B2B marketers are a seller’s market! Young businesspeople should invest in themselves and improve their skills now.

Japan’s

B2B

(Business to Business) marketing is far behind the global level. This is because B2B companies, which have been driven by strong products and strong sales, have not paid attention to the importance of marketing. However, if B2B (Business to Customer/Consumer) companies, which are far more numerous than B2C (Business to Customer/Consumer) companies, were to get serious about marketing, marketers who can do B2B marketing would be in high demand, and their remuneration would skyrocket. Mr. Ichiro Niwayama of Symphony Marketing, a consulting company specializing in B2B marketing, told us something that can be said to be good news for marketers.

This time, we asked Mr. Niwayama about current issues and hints for future success for current B2B marketers and young business people who aspire to become B2B marketers.

Interviewee: Mr. Ichiro Niwayama, Symphony Marketing Co., Ltd. Interviewer: Mr. Toshihiro Yamada, Deputy Editorial Director, Toyo Keizai Inc.

In B2B marketing, people who can use AI will steal the jobs of people who can’t use AI.

YamadaLast

time, we spoke on the theme of “Measures that corporate management should take to make B2B marketing successful.” This time, we will hear about future guidelines for marketers themselves and those who want to become marketers in the future.

So, please briefly tell us about the current situation of B2B marketing in Japan.

Niwayama:

In Japan, B2C marketing for consumers is popular, but B2B marketing for corporations has not been conducted for 50 years. This is because we have been able to do so with strong products and strong sales capabilities.

However, due to the effects of the Lehman Shock that occurred around 2008, its global competitiveness has weakened. Many people realized that B2B marketing is what Japanese companies lack compared to foreign companies. So we quickly created an organization, introduced

marketing automation (MA)

tools, and started B2B marketing. However, there were no managers who understood marketing, and the entire company was operating without knowledge, so no results were achieved. That is what it is today.

Yamada:

That is an unfortunate situation, but if you look at it from a different perspective, it seems like there is a lot of room for future growth. I hear that generative AI such as ChatGPT is being incorporated into B2B marketing in countries such as Europe and America where B2B marketing is popular.

Niwayama

MA has become popular in Europe and America since around 2000, and it has become established that B2B marketing is carried out by mastering the tool. New technologies are being developed one after another in the world of MA tools, many of which incorporate generative AI.

Yamada:

Will AI take over jobs in marketing as well?

Niwayama

Marketing has data management, which handles personal information, and creative, which handles the creation of emails, texts, and web pages. Among these, creative work that can be done by generative AI is rapidly increasing, so the number of creative workers is likely to decrease.

Yamada

: If that happens, will there be no place for B2B marketers to play an active role in the future?

Work that previously required manual labor, such as creating titles and text for

the Niwayama

website, creating photos, selecting photos, and coding, has already been switched to AI. People who only perform these tasks will no longer be needed, but we will need people who can use AI to perform all of these tasks in an integrated manner. In other words, AI will not take away jobs, but people who are good at using AI will take away jobs from people who cannot use AI.

Yamada

: I see. Creators must become familiar with what AI and tools can do and shift to higher-level jobs, such as directors who decide the direction of content and producers who decide how to perform the work. hey.

Related articles

• 
  What is image generation AI? How illustrations are generated and 7 recommended services
  

The role of top marketers is to select and utilize over 10,000 MA tools.

The development of

Niwayama

MA tools is extremely remarkable, and as of 2023, there will be 11,000 types of tools around the world.

Yamada

11,000 types! That’s a huge number.

NiwayamaIn

Europe and America, success has come to be determined by which tools are selected from among 11,000 tools and how they are used in combination to realize a company’s marketing strategy. Marketing operations (Mops) used to be a marketing execution unit as the name suggests, but now they have a thorough knowledge of technology, report to management, and can decide which technologies to incorporate into their company. , the position is increasing. In particular, the United States is evolving rapidly due to the influence of AI, and unless a specialized unit is keeping a close eye on it, it will be difficult to keep up.

Yamada:

Marketing technology is evolving, so we also need experts in it.

Niwayama:

That’s right. As technology evolves, there is a need for people who can add even more value.

B2B marketers will be in a seller’s market for the next 20 years

Yamada:

What will happen in the future in Japan’s B2B marketing talent market?

There is one great thing for

Niwayama

marketers. Toyota, for example, is a B2C company that sells cars to consumers. There are 60,000 suppliers that supply parts to Toyota. This is all B2B. The number of B2B companies is overwhelmingly larger. Now, if marketing is not working (not functioning properly), it is essential for management and the entire company to make serious efforts to make marketing work.

However, most of the people doing marketing in Japan are B2C marketers, such as watches, jewelry, and clothing. There are very few people who can market machine tools, semiconductors, semiconductor devices, resins, etc. This means that the supply and demand for people who can do B2B marketing will not be balanced for 20 years (the probability will not change). This means that B2B marketers will be in a seller’s market for the next 20 years.

