Usually, when we talk about branding, we talk about B2C (business-to-consumer) companies and specific products, but we should also speak about B2B branding. If you’ve been following this blog for a long time, we believe all branding can favor every business, whether a product, service, B2C branding, or B2B branding.

B2B Branding Makes Sense

b2b branding

The reason is, quite simply, that likeability and name recognition matters when a human being is involved in the buying process. Accurate, especially for B2B businesses, while the bottom line and the “deal” will probably trump the likeability, to get to the table and to be in a position to make the deal; guess what — B2B branding matters. Steve Olenski over at CrowdShifter. com tells the story of a client of his who was a B2B business that “…could not grasp the fact that there was a real human being on the other end of his sales pitch. In his mind, he was a B2B company, and B2B companies don’t need to be personal or conversational…that was for the B2C folks.” He goes on to write,

“The moral of course I don’t care what you are, B2B, B2C, E=MC2, whatever… until actual businesses, bricks and mortar businesses can speak for themselves — and who knows, Steve Jobs may just have an App for that, you have to remember there is ALWAYS a person on the other end of the line… with emotions, feelings, opinions and so on.”

Brand Equity

In a study recently released by Sheena Leek and George Christodoulides for the University of Birmingham titled “Literature Review and Future Agenda for B2B Branding: Challenges of Branding in a B2B Context,” they articulate a revised brand equity pyramid for B2B branding, which demonstrates the baseline importance of the Brand as the foundation for all further business.

Customer-Based Brand Equity Pyramids, Branding, B2B Branding, Business to Business Branding

Leek and Christodoulides

Leek and Christodoulides expand on the topic, saying,

“Branding is potentially useful to buyers during the early stages of the decision making process (Webster and Keller 2004). It may be useful in determining the characteristics and quantity of needed item, in the search for and qualification of potential suppliers, in the acquisition and analysis of suppliers’ proposals and in the evaluative stage of the purchase decision making process.”

Branding matters, whether or not you are in a B2C or B2B model. Patrik Olsen argues that B2B and B2C branding “…factions should shortly be extinct since they are no longer needed to define a customer.”

All of this means that whether you’re a B2C or a B2B — it’s time to look at your brand position. If you have one, how can you make it stronger? If you don’t have one, or it’s not well known, what can you do to take the first step toward improving it? Once you identify the first step, take a second and third steps, and keep moving down the branding path. After all, we’re humans, and as humans, we like to buy from people we want, and at its core, that’s what B2B branding is all about.

About the Author:

Tisha Oehmen

Tisha Oehmen is a professional brand strategist and a leader in the branding field. She has been named a member of the Global Guru’s Top 30 Brand Gurus. She is also the co-founder of Oregon-based Paradux Media Group and the best-selling author of the book, Finding Brand: The Brand Book Tutorial.

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