B2B Branding & Marketing by Bejoy Peter · 2023-01-25 · 19 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
23 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Bijoy Peter announces the launch of his handbook-style book on industrial marketing, specifically designed for engineering and manufacturing companies in India. Unlike existing literature that emphasizes strategy, this book focuses on tactical areas - the practical execution of marketing and branding exercises. Peter argues that most Indian SMEs treat industrial marketing as standard advertising without domain expertise, and lack the infrastructure to develop formal strategies, making a tactical, handbook approach more relevant. The book addresses critical pain points including employee attrition in manufacturing, misconceptions about branding, and the budget challenges unique to B2B component manufacturers who cannot embed marketing costs into product pricing like FMCG companies. Each chapter includes interactive exercises and a to-do checklist, covering assets from logos and vision statements to dynamic content like videos and podcasts, plus emerging formats like sonic branding. The book helps business owners collaborate effectively with external agencies or supervise internal communication teams. Peter also previews his second book on the psychology of buyer behavior, launching in February with a Marathi edition following in April.
Peter identified a gap in literature specific to the Indian industrial marketing landscape, where SMEs lack domain expertise and treat industrial marketing as standard advertising. He created a handbook focused on actionable tactics rather than strategy, which most SMEs cannot execute without proper foundational tools and assets in place.
Most existing books emphasize strategy, but this book focuses on tactical execution - the practical steps needed to implement marketing and branding. It's designed as an interactive handbook with do-to-do lists and exercises rather than theoretical guidance, recognizing that many SMEs need assets and tactical frameworks before developing formal strategy.
Manufacturing sectors experience high attrition as talent moves between competitors, and salary alone cannot retain employees. Creating clear purpose and communication of vision, mission, and goals helps with employee loyalty and brand ambassadorship, addressing attrition better than compensation adjustments.
FMCG companies embed marketing costs into product pricing, but component manufacturers cannot. For them, marketing must be treated as an investment cost center separate from product pricing, requiring a fundamentally different budgeting and ROI approach.
The English edition is scheduled to launch in mid-February, with availability on Amazon and direct shipping through specific URLs, plus select retail stores. A Marathi edition will launch in early April.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode is primarily a promotional book-launch interview with very few novel, actionable ideas per minute. The most substantive point - that manufacturing SMEs cannot embed marketing costs into MRP the way FMCG companies do - is interesting but underdeveloped, and the rest is surface-level platitude.
for somebody who's making a component for a car cannot do that. So for him, uh, marketing as an exercise becomes a cost center
branding is driven by misconceptions. It is necessary evil. If you have a conception about something, you cannot do Branding
No genuinely contrarian or first-principles thinking is presented; the framing of strategy vs. tactics, employee attrition, and brand assets are all well-worn B2B marketing tropes. The inflation/Japan analogy for the next book is tangential and not developed into an original claim.
In an ideal world you would want to have a strategy first and then develop the tactics
your employees are your brand ambassadors, your customers and prospects come in later
Bijoy Peter has 20 years of practitioner experience specifically in industrial/engineering marketing, a real niche, but the episode functions purely as self-promotion for a book launch and does not surface the depth of that experience in any meaningful way.
as per, uh, this book is basically caters to a uh, specific niche of engineering and manufacturing clients
even when we speak to clients, a lot of cases we uh, do not ask them, do you have a budget for this exercise
Almost no concrete data, named companies, real client examples, or metrics are offered; the guest explicitly notes 'I haven't used a lot of examples' in describing the book itself, and the episode follows suit with purely generic assertions.
I haven't used a lot of examples, um, but I've taken some generic examples, especially in areas where the vision statement is coined
there are 10 parameters. So asked the client to read those 10 parameters and rate it for themselves
The host asks entirely softball, leading questions with no follow-up, no pushback, and frequent affirmation; the interview functions as a pure PR exercise with zero productive tension or probing.
So I feel that you have a
I am sure there are some upcoming books
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Send us Fan Mail The industrial sector is unique in so many ways, and one of them is its branding and marketing activities. It has been a daunting task for engineering and manufacturing companies to communicate what they do through their name and branding. This book takes you through the tactics required to get started with your marketing and secure a non-negotiable position for the brand. The contents of this book will help business owners and decision-makers engage with marketing agencies, consultants and internal communications teams in more practical ways than ever. Hope this episode adds value to your business and professional excellence. Do share your feedback with me on bejoy@VisionKraft.com ... Thanks for tuning in to our podcast today! We hope you enjoyed the conversation. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to engage further, feel free to reach out to Bejoy Peter. You can write to him at bejoy@visionkraft.com or give him a call at +919850555795. We appreciate your support and look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, take care and keep exploring!
