From time to time, team members will share their views stimulated from a piece by an industry thought leader. Here, our CEO, Lisa Maier, discusses a Brand Strategy Insider article by Kevin Randall,“ Why Strong Brands Drive B2B Markets.”
I agree with the author’s assertion, “Brands matter in B2B markets. In fact, they may matter even more in B2B than in B2C.” Particularly when considering that most B2B companies are scrambling to meet customers at a much earlier point in the buying cycle today and are therefore generating massive amounts of undifferentiated content that is drowning the marketplace.
So what will a strong brand give you in today’s marketplace, according to Randall? Some really important things:
- The ability to cut through the clutter.
- The {majorly important} ability to meet people emotionally as well as intellectually.
- To set expectations about your brand’s unique promise.
Recognizing and acting on the fact that a strong brand is a strategic advantage for a B2B company will set you light years ahead of your competitive set. Randall gives some statistics on this: The value of the brand itself for some well-known B2B companies: IBM’s 2015 brand value is $65.1 billion, GE $42.2 billion, Intel $35.4 billion. He then goes on to give some actionable specifics about how a B2B company should go about brand-building.
Finally, this article ends with some interesting and factually supported tidbits to motivate you:
- Examples of how small brands achieve great impact.
- Points to empirical research showing tech brand market value against brand strength to demonstrate verifiable financial returns for tech company brand building.
- Examples of how trust is valued.
- Discussion about neuroscientific findings about how B2B buyers buy that aren’t too dissimilar from how all of us buy.
Finally, his main point is one you just cannot disregard: “Brands drive B2B. Because not all B2B marketers embrace or grasp this notion, there is a real opportunity for the enlightened B2B brand strategist and marketer to achieve real impact.”
We say ‘go for it’!! And if you are looking for strategic, brand-focused marketing assistance, call us today. We can help.
