While branding position has always been extremely important for business-to-consumer businesses, it has been seen as largely irrelevant for business-to-business (B2B) companies.
The view was that the main driving force behind purchases was price and that the relationship between decision-makers, who are unmoved by emotional factors like brand, and sales representatives was the priority.
However, those views have changed, and most people now understand that branding is every bit as important for B2B businesses as for B2C businesses.
B2B buyers are people, and people are emotional beings who largely make decisions relying on their first impressions of stored memories, images and feelings. These emotions impact economic decision making.
In a sense, brands operate on an emotional level by stimulating that part of the brain that stores emotional reactions. By nurturing the right brand associations in your prospects’ minds, you can begin closing the deal before the selling has even started.
B2B businesses can benefit greatly from a strong brand that:
- gives customers a reason to choose your brand over competitors
- shortens the sales cycle
- empowers your brand to charge and sustain a price premium
- enables your brand to build trust with its key stakeholders – customers, employees, shareholders, distributors, partners, intermediaries etc.
- creates loyal customers, advocates, and even evangelists, out of those who buy
- lowers sensitivity to price increases
- attracts and retains the best employee talent
Because brand-influenced emotional reactions impact buyer decision making, companies with strong brands usually achieve better financial performance.
There are many great examples of B2B branding, but these organisations really stand out from the pack in more way than one:
Boeing
A global brand known around the world as the leading manufacturer of commercial aircraft, Boeing has successfully owned this positioning. However, from a B2B perspective, they are also leaders in manufacturing defence, space and security systems, with a vision to be the largest aerospace company with innovation at its core. Boeing’s focus on innovation attracts and retains the best talent, which is vital in a company that relies on the best and brightest to continually innovate in their industry.
MailChimp
The most recognised email marketing service provider, MailChimp has traditionally positioned themselves as the ‘lead in’ or ‘go-to’ email marketing tool for beginners or smaller businesses. Mailchimp has managed to grow the brand and its values into a more professional B2B offering that can scale as your business scales. Awareness, ease of use and technical integration abilities have driven larger companies to buy into the brand and remain loyal.
By targeting beginners to email marketing, MailChimp also wins loyalty from users who don’t have time to learn a new system as their business grows.
Adobe
Adobe showcases its superior products direct to the consumer by utilising the branded house approach with each of their product offerings – Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Cloud, Adobe Spark. This approach has increased the awareness of their brand to consumers.
Adobe has positioned the brand as the creative solutions partner for businesses, pitched squarely at ‘creatives’ who are seen as trendsetters or forward thinkers, and have thus altered their brand strategy.
Perpetual
Perpetual is an ASX-listed, diversified financial services company with three separate, yet connected lines of business – Perpetual Investments, Perpetual Private and Perpetual Corporate Trust. They are one of Australia’s largest and most awarded wealth managers, an expert adviser to high net worth individuals, families and businesses, and a leading provider of corporate trustee services.
It’s a brand that has a very positive culture and prides itself on building teams around its strong investment philosophy and process, rather than creating “rock star” fund managers. We’re proud to have assisted Perpetual across brand strategy development and see them as the most trusted financial services brand in Australia.
To find out more about how Fuller can help your B2B business brand make the right impression, please contact us.