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Marketing Tips - B2B Brand Building

Authored By Tom Costner

"Brand building" is the latest “buzz” word in B2B marketing. But it is not new.

So what's the big deal and why has the time come for branding in Business-to-Business and technology marketing? Partly, it's the natural evolution of an industry, initially being internally-driven (engineering), then becoming externally-driven (marketing), because of margin pressures and more competitors. It's transitioning from inside-out to outside-in marketing.

In some cases, it's been branding by default, because many of the more mature technology categories like desktop computers (Acer, Apple, Compaq, IBM) have tried everything else. For example, the first company to offer a major breakthrough—like an internal modem, CD drive, 100 MHZ processors or 1 GB hard drive—would develop a short term promotion around the feature. Then a competitor would introduce a more robust feature and the cycle would repeat. The "window of advantage" any competitor had became smaller and smaller. When all hardware manufacturers began to approach parity on these features and performance, some began to compete more on price. And with the inevitability of shrinking margins, some forward thinking marketers turned to some other point of difference—their brand.

The best example of high tech branding today is the "Intel Inside" program, on which the company reportedly spends over $250 million per year to execute. This program has generated almost $2 billion in worldwide co-op advertising since its inception in 1991, making it the largest and one of the most successful marketing programs in the history of the electronics industry.

Intel President/CEO Andy Grove has gone on record saying it's the best investment his company ever made. And because of Intel's success, many other high tech companies, like Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, AMD, S3 and Cisco Systems are attempting to recreate it and build their own corporate images. They are spending multi-millions of dollars to build brand loyalty, because, over time, they've realized it translates into increased market share and greater profits. Brand loyalty is a sound foundation on which businesses can build enduring, profitable growth.

By aggressively competing on features and price, it's been difficult for companies to create meaningful and lasting differences from their competitors. While customers benefit from price wars by saving money, they also get confused when choice is confined to price, MHZ's, GB's or what is sometimes called –“speeds and feeds." The customer is in effect buying a commodity and has no sense of brand loyalty because little is known about the company making the product or about service after the sale.

The Brand is the Differentiation

Many B2B companies have been slow to recognize the importance of marketing, but they are now becoming more receptive to brand building programs because of increased technology parity and fierce global competition. There is a shift today in B2B and high tech from product marketing to brand marketing. As competitive advantages disappear, brand building becomes a necessity rather than a luxury. So the need to differentiate companies by personality or image is rapidly increasing.

Brand building is not easy because:

1. Everyone has similar technology and products
2. Target audiences, communications channels and media are increasingly complex
3. Marketing communications is expensive
4. Product messages are increasingly cluttered

After the data is analyzed, a marketing strategy is developed based on the market research. Many companies add taglines to drive the branding program, i.e. "Extending Your Reach," "Solutions for a Small Planet," or "What You Never Thought Possible."

After finalizing a branding strategy and positioning, an overall marketing communications program is developed. The total process can take 2 to 4 months. This is a golden opportunity for the marketing communications manager or marketing director to prove his or her worth. No one else in the company has the experience and knowledge to coordinate advertising, public relations and other communications disciplines in a synchronized manner.

“Corporate brands are built by countless interactions of people with other people-customers and clients, suppliers and distributors, shareholders and communities, and one another. If your brand does not reflect your people in a way that makes them proud and passionate, they will not deliver the brand experience in the marketplace.”

“A brand is a work in progress requiring constant vigilance, care, and protection. Given the vagaries of the marketplace, brand perceptions can shift, and brand strength can weaken and wane from benign neglect.”

“Your brand is your company’s most valuable possession. As technologies change and competition grows, the one quality that endures is your brand. It lives much longer than any founder or foundry.

So just what is a brand? Is it your label? Your logo? Your tag line? While each helps deliver your branding message, none alone is your brand.

Your brand is the result of constant reinforcement of a distinctive core benefit that your company or product delivers to your customers.”

