This post is from a real query I received from a client this week. The questions display a healthy distrust for accepted wisdom, which I like, and provide a good test of the thinking behind thought leadership marketing. See what you think of my answers:
- How did thought leadership initiatives in companies begin? Thought leadership marketing is based on the academic research publishing model, in which academics created journals built around a peer review process. The journals have boards made up of top academics in a given field. They review submissions from other academics in the field and approve them for publishing in the journal. The most famous business incarnation of this model is the Harvard Business Review, which began publishing in 1922. When the consulting industry began soon thereafter, McKinsey took the academic journal model and applied it to its marketing, which resulted in the McKinsey Quarterly.The Quarterly is the first real example of thought leadership marketing. It looks and feels like an academic journal but it is essentially a marketing vehicle because it focuses mostly on ideas, research, and case studies generated by McKinsey consultants and an internal research group. It is staffed by editors who work exclusively for McKinsey and are not academics. The Quarterly is the first and still the most successful form of thought leadership marketing. Other companies have adopted pieces of the academic research publishing model for their own thought leadership marketing. For example, many companies carry out primary and secondary research and publish it; they may also use that research as the basis for an opinion piece that speculates, based on the research and the experience of subject matter experts, on trends in a market vertical.
- Is it only focused in knowledge intensive industries? This depends on whether the products and services themselves are knowledge intensive. In industries where the product or service is very information intensive, such as research, management consulting, technology, aerospace, etc., you will find that the importance of thought leadership marketing is greater than in industries where the products have less of a knowledge component, such as manufacturing and retailing. However, every industry has an element of thought leadership potential, because all companies are eager for information about competitors, best practices, and process improvements. This led to the explosion of the trade magazine industry during the 1960s-1980s. Even in industries with low information intensity in their products—coin-operation laundry franchises, for example—there was a trade magazine offering information about how to improve business practices. Thus, thought leadership is applicable to any industry with interest in competitive information and process improvement.
- Why did companies start focusing on it? Marketers began using thought leadership when they recognized that customers and prospects were growing weary of salespeople trying to sell them products without knowing about the business issues that customers and prospects faced. Thought leadership became a way to demonstrate knowledge of prospects’ business and vertical market issues and to suggest solutions to those issues. It became a way to build trust and interest among prospects and to build a relationship with prospects based on knowledge rather than product information. Especially in B2B, where the products and solutions are complex and usually need to be adapted/customized in some way, developing the relationship through knowledge helps demonstrate to customers that providers can go beyond the product specification sheet and help them with their business needs.
- How was it different from branding/other marketing initiatives that were carried out earlier? Thought leadership is different because it focuses on educating rather than selling. Thought leadership, done well, provides information about the prospects’ businesses and verticals that helps them determine how to address business problems they face. Thought leadership changes the dynamic from selling what you have to helping customers figure out what they need.
- Why is focus on thought leadership important for companies in knowledge intensive industries now? Thought leadership is a way to engage prospects and customers earlier in the buying cycle, in the Epiphany Phase. Especially in B2B, products and services are becoming more complex and sales cycles are getting longer. Thought leadership is a way to provide helpful information to prospects and customers early in the buying process, before they have fully articulated their needs. Early engagement builds credibility and creates a stronger relationship. Thought leadership also opens up the possibility for thought leaders to establish their companies as preferred providers by helping customers formulate the projects that become RFPs.