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Foreign.
Speaker B: Hello and welcome to the podcast on industrial marketing by Bijoy Peter. With an experience of over 20 years, Bijoy helps engineering and manufacturing companies implement modern marketing programs that deliver meaningful business outcomes through definitive brand strategies, production of media assets, marketing automation and lead generation systems transforming their digital footprint globally. Hope you find the podcast m valuable to your business. Do visit B e j o y B-E-T e r bijoypeter.com to stay connected.
Speaker A: Welcome to another episode of industrial marketing, um, podcast by Bijoy Peter. So this podcast would be something uh, related to something really special and uh, firstly I would like to congratulate Bijoy Vita for achieving such a feat of writing a book which about a topic which is, you know, the whole and soul of you.
Speaker C: Thank you Agram.
Speaker A: Yes. So could uh, you just uh, you know, let me know why did you want to write a book? Or why do you had a thought that you know, you want to write a book?
Speaker C: I mean, let me be very honest with you. First of all, I wanted to satisfy a certain ego I've had about writing a book.
Speaker A: That's justifiable.
Speaker C: That's one thing. The second thing is, um, as per, uh, this book is basically caters to a uh, specific niche of engineering and manufacturing clients. Uh, so as far as I understand, there is no book which is set into the Indian context. Okay. Because industrial marketing as a lingo is widely used in Europe and us. Okay. And in India what happens is um, industrial marketing is treated as your standard marketing or like they think that it is something that an advertising agency can do, which they do fairly well.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker C: But however they will uh, lack the domain expertise. Okay. So seeing that uh, I thought maybe script something which is largely do's and don'ts kind of manual. So this book is more like a handbook.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: And um, it covers specific areas that can be actionable.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: So that's how I thought. Because there was no specific literature available in my knowledge, I thought maybe why not put it out into the market.
Speaker A: Yeah. So uh, actually my next question would have been that how does your book differ from all the other books which are in the market currently? So I feel that you have a.
Speaker C: But I can expand on that. So you will see a lot of books, uh, which basically talks about strategy.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Uh, even if you pick up a book on industrial marketing, uh, from the shelves, it speaks a lot about strategy. Right. Now this book uh, specifically involves tactical areas. So any um, marketing or branding exercise has two areas to it. One is the strategic area and one is a tactical area. That is putting the strategy into action. In an ideal world you would want to have a strategy first and then develop the tactics. Uh, but in a real world, uh, a lot of SMEs are not in a position to configure a strategy because they don't have the tools in place. Right, right. So this book basically covers the tactical areas. Once you have your assets done, then a strategy can be done, um, as a permanent combination exercise. Because strategies basically are left open ended. If somebody gives you a guarantee on a strategy, I think, uh, I mean you should take it with a very light heart.
Speaker A: Right. So, uh, what would be the key takeaways a uh, reader would take away from this book?
Speaker C: So the most uh, important key takeaway that I would want a reader uh, to take from the book is to, is from the initial few chapters where uh, there is a mention of um, the purpose itself of creating a marketing and branding exercise. Uh, then looking into areas like vision, mission, goals and uh, and also uh, letting your team know what your vision is and how do you communicate that. Uh, this basically helps them with attrition, helps them with uh, employee loyalty. So what happens is a lot of organizations, especially in the engineering and manufacturing sector, there's a massive attrition.
Speaker A: Right, Exactly.
Speaker C: Uh, so, and with the convergence of jobs, because there are a lot of parallels between the service sector and the manufacturing sector, that convergence has made this, uh, attrition something which is more like a challenge which you can probably cannot even match up with salaries. Correct, Right. Because these two industries come from different ecosystems. So one way to match up to those is to create a purpose of engagement for your employees because your employees are your brand ambassadors, your customers and prospects come in later. So this book's initial few chapters covers that area.
Speaker A: Correct. So you know, talking about attrition, uh, even I am working in a manufacturing industry. So I've uh, witnessed this aspect, uh, that there is a lot of attrition and there's a lot of uh, cross employment that you know, they just move to the competitor and then they work for two years to the, in that field and then they move to another company. So this just, you know, they keep moving around because uh, they maybe are not aligned with the mission or the vision.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker A: Probably the salary is one of the
Speaker C: reasons a salary actually becomes the lowest hanging fruit.
Speaker A: Right. So uh, now you know, this field of branding and marketing keeps evolving. So uh, how do you see this branding and marketing in future for these uh, SME owners? And how does your book address these changes as you.
