Episode 188 / Alexandre Blumenthal / Lenovo ISG / EMEA Marketing and Communications Lead
Why Being Real Is the Best Marketing Strategy
At the helm of Marketing and Communications for EMEA, covering around 18 markets for Lenovo ISG, Alexandre Blumenthal is in charge of leveraging digital marketing in B2B, but also communications, thought leadership, PR and social media. He is a veteran with Lenovo and is currently in the Infrastructure Solutions Group, looking after everything to do with the data centre. His Shiny New Object is simply “being real.”
Too many brands focus on making extraordinary claims that attract consumers’ attention, but how many actually establish a real connection? Do consumers believe them, or even care about their advertising? Asking these questions, Alexandre has come to the conclusion that good marketing strategy is all about stripping back the big claims and being real.
Remember you are talking to normal people.
Marketing leaders can get wrapped up in advertising and marketing objectives. However, ads speak to real people on the street, who won’t have a reason to listen to your brand’s message unless there is something to catch their eye.
This is why Alexandre suggests that brands need to first understand their target audience, their pain points and decision-making processes. In B2B and B2C alike, before explaining why your product may be the best performing, you need to first establish a reason for your audience to listen to you.
Talk directly to the audience. And let them talk for you.
In his experience at Lenovo, Alexandre believes that the most successful campaigns have been the ones where they have approached consumers honestly and simply to introduce products based on their features only.
Moreover, Alexandre trusts referrals and letting the consumers do the talking for your brand. Great experience and products lead to others advocating for your brand. And there is not much else that can be more convincing.
You can always sell a unique feature.
So, what happens if you don’t have the best products as a marketer? How can newcomers, challenger brands, make their mark? Giving the example of Amazon, Alexandre advises to start with your unique feature and focus on what that can do for the consumer. Yes, you may not have the best product, but what makes your product different from the rest?
In Amazon’s case, they didn’t start out with the best technology or the quickest delivery. They began as an online book store. But they relied on the unique features of that: the wider choice, the fact that consumers didn’t need to go into a town bookshop to look for what they needed, the options that opened up to them. And that’s how their marketing was real and efficient at the same time.
Listen to more top marketing tips from Alexandre, as well as find out his biggest career regret and why he quotes Einstein to his team, on the latest podcast episode.
Transcript
The following gives you a good idea of what was said, but it’s not 100% accurate.
Tom Ollerton 0:04
Hello, and welcome to the shiny new object podcast. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of automated creative, and this is a weekly show where I have the pleasure and the privilege and the excitement of talking to one of the leaders of our industry and this week is no different. I'm on a call with Alexandre Blumenthal, who is EMEA Marketing and Communications Lead at Lenovo ISG. So, Alexandre, for anyone who doesn't know who you are, and what you do. Can you give the audience a bit of background?
Alexandre Blumenthal 0:50
Yeah, first of all, thank you, Tom, for having me on this exciting podcast. Like you said, I'm responsible for marketing communications at Lenovo ISG. ISG is the Infrastructure Solutions Group, which is in short, everything that has to do with the data center, I would say. I've been with Lenovo for 15 years, so quite a veteran in Lenovo. But I've started my career in sales at a company called Dell. So I have a sales and marketing background and have the pleasure now to lead the EMEA, so Europe, Middle East and Africa team that looks after, I would say 18 markets in total. And not only look after marketing, but also the comms piece that's in short, what I do at the moment.
Tom Ollerton 1:43
So, in your career, what has been the biggest fuckup? What was that awful facepalm moment where you thought it was all going to end and you want to get swallowed up into a dark hole. But looking back, I'm glad it happened.
Alexandre Blumenthal 1:59
Yes. So in a sales and marketing role, you always need to thrive to be up to give your best performance. And I always felt in my career, and very early on that I delivered the performance that was needed. But I never saw the progress. So you see colleagues left and right being promoted. And you continue to sit in your cubicle and think like, what, what's happening? So I asked my manager, like, why am I not progressing? And he said, Alex, yes, you're solid. You're delivering solid numbers, and results, but you're not visible. And to hear this criticism, while you think, Hey, I've done everything that I can, was sort of the biggest moment in my life where I said, Wow, I really fucked up. Because I was thinking I did a great job, but no one saw what I what I did. And I've taken this really, really close to my heart. And every team I've now worked with, is and every every person I give the advice to say, team, you need to be visible. You need to deliver something because you will not be known for, hey, this person has sent out 100 emails this year. Great job. No, you need to point out what you've done and brag about it. I think people don't brag enough, perhaps that's a European thing. Because in the other cultures, people brag a lot about what they've done. I think in at least the European cultures I've worked with, people don't do it enough. So from from that perspective, it hurt a lot. But it also revealed things that I need to do differently.
