1. Marketing Unchained: Orchestrating the Demand Side in The B2B2C
Ecosystem
July 20, 2015
Kevin Cherry, Strategic Marketing President, Luminose Company
In the past, we looked at the demand chain in a very linear fashion. In the B2B
world, we marketed according to the physical flow of goods from raw material
commodities to manufacturing to wholesalers and retailers. Commodity producers
marketed to manufacturers. Manufacturers marketed to wholesalers or retailers.
And the wholesalers and retailers marketed to consumers. Of course there were
exceptions, like the Intel Inside marketing approach but for the most part we stayed
within the confines of marketing to the next stage in the supply chain.
Figure1
The digital age has heralded an entirely new possibility for the marketing paradigm.
The digitization of purchases and social interaction makes possible insights about
new opportunities and occasions across all the companies involved in serving the
demand side – and removes transactional friction. Rather than thinking of a linear,
physical flow – marketers are now considering the customer at the center of a broad
ecosystem of companies involved in satisfying demand.
Figure2
When you lift the linear constraints, there are a myriad of opportunities to consider.
Let’s reflect on a few examples. The key to all of these examples is the way that data

2. within the ecosystem are leveraged for new occasions, discovery of new customer
segments, larger transactions, increased purchase frequency, or reduced product
innovation risk. This data may exist in many places: in customer data, loyalty
programs, social and professional association networks, point of sale, and
syndicated data (Neilson, IRI, McCormick and Dodge, Hoovers, etc.). It may be in
structured or unstructured forms or may be highly variable (weather conditions,
traffic patterns).
Identifying New Occasions
From social media you know that I belong to a tennis team this season. In fact, a
large portion of your target segment belongs to this tennis league. From shopper
marketing data you discover that a large percentage of those league members
purchase deli plates (on-line or in store) every few weeks. The grocery chain
partners with the tennis league to develop branded napkins, plates, cups and
containers, and/or perhaps the team captain personalizes the tableware with the
team name. The same grocery chain also partners with a soft drink company and a
lunchmeat company to include their brands exclusively in the beverage and
sandwich kits. Also from shopper marketing data you determine that I order a deli
plate every 4th Saturday morning. The grocer sends an invite to my loyalty email
account address with the offer – proposing the corresponding calendar schedule. I
modify from the on-line menu, adjust the schedule as necessary, select mobile
reminders, and enroll with a credit card. One hour before a scheduled Saturday, it is
raining in the area. The grocery app sends a text inquiring if I still want to place the
order. The beverage provider partners with netknacks™ to offer team branded
accessories on their rewards site (or maybe grocer decides to expand beyond their
fuel rewards program).
Figure3
Enriching the Customer Experience and Growing Transaction Size
I’m an electrical contractor and you are an electrical manufacturer working with a
distributor. I have just logged onto the catalog and based on your data mining, you
customize my view based on the type of work I do, size of my business, location, and

3. most recent and year ago purchases, you customize my view. You also have a
section indicating most frequently purchased items from businesses similar to mine.
As I order 3 safety switches, you pop up an offer of 6 switches for the price of 5.
From social data, you know that I enjoy NASCAR and live in Charlotte. You offer
eligibility in a manufacturers sweepstakes for the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte in May
– if I order at least 5 products that qualify. Because temperatures are forecast to be
15 degrees above average this summer week, you pop up a severe weather package
to include 10 AC disconnects.
Figure4
Based on my purchase history and weather forecasts, you also recommend
suggested restocks. Because I indicated I will pick up in store, a traffic app checks
potential drive time and best route to the branch from my planned or current
location. Based on the brands and items I’ve purchased, you notify me of relevant
upcoming webinars or local vendor demonstrations.
Figure5
Discovering and Targeting New Segments

4. You are a pharmaceutical company, and I am a truck driver. With data from
commercial licensing agencies, pharmacies and unstructured data, you identify an
opportunity to assist drivers with better managing their blood pressure for
commercial licensing requirements.
Figure6
You push information to raise awareness for healthy blood pressure through
pharmacy catalogs, internists, key opinion leaders, and a Healthy Blood Pressure
micro-site. You also offer a healthy blood pressure tracking app on mobile
phones/smart watches, which can be shared between patients and physicians.
Figure7
Increasing share through a differentiated experience
MRI example
As a manufacturer of magnetic resonance imaging machines, your data analysis
reveals that a large segment of MRI patients are children who find the experience
terrifying. Additionally, many patients have a choice of where they can have their

5. MRI scans performed. Medical facilities are interested in better experiences for
their patients to improve revenues and return on investments in equipment. You
partner with a lighting and design firm to offer a branded, customizable MRI room
experience (say with the child’s favorite colors, cartoon or sports images). Patients
can search for medical facilities offering this branded experience, select
preconfigured appearance packages or upload favorite images, and perform a 360
degree preview of the room online with the child.
Figure8
Such a customized experience can allow your healthcare client to capture a larger
share of the market and generate improved returns on their equipment investment.
Furthermore, data about the impact of this service can help to convince branches of
this provider in other geographies to acquire your brand; and customer satisfaction
data can be funneled to future product development efforts.
Generating demand through a differentiated experience
Renewable energy example
As a manufacturer of wind and solar power equipment, your analysis reveals that a
large segment of the population is becoming increasingly sensitive about their
carbon foot print, your utility customers are interested in improving their return on
investment in renewable energy and are offering green energy options to
consumers, and the internet of things will allow greater connectivity than ever
before.
You develop a branded renewable tracker application than can be packaged with
wind turbines that lets travellers view information about nearby sources of green
power. The turbines post relevant information about their status and output levels
that can be viewed by the public with the application. Consumers can also calculate
their carbon footprint and run rate based on information from their vehicles Wi-Fi
and their home utility history and compare to those in their neighborhood or social

6. or peer groups. If their utility offers a green energy option, they are given the option
of selecting the upgrade through the app.
Figure9
This differentiated experience, allows you to create greater demand for the
renewable energy category and subsequently greater demand for your wind and
solar power equipment. Data from the application could also be leveraged to
identify other utility customers that should be offering additional green power
options to their customers to further grow the renewable category.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed the replacement of the traditional linear view of the
demand chain with a customer centric view of the demand side “eco-system”. We
then discussed several examples of leveraging insights to identify and then
orchestrate new opportunities on the demand side. Leveraging these insights in
new and creative ways can create additional value amongst the participants in the
demand ecosystem. In many cases, these insights allow you to make very small
changes or minimal innovation investments that can have big business impact. The
key is to identify and exploit these opportunities before your competitors do!
Kevin Cherry is President of Strategic Marketing at Luminose Company. He has held
leadership roles at General Electric, Coca-Cola, Zyman Marketing Group, and Deloitte
Consulting.