Speaker C: Rightly. Said in the first part of your question, marketing and branding is a dynamic activity. Uh, when you say evolving, it basically is dynamic, which essentially involves measuring um, and remeasuring and restrategizing or recreating the assets.
Speaker A: Correct.
Speaker C: The second part of the question, where future is concerned, um, I personally um, do not propagate a future message with respect to branding and marketing.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Uh, so me and my team, what we do is when we speak to clients, we speak about the present. Okay, we may pick up something from the past, but what you do in the present as a tactical exercise is going to create a future which is not predictable. Okay, but you can put in some control mechanisms in place. For example, if you say um, you have a website, so the website is created for today, for today's audience, but the control mechanism is having your analytics in place. A combination of these two will ensure that the future of this brand, uh, it progresses in a um, more um, controlled mechanism and the feedback is something that can be addressed.
Speaker A: Understood. So um, you know, ah, readers would be coming across different principles related to branding and marketing. So how do you feel that they can apply these principles in their companies or organizations?
Speaker C: See um, Agram, um, my sense of the B2B market, especially the uh, market that we cater in, is a lot of these business owners, they have a great sense of appreciation for B2C advertising and B2C branding and um, in many ways B2C marketing. So we do not see the need of making anyone understand what branding is or what marketing is. Having said that, because the pricing matrix and the ecosystem differs in uh, end user product and a uh, closed user product, uh, creating a budget for the similar exercise is often challenging. Okay, so for example, if I'm making a um, FMCG product, my marketing cost is packaged in my mrp. Right? But for somebody who's making a component for a car cannot do that.
Speaker A: True, very true.
Speaker C: So for him, uh, marketing as an exercise becomes a cost center and they will look at it as a uh, investment.
Speaker A: Right?
Speaker C: Not as a part of the overall pricing. Uh, so that is where um, a careful approach is required. And this particular book helps you create those assets and helps you with the areas concerned while creating those assets. Right.
Speaker A: So rightly said that a component manufacturer, uh, is not catering to the marketing costs and not including in the mrp. Because you know there's a difference between um, you know, the pricing of the component and plus you know, the marketing for that.
Speaker C: Correct.
Speaker A: So that's a very good uh, you know they could take these principles from this book and then apply it to their industry.
Speaker C: That is actually, even when we speak to clients, a lot of cases we uh, do not ask them, do you have a budget for this exercise? Because we understand there cannot be a budget.
Speaker A: Right. So um, you know, there are a lot of misconceptions and challenges regarding branding and marketing in the market or among the industries. So how does your book address these, uh, challenges?
Speaker C: Okay, see, branding is driven by misconceptions. It is necessary evil. If you have a conception about something, you cannot do Branding. Okay, okay. So branding, I'll say 8 out of 10, 10 outcomes in branding is a misconception.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker C: And that's how it's going to be there.
Speaker A: Mhm.
Speaker C: Right. If you reverse that order, you cannot brand anything. Right. So we'll take misconceptions as a part of this exercise.
Speaker A: So probably rather than, you know, taking it out here, we're going to learn regarding the misconceptions in branding. Yeah, that you brand it better.
Speaker C: Yeah, those misconceptions need to be, uh, it's, it's the way you look at it. It's basically essentially what you call as feedback.
Speaker A: Right. So uh, could you address some of the specific, uh, uh, illustrations in the book that could, you know, you, uh, it could be a real example for the real world companies to look ahead.
Speaker C: I haven't used a lot of examples, um, but I've taken some generic examples, especially in areas where the vision statement is coined.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Uh, this book in no way intends to serve as a book related to uh, maybe business coaching or similar activities. But the fact of the matter is that a lot of organizations or SMEs that I have come across, uh, they tend to write their goal as their vision statement.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Similarly, uh, they tend to also write their mission as a vision statement. Um, therefore I have put in illustrative examples of how a vision statement should be and uh, or maybe how the best practices. So there's one, there are areas where I'm asking score, I'm asking score on um, what their logo is. So there are 10 parameters. So asked the client to read those 10 parameters and rate it for themselves. Whether the, how much would they rate their logo out of ten?
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker C: Uh, the end of every chapter there is a to do kind of box.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Um, having said that, this book in particular need not be treated as a linear literature. What I mean, uh, is you can pick up any chapter, any day and work on it. So that is how the book has been treated.
Speaker A: So like every chapter is an exercise for you and at the end of every chapter.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker A: You have those to, uh, do list.
Speaker C: Yes. But I will still recommend you read the first five to six chapters. Okay. And then go for the randomization of the.
Speaker A: You know, you have to create a base before going ahead.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker A: And uh, it's a two way communicating book. You just need to not keep reading it. You have to, you know, interact with the book and fill in the things so that it would be become more, uh, intriguing and it would benefit the reader more.
