Transform or be left behind, notes HPE marketer at BMA NORCAL event
The post-modern era of modern marketing is heralding a new challenges for B2B marketers claimed Tom Stein, chairman of Stein/IAS at a Business Marketing Association (BMA) NORCAL event on Oct. 12 where he was the featured keynote speaker.
Shawn Ottenbriet
The challenge for post modern marketers is evolving. For former accountant Shawn Ottenbriet, who is now senior director of marketing, strategy and performance at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, he approaches the changes as a key part of his department's bottom line.
Ottenbriet who also spoke at the BMA Nor Cal event notes that despite a tendency to pursue the most creative stories and opportunities, as a B2B marketer and former accountant, he still must often consider that: "I came more from the financial side of the company and I had to learn what marketing does to really understand the business."
"We are in a period of dramatic change and convergence of these technologies that drive us and in a mouse click, customers instantly move away from one brand to the next," he said, noting even he had just recently learned about block chain - the technology that packages certain social media together.
"We see companies building the platforms and the level of change and applications. We see customer expectations shifting and the formation of more partnerships as we try to respond to the massive changes that are going on."
With the deep shifts ongoing in B2B marketing, he said that Hewlett Packard Enterprise is focusing more on partnerships with companies like General Electric and Microsoft as a way to respond to the massive changes that are going on. Customer expectations are shifting and creating new experiences, he said.
He notes that digital disruption is impacting the role and value of marketing and B2B marketers must consider 'tearing down silos in order to transform.'
At HPE, marketers are urged to consider the importance of a 'trade craft' that enables marketers to make connections and interconnections with customers. Putting more relevant data to work delivering actual intelligence to the right people at the right time is part of it, too, he said.
When it comes to innovation, Ottenbriet added that it should be deliberate and crowd-sourced. "You have to make choices, experiment frequently and purposefully."
Digital disruption creates huge opportunities for bold enterprises, he noted, and HPE itself is undergoing a huge amount of operational change. He stressed the importance of making sure IT departments and other areas of the company are up to speed on all of these changes. "There is a lot that will slow the adoption of change and before you know it if you can't keep up you become obsolete," he said.