I mention this because a former boss of mine started just such a company, GoneReading, which supports literacy efforts in the developing world with the profits it realizes from reading-related products.

Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia said:  “The modern corporation was ‘born to be bad.’ Benefit Corporations are ‘born to be good’ because their corporate purpose must include the pursuit of a material positive impact on society, not just shareholders.”

A recent New York Times editorial by Greg Smith, a former Goldman Sachs employee, caused a huge furor – and furious counterattacks – when it depicted a toxic, profit-at-all-costs culture where client service wasn’t even the point anymore.   Clients were there to be milked for every dime they were worth.

So traditional capitalism is taking it on the chin in a lot of places…and more and more consumers, especially younger ones, are passing judgment with their pocketbooks.

Most of these “conscientious capitalism” firms are niche-oriented, and consumer-directed, not B2B.  But if a company is a supplier to one of these firms, it shouldn’t be surprised to find itself pressured by that customer to perform with a greater degree of social responsibility. Especially if there’s a taint of scandal or misdeed that reaches the news media.  Witness what’s happened over the past few years with Apple and Foxconn.

What this means in the long run is that it may become very important to project that image of social responsibility in marketing and P.R.  It may end up being an essential cost of doing business.  The groundswell of public disfavor that rolled over “pink slime” producers is a striking example: their customers distanced themselves from these vendors in a heartbeat, and it’s led to plant closures.

Any B2B marketer with the remotest chance of exposure in this area needs to have a strategy that’ll reinforce their credibility about being aware of this meme, and shows they’re interested in performing good works.  If you’re part of a trade group that emphasizes benefits to the community, emphasize that connection.  If your employees volunteer, if you’re involved in any good cause at all, leverage the fact.  A company doesn’t need to be an entirely “socially conscious corporation” to realize some of the same image and marketing benefits.

This article we stumbled across on a travel site made us think about how various municipalities or communities informally or even rigorously brand themselves.  South Beach certainly has its own look-and-feel, but that’s probably got less to do with ordinances and codes than it does with the whole Caribe vibe; everybody probably knows at least one community that restricts signage, dictates building styles, and tries to enforce a standardized visual grammar.  Disney build an entire housing development, Celebration, on the premise of creating a certain ambiance by taking those kinds of strictures to the Nth degree, much like their theme parts.

It’s easier in a totalitarian or authoritarian state, of course, to get people to comply with the kinds of aims Cuba has in mind.  But we can’t help thinking it’s merely a kind of facade, meant to beguile the tourists, rather than being an organic, natural outcome of native culture.

But if you had Bosslike power (Daley, not Springsteen) to wave your hand and command the design and branding of the great city of Chicago, what would you do?

The best thing we can add?  Just get social, as soon as you can.  Every tip on Mashable’s list can work for consumer goods and services or for B2B (with modifications).  Jump in and commit to social media marketing, and you’ll soon be amazed at how comfortable, efficient and valuable it feels to your business, if you’re following best practices like these!

This study

That holds for B2B firms too, we’d argue.  Maybe it’s even more important, because most B2B categories rely on a more personal level of interaction between company principals and prospects and customers.

From an employee engagement standpoint, the results are clear: 82% of employee respondents said they’d trust their company more when its CEO and leadership team use social media.

Any communication between company insiders and your target audience should, of course, be subject to a planning and execution process that makes even a CEO’s participation one element in an overall engagement strategy.  Rupert Murdoch’s recent proclivity for Twitter celebrity isn’t necessarily a good example to follow.

Social media may be one of the best tools out there for taking the pulse of your stakeholders and customers.  Peter Aceto, CEO of ING Direct Canada, is a noted user of social channels, and he points out how using social media allows him to gauge how employees and consumers alike view his company and products.  “We saw it as a competitive advantage for us.”

As Neil Blumenthal, one of the founders, put it…

“A lot of investors were surprised we had such a coherent brand but it was because we spent so much time on it.”

By “brand,” Blumenthal and his team took the holistic view: name, attitude, product mix, pricing and their uniquely customer-oriented approach are all part of a singular identity that’s immediately cohesive and engaging for their target audience.   The fact they’re also in the business of doing social good with their “buy a pair, give a pair” program also resonates strongly with contemporary consumers.

They’re deliberately, assertively hipster, but they’re providing a pricing and trial model that’s all about customer satisfaction.  Even their present shortcomings — they can’t yet do bifocals, for example (I checked, since I’m shopping for new frames myself) — becomes an opportunity for them to deliver additional options and dialogue to the eyewear shopper that still make them come off as amiable and concerned about user satisfaction.

