Why Branding Doesn’t Work in B2B
September 26th, 2006 by Bob Bly
My colleague Gordon Graham, a B2B copywriter specializing in marketing software to IT professionals, is not a fan of traditional Madison Avenue branding. He says:
“Certainly ‘branding’ has SOME value in terms of positioning and making any company look like a together, prosperous firm. But real, solid branding has to be earned, not just claimed.
“Example: IBM invented the mainframe category, they threw more resources at it than anyone else for decades, and they delivered. So they earned that position as king of the mountain, the risk-free purchase for IT. So they walked the walk and they talked the talk. And they invested in engineering and sales and support, not in fancy jingles or glossy brochures.
“Today I think B2B companies waste millions of dollars on useless exercises like TV advertising, glossy brochures, insanely expensive logo development, fussing over corporate colors, and packaging — all the busywork that marketing departments and agencies do, that could easily be cancelled — or severely curtailed — with no business repercussions at all. I’ve seen them, I’ve been there.
“That’s why I despair of software executives falling into the clutches of fast-talking agency types who want to ‘re-brand’ and ‘re-position’ and ‘re-strategize’ based on nothing more than their own personal aesthetic intuition, using the same tactics they used for their last client who sold chewing gum.”
What say you, my B2B readers? Is all that glossy marketing puff a waste of time and money when selling to techies? Or is Gordon forgetting that B2B prospets are PEOPLE first — and therefore, influenced by the branding communications he criticizes?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 10:14 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 26th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Techies (I don’t know about software execs) go online to find the products and services they need. They don’t “see” branding, but they do appreciate an easy interactive experience and a Website that gives them the information they need to make a purchase. This online experience should be part of a company’s “branding” effort — not “glossy puff pieces.” (I’m using Pettis’ definition of branding I posted a few blog posts ago.)
September 26th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Business, in general, has made the need to “wow” business prospects with a fancy logo, glossy ad, or jam-packed Web site a priority in order to be considered for the job.
Distributing white papers and writing trade articles are two ongoing branding methods after the initial introduction. Both are completed at a much lower cost than anything Madison Avenue creates.
Some B2B firms are so entrenched in the branding busywork that they wouldn’t know how to stop it. Anyone suggesting such a move would become negatively branded.
September 27th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Branding is not a logo, ad, or brochure. Those things support a brand, but they are not branding. Branding is the actual hard work of fulfilling a promise again and again, the result of which evokes a positive response in the mind of the customer.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
A great example of excellent b-to-b brand-building is Bob Bly Inc. Bob is honest and consistent — and he actually stands for something.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
“Branding” is a waste of money in B2B if all it accomplishes is corporate ego gratification. But I think the issue here isn’t branding; it’s ill-conceived image campaigns.
Any successful business has a good brand; it’s the emotional connection a customer has a product, service or company. It’s the feeling it immediately evokes. B2B purchases are made by people, too, not “businesses.” A good, solid brand — that is, a promise that’s consistently fulfilled, as another poster pointed out — is a help. So being able to consistently present a business and get solid, meaningful messages out about what that business can do is a good thing.
That said, an image campaign masquerading as branding is a waste.
September 28th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Bob & Friends,
I am the daily target of these type of marketing promotions. I am in I.T. manager in a medium sized nationwide firm. (btw, I am studying how to become a succesful copywriter as a career change, which is how I came across this blog) and I receive them EVERY DAY..mail, internet and phone calls.
IBM is doing a capaign right now to reach desicion makers that must cost nearly $5 per mailer. I received it this week. It is rediculous. All fluff, all buzzwords, no substance. Whoever approved it should be fired. The piece had about 10 pull-out full color glossy pages with less than 10 words on them and several photos. After studying direct mail for only 3 weeks now, I can tell you this was the worst written, worst planned piece of crap I’ve seen in a long time. It may impress some CEO, but not a CIO.
I can also tell you that brand is second in most cases UNLESS you are talking about computer and server hardware, then brand and service are the keys.
What the software does for my staff, how it makes our job easier is what we look for, the company needs to know what wastes are time and want to help with that.
Just my 2 cents.
