"Start with the Customer" - Samsung VP Talks B2B marketing strategy in fireside chat

Here is an transcript of their conversation:

Etienne Katz: A lot of us here today are on the B2B marketing side, so can you take us into the halls of Samsung and tell us what your guiding principles are?

Ed Abrams: Our guiding principles are simple. First and foremost, start with the customer. Understand the customer. Not at the CEO level, but from a ‘buyer journey’ perspective. That is one of our key guiding principals. Start with that, understand their needs and build your marketing principals from it.

Secondly, at Samsung we always use and leverage facts and data to drive what we are trying to accomplish. To be a good marketer, you have to be a good businessperson. We have to understand that as a marketer, everyone has opinions about how to do your job. The best way to back up what you do is with facts and data.

Etienne Katz: Is there an interesting balance between you B2B side and your B2C side?

Ed Abrams: That is our biggest challenge. Our B2C business is ten times larger than our B2B component. The DNA of Samsung is the consumer. So, we built a separate identity to signal to the world that this is a different organization and there is external B2B and internal B2B. It’s very challenging, as we are known worldwide for selling TVs and Phones. We have to overcome that perception in our B2B works.

Etienne Katz: You have been in this position at Samsung for over a year. What can you say you put your fingerprints on?

Ed Abrams: First thing it’s not my fingerprints but the team. I am a big believer in team collaboration. We have shifted the perception of how we go to market. What we have done is shifted the perception from the inside as we are not just consumer electronics but also manufacturing. In B2B, we often live in the environment where a client says- ‘Here I made this, go and sell it. ‘ I am proud that we take what’s in their portfolio and sell it for them. We don’t start with here go sell this, but how do we change the mentality. Changing the mentality has been exhilarating and exhausting…we are really accountable. I have driven being accountable. When I first got to Samsung, it was a bit like that old T.V. show the ‘Little Rascals.’ Let’s put on a show! Now, we are at the point of talking about how much of the business pipeline we are responsible for driving. We now look at how we can progress those opportunities. We have turned the organization around.

Etienne Katz: You are constantly looking at the B2B landscape. Who do you see as taking risks today in B2B marketing?

Ed Abrams: I look at this all the time. I don’t mean to be critical, but none of us have it exactly right. Some companies have mastered the social media and after 19 years at IBM, I can say they are the ‘best of breed’ in terms of data and insights to drive the sales. So, I take inspiration from my past, from consumer areas and from start-ups. One of the key things that I learned from startups is ‘they don’t care.’ They aren’t afraid to take risks. And that has been one of the best insights I have gained.

Etienne Katz: As chief B2B marketing director of Samsung, how is your landscape changing as far as your stakeholders like your Chief Executive Officer are concerned?

Ed Abrams: My Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was formerly the Chief Marketing Officer so you can imagine our conversations. But, our conversations have evolved to be primarily about business, not creative. They were shocked when I went into one of my first meetings and creative was not my biggest conversation point. What I talk about is the business situation. We have to fix this. It was about business… as in not only what should the creative product be but how can marketing help our business grow. Marketers need to stop having the debate about what the creative product should look like, but instead have a conversation about how the business can grow. When I started having these conversations, my conversation with the chief financial officer was about how much do we need so we can we get to accomplish the objectives throughout. And, they commit to deliver. These conversations go on every day. It is exhausting in that we are expected to fix things and participate all the way.

Etienne Katz: You have a personal Samsung phone, and a professional phone. What platforms and screens do you use?

Ed Abrams: I find that I consume information across three screens. I have my mobile phone, a tablet and wearable technology. My mobile phone is my lifeline but wearable technology is great in that I can look at my watch during a client meeting and see if the CEO pinged me. What I am not using is the television or computer. Don’t need to. I have all the power I need. Sources of information that are more mobile are the devices I depend on. So, I know full well the content I deliver has to be consumable in that environment. And, we don’t look at it as media anymore; we look at it as content. Mobile solutions, security, vision display capabilities. I deliver the content over the places you consume it. And, you consume it over mobile, wearable technologies. They are all search and query driven. That is what B2B customers are looking for. I validate that with customers.

Etienne Katz: Who continues to be a mentor for you?

Ed Abrams: I continue to work with business managers at IBM. My most important mentors are my team. I use my team to mentor me. To do it at the level I am most for fortunate to be at, my mentors have to be my team.

Etienne Katz: What are you focused on in 2016. What’s on the horizon?

Ed Abrams: What is most important for me is this. How do I deliver real-time content that drives engagement with my brand at the right time based on what the customer is looking for? How do I do that? I do that by better understanding the journey the customer is taking and the various individuals involved in that decision. Through having data and insights to understand that, we can continue delivering information and content that is relevant to furthering our brand.

Also, we look for creative ideas, creativity comes from how we deliver content and tell relevant stories that engage and intrigue and that is going to be tough. That is where the noise is today. If you think of your personal lives – in the B2B world …85 percent of decisions are made with a search engine search first. We need to deliver a message where people are learning and it won’t be on the printed page, video or commercial television.

Etienne Katz: With that intelligence, what are the challenges to agencies in 2016?

Ed Abrams: I need people to commit to understanding the needs of my business. And from a business perspective, I am fortunate for the creative partnerships I have because every discussion is about what is best for our business.

I got to Samsung full of myself and pushed too early, too soon into a solution perspective. I was way too far out in front of my interference. Not that long ago, we were just making phones. We are a product company trying to move from products into solutions. The mistake I made was I thought I knew the market and I could change the company. The learning was I had to understand the market and the company to be interesting.

Our strategy at Samsung is that we have a lead strategic agency that I am very comfortable with in B2B. We have specialty agencies as well in social space, etc. and a set of agencies to help with event marketing. What is ideal is one strategic head driven by a cross agency council. I have added and removed agencies based on their ability to cooperate.