to be about forecasting hurricanes better? Catching more bad guys? Making cooler movies?
Partner with your customers. You're an ingredient brand, so focus on positioning your customer as the hero, rather than yourself. If you focus on storytelling with the customer's story in mind, you might find them a lot more amenable to publicity than if you're asking them for an explicit public endorsement. You'll win by association, especially if you are thoughtful about who that customer partner is. One of our 3D printing clients collaborated with a healthcare provider to tell the story of how the provider's custom-3D-printed prosthetics changed the life of a young patient, enabling her to hug her parents for the first time. The healthcare provider started getting calls from other hospitals around the world AND the 3D printer company saw a significant increase in visibility, SEO positioning and website traffic. Win-win.
We are increasingly involved in helping upstart renewable chemicals companies – these are ingredients all the way. But people want renewable and greener products – whether diapers or health products. It's petroleum-based chemicals that are the true ingredient commodities. There's an opportunity to help their customers – like consumer packaged goods companies – tell a fresh story that makes them a hero – and increases the value and visibility of renewables.
Know why you matter, humanize your story, tie it to big trends in partnership with customers. You'll start to see that ingredients really matter.