Prolific North’s latest new content initiative, The Prolific North Top B2B Brands – published in partnership with the global B2B marketing agency Stein IAS – is nearing publication.
Our Top 100 Brands in June was almost entirely anchored by well-known big-spending consumer brands.
For the B2B compilation, together with Stein IAS, we have researched several hundred companies spread across the North – irrespective of their ownership – which maintain either their actual headquarters or their UK headquarters in the North.
From huge names such as Drax, Peel and BAe through to heritage brands including Leyland Trucks and Plaxton Coaches, home grown multi-nationals such as Sage, global concerns who run their UK operations from the North including BASF, Brother and Hilti and across to fast-growing tech companies such as Daisy and NCC, the North has a wealth of outstanding national and international B2B brands, plying their wares to great commercial success.
The North is home to a multitude of leading B2B brands
The North is home to a multitude of leading B2B brandsThese companies may not have the seven, eight or nine (Asda) figure budgets of the companies who featured in the Top 100 Brands publication, but their marketing objectives don’t call for mass market awareness. Their B2B markets are tighter and narrower with a smaller number of buyers to address.
But as brands and companies, they have huge clout and often their investment and levels of employment match or exceed those of many of the leading consumer brands based in the North.
Stein IAS, which is headquartered in Bollington, has further offices in New York, London, Shanghai, San Francisco and Paris, as a result of an earlier merger between IAS and Stein. The agency’s clients include Atos, BP Castrol, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Columbia University, Cushman & Wakefield, Iron Mountain, Juniper Networks, KPMG, Lectra, Merck and Ingredion.
In addition to helping Prolific North prepare this new publication, a team from Stein IAS has also contacted several dozen heads of marketing at these companies to ask them to engage in a specially tailored survey which is predicated on Stein IAS’ Digital Marketing Maturity Index (DMMI).
Several hundred CMOs (chief marketing officers) from across the world took part in the 2015 edition of the DMMI and a copy of the findings can be found here.
Three key findings can be drawn from the report: only 6% of companies globally can be described as ‘Digital Masters’, the US still excels in reach strategies and companies in the APAC region are the best at sales enablement.
Marketers: benchmark yourselves!
Although the digital benchmarking survey is intended primarily to be used by and for B2B marketers, other marketers may find it interesting and indeed useful to take the survey themeslves and benchmark themselves globally.
If any company or marketer would be interested to discuss their potential involvement in this unique marketing benchmarking enterprise, please contact Victoria Shaw at [email protected].
Following publication of The Prolific North Top B2B Brands in November, along with subsequent post-publication analysis, we will be wrapping up the 2015 edition with a final invitation-only round table of leading B2B marketers in the new year. Again, if any senior marketers would like to be kept informed as to the date, speakers and content of this event, please contact Victoria at Stein IAS.
We look forward to publishing this major new initiative and in the process shining a light over dozens of outstanding companies whose management and marketing teams based in the North, are perhaps not as fully recognised for their marketing and commercial achievement and wealth generation as they should be.