YamadaFor

marketers themselves, this is a happy story.

Niwayama

clearly knows that if you are a B2B marketer, you can choose as many jobs as you like, change jobs as much as you want, and that your compensation will skyrocket. That’s why it’s worth investing in yourself.

Related articles

• 
  Interview with a successful company: What is the marketing of Macnica, a technology trading company with sales of 1 trillion yen that aims to become a service solution company?
  

Current marketers and aspiring marketers can invest in themselves and learn the basics and cutting edge of B2B marketing.

YamadaWhat

and how should I learn to be successful as a B2B marketer?

NiwayamaThe

first step is to thoroughly learn the basics of marketing. Rather than learning about technology or SEO, you will learn about “what marketing is.”

The essence of marketing is “Right Person, Right Information, Right Timing” (deliver the right information to the right person at the right time), and it has not changed at all since I started working in marketing 40 years ago. The 11,000 types of MA tools are simply tools for finding out who to approach, what information they want, and when they are willing to receive it.

YamadaBefore

getting to know about tools, you have to understand what the tools are needed for.

Niwayama

: You can know this from a marketing classic. Predecessors such as Theodore Levitt, Philip Kotler, David Aaker, and Peter Drucker have written numerous papers. Please study these thoroughly.

YamadaYou

can learn the classics of marketing from books.

Niwayama:

To put it in the analogy of music, having mastered these classics means that you can read staff notation and understand the basics of music. Marketing organizations that are not successful today are like trying to play the Ninth in an orchestra of people who can’t read staff but can play the guitar or drums. A symphony cannot be played without a common language.

Yamada

: I see. I also play an instrument in an amateur orchestra, so I can totally understand this. The minimum requirement is to know the common language.

Marketers are craftsmen. Invest in your skills and network

Yamada

: Are there other ways to invest in yourself?

Niwayama:

I give dozens of marketing lectures a year, and you can also participate in those classes or study at graduate school. We regularly hold marketing conferences and sometimes invite top overseas marketers as guests, so we encourage you to keep your ears open and experience the information provided by the world’s top marketers.

Yamada:

That’s a great opportunity.

Niwayama

: The best thing to do is to attend such conferences where the world’s top marketers gather. It’s expensive to attend and there are travel costs, but it’s worth it. My company’s vice president and I attend four to five overseas conferences a year to constantly absorb cutting-edge marketing information.

Also, marketers are craftsmen, just like musicians. American and European marketers are obsessed with their own skills because they rely solely on their own skills. That’s why I invest so much in myself and attend conferences and study at my own expense. They are greedy about their skills and networks. Not many Japanese people are that proactive. But we have to fight against those people.

Yamada

: Is that something you would like to look forward to going forward?

Niwayama

: That’s right. I’m not pessimistic either. When I was young, Jumbo Ozaki, who was active in the golf world, did not do well overseas. But recently, Hideki Matsuyama has appeared on the scene and is making a big splash on the world stage. In the baseball world, people never dreamed that a Japanese player would be active in the major leagues. But now Shohei Ohtani is the MVP (of the American League).

Times are changing, and superstar marketers who are active on the world stage may emerge from Japan. It may be something that happens in the distant future, but Japanese people inherently have this potential.

Yamada:

I hope that happens.

Niwayama

: However, the world of Japanese marketing will continue to face difficult times. Many Japanese people do not realize the difference in knowledge, ability, and desire to learn. There are Japanese people invited by vendors to conferences held by vendors such as Salesforce and HubSpot, but there are no Japanese people at the highest-level publisher and advisory firm conferences. However, there are many participants from South Korea and Taiwan.

Japanese marketers will be exposed to overseas baptisms and shocks from now on, and will feel a little depressed, but they will climb back up from there. Such a process may be waiting.

Yamada:

This is an opportunity for young marketers, and I hope they will invest in themselves and raise the level of B2B marketing in Japan. I think this will lead to the re-emergence of Japanese companies.

The marketing department alone cannot change a company. Bringing marketing knowledge to other departments

Yamada

: Lastly, do you have any advice for people who are currently working in B2B marketing and are having trouble with something and want to change things?

NiwayamaOne

of the reasons why B2B marketing in Japan is not going well is that the ideal form of marketing is not shared within the company. The mission of B2B marketing is to collect and select potential customers who have not been approached through sales activities, and then pass the deals on to sales.

In my book “BtoB Marketing Deviation Level UP,” I write about “Budget meetings for the next fiscal year for companies where marketing is working,” and “Budget meetings for the next fiscal year for companies that have a marketing department but are not contributing to sales because they are not contributing to sales.” I wrote about the budget meeting. It is important to have people in departments other than marketing understand, “This is what marketing works (functions).” I think the shortcut to success is to have your employees read marketing-related books and participate in marketing training to improve the overall marketing standard of your company.

Yamada:

I realized that B2B marketing requires not only the marketing department but the entire company to work on it. Thank you for providing so many useful tips for marketers.