The ABCs of B2B include good public relations - Brief Article

Boy I miss the glory days of dot.com public relations. Used to be that a Silicon Alley gig was the most coveted invite in town. The champagne and caviar was served up in such quantity you'd think the party planners were pulling sturgeon straight from the East River.

Alas, caviar has given way to crackers, and as many dot.coms face dwindling pools of investment capital, they're keeping their PR people on a very tight leash. On a recent trip to the D.C. area for a B2B dot.com event, I witnessed firsthand just how far the industry's red carpet has been rolled up. The event in question was nothing short of the grand opening of a leading B2B retail exchange, and by the looks of the invitation you might think Sam Walton himself was expected to show. In truth, the actual number of retail executives pulled in by the excitement of the event was dismal. In film critique terms, the launch of this exchange--a leader in what has been billed as the greatest thing to happen to supply chain management since EDI--was a bomb.

As it turns out, the buzz surrounding B2B has gone the way of the Hula-hoop--only faster. That's not to say that most mass retailers aren't still looking for a competitive answer to Wal-Mart's RetailLink. They are. And the exchanges they've joined are gaining popularity and adding members every day. So where's the logic in cutting your PR budget if you're a burgeoning B2B business?

In the same way retail advertising requires costly consumer campaigns, the industry's B2B networks need positive spin, especially in this era of limited enthusiasm for all things dot.com. The positive press that such spin can create is especially important--even critical to survival--when you consider the current competitive environment of the retail exchange market. With two vastly different exchanges to choose from--not to mention the strong argument for sitting out the whole B2B thing altogether--retailers looking to join an exchange are faced with two options that are essentially worlds apart.

One is a for-profit venture, whose exclusivity stems from costly membership dues. In exchange for those dues, members have the piece of mind that their supply chain secrets won't fall in the hands of any direct competitors (due primarily to its selective membership policies).

The other is a not-for-profit model, where the democratic principles of sharing are at work--shared networks, shared IT resources, shared vendor partners and perhaps even shared secrets. Within this model, traditional retail competitors can theoretically put their differences aside and work toward a common goal.

But since the jury is still out as to which exchange is better and which will prevail as the model of the future, amassing a strong member base in the short term could be the single most important factor in securing survival over the long term. And at no time in the brief history of retail exchanges has that been more poignant than today, when membership stands to change dramatically upon the arrival of vendor partners.

As these exchanges court new members and jockey for position, they must not lose track of the fact that the concept alone can't win over the industry. They must get the word out--spend a little on the fundamental marketing message. Cutting back the PR budget is analogous to sending no message at all, and that's no way to win over the hundreds of retailers still undecided about exchange membership.

Contrary to the mood that's coming out of the B2C end of the industry, if ever there was a time for B2Bs to roll out the red carpet, it's now.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Lebhar-Friedman, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group