Warby Parker is an excellent example of a brand that “surrounds” the target audience with more than just a logo, graphic style or look-and-feel: their brand talks and walks its mission in ways that drive a sense of bone-deep authenticity with its audience.

Why aren’t SME marketers on board?  As Marc Brownstein writes…

Many don’t believe that the strategies and tactics used to grow consumer brands (such as research that leads to customer insight, emotional appeals and awareness campaigns) are effective with business decision makers. Some of the reasons why include: a limited budget dictates direct-selling tactics; marketing directors in these kinds of companies are less sophisticated, often coming out of sales without a fundamental understanding of marketing; an over-reliance on relationship-selling methods, such as direct sales calls and trade shows; investors who demand short-term results and don’t want to build long-term brand equity because they intend to sell the company in three to five years; and an institutional impatience at the top for results.

As we’ve pointed out, the fundamentals of marketing — and the fundamentals of what purchasers, whether consumers or B2B customers — don’t change that much between respective groups.  Value and relevance and authenticity matter just as much to each group, and social media is a great leveler in that regard: it forces any marketer into a common game, which is to co-opt influencers who’ll endorse you.

SMEs, as we’ve also said, even have an interesting advantage in the social space: they’re intimately aware of how to conduct one-on-one conversations with prospects and customers.  That gives them a leg up in making the most of social channels.

A company like Kinaxis and its award-winning Suitemates campaign are taking full advantage of what social media can accomplish in B2B. Tools like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can drive enormous presence and credibility in B2B…if marketers shake off the dust and leverage them for all they’re worth.

1. It’s hot.  Through June-December 2011, Pinterest traffic rose 4000%.    Consumer retailers like Nordstrom and, Whole Foods are leveraging the site, but Mashable and Time Magazine are using the site, too, to post art and articles.  You can trust there’ll be other B2B social marketing acolytes on this bandwagon, seeking ways to leverage the channel, even if only for a means of posting event photos or product sheets.

2. Visualizing your story. There are precious few “face-to-face” opportunities to impress, and Pinterest gives you a chance to visually show off your products, people or culture in a way that’s uniquely engaging — because they’re pictures, and because there’s a refreshing informality and ease about the user experience on each board.  Post product shots – or shots of customers interacting with your products.  Or striking infographics that demonstrate ROI, or videos of tutorials and conferences.   Or photographs, naturally, of events, meetings, parties, the office dog…anything that takes advantage of this chance for positive visual engagement.

3. For SEO lift. Pinterest uses stored links with its image, so users can follow them back to their original locations.  Those links are considered inbound links to a site, which pumps up SEO.  So post away with product info, blog posts, infographics, videos and more – because it’ll help you in search.

4. To prove your category leadership. Social channels are becoming increasingly servicing individual industries.  So create an industry-specific Pinterest board accessible to all users, customers and competitors alike, to post their interests and content.  That’ll position you as being a high-minded leader within your category who’s all about shared knowledge and community.

5. Friendly persuasion. Pinterest’s ease of use allows you to create bulletin boards where you can share important (or not-so-important) information readily.  Whether it’s a photo gallery from an industry event, or sharing how-tos and hint guides about everything from upcoming conferences to category news, use Pinterest to make yourself out as the good guy on the block — by facilitating others!

6. The power of push. Pinterest is sort of a refreshingly laissez-faire channel: you don’t need to create a page that needs constant updating or maintenance.  You can simply push out content at your leisure.  Just make sure to tag and keyword your Pins to draw searches, or pin them to other boards with a signature that can lead users back to you.

It’s not a home page.  It’s a page or microsite where visitors from marketing campaigns first encounter your offer or other hook.  The key difference from your brand or company’s home page is that it’s focused on driving conversions, usually data capture.

So it’s out to achieve registration to capture leads, and qualify those registrants through the data you get in hand.  But it still needs to be informational about your advantages, and get across the key brand values you need to communicate.

So what makes for a great landing page?

