A few weeks ago, I published a post that asked, “Is B2B Brand Marketing Making a Comeback?” My post was prompted by the release of Dentsu’s 2024 update to its Superpowers Index study.
The 2024 update was based on interviews with 3,528 business buyers. Dentsu provided the interviewed buyers 30 decision drivers and asked them to rate the drivers based on how much influence each driver had on their buying decisions.
The three most influential decision drivers identified by the buyers were all characterized by Dentsu as personal drivers, and the firm noted that 2024 was the first time personal decision drivers outweighed functional drivers in overall importance. This finding led Dentsu to assert, “Brand has never been more important in B2B.”
Other recent studies have also highlighted the importance of having a strong B2B brand. For example, Bain & Co. and Google surveyed 1,208 business buyers at U.S. companies in 2022. From 80% to 90% of the respondents said they had a set of vendors in mind before they did any research, and 90% of those respondents said they ultimately chose a vendor on their day-one list.
Therese Parkes with Google wrote that this behavior “means brand building and remaining top of mind during this process is essential.”
The Great Debate
The relative importance of brand building vs. demand generation (a/k/a “performance marketing”) has been the subject of a long-running debate in the B2B marketing community.
For nearly two decades, most B2B marketers have been primarily focused on improving the performance of their demand generation programs., and most of the B2B marketing literature published during that period was also focused on demand gen marketing technologies and techniques.
But despite this lopsided focus, interest in brand building has recently been increasing. Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a growing number of articles, blog/LinkedIn posts, and other forms of content addressing the importance of having a strong brand in B2B.
This increased interest has been fueled by several factors. A growing number of B2B marketers have recognized that business buying decisions are usually driven as much by emotional and psychological factors as by rational thinking processes.
B2B marketers are also recognizing that a strong brand can improve the performance of demand generation marketing programs, reduce the price sensitivity of business buyers, and strengthen customer loyalty.
The Birth of Brand Management
Most of what we’ve learned about building strong brands originated in B2C companies. In the 1930s, Proctor & Gamble invented the business function that would come to be called brand management, and by the late 1950s, brand management practices had been widely adopted by U.S. consumer package goods (CPG) companies.
In 1974, the Association of National Advertisers estimated that 85% of U.S. CPG companies (and 93% of those with annual advertising expenditures of more than $10 million) had implemented brand management functions and practices. (“Lessons from nearly a century of the brand management system“)
Marketing is a recognized academic discipline that’s been widely taught at the university level for decades. However, Professor Kimberly A. Whitler at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business argues that there’s a “theory-doing gap” in marketing education.
In her book, Positioning for Advantage, Professor Whitler wrote:
“Most undergraduate courses tend to be theory or concept based, with few using tools or workshops to teach students how to create, build, or construct successful brands. Consequently, the vast majority of marketers discover what marketing is, and how to create marketing strategies and plans, from their employers on the job.”
In her research, Professor Whitler found that almost all of the companies that excel at developing C-level marketing leaders were from the CPG or retailing industry. She offered an explanation for this finding in Positioning for Advantage:
“What do these developers of C-level marketing talent have in common? They all have systematic and science-based systems, processes, and approaches to building superior brands . . . The marketers in these firms are typically profit and loss (P&L) leaders in their firms and play an upstream role, often being expected to lead the development of the strategic plans that will drive growth. This differs from the nearly 50 percent of companies that treat marketing as only a sales activity existing just to commercialize the products that other firm leaders create.”
Brand Management for B2B
Given the B2C origin and evolution of brand management, it’s not surprising that many B2B marketers don’t have extensive experience with the discipline. However, it’s clear that brand building is becoming an increasingly vital aspect of B2B marketing success.
I’m planning to publish a short series of posts discussing a few of the basic concepts and principles of brand management. These posts will barely scratch the surface of a complex topic, but I hope they will encourage B2B marketers to learn more.
Image courtesy of EdgeThreeSixty via Flickr (CC).
