German engineering company Siemens AG was making tens of billions of dollars through a multitude of business units, but its brand awareness was low in its biggest market, the United States—that is, until marketers found a solution.

THE RIGH ANSWER

By Piet Levy//Staff Writer plevy@ama.org

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 it’s a story that Tom Haas, CMO of Siemens Corp. in Washington shares often. In 2001, four years before Klaus Kleinfeld became CEO of Siemens Corp.’s Munich, Germany-based parent, global engineer-ing company Siemens AG, Kleinfeld moved to the United States to become Siemens Corp.’s chief operating offi cer.

At customs at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the agent asked Kleinfeld who his U.S. employer was and Kleinfeld said, “ ‘Siemens,’ very proudly, coming from Germany where it’s a household name,” Hass recalls. Th e agent replied: “Th at’s a great company. I buy their furniture all the time.” He mistook the now-164-year-old Siemens, one of the 50 biggest companies in the world, according to Fortune, with more than $100 billion in revenue in 2010 and approximately 336,000 employees in 190 countries, for a furniture brand called Seaman’s.

“Klaus was beside himself,” Haas says. “How could somebody not know who Siemens was?” Doubly distressing was the fact that this was a common misconception in the United States, Siemens’ largest market (U.S. revenue was $19.9 billion for fi scal year 2010, according to the company).

You might think it would be embarrassing for Haas to recount an anec-dote that demonstrates how a multibillion-dollar global conglomerate can be mistaken for an old Long-Island-based furniture brand. But Haas loves to share the Kleinfeld story because that exchange with the customs agent was the catalyst for the company’s renewed focus on marketing, which resulted in a multifaceted global branding eff ort called “Answers.”

Launched in 2007, Answers unifi ed Siemens’ diverse units—which design and manufacture products ranging from trains to diagnostic imag-ing systems to wind turbines—into one brand identity. “It provided a stra-tegic point of reference that we are engineers who work on solving the toughest problems and answering the toughest questions,” Haas says. Th rough advertising, online marketing and events, Answers has boosted Siemens’ brand awareness, search engine inquiries and website visits, and has moved on to promote the company’s sustainability initiatives as Siemens looks to broaden its reach in the U.S. market.

Formulating the ResponseIt’s tough for a B-to-B behemoth like Siemens to forge a cohesive brand identity that encompasses all of its units. Each client or potential client oft en is exposed only to the facet of the business that directly applies to his needs, but a unifi ed brand identity and brand messaging can make the company that much stronger.

Take IBM and General Electric, two global conglomerates—and Siemens’ competitors—that have managed to forge unifi ed identi-ties despite their disparate business units. Compared with those brands,

Siemens was “being sort of out-marketed in many ways, certainly on a budgetary level, but just in terms of weaving a cohesive message together,” says Sean Rimler, global marketing director at Ogilvy & Mather New York, who oversees the Siemens account. Th e goal for Siemens was to establish “who we are, what we are about and what we look like,” Rimler says.

Answers is Siemens’ version of IBM’s “Smarter” and GE’s “Imagination.” Siemens, at its heart, is an engineering company and needs to convey that it fi nds solutions to challenging problems, Rimler says. Rather than centering Siemens’ brand identity around “Solutions”—which Haas deemed an overused term that wouldn’t provide Siemens with a distinct enough identity—the Ogilvy and Siemens teams settled on Answers. Haas says that he also liked that Answers could translate well into almost any language, an important point for the global company.

Answers launched as a pilot initiative in the United States in late 2007 and a year later was implemented in 80% of Siemens’ markets, primar-ily through print ads in business publications, banners on business media sites and TV ads during Sunday morning news shows, and on cable news networks and airport billboards, Rimler says. (Four years later, that same media mix is still in play, although Siemens has substituted general banner ads, which weren’t generating very high click-through rates, with strategically placed website ad takeovers, such as one executed on WashingtonPost.com this spring, Haas says.)

One 2007 print ad (above) promoting Siemens’ diagnostic imaging solutions for hospitals says: “How can disease be detected before it strikes? Th e Siemens answer: Early detection and prevention. Siemens is combin-ing state-of-the-art laboratory diagnostics with imaging technologies with the goal of allowing disease detection at the earliest stages. Molecu-lar medicine will also contribute to this goal, particularly for diseases like cancer or Alzheimer’s. And advances in healthcare IT will make healthcare systems more effi cient—and even enable more specifi c care for patients.” While the ad’s copy is emblematic of the Answers campaign’s informative, solutions-focused angle, the imagery—a photo taken from above of chil-dren running from a school—exemplifi es what would become a consis-tent aesthetic approach used in all of Siemens’ print advertising in the campaign’s early days.