October 1st, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Bob, I don’t think you can go as far as cancelling all marketing activities. But no doubt that some resources could be better utilized. A lot depends on the marketing fundamentals. Who is the audience and what do they need to hear in order to take action. And obviously, C-level execs need a different level and type of information than someone in a supervisory or staffer role. B2B buyers are still human and consumers. They still need to be sold emotionally first then logically. But in the end, all communications need to provide value and move the customer or prospect to the next step in the cycle. It doesn’t matter how beautiful or crappy the deliverable looks if it doesn’t advance or aid the mission. Consumers may not be able to tell you what makes a well-designed catalog/brochure/ad, but they sure know it when they see it. And it usually takes roughly the same amount of effort to create something that looks good as it does to create something that stinks.
October 6th, 2006 at 10:03 am
At the risk of repeating some of the excellent comments on this post…my impression is that Gordan Graham is working under the same false impression as most ad agencies, that “branding” is packaged and sold to a client much like a direct mail campaign.
Those that practice the truest sense of brand strategy understand brands are only created in the mind of prospects/customers. However, a good brand strategy firm can help organizations (not marketing departments) build and sustain trust with their target audience, which in turn leads to strong brands. One of my favorites in this area, The Blake Project, writes about this in their blog http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com.
October 9th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
I’ve read somewhere that branding as a business function was inspired by the kind of branding farmers do to recognise their own animals. So, I thought, as an ex-farmer I chip in.
I buy beef from a certain farm not because of the brand burnt in the beast’s rump but because I know how that farm handles and feeds the animals.
As a joint venture, I do custom-slaughtering for three organic farms that produce deli-calibre organic meat. The funny thing is that the customers hardly ever see the “brand” on the product they buy. Through great explanation (that is, words) customers understand how we work and they trust our quality.
And I know for sure that these smart peasants don’t hire brand agencies and graphics artists to design their brands. They hammer out a branding iron with a simple logo no one in the neighbourhood uses, and that’s the brand. And they sell their stuff at a pretty high price.
Similarly, the brand becomes the experience people have with the company when acquiring a product or service. Our brand experience is that customers can look up the complete history of the beast a certain piece of meat is from. That gives them the security that they buy good stuff.
Brand is the customer’s perception. They seek good quality tender beef, not a funny triangle burn mark on the skin.
Let’s look at Nike. Once upon a time it was a brand of quality. Now the shoes are made in China under pretty loose supervisory circumstances, so a pair of $140 trainers falls to pieces within 3 months of light usage. The brand is the same but the perception is changing.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
I’m glad to see this topic come up. There seems to be allot of ‘Gordons’ out there that need a little help getting their arms around branding. Let me share an excerpt from Brad VanAuken’s latest post on our blog, where we have been tackling The 40 Most Common Brand Problems…
“Consumers do not develop relationships with products nor or are they loyal to products. Brands and what they stand for establish the emotional connection with consumers. As Jim Speros of Ernst & Young put it, “Products are manufactured in factories…brands are created in the mind of the consumer.” ”
Leading organizations have discovered that brands are their most valuable asset (along with their people) for a number of reasons. Strong brands deliver substantial benefits:
-Increased revenues and market share
-Decreased price sensitivity
-Increased customer loyalty
-Additional leverage with vendors and retailers (for manufacturers)
-Increased profitability
-Increased stock price, shareholder value and sale value
-Increased clarity of vision
-Increased ability to mobilize an organization’s people and focus its activities
-Increased ability to expand into new product and service categories
-Increased ability to attract and retain high quality employees
So Gordon, I must respectfully disagree, B2B companies have much to gain from branding as well.
Let me help you climb aboard before someone starts a SAVE GORDON Blog.
November 1st, 2006 at 6:16 am
“Today I think B2B companies waste millions of dollars on useless exercises like TV advertising, glossy brochures, insanely expensive logo development, fussing over corporate colors, and packaging”…
yep – all they need instead is our Gordon – he’ll do it all.
I think he’s confusing himself with Flash Gordon.
Quick, we only have 5 minutes to save the b2b world – where are you Gordon???
Well, he’s certainly not at a marketing course… but probably should be!?
December 4th, 2006 at 11:30 am
its an interesting point. I disagree that branding would not work in the b2b environment. Brand identity (what the company wants to be) and brand image (how the company is perceived) are just as important in b2b as in the consumer world. However a brand only works when it is backed up by the product.
