Measuring brand performance and communication effectiveness in B2B markets

Building a B2B brand Branding has been defined as naming a product or service so that it is distinct from its competitors. However it is never that simple. In the real marketplace a brand is more than a name; it is the emotions and intangibles that are recalled at the mention of that name. Consumer product marketers have long realized the value of brandingthe brand is why consumers pay more for Coke than they do for the generic product. And in the consumer world millions of pounds are spent each year to define and reinforce various brands in the consumers minds. Brands are also important in the business to business market. Your brand, whether it represents your company or a particular product is an important company asset that requires the same investment and care as any of your other assets. It should be the underpinning of any marketing strategy or tactic. For the business to business market, brand can be simply defined as the set of images and feelings that are evoked in the mind of your customers and prospects at the mention of your name. In order to ensure that the image that is evoked is a consistent and positive one is the number one challenge in business to business branding. In the consumer product world, while expensive, branding is relatively simple: you build a brand through consistent advertising that links your product/service to the images and emotions that you want the consumer to associate with you. In B2B, brand building is a little more complicated. Advertising, website, brochures, trade show booth, etc. should be integrated to deliver a consistent image for your product or service. But unless the customer or prospect is getting the same image from every touch point in your organization, the image may become confused, or worse evolve into a negative. For this reason, branding in the B2B market has to come from the inside. The entire organization must understand and be able to articulate a consistent branding message. Otherwise, all the money invested in an integrated marketing program is poorly spent. A recent study by Booz, Allen, Hamilton reinforces this point. They found that only 15% of brand loyalty is generated by up front promotions, while 85% comes from the point of sales contact and beyond. In the B2B market, this means that what your sales teams are saying, the tools they are using to deliver their message and the customers total experience with your day to day call centre teams, become more important than all the money spent on creating the brand image.

Entirely branded decision (100%)

Luxury goods Soft drinks Consumer electronics

Long haul airlines Petro Industrial Chemicals

Entirely unbranded decision (0%)

Source: Illuminas

Measuring Brand Communication in the B2B arena B2B Brands regularly need to measure whether customers understand their brand positioning and whether brand messages are being communicated and understood. If the clients brand positioning/key messages are changed it is important to see whether the new marketing campaign has been effective by conducting a pre and post campaign effectiveness study. We know that brand influences choice in the B2B decision making process so it is important to ensure key messages are grounded in the core values and are well communicated. Other reasons to assess brands campaign effectiveness may be due to other factors such as; the market has moved on, or competitor brands develop new positionings. While measuring the evaluation of any campaigns is the key objective; it is important to track the spontaneous and prompted awareness of the brand and brand consideration so a continuous tracking of the brand performance can take place, independently of any separate campaign evaluation. The reasons for measuring prompted awareness and recall is due to the low engagement of respondents with advertising, as a result of the mass of media individuals are exposed to every day in their personal and business lives. Prompted awareness (also known as Brand recognition) is the customers' ability to confirm prior exposure/knowledge of a brand when shown or asked explicitly about the brand. It is a measure of how effective the brand and messages are in cutting through the mass of media and arresting customer attention and engagement. Whereas Spontaneous awareness (also known as Brand recall) is the customers' ability to retrieve a brand from memory when given the product category but not mentioning the brand. Prompted is also more robust, in that you are not solely relying on recall: when brands can be missed especially when reciting a list. Increases in levels of brand awareness over time will tell us that decisionmakers are at least hearing something about a clients brand either positive or negative. Positive brand associations will help to determine the ways in which the brand is perceived and provide guidance as to ways in which perceptions need to be changed. Levels of brand consideration will inform us that the brand is at least being considered in the overall purchase decision. Ultimately, of course, increasing sales and market share are the best two indications that the brand is healthy. This of course has to be set in the market framework. That is, to measure changes in brand health relative to competitors and look at strengths and weaknesses on each of the dimensions of brand for both a clients brand and others in the market.

To achieve real consistency in tracking research you need a random national sample, with fresh sample every month; while for the campaign research it is best to focus in on the areas with the most activity to really understand the effectiveness of the brand messages and the communication channels used. Where a study is required to compare with previous findings, sampling to the same regions as the previous study is imperative so we are able to build a comparative pattern over time of Brand Awareness. Mike Roderick November 2007