Siemens Enterprise Mis(s)Communications

Abstract

In December 2007, Danny VandeVyver, Regional Director of Marketing and Communication at Siemens Enterprise Communications, was given a board mandate to introduce OpenScape Unified Communications, a breakthrough concept for integrated professional communications, in his region. Together with a global marketing communications agency, VandeVyver considered three options for successfully unleashing this killer application in the Belgian test market. Based on the learning, the technology would then be rolled out in the South West Europe region. The case highlights the importance and complexity of integrated marketing communications and explores the possibilities of new social media in a B2B setting. Conventional wisdom in B2B integrated marketing communications (IMC) is challenged by novel approaches in which the Web and even a former Miss Belgium play an important role. We found the case to be highly useful for introducing and discussing effective B2B IMC campaign development through which managers and students can learn to identify and integrate key communication sources, messages, media, target audiences, and effects. The case is supplemented with a teaching note, three presentations, and four video snippets that illustrate how the technology works and showcases how the selected campaign was implemented. Key metrics and insights are shared.