From advancements in technology - be it the rise of artificial intelligence or the prevalence of cloud computing - to mass disruption - culturally and economically - as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, today's business-to-business partners who are engaged in joint marketing efforts have been subjected to a period of massive and accelerated change.
Now, looking to better understand the resulting challenges, the Huddersfield Business School and Coterie, the dedicated channel and partner strategy and execution specialist, have launched a collaborative report which has identified and explored the success factors for channel and partner business-to-business marketing in the global IT/Communications industry today and over the next three years.
"This highly competitive and increasingly virtual global industry has seen an accelerated pace of change, with industry professionals discussing the future being brought forward five years in terms of pre-COVID anticipated change and development," explained the University's Professor of Marketing, Shona Bettany, the report's principal investigator.
"This has driven a more fluid and selective mindset in the construction of marketing ecosystems and new agile modes of market engagement," she said.
Industry developments
Highlighted by the report are the industry developments in organising business-to-business channel marketing partnerships. Relatively long-term and stable networks of organisations are giving way to more fluid and disaggregated marketing organisation between agile and often temporary collectives. One example of this is a move away from the long-established hierarchical relationship management system of tiering organisational partners based on volume or revenue.
From large organisations such as HP and IBM, to start-up cloud-born vendors with minimal channel experience, the idea of tiering partners based on revenue into gold, silver and bronze layers has long been standard channel marketing practice. Yet, according to the respondents of the report, in the current climate it has only led to greater confusion and increased ambiguity among partners and end-users.