Tom Ollerton 4:06
And now you're on a podcast to brag about and so far...
Alexandre Blumenthal 4:10
Exactly.
Tom Ollerton 4:13
Okay, so. So how do you do that? If you're not a natural bragger or not a natural extrovert, there'll be introverted people listening to this podcast thinking: I don't want to do that. I don't want to be visible. I just want to do a great job.
Alexandre Blumenthal 4:29
And it's actually not easy. It's also something that I challenge the teams with is, give me the one highlight. It doesn't need to be every day I need to brag to my manager, Hey, I've done this Have you seen because then it's overdoing it. But if you if you manage to distill this one thing that you're proud of, and then build a story, how you did it, and why it was great, and it's backed up by numbers or facts on why it is great. So it can be a great video, it can be a great digital delivery of marketing, or whatever you do in your profession. But distill it down and every quarter make it something that you put in your calendar, where you sit down and think about what was the best thing I delivered this quarter. And I bet it's not easy. Because most of the time we do boring stuff. Every everyone thinks it's shiny, like this podcast, shiny new objects. But most of the time you do boring stuff.
Tom Ollerton 5:40
So that's a great bit of advice to help progress your career. But give me a marketing tip that you find yourself sharing most often.
Alexandre Blumenthal 5:52
Well, a marketing tip would be something that I also see a lot of times happening, we are overcomplicating. There's a great quote from Albert Einstein. He said, everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. And it sort of relates to perhaps a marketing topic that people might relate to keep it simple, stupid, so the KISS principle. But sometimes, and that's why I like the quote, so much reminds Einstein is make it as simple as possible, but not simpler. Because we don't have only simple products. But when you look at a smartphone, or you look at a PC, these are complicated things. But they're made as simple as possible. So grandma can use a smartphone, a kid can use a smartphone. And a regular adult can use a smartphone. So to explain the functionality, you could write a book about it, but you can also explain it in a few sentences. And I think that's the advice I would give. Think about your marketing, and see how simple you can make it but not simpler.
Tom Ollerton 7:13
So I love that. And I'm aware of the quote, and I can see it on mugs all over the world in different agencies. But I'm reading the Pixar book that Creativity, Inc. I think it's called. And basically says that, like there's this real addiction to simplicity, that, you know, someone says, oh, yeah, let's make this really easy, really simple. No one's gonna go. No, because you're looking for the the shortest, easiest like, neural path to make things super straightforward. But in reality in a creative business, like Pixar, animation, story, pacing, technology, like all of that stuff, it's incredibly complicated. And it's balancing the complexity that matters, not looking for some simplicity for the sake of simplicity. So I think I sit somewhere between Einstein and the Pixar person. And I'm starting to actually worry when people say, let's make this really simple, because these are complex things. Marketing is, it's so many things, it's chaos. And yet, we're always trying to kind of make it simple. So have I got this wrong? Or is it just make it as simple as possible every time?
Alexandre Blumenthal 8:33
No, that's why I like the quote, because Einstein says make it as simple as possible. And sometimes simplicity has an end to it. Because otherwise, we do marketing and just say we have a great product. I mean, that's I think that's as simple as you can get it. But that is oversimplifying, so you still need to talk about the complexity certain things have. And if you're a Hi Fi fanatic, you want to understand what are the frequencies level of this speaker? What is the maximum volume, what have you not, right? But it is as simple for your target audience as possible.
Tom Ollerton 9:16
But no simpler. Right? Okay. So we're now going to talk about your shiny new object. And I'm really excited about this one, because it wasn't what I was expecting from you, and your shiny new object is being real. So what do you mean, why is that a shiny new object?
Alexandre Blumenthal 9:37
It's a shiny object because I think I've seen too much... call it fluff. And we, we use quotes and sort of claims and marketing, where we think a lot about what the claim is. What it means for us as a company, but we forget about that we talk to normal people, about normal people, I don't mean simple people, but people who have a normal life and who are not in marketing most of the time. And I can give you some examples from things I read recently. So I've been on the Procter and Gamble website. And their claim is making everyday more than ordinary. What does that mean? If I use Procter and Gamble, tea back? Is that making my life more than ordinary? I don't know. Or we could use Unilever. So both companies, I think, have the biggest marketing budgets on this earth. And Unilever says driving superior performance with our purpose led future fit business. And I don't know what that means. I don't understand it, even though I'm in marketing. And that's what I think my shiny new object is. Talk real with customers. So that under they understand what you do. And if asked me: What do you mean by that is, hey, we need to sell something because we're a company and tell them, we are addressing you, dear customer, because we have this great offer for you. And here's why you should buy it.
Tom Ollerton 11:44
So, what do you think p&g and Unilever should be doing? Specifically? Extrapolate on being real in that scenario.
