Brand Development and Engagement

More Than Just the Facts

"B2B customers buy on facts. B2C customers buy on emotion.” Not only is it easy to say, but it’s said often and loudly. But here’s the thing … it’s wrong. Or, more accurately, it’s wildly incomplete.

According to Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of our purchase decisions take place subconsciously. This is as true of B2B purchases as for B2C. And while it doesn’t mean they’re purely emotional (it’s a little more complicated than that), it does mean they’re not the unfeeling decisions of a purely rational consumer, which is how it’s often stated. The real difference is that, on average, B2B customers balance their emotional decisions with logic and facts. That’s necessary because of the many things that make B2B transactions different. Namely …

All that means that your brand, and the conscious and unconscious space it occupies in your customers’ minds, plays an outsized role in the effectiveness of your marketing and sales. It’s not enough to make a superior product or provide a more efficient, effective service. (Sorry, engineers!) You’ve got to wrap those great products and services in a brand that people trust and want to be a part of. Read on for some practical insight into how to do exactly that.

To be and not to be. There is no question.

Most brand positioning and strategy exercises are focused on defining who and what a brand is about. That’s essential. But equally important is being very clear about who and what your brand is not. That might sound unnecessary. After all, once you’ve laid out who you are, isn’t it clear who you’re not? If you say you’re a vegetarian, isn’t it clear you don’t eat pork chops? Well, anyone who has tried to manage a brand across a large organization knows it’s not that simple. But it gets easier if you are as clear as possible about your answers to questions like these:

We sound like this. We don’t sound like this.

We look like this. We don’t look like this.

We hold these values. We don’t hold these values.

We partner with brands like this. We don’t partner with brands like this.

If you address both sides of the coin, you’ll be better positioned to define what is “on brand” and what is “off brand.” But until you’ve drawn a clear line in the sand, you’ll fight an ongoing battle with people trying to cram new ideas and attributes onto your brand. And over time, that will water things down to the point where just about anything could qualify as “on brand.”

Positioning the brand is marketing’s job. Living it is everyone’s.

If only it were that easy, right? Doing the first step right can take many months and sometimes up to a year. Doing step two is an ongoing, never-ending, uphill battle. At times, it will be discouraging, disheartening, and disappointing. And just when you think you’re there, something will pull the rug out from underneath you. Knowing that it’s vitally important, there are some tangible things you can do to make it easier on yourself. Here are four practical tips for getting everyone in your organization to understand and live your brand.

Don’t talk about the “brand.”

Your brand isn’t something separate and distinct from the company (assuming you only have one brand, that is). Instead of saying “our brand is …,” say “we are …” or “our company is …” Doing so will encourage the idea that your brand stretches into every corner of the organization and is everyone’s responsibility.

Document your brand. On one page.

When you set out to document your brand — and you should absolutely document your brand — do so succinctly and clearly. Ideally that documentation should fit on one page without having to resort to using 6-pt. font. You can and should have deeper, more detailed documentation (about voice, visual guidelines, etc.), but a one-page overview is all most people will need.

Your brand documents are reference tools.

When you set out to document your brand position so that everyone in the organization can understand it and live it, think about that documentation as a reference tool, not a sales piece. Your goal should be clarity.

Launch, train, maintain.

When organizations change or refine their brand position, or even when they just give it a redesign, they like to make a big show of it. Banners, t-shirt cannons, live music, the whole thing. And that’s absolutely what should happen. (Who doesn’t love a t-shirt cannon?!) But just as important, and often overlooked, is what happens afterward. As marketers, we love to throw a party. But there’s training that needs to happen for everyone in the organization — especially anyone who has customer contact. And then comes less exciting but equally important maintenance: constant reminders and examples of who you are and what you’re about.

Three good reads.

Business schools and marketing programs often fall short when teaching the fundamentals and practical application of branding. Give these three books a read to brush up on your knowledge. 

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

By Jonah Berger

Wharton Business School professor goes deep on what makes ideas take off. Not a how-to guide to branding, but rather an examination of its fundamental principles.

Archetypes in Branding: A Toolkit for Creatives and Strategists

By Margaret Hartwell, Joshua C. Chen

An invaluable tool for generating actionable conversations about brand position, and giving marketers and non-marketers alike a common vernacular for speaking about a brand.

There Is No B2B and B2C: Human to Human: H2H

By Bryan Kramer

While we believe there is still value in the distinction between B2B and B2C, ultimately the author is right about two things: the distinction is getting fuzzier every year, and eventually all of this comes down to a conversation between two people.