Speaker C: Yeah. Because it's a book related to tactile activities, tactical activities. Um, this book essentially involves getting things done. Uh, okay.
Speaker A: Right. So, um, what are some tips or best practices for uh, industrial and manufacturing companies to develop these effective marketing and
Speaker C: branding strategies For a lot of SMEs, uh, they are completely dependent on an external agency. Right. It has to be. It could be an advertising agency or it could be a production house or a freelancer. What this book does is it helps the business owner or the decision maker in the organization interact with the third party. Right. So essentially activities are concerned. There's a mention of all the activities. I mean from your static assets, like images to your dynamic assets like videos, to some assets which are in the trend, like podcast, uh, sonic branding. It covers all these areas. What this book will do is help you engage with these agencies or if you have an internal communication team. Um, there are a lot of areas where there is an internal communication team, but it lacks supervision. So a lot of times these teams are completely displaced by the organization because there is a lack of supervision. Uh, it becomes difficult to connect what they do with the organization at large. So this book will help you retain your internal teams or uh, develop a constructive communication with your third parties. Right, exactly.
Speaker A: So you know, when you're interacting with a third party agency, you should know what you want to talk about, exactly what they are talking to you about.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker A: So, uh, Vijay, so what are the future plans? What are the other topics you are going to write about in your upcoming books? I am sure there are some upcoming books.
Speaker C: Yeah. So, uh, I mean this is not like a committed statement.
Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. But you know, IO, are there any future plans? Yeah.
Speaker C: So the next book is, uh, going to be around the psychology of why people buy. Okay. So, um, people will buy. It's, it's like the word inflation. Uh, while inflation sounds, uh, like harm to the society, the fact of the matter is that without inflation there is no growth.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Like if you take an example of there was a time when, uh, Japan didn't have inflation for 10 years but then they call it as the lost decade. Right, right. Similarly, uh, when there will never be a time when people will not buy.
Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
Speaker C: The only thing that will change is the dynamics. Correct. So my second book talks about the default human dynamics.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: That makes them buy and ah, the entire globe at large if I may say, thrives towards prosperity.
Speaker A: So I'm sure that you know that book would also turn out really good.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker A: Uh, so when is this book launching and where people can find it?
Speaker C: Um, this particular book is uh scheduled to launch uh in the mid of February.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Uh, and one is obviously the most, uh, the most popular platform where you can go and buy it is Amazon or uh we will have specific URLs where we can ship it directly to them.
Speaker A: Great.
Speaker C: Uh, we are also speaking to some stores.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: Hopefully it should be on the shelf some of stores also I'm sure that
Speaker A: um, you know the launch would be successful and uh, people will look ahead to buy this book and you know implement whatever uh, the book says about.
Speaker C: Yes. And the other thing about this book is if I may add is we are coming out with the Marathi edition of the same book.
Speaker A: Oh great.
Speaker B: Wow.
Speaker C: So that should be uh, available uh most likely from the first week of April. Great, great, great.
Speaker A: So that's another good add on to the book.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker A: So uh, thank you Bijoy. Uh, we all are uh, looking forward towards this book and uh, surely it be a success.
Speaker C: Thank you Agram. Yeah, see you.
Speaker B: Hope you find the podcast valuable to your business. Do visit B E J O Y P E t e r bjoypeter.com to stay connected.
Other episodes covering the same guests and topics, from across The B2B Podcast Index.
Strategic Decision Making, The Role of the Data Scientist, and Building Uber | Sundar SwaminathanThe Efficient Spend Podcast · on marketing budget allocation88 / 100
The State of Sonic Branding [ENCORE]Sound in Marketing · on Sonic branding88 / 100
How Should Professional Services Firms Invest Their Marketing Budget?Rattle & Pedal: B2B Marketing Podcast · on marketing budget allocation61 / 100
B2B Marketing 2026: The Executive MandateGlobal B2B Marketing Podcast with Scott Owen Kuberski · on marketing budget allocation40 / 100
How CMOs Use Causal AI to Find Hidden Growth LeversThe CMO Podcast with Fexingo · on marketing budget allocation
How First-Touch Attribution Misallocates Your Marketing BudgetMarketing Analytics with Fexingo · on marketing budget allocation
The Write Inheritance: How Words Build Legacies52 / 100
Does SPATIAL BRANDING mean - no compromise!54 / 100
In Conversation with Tanvi Pinjarkar on BRAND MANUALS56 / 100
Grow Your Business With SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION40 / 100
In Conversation with Agrim Yog on enabling BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE58 / 100