The overall branding strategy maybe should be different in b2b, because the relationships are of a different nature. For instance narrowcasting works here, and broadcasting does not. Branding-strategies should be altered accordingly and should be made more personal.
I agree that a stereotypical glossy brochure would not work in the b2b environment.
April 15th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Interesting comments.. 😀
May 18th, 2007 at 12:08 am
Great site! Good luck to it’s owner!
May 18th, 2007 at 10:13 am
This post and its subsequent discussion highlights a textbook example of the confusion between branding and image communications. A brand is not a logo, a house style or a campaign.
A good reference site on branding is http://www.allaboutbranding.com where under ‘resources’ and then ‘tools’ you can take a test ‘Brand Assessment Questionnaire’ which lists 30 actions needed to create, communicate, live and manage a brand. If we’re really honest, we fail to perform many of these actions in many cases, though most are essential.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:49 am
[…] We can find a textbook example of the many conflicting views surrounding branding in an article on Bob Bly’s blog. It highlights a misunderstanding between branding and image communications. On the other hand, a good reference site on branding, with an impressive list of contributors can be found at allaboutbranding. […]
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:36 am
Great site! Good luck to it’s owner!
May 24th, 2007 at 4:08 am
mmm.. nice design, I must say..
May 24th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Grand emplacement! La conception est merveilleuse!
May 28th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Chi ha fatto questo? E un buon posto per trovare le informazioni importanti!:)
May 29th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Was kann ich sagen? Wirklich gute Arbeit erledigt mit dem Aufstellungsort?
May 29th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Chi ha fatto questo? E un buon posto per trovare le informazioni importanti!:)
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:44 pm
i’am really impressed!!
June 18th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! kdzueqdrtfbgd
July 3rd, 2020 at 5:21 am
Thanks for sharing this post this post is very knowledgeable information
full body workout at home
August 4th, 2020 at 10:59 am
Nice to see this post here. Spin bikes are an affordable and excellent piece of gym equipment to have in your home truc tiep bong da
February 4th, 2021 at 3:48 am
Thanks for this
February 18th, 2021 at 4:34 am
Le message a été envoyé mais
June 12th, 2021 at 1:37 am
puppies for sale,pug puppies for sale in oregon,pug puppies for sale in az,pug puppies for sale in va,pug puppies near mepugs for sale,pug puppies for sale,pugs for sale near me,cheap pugs for sale,pug puppies for sale near me teacup pug [ We breed with exception. We are engaged in the breeding of Pug puppy for sale, concerned with earning money. All our Pug puppies are raised at home in a family/friendly environment making our Pug puppies completely at ease with other pets.pugs for sale,pugs for sale near me,cheap pugs for sale,pug puppies for sale,pug puppies for sale near me.
https://pugslandbreeder.company.com
June 29th, 2021 at 1:56 am
https://savannahbengal.company.com/
January 14th, 2022 at 3:42 pm
LOL, he said that he would give a try, like rly? Will you???
January 22nd, 2022 at 2:28 pm
Most pet parents ask Can dogs eat teriyaki chicken. The simple answer is no. Terriyaki chicken is unhealthy and has ingredients that can harm dogs, so they should avoid eating it,
Most pet parents ask Can dogs eat pine cones. no, dogs should not eat pine cones.
It is bad for dogs to eat pine cones. They are not poisonous, but eating them can upset your stomach.
January 22nd, 2022 at 2:30 pm
Many dog lovers ask can dogs eat French toast. There’s no way, dogs can’t eat french toast. The most common ingredients in French toast are eggs, wheat flour, and dairy products. It might cause your dogs diarrhea, vomiting, irritation, and stomach issues if they eat large quantities.
Many people have the question, can dogs eat fish sticks? Yes, dogs can enjoy fish sticks. Although they are not toxic, but those ingredients don’t provide them with any nutrition, so they are not the healthiest option for dogs.can dogs eat fish sticks
Most dog lovers ask can dogs eat hash browns? it’s not advisable to eat hash browns potato. It contains bad fats, salt, and preservatives. Furthermore, they’re fried in oils, which is high in calories, and many of them are cooked with onion, the result being dog toxicity,Can Dogs Eat Hash Browns
October 23rd, 2022 at 3:18 pm
Can sewage gas make you sick and poisoned? Yes, exposure to sewage gas can have many negative health effects. Signs or symptoms of sewage gas exposure may include fatigue, eye irritation, cough, nausea, shortness of breath, headache, irritability, memory problems, or dizziness. If you notice the signs of a sewage well being filled, first learn more about the symptoms and causes of well gas poisoning
October 25th, 2022 at 9:47 am
Rios is known for providing the best beauty blender prices in Pakistan. The store aims to provide satisfaction through high quality products such as beauty blenders and beauty blender sponges. Their beauty blender sponges are perfect and just what you need Rios fulfills your every demand, with their beauty blenders.
