If your secret sauce tastes so good, why keep it a secret? That’s the approach taken by some B-to-B marketers behind ingredient brands, or the “secret sauce” incorporated into a service or product. Think Intel in Dell, Nutrasweet in soda, etc.
But embarking on end-user marketing can be a costly proposition, and results are certainly not guaranteed. When should an ingredient brand manager market to end-users, and when should they stick to B-to-B tactics?
Kathy Hall, vice president of marketing at Microban International Limited, and Michael Guillory, manager of worldwide communications for DLP products at Texas Instruments Inc., talk about marketing their brands to end-users and offer some general advice for this distinct marketing strategy. Both Hall and Guillory are featured in the article “B-to-B-to-C,” the September 30th Marketing News cover story on this very topic.