Getting multiple marketing departments across business units and markets aligned around Answers initially took up the lion’s share of the Answers team’s attention. “It was an enormous feat to get everybody to have matching luggage,” Rimler says. Ogilvy created templates that illus-trated ad layouts and copy style. Ogilvy outposts around the world did workshops with local Siemens marketers and the main Ogilvy Answers team dropped into some local markets to off er storytelling guidance.

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CREATING THE BRAND IDENTITY

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Siemens’ global marketing team worked to create a two-way dialogue between diff erent departments to better ensure buy-in. “Th ese businesses were all very independent and autonomous,” Haas says. “It’s not saying: ‘We’re corporate; we’re responsible for the brand. Follow these directives.’ It was about getting everyone at the table so they understand we’re support-ing their objectives.”

Designing Better Answers An internal study in 2008 suggested that Siemens’ brand awareness had increased, but it also implied that there was still some confusion about Siemens’ business, even in the United States, Rimler says. Once they had established the branding template worldwide, the Answers team began work-ing to make Answers a clearer response to the marketplace’s questions about Siemens’ off erings. In 2009, Ogilvy engaged in an 18-month interview process in which it spoke with nearly 50 Siemens executives and business leaders, as

well as 100 customers and prospects. From these discussions, Ogilvy evolved the Answers strategy to engage Siemens’ audience on a deeper level.

“In the earliest days, questions were given almost as much relevance as answers” in the Answers campaign’s ads and messaging, Rimler says. “We decided to focus more on answers. … What we tried to do is inject more humanity, more emotions, into the executions.”

In fall 2009, the team rolled out the next phase of the Answers campaign in the U.S. called Somewhere in America, Answers’ attempt to assure pros-pects that doing business with the company would have an impact on the U.S. economy during the economic crisis, Haas says. Marketers began making short documentaries that appeared on the Siemens’ website and

on its YouTube channel emphasizing Siemens’ impact on local econo-mies, such as the 2009 construction of a new factory in the rural town of Hutchinson, Kan., and the 2007, $30 million expansion of a manufacturing plant in Norwood, Ohio. Th e localized marketing approach was so eff ective that Siemens has created similar messaging tailored to other markets such as China and South America, Rimler says.

Th e team also carried the more localized, emotional approach into Siemens’ TV advertising, Rimler says. A 2009 spot features crisp, cinematic images of U.S.-based wind turbines, factories, hospitals, the countryside and city skylines. Th e spot’s narration, spoken over a soft orchestral score, says that “somewhere in America, there’s a home by the sea powered by the wind on the plains; there’s a hospital where technology has a healing touch” and credits Siemens’ 69,000 U.S. employees for making these innovations possible. Th at’s a far cry from a more technically oriented TV spot just one year earlier that featured an aggressive, movie-trailer-like score and narra-tion that asked questions such as, “How can you manufacture customized products at aff ordable prices?” illustrating solutions with animation and written captions.

Th e print advertising has evolved, too. Gone are the staged wide shots that Rimler says gave the campaign a cohesive visual perspective but were too impersonal. Now print ads feature candid photos that are more inti-mate in scope. And the ads’ engineering-focused language has been replaced by a comparatively more heartfelt narrative. Recall the copy from the 2007 print ad promoting Siemens’ diagnostic imaging solutions that emphasized “molecular medicine” and “advances in healthcare IT.” A 2011 ad (above) for the same solutions set reads: “When diseases are caught early, they make less of an impact on everyone. … With Siemens advanced diagnostic technology, doctors can accurately identify these dangers earlier. So patients get the treatment they need sooner.” Th e ad features a photo of a person being screened by a Siemens device at a hospital.

Answers also benefi tted from an increase in its U.S. ad budget, from $30.2 million in 2008 to $37.8 million in 2009 (excluding Internet spend-ing), according to Th e Nielsen Co. “Th at jumpstarted us at a time other companies had been cutting back [on advertising spend],” Haas says. GE, for instance, reduced its U.S. ad budget (excluding Internet) by 11% at that time, according to Nielsen.

Responding to New QuestionsSeeking to keep its messaging fresh and to better showcase another sell-ing point, Siemens evolved Answers again in fall 2010 to emphasize sustain-ability, an ongoing hot topic in the business world that, based on Siemens’ research, was becoming a more crucial consideration for purchase, Haas says.

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“We decided to focus more on answers.

… What we tried to do is inject

more humanity, more emotions, into

the executions.” SEAN RIMLER, Ogilvy & Mather New York

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Siemens boasts that it is the world’s largest provider of environmentally friendly technologies, claiming that 33% of its revenue stems from the sale of green products and solutions. To refl ect the company’s sustainable mindset, Ogilvy pitched the new Answers phase in May 2010 as Answers that Last. “We wanted a platform that would help with storytelling and wanted something that would foster a sense of excitement,” Rimler says. One print ad, distributed this year, told the story of a power-generating substation that Siemens built that’s underneath Roosevelt Park in Anaheim, Calif.

Also, based on feedback that Haas received that demonstrated that some of Siemens’ clients and prospects favor events and face-to-face engagement over traditional advertising, in 2010 Siemens launched road tours to market the company’s sustainable solutions, Haas says. One tour promoted Siemens’ smart-grid technologies and their environmen-tal benefi ts over other electrical grids used to power utilities, technol-ogy providers and municipalities. Th e tour, which stopped in nine cities in North America, was enclosed inside an Earth-like dome. Inside, visi-tors could attend presentations about smart-grid technologies, engage with interactive, educational panels and watch 360-degree video presentations projected onto the dome’s interior. Marketers also created a special website for the tour that included white papers, videos and details about Siemens’ smart-grid solutions.

Staying the CourseTh ere’s enough evidence to suggest that Answers has been the answer that Siemens needs, Haas says. Siemens conducted another internal study in 2010 to measure progress from 2008 and found that brand awareness had increased over the two-year period, Haas says. Th anks in part to Answers, page views at Siemens’ U.S. website rose from an average of 200,000 monthly views from May to August 2010 to 700,000 views in April 2011. Search referrals for Siemens on Google also are up, reaching approximately 125,000 referrals in April 2011, the last month recorded as of deadline, which is south of the peak of 175,000 in November 2010 but still a positive result, according to the company.

Given the B-to-B company’s long sales cycles, the Answers campaign has yet to prove its impact on Siemens’ bottom line. Siemens’ revenue dipped for the second year in a row in fi scal year 2010, from €76.7 billion down to €76 billion. Haas says the sales drop is a result of an order back-log stemming back to orders placed during the recession, when spend-ing was cut for many organizations, but he expects U.S. revenue to rise for fi scal year 2011.

Bob Lamons, president of B-to-B branding agency Industribrand in Houston and author of Th e Case for B2B Branding, says that with a clear brand identity, Siemens has the potential to grow its revenue in the long run. It’s up to Siemens’ marketers to fi nd ways to solidify Siemens’ position as the company that has the answers to address its clients’ needs. “Brand expectations take a long time to establish,” Lamons says. “Siemens is a smart company. Th e more and more it reinforces [Answers], ultimately, someday people may say Siemens is the smartest company.” m

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Addressing ControversyWhile company executives deny any correlation, Siemens’ answers branding initiative was launched on the heels of a corporate crisis.

in november 2006, a little less than a year before answers launched, german prosecutors announced that they were investigating Munich-based Siemens ag for allegedly using slush funds and bribes to secure public works projects. the investigations spread to multiple countries, as did media reports. While he was not accused of any wrongdoing, klaus kleinfeld, Siemens ag’s CeO when the alleged scandal unfolded, announced his resignation in april 2007, stating that the company needed "clarity about its leadership." in December 2008, Siemens agreed to pay $1.6 billion to american and european authorities to settle the charges.

Bill Stabile, senior director of brand and marketing communications at Washington-based Siemens Corp., says that the answers campaign already was in development when the investigations were announced. “While we knew about the global compliance issues, we did not associate this with the campaign we were developing,” Stabile says. “the campaign was based on a real opportunity to raise the profi le of Siemens in providing solutions that addressed the tough challenges of the world and, of course, the U.S.”

While the answers campaign wasn’t launched as a result of the controversy, “we were concerned and did not want the compliance question to impact our campaign launch,” Stabile says, “but we also had no idea when the compliance news would break and how it would come about. So we separated the decision on launching the campaign from the anticipation about what might happen in the news,” opting to proceed with answers’ fall 2007 launch in the United States.

Join the conversation about B-to-B branding best practices with the Brand Management and B2B Marketing groups in the AMA’s exclusive online community.

visit MarketingPower.com/community.

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