• Relevance.  Visitors are seeking something – otherwise they wouldn’t have clicked on your campaign would they?  So you need to “close the loop” and deliver, ASAP.   In B2B especially, there’s the real need to provide reinforcement not just about the specific product, but about the capabilities of the company behind it.  But always with an eye for providing the answers that will drive a specific outcome: further prospect engagement.
• Depth of detail. Make sure you’re telling them enough so they can feel they’re making an informed decision.  Eliminate vagueness and top-lining; never assume the visitor is so erudite in the category that you can gloss over the “greens fees.”  If you don’t want all that information front-and-center, then give them ways to (easily) drill down for it – a PDF spec sheet or “best practices” white paper, for example.  And make sure the content is right-sized to your audience’s needs.  An IT purchasing manager may need more data and depth than a sales trainee searching for a free Webinar.
• The right graphics matter. Use stock images or graphics judiciously, because generic images are almost immediately recognizable as stock.  They need to be meaningful, and truly enlarge and extend the content.
• Give them engagement options. If they don’t register, give them other ways to continue engagement deeper in your site.  Give them a sly push with pop-ups or exit pages that give them a chance to reconsider their rashness in not signing up for what you’re offering.
• Help them make the next move. Provide a call-to-action and clear, clickable next steps that make their next move into the sales funnel easy as…well, a click.  Don’t be overly clever or circuitous in copy or layout or links.  Keep their options limited.  If you’re using a capture form, keep it to the absolute minimum you need, and let them save it at any point.
• Test it. There’s nothing wrong with testing a landing page, or some alternate takes on a landing page, with a focus group.
• When it’s done, take it down. Take down a page as soon as a marketing campaign or promotion has reached its end date.  There’s nothing more aggravating to a prospect than encountering an expired offer or invalid URL.

Good designers must always be avant-gardists, always one step ahead of the times. They should, and must, question everything generally thought to be obvious. They must have an intuition for people’s changing attitudes. For the reality in which they live, for their dreams, their desires, their worries, their needs, their living habits. They must also be able to assess realistically the opportunities and bounds of technology.

This holds true for every mode of Design Thinking.  Whether, as a business owner or marketer, you’ve engaged a designer to revamp your logo, create a website, or design a new product, they need to be aware of the context around them, around your brand.   If they’re good at their job, the rest of us need to respect the fact they may be seeing things we can’t…but that their vision will result in constructive innovation, in concepts and ideas which may frighten us a little.  But that’s a good fright: it shows they’ve stretched the envelope enough to take you a step or two further than the immediate.

That’s important.   Because nowadays, the brand that doesn’t acknowledge change, and the need to stay ahead of change, is asking for trouble.  For eventual obsolescence.

If your brand isn’t engaging your audience, arousing their curiosity and spurring a dialogue, then it’s not succeeding.  It’s just a name, plain and simple, and not a Brand.  It hasn’t staked out a place in the hearts and minds of the viewer, made its mission clear or enticingly obscure, or tantalized people into acts of discovery about the whys and wherefores around it.

Branding should be aware of everything that’s going on within and around it.  It should be able to provoke us to take that initial step of discovery; as we’ve said before, a brand is a visual handshake…that holds tight and draws you in.

Any branding agency that pretends otherwise is lying.  “The product or service is the source of the power,” as I saw it put recently.  You can’t raid customer’s wallets — at least not for very long — with swashbuckling branding and advertising.  Even the big guns behind established brands can get it spectacularly right, and appallingly wrong.  Because brand perception is the aggregate of a lot more than anything a marketer does in terms of design, or advertising, or clever consumer engagements.

The flip side of that?  You do need good branding, because in the continuum of considerations that go into a buyer’s process, how your brand looks and communicates itself is crucial.

For small to mid-sized marketers, especially in B2B, there are a few simple points you can take into consideration as you go about re-branding your company, product or service that can help you put branding or re-branding in proper perspective…

• It’s not a cure-all, but it’s critical care. A strong brand that serves to draw attention and help position you in the mind of your target audience is crucial — it’s that “visual handshake” that’s part of a first impression.
• Will a new brand really change anything? Don’t fool yourself into thinking a new name, logomark or communications strategy is automatically the solution to your business ills.  There may be other factors you’ve got to address first.  Good luck with those whalebone corsets!
• Think it through — thoroughly. Talk with your own team about what you mean to accomplish with a new look or logomark; it should be about more than how awesome your letterhead looks.  Branding is something that should run deep in the organization, and it can serve as a strong rallying point and motivator.  So give it long, hard consideration.  And make sure to screen and hire a true branding resource that’s about more than just creating a pretty look.
• Fix it and forget it. Once you’ve created and launched a new brand design, or re-branded, resist the urge to tinker.  If you’ve covered the point above, you should be set.  Concentrate on how your overall branding  and positioning “walks and talks” in sales, customer service, employee behavior and beyond.
• But don’t let it lie fallow. Definitely take account of how customers and prospects react to a new logo, or identity suite, or graphic grammar.  But don’t panic if they’re not all on board — there’s no such thing as a perfect brand that’s loved by all.  If you find it’s really not working for you, over time, then accommodate that.  But a key strength of a brand is consistency, and that should be reflected in its look and feel over time.  So don’t futz with it unless it’s absolutely necessary.