Why Branding Is Important for Driving B2B Growth

Unlike consumer product brands very few B2B product brands are well known to most of us. There are many reasons for this, including lack of much mass media advertising. In B2B the company brand should encompass everything they do.

In an era where products and services are getting imitated in no time, brands play a key role in differentiation, depending on the values they represent. A strong company brand is crucial from a B2B perspective as individual product branding will be more expensive for a smaller universe of prospects.

Corporate branding and product sub-branding are the ways by which most B2B companies go to market. However, many a times they forget to make better corporate branding due to various reasons including the pressure on selling new products with limited budgets. When making the marketing budgets, typical ways by which most companies do is making the budgeting independent of planning exercise.

They will, for instance, adopt the budget hike or cut based on the sales team projections. Unless planning and budgeting are not done together, the focus on what has to be done without fail will be missed out for tactical short-term gains.

It is important to realise that the corporate brand affects the entire company. This includes all employees, products, services, customers, shareholders, suppliers, external partners like dealers, government and regulatory agencies, industry associations and chambers of commerce, society in general, and so on. On the other hand, most product brands merely touch only some stakeholders.

The company brand represents what all we do as a company and how. It speaks to what customers and stakeholders can expect from the company. It speaks of the quality of every product and service we offer. In many cases, the company brand serves as a fundamental guarantee that our product brands and our people will do what we say we will do. There is no other intangible or tangible asset that a company has which can do this work.

In many B2B clients we work with, the company brand is irrelevant and they all focus more on product branding. Hardly anyone spend time and resources in explaining their values as a company. If your company is like most others I know, you will see people in sales and marketing, product development, manufacturing, customer service, and every other department dealing with product brands on a daily basis.

Yet the enduring corporate brand that all your employees and customers have in common is often forgotten and least cared for. Remember, this is the asset with the greatest number of touch points inside and outside. Knowing this, will you continue to do the same going forward?

We live in a world of disruption and competitive advantages that are fleeting. Even a high-tech product will have a substitute within nine months! Under such a scenario, how can a company rely simply on product branding? The good news is that a competitor cannot copy the brand, its values, culture and unique customer services.

Doesn't it make sense therefore to put more and more efforts into differentiating and branding at the company level in the B2B sector? Only this will help in the long term and by doing this you are not moving away from product differentiation and related developments. You will continue to develop products that your customers need, but you will also create a long lasting impression in their minds about your company as a brand in order for them to buy more from you.

One of our clients, a leader in their industry, drives their business with select customers with a focussed customer-centric approach delivering not just products but also value-adding services. And because of their company branding, and aligned deliveries, they are able to grow at 30% in a matured industry when the market growth has been sluggish at below 10%.

There are also some companies that do not have product branding but only the company branding. What these companies sell and their company brands are the same. Typically you will find this in most service companies, generic ingredient makers and component suppliers. Consider professional service firms: IT providers/computer programmers, architects, accountants, engineering and law firms, and consultants in scores of industries. With service brands, no tangible goods change hands between buyer and seller.

So the people who serve the customers demonstrate the values and all that the company brand represents. This is true for real estate developers, construction companies, assembly, repair and a whole lot of similar firms. Yet most of the builders today do not seem to realise the fallacy of defaulting on one project.

I echo what my friends Al and Laura Ries say about positioning. What is it that your company standing for? All companies need to have a strong position, and that is the company brand.