Cranky Communicator

There’s No Substitute for Enthusiasm… or Guinness

Personal Blog:

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The older I get, the more people think I know. Or perhaps they hope I can share with them some “keys to successful writing” that will instantly transmogrify their ineluctably leaden sludge into delightful Juvenalian prose… turn their pretentious lucubrations into memorably luculent manuscripts.

The Cranky Communicator - On Obfuscatory, Even Exclusionary, Terminology

Personal Blog:

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The Cranky Communicator: Corporate Grandiloquent Self-Descriptions

Personal Blog:

professional

I guess it all started in MBA schools during the '80s when it was solemnly proclaimed that Black & Decker did not make quarter-inch drill bits, but quarter-inch holes. This undoubtedly triggered the escalating stupidity of brand managers to identify their products not for what they are, but for what they did. Sell the benefit, not the product. Sounds good if you're Annheuser-Busch or BMW. But what if you're a little known B2B industrial products company, or even a well known diversified conglomerate?

TriComB2B Named as 2012 “Best Places to Work” Winner

January 27, 2012

One of Only 15 Dayton-area Companies to Receive the Award From the Dayton Business Journal

(VANDALIA, Ohio) Jan. 27, 2012...

TriComB2B to Present Free Online Conference Titled “What’s Going on in 2012? Is...

January 26, 2012

Event Will Highlight Best Practices in Business to Business Marketing

(VANDALIA, Ohio) Jan. 25, 2012 — TriComB2B will...

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Easy to find, easy to specify, hard to compete with.

Learn how a website design solves three primary business challenges: 1) product catalog for thousands of parts, 2) messaging that addresses multiple vertical markets, 3) 3-D downloadable designs to help engineers specify these parts into their designs.

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A video is worth a thousand diagrams.

Why try to say it when showing it is much more effective? More and more, technical buyers are turning to video to help inform the purchase decision. Video is often the perfect media for demonstrating technical product details in B2B.

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You don’t just make lumber.

A fresh look at our client’s differentiating expertise, target audience and competitive landscape resulted in a strategic improvement to their brand. See how this approach successfully separated them from their old-school competition.

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From “Why am I spending this?" to “I can’t live without it.”

Getting an edge on your competition is critical in today’s B2B climate. Getting found on page one of Google for the terms that matter most to your competition is one way gain that edge. An effective B2B SEO effort is no longer an option.

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Cool animation allows client to chill.

Complex refrigeration compressors are hard to explain on paper and in PowerPoint. So our interactive team makes things a little easier by showing every conceivable angle and principle of operation in a compelling 3-D presentation that makes sales engineers look, well ... cool.

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After three years, trade editors were calling us for ideas.

To help re-establish their position as a leading player across their served markets, Rittal turns to us to implement a full-scale PR program. The comprehensive effort routinely delivers content to media channels and influencers, eventually making Rittal subject matter experts a favorite source of commentary and content on...

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Downstream service launch requires upstream thinking.

Challenge: an aftermarket services organization needs to break out of the traditional “we sell products” mold. Solution: we provide targeted messaging and branding refinement supported by new sales materials, eye-catching advertising and a high-energy video.

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Our content experts came to the first client meeting with more than a blank piece of paper.

One page of a website wasn’t enough to tell the story that this global player in the power generation market needed told. The solution was a new, expanded website section that offered compelling content through virtual tours and success stories.

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Multi-channel program multiplies opportunities for PureAir.

How did we handle a product launch that helped introduce our client’s newest offering? We started with messaging, branding and a creative strategy and followed it up with a multi-channel communications program.

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