You probably think that brand marketing to businesses is very different than to marketing to consumers. If so, you’re right. Brands that are trying to reach individual consumers can communicate promises of personal benefits and experiences relatively easily and rely heavily on emotional appeals and the idea of indulgence. B2B brand marketing, on the other hand, often involves engaging entire target organizations driving jaded, cynical potential buyers to a sales team hungry for leads, selling complex, unglamorous services and products in very competitive, no-frills markets. It might seem like B2B marketing has little use for a brand focus, but as any B2B marketing agency will tell you, it is needed.
Myths and Misunderstandings
The factors that most often undermine effective B2B brand marketing include misconceptions about what a brand is (and isn’t), as well as misunderstanding and undervaluing the role a brand plays in the path to purchase.
If your company struggles with awareness, consideration, or differentiation of your B2B services and products, it’s likely that your decision-makers believe one or more of the following wrong things:
#1: Our Brand Is The Things We’re Selling: WRONG
Many companies equate their brand with the products or services they offer, or treat them as interchangeable. This is an understandable B2B marketing. But it’s inaccurate, and it could be keeping you from building and leveraging your brand in advertising, marketing, sales, and other communications. Your brand is the identity and character customers and the public associate with your company – not your product or service, and not your features and benefits. Understanding the difference is also key to understanding the link: giving your customers good experiences with your products and services will help build and define your brand, while a strong brand can help increase the perceived value and quality of those same offerings.
#2: A Strong Brand Just Means Name Recognition: WRONG
Name recognition among your customers is certainly part of a well-marketed brand, but it’s far from the whole story. In addition to awareness, your brand conveys and includes the entire perception of your company by potential customers and the general public. Putting your logo everywhere or having a catchy jingle can help grow your brand awareness, but it won’t get your brand respected and valued. Your B2B brand marketing strategy also needs to consider what your brand and the communications associated with it mean to online search algorithms, which play a huge role in determining what your customers see about you (or whether they see you at all) when shopping and researching.
#3: In Our B2b Market, Brand Doesn’t Really Matter: WRONG
It may seem like you compete in spaces where you and your competition are highly commodified, differentiated only by price, and winning or losing solely on who can meet the budget or the bid. It might even be pretty accurate. But when it seems like branding is making no difference, you and your B2B marketing agency have a brand marketing opportunity. The factors of awareness, consideration, and differentiation always apply in any sale, and a well-developed and marketed brand can always be an asset. High brand awareness can be what puts you on the list of potential suppliers in the first place. A strong brand impression helps ensure that your “commodity” is differentiated from anything generic, and any awareness your brand has can help drive at least some degree of advocacy within your customer organization, both before and after the sale.
#4: We Don’t Need Brand Marketing, We Need Sales: WRONG*
*You need, both, and it is NOT an either-or proposition. Establishing awareness and differentiation for your brand helps amplify all your other communications, marketing, and sales outreach. Without a strong brand driving recognition and providing an existing good impression, every campaign starts at ground level, being forced to work harder to make any impact, and delivering inferior ROMI. B2B brand marketing is not an alternative to lead generation, product education, or promotional programs – it’s a powerful tool for enhancing all of them. The more crowded your market may be and the newer your brand is, the more that you may be hurting yourself by failing to prioritize your brand, and the more effective brand marketing becomes an even bigger opportunity.
#5: My Company Is Already Doing Brand Marketing Right: WRONG?
You might be. Unfortunately, most companies make brand development and communication a very low priority in their B2B Marketing. Many are not doing any focused development and marketing of their brands, instead focusing on “more practical” tactics. As discussed in this article, all marketing and sales tactics can see real improvement from the proper development and marketing of your company’s brand.
Talk To B2b Brand Marketing Experts
Branding is just one element of a winning B2B marketing strategy. To really generate the leads and drive the sales you need, you require an action plan that includes smart, creative, analytics-driven tactics across media platforms and at every touchpoint of the B2B buying process. Talk to a trusted B2B marketing agency, such as Mascola, and see how your brand and your company could be doing things right. Contact us to learn more.