October 28th, 2022 at 4:31 am
You’ve been told that you need to invest in branding, but you’re not sure what that means for your business. Andersen is a full-service company that helps businesses create and execute effective marketing plans. The Andersen team specializes in branding and digital marketing, and we understand the unique needs of businesses in the B2B space. Andersen can help you develop a brand strategy that aligns with your business goals and creates a lasting impression with your customers.
October 31st, 2022 at 1:13 am
From Flormar.pk shop the best concealer for your face and reduce dark circles under your eyes. Choose the perfect concealer-corrector from a huge range of shades available in Pakistan.
January 29th, 2023 at 12:01 pm
Very interesting post. I think that in promoting the brand, the trust of the client in the brand plays a big role. This is long and hard work. Or as an option, you can organize a customer service for social media This can be done by professionals from an outsourcing company who definitely know a lot about communicating with customers.
March 30th, 2023 at 3:21 am
https://www.bly.com/blog/general/why-branding-doesnt-work-in-b2b/
https://www.bly.com/blog/general/why-branding-doesnt-work-in-b2b/
March 31st, 2023 at 10:01 am
DAMAC Bay by Cavalli https://dubai-property.investments/property/damac-bay-by-cavalli/ is an author’s project from DAMAC Properties with a collection of apartments and duplexes. Luxury 1- to 3-bedroom residences, deluxe 3- to 5-bedroom apartments or a whole floor will be of interest not only to future buyers, but also to investors.
DAMAC Bay by Cavalli will offer its residents prestigious amenities and exclusive conditions, for example:
– the territory offers water sports activities;
– a glass water bridge with a Cavalli showcase will become a local attraction;
– DAMAC Bay by Cavalli has infinity pools;
– residents can visit the Cavalli Beach Club with a white-sandy beach;
– the Water Maze attraction is open for children;
– floating capsules allow you to hold an important business meeting.
The project will be completed in 2027.
October 5th, 2023 at 1:09 am
Welcome the new baby boy with a personalised touch. Our range of personalised baby boy giftsincludes an array of charming items that can be customised with his name or initials. From cuddly blankets to playful onesies, these gifts are sure to make a lasting impression on the new parents and their bundle of joy.
December 4th, 2023 at 5:30 am
Simplify your tax obligations with BSNS Consulting’s comprehensive Taxation Services. Our experienced tax professionals are well-versed in the intricacies of tax regulations, ensuring compliance while maximising your tax efficiency. Trust us to handle your tax planning, filing, and other tax-related matters, so you can focus on what matters most – growing your business.
December 26th, 2023 at 11:54 pm
A Barbershop Bedienplatz is the workspace within a barbershop where haircuts, shaving, and other services for male clients are carried out. This area typically includes a chair, mirror, and tools.The Barbershop Service Station is the heart of every barbershop, where skilled barbers work their magic to create fresh looks and maintain well-groomed appearances. This dedicated area is thoughtfully designed for both the barber’s convenience and the client’s comfort.
January 11th, 2024 at 8:41 am
Conveniently sell your computer scrap with We Buy Dead Stocks, your computer scrap buyers near me. We understand the importance of data security and environmental responsibility, ensuring your electronic waste is handled with care and professionalism. Get competitive pricing for your surplus assets today.
January 31st, 2024 at 1:40 am
This salt, which was extracted from the core of the Himalayas, is said to be millions of years old. Because of the various minerals embedded in it, the region’s unique pink tint is a product of the geological processes at work there.
February 19th, 2024 at 2:39 am
Ramzan grocery hampers go beyond basic sustenance; they embody the spirit of generosity and community that defines the holy month. These hampers are often exchanged as gifts among friends, family, and neighbors, symbolizing goodwill and solidarity.