B2B Branding Strategy

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Brand building is as essential for B2B companies as for B2C companies. Some argue that you don’t need
brand building in B2B companies and B2B companies worldwide don’t do much of brand but that is not
true. Look at Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and GE. They generate far more B2B revenues than sales to end
consumers. And we know how much attention they pay to their brand building.

Why should brand building mater to B2B CEO’s ?

Because if they won’t do it or get it done in the right way, the middle managers will do their own ad hoc
marketing and brand building as they feel like it. The end result will be 100s of variations of logos,
taglines, corporate color and so forth which will confuse the customers. The brand loyalty will go down
as the uniform presentation of brand goes up. Though it is a little out of context but it is worth
mentioning here that logo is not THE brand. It is the overall perception of the brand in the minds of your
customers which has been built over the years by experience your brand through various touch points.
Some of those touch points include obviously your logo, tagline, packaging, labels, and corporate colors
but also include the they way your sales force interacts with customers, and your customer service
handles complaints, and your receptionist answers the phone and your deliveryman greets the
customers. All the instances where customer gets in touch with the brand is a touch point and collective
experience through these touch points help customers to establish an image about the brand. The
higher your brand ranks in your customers’ perception graph they more loyal they will become hence
bringing in more business. I hope I made my case here. And if you believe I did then there is little to
argue how important brand building is for B2B companies as well.

Another reason for brand building is that customers pay more for a brand they trust even in recession as
they can’t afford to take risks.

Examples:

Lets take an example of Intel. Intel never sells directly to consumers. It is a pure B2B business. They sell
to computer manufacturers. Then why did they invest billions to build the brand image with their slogan
“intel inside”? Because they know even though they sell to businesses but building trust in consumers
mind would demand manufacturers to make computers with intel chips inside.

Similarly IBM created "eServers" when it realized that its alpha numeric product naming convention
confused customers and it was wasting millions of marketing dollars on very similar products. By
streamlining its powerful corporate computer offerings and rebranding them under the new "eServers"
brand, customers were more easily able to understand IBM's server offerings. Additionally, the new
brand was clearly linked to its eSolutions brand of IT consulting, creating stronger cross-selling
opportunities.

Branding Strategy:
So how do we develop a branding strategy? Where shall we start? Can we just have a redesigned logo
with fancy tag line and get over with it?

You need to sell it your own staff before you sell it to the world. An effective brand strategy requires
internal communications and training on what the brand represents, where the company is going with
its brand and what needs to be done to get there. You people need to have faith in your brand and they
need to live and practice the brand. Remember brand is not just a logo or tag line. It is an overall
presentation of your business. For example, you’ll communicate your brand strategy through your
pricing strategy, name and corporate identity, messages, literature and website. It may also drive the
need to implement a better CRM system to manage customer relationships. Everyone and everything an
organization does represents the brand.

Most of the time, branding is seen as just a marketing effort - which creates problems more than it
solves when messages and promises are communicated to customers but the rest of the organization is
not prepared to deliver those promises. Branding should be a part of your overall management strategy.
Developing a brand strategy requires commitment from the management, change management, and
continuous investment to deliver the best customer experience.

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