Alexandre Blumenthal 11:55
Well, like I said, they should talk about, we are a company with different brands and we want every brand to be successful. And that is what I mean, because that's the ultimate goal that they have, they want their brands to be successful. So why come up with a claim that masks things? Where you then have sort of a politician talking? But not what is the purpose of your company.
Tom Ollerton 12:29
But I would, I would argue that that line, I know put you very much on the spot on a podcast. And that line isn't marketing, I would say that line is internal comms, whereas marketing is to make your brand stand out from the market. That is the purpose of marketing. Right?
Alexandre Blumenthal 12:48
Even in marketing, if we then look at certain products, let's take we'll make your clothes even whiter than white, or will increase your performance by X percent. Or look at, at the products that we use on a daily basis with Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft products. Are we even using everything, all the functionalities? Again, I think you could say you have to have Microsoft Word, you will only use 20%. But we got you covered if you, with 80% reserve, basically, if you want to do different things like a mass mailing or whatever.
Tom Ollerton 13:48
So what are the steps that brands need to take to become more real? Can you give an example from your own work where you've brought realness into it?
Alexandre Blumenthal 13:57
Yeah, I think realness is that you first obviously and that's always the starting point of any marketing campaign or idea is understand your customer. So you have to, you have to start with who is my target audience, what drives them? What do they need, and include what they want to hear about. Oftentimes, again, because we are driven by different stakeholders within our organization, and they will tell you, we have the best product and the newest product, but you have to translate that into your customer voice. So do your product development team. What does it mean to have the fastest product for our customer, or the most secure one? Do people even care? Because everyone accepts cookies for whatever reason. But everyone shouts out to have a I want the biggest privacy. So know your target audience is the starting point. And then the campaigns that were most successful, were the ones where we directly talked to the audience saying, Okay, you might not have heard about this product yet from Lenovo. But let me give you three examples of why this is the best thing. And then another thing that we use is the customer voice, which I'm in b2b Marketing at the moment, you see the star ratings that you have on a lot of E commerce platforms? And why not use this in b2b as well? And use customer quotes in your marketing activities? To give this again, why should I invest into an AI solution or an edge computing solution? And let the customers talk about it or not your own marketing team or product development team?
Tom Ollerton 16:07
So the way to be real is to be empathetic, and then put your customers in front of potential customers and then let them do the talking for you.
Alexandre Blumenthal 16:17
Yes, and in the marketing that you deliver, be honest, what do you want to do?
Tom Ollerton 16:24
So what do you do in the situation that a lot of marketers find themselves in that they don't have the best products? Like, not everyone works for the leading person, the leading product, leading whatever, and they have to pay the bills, and they have to work for the number two, and number three, or the number 50? Or even like a challenger or a new entrant into that market? If the truth is that they should buy another product, then what do you say?
Alexandre Blumenthal 16:54
Well, that you always have competition, right. And I think if you don't have the best products, you might have the best price, you need to find the niche and then decide if I don't have the best product. What is the unique feature? And why does the company even exist? So it might be the loyal customers, it might be the price, it might be the distribution to go to market. I mean, let's look at Amazon as an example. They didn't have the best technology to begin with. I mean, they started out as a book online company. So what was their unique thing wasn't marketing, but it was their delivery model. And that is what they bragged about that you can have a wider choice. And you don't need to go in the city center, pay a parking lot and and then buy a book. They're in a bookstore. Right? So. And that is where you as a marketing team or a marketing decision maker need to challenge your own organization as well as guys, we might not have the best product, but what makes us unique, and then talk about that real, but obviously not if you're, if you don't have a superior product, don't talk in a marketing campaign. We have the shittiest product in the world. Now. That obviously wouldn't work.
Tom Ollerton 18:24
Well, maybe might get some clicks. But Alex, unfortunately, we are at the end of the podcast now. So if someone wants to get in touch with you and talk about being real, where is the best place to do that? And what makes a great outreach message to you?
Alexandre Blumenthal 18:40
Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn, you can if you type in Alexandre Blumenthal Lenovo, you should find me on LinkedIn. And please don't spam me with Can I have five minutes to talk to you about our great services. Make a pitch on a real pitch, why you want to reach out and why I should spend five minutes with you and take the time to research what I do. Half of the contacts I get on LinkedIn are unsolicited things of marketing that I'm not responsible for. If you read my profile, you understand what my responsibility is, and of my hard time that I would spent with you. Keep a real message and send the real message to me on LinkedIn. Yes.
Tom Ollerton 19:39
That's great advice. Alexandre, thank you so much for your time.
Alexandre Blumenthal 19:43
Thank you, Tom. It was a pleasure to be on your podcast.
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