Feb
16
2010
Thought Leadership Marketing: A New Marketing Field?
Author: Elizabeth Harvey at CMAI recently joined a LinkedIn discussion group called Thought Leadership Salon, where the latest discussion focused on the definition of Thought Leadership Marketing (TLM).
The discussion linked to a WebWire article written by Gartner (an information technology research company). Gartner defines TLM as: the giving — for free or at a nominal charge — of information or advice that a client will value so as to create awareness of the outcome that a company’s product or service can deliver, in order to position and differentiate that offering and stimulate demand for it.
Their VP elaborated: "The principle of TLM is simple enough: You give away a little valuable intellectual property to establish your potential usefulness to the client, in the expectation that the client will use your expertise and services. Its essence is to show, rather than tell what a company can do, and to do so in a way that positions and differentiates that company’s offering for the chosen target audience".
The article went on to give some interesting B2B examples, and of course, to link to their own thought leadership, a Gartner report called "Marketing Essentials: How to Use Thought Leadership Marketing for IT Services Providers".
While I am not sure that the definition above is not a bit too narrow (I would argue that thought leadership is about more than sharing whitepapers, just like PR is about more than press releases), I am certainly interested that thought leadership is being considered an “organized discipline” of marketing.
Are your B2B marketing departments consciously using TLM in your marketing plans?
Elizabeth Harvey, Manager of Councils and Self Regulatory Programs at Canadian Marketing Association