“What separates great brands from all the rest? Strong and impressive consistency over time. The best brands exhibit consistency in their promise and consistency in their core brand message. They also demonstrate consistency in delivering on that promise—at every touch-point and with every customer encounter.”

“A brand is the promise that the company makes, and a brand cannot survive and prosper if this promise isn't known. It does a company no good to develop a promise if nobody knows what it is. Sharing the brand promise is why companies spend money and why they hire ad agencies.”

“Customers have relationships with the brands they buy and use, and these relationships will ebb and flow over time based on how companies treat their customers.”

Your brand resides within the hearts (feelings) and minds (intellect) of your customers and prospects. It is the sum total of the product and their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some you cannot.

Successful brand managers understand the needs and wants of customers and prospects. They understand how to meet these needs and wants in a way that is motivating to prospects. They apply this by initiating integrated strategies throughout the company at every point of public contact—marketing communications, customer support and sales.

Separates you from your competitors, in a unique way, that is relevant (and motivating) to your customers, prospects and channels—it gives you value and makes you special!
Enhance your perceived value, thereby supporting premium pricing, sheltering you from low price competition and contributing to shareholder value. Companies like Morgan Stanley look to evidence of brand strength in setting buy ratings.
Provide resilience in times of negative press.
Enable you to launch new products more quickly and cost effectively.
Remember: brands happen, with or without you. It is up to you to be pro-active in shaping the identity and strength of your brand image.

Does your business need a “new and improved” branding program? Maybe, maybe not. You need to review your current position in your marketplace. Do you have strong product, or sub-brands that are better recognized than your corporate brand? Do your customers really know your whole company, its culture? How they relate to all of you, not just specific product lines or families? Do you send conflicting messages that prevent your true brand from shinning through to your most important customers? Do you really live your brand? if the answer to any of the above is yes, you need to carefully think about your next steps because you may be spending considerable time, effort and cost to re-invent a brand that may just need polishing. When your customers experience your brand they need to be reminded of the lyrics of a song by Cyndi Lauper, “I see your true colors shinning through… I see your true colors”.

How many “sub-brands” do you recognize from IBM. The only promoted sub-brand today is “e,” a phrase coined by IBM but highly recognized as an IBM branding strategy. The great majority of all other IBM products are numerical, i.e., IBM’s 5280, IBM’s PS2, etc. But what does the IBM brand really stand for: dependability. And everyone knows it.

Internationally, the graphic standards should be developed and followed so any international business traveler may recognize your brand simply by the page layout, signage, collateral design, etc. This does not mean the interior graphics are the same (in some product exceptions this may work) since the UK has established a recognizable style as has Europe and probably Australia. Customers in the United States may perform similar job functions as international customers, but they react quite differently to messaging and positioning.

Again Brands happen, with or without you. It is up to you to be pro-active in shaping the identity and strength of your brand image. Your brand isn’t what you say, it’s what you are. So if you want to be known as an innovative risk-taker, take risks and reward risk-taking in your organization. If you want to be known as the most responsive and service-oriented, provide great service and invest in the infrastructure that makes super-responsive service possible. If you want to build long-term partnership relationships with customers, build them and don't compensate for transactional business. Making the brand true can challenge everyone's understanding of the business and the industry. But the organizations who demonstrate the courage of their convictions are the ones who transform their industries and change the competitive landscape.

And remember: You can't enforce the brand, only inspire it: Companies-and their branding consultants-like to focus on those aspects of the brand that can be drawn up into guidelines and enforced: the logo, the colors, the look and feel. And they do all play a role. But if the leadership doesn't live and die by the brand every day, inspiring people toward the values and behaviors that deliver the brand experience and drive performance over the top, the brand will not stick, or it will fall apart. If you want your branding investments to pay off, put them into leadership, not logos. Let your brands true colors come shining through.

Tom Costner, CBC, is Senior Account Supervisor at Brozena Schaller Menaker & Ripley, Inc., a full service marketing communications company in Denver. He is the 2003 winner of BMA’s G.D. Crain Award.

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