B2B: The Bloomberg formula

In finance, Bloomberg is an indispensable must-have, a product and brand that sits at the core of the profession – an interesting new piece of analysis looks at how it got there.

Why it matters

B2B brands, of which Bloomberg is one of the shining lights, don’t tend to enjoy the fame that this one does. But the really interesting thing here is about how brand and pricing interplay.

What’s going on

Writing in the Financial Times, Rupak Ghose, a former analyst and now operating chief of Galytix, a fintech firm, attempts to uncover the reasons why, despite an old-school interface and hefty price rises, Bloomberg is such a thriving business.

It boils down to a handful of ideas to emulate:

• Know your users (not necessarily the rest of the world) and what they like, and work toward becoming indispensable.
• Become hard to substitute and build a brand around this; Bloomberg has worked hard to become a status symbol as well as a method of connection and messaging through the finance industry.
• Grow from the core. In some cases, one-product, one-fee can – like Apple’s early iPhones – both simplify the offer and communicate its universal value. This said, smart acquisitions and bundling options have allowed it to grow accounts beyond the core product.
• Long-term vision (and the privilege of ownership). As a private company it can invest for the long term without having to justify it to the markets, ironically.

While some of these ideas are replicable some – like being a private company – are structural and would be nigh-on impossible to engineer.

Sourced from the FT. 
^{[Image: Bloomberg]}