“Do you care about your company’s reputation?
Most likely you want your company to be perceived in the desired way by