Technology companies are spending more and more money on "thought leadership" marketing -- producing endless numbers of white papers, case studies, blogs, podcasts, videos and the like to convince potential buyers of their expertise on the business and technology issues that matter most. A recent series of interviews with marketing and brand leaders at top IT services organizations underlined the trend. To a person these marketing leaders all told me that thought leadership was a top priority in their efforts to build brand awareness, interest, and competitive differentiation.
But how do we know if the thought leadership activities we're funding are truly paying off? How do we know in this incredibly crowded marketplace of ideas what actually works?
Generally speaking, it's easy to suggest some hallmarks of successful thought leadership initiatives: original research into relevant problem areas, compelling packaging of new ideas and approaches, clear demonstration of solution proof points, and focused distribution of engaging materials through credible channels for the target audience.
Clearly these are all important, and some IT companies are using them to great advantage. Accenture comes to mind here, as do some of the other IT consulting and services companies like Capgemini.
But what about the really big ideas, the ones that take off and drive real change in the IT marketplace (e.g., business process reengineering, customer loyalty, business analytics, etc.). These happen only occasionally, and the companies that help develop and take advantage of them best derive enormous benefits. SAP, for example, was able to ride the reengineering wave for billions of dollars in growth through the late 1990s.
The question of how thought leadership actually moves markets is rather more complex, yet increasingly important in today's slow growth environment. New and not-so-new technologies are crying out for a compelling business or management concept that will inspire business leaders to invest more and faster. Think about RFID, VOIP, and Web 2.0 collaboration tools, to name a few of today's hot technology topics. All interesting technologies, all surrounded by hype, all growing more slowly than their advocates suggested a few years back -- and all suffering, I would suggest, from the lack of a galvanizing big idea.
To learn more about how thought leadership works at the marketplace level, I'm happy to be joining forces with The Bloom Group, specialists in thought leadership marketing, in a major new study of how big management ideas move technology markets. We'll dig into some of the most important success stories from the last twenty years and look as well at what's working and not working in current areas such as those mentioned above. The idea is to uncover critical dynamics in the marketplace of ideas, including the various roles of academic experts, management consulting firms, industry media, and technology firms themselves, in the making (or not) of breakthrough business concepts that drive substantial growth in technology-based innovation.
The study will bring together a group of corporate sponsors interested in substantially improving the effectiveness of their thought leadership initiatives. If you're interested, or know someone who might be, please let me know.
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