Q&A: Tim Payne, vice president of EMEA marketing, Oracle

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Oracle ranked 4th in the BrandZ B2B list. VP of EMEA marketing, Tim Payne, talks about the growth of the Oracle brand.

Marketing Week: What specific things can you name that you believe has made the Oracle brand so valuable ($27 billion according to BrandZ)?

Tim Payne (TP): As the role of technology has grown in importance to business so Oracle’s strategy of building or buying the best-of-breed technologies available to business has ensured continued growth and increased relevance. Oracle technology is now at the heart of almost every innovative business, from large retailers to providing the architecture for cloud computing.

MW: Can you name some specific initiatives designed to increase awareness of the Oracle brand?

TP: We have recently launched a major recruitment campaign which has brought a much-needed good news story to a broad range of European media this summer. Given recruitment is a tangible barometer of growth, this story has done a lot to showcase the strength of the Oracle brand.

MW: What are the main challenges of marketing a B2B brand compared to a consumer brand?

TP: The greatest challenge is around the complexity of our message and being able to quickly convey that in a media-friendly way. However, that complexity is also an asset. It keeps us focussed on the goal which needs to be an effective portrayal of the business issues we can address.

MW: How much should a B2B brand engage with the users of its own customers?

TP: The role of B2B technology companies is to enable our customers to improve the services they offer in the most effective way possible. The relationship with the consumer is for them to manage. For example we work with the biggest banks, retailers, telecoms companies and utility providers in the world. They have recognised that we can make them more efficient and more effective customer-facing businesses and we take a lot of satisfaction from their success. However, we do of course listen to consumer trends affecting our customers in order to better enable them to service their own customers.

MW: What is the value in Oracle’s customers leveraging the Oracle brand to their own customers?

TP: For technically minded consumers there is no doubt a degree of trust and confidence to be gained from knowing the companies they deal with are using the best technology available. Some customers see it as a competitive advantage so want to keep it close to their chests, others are proud to say they have bought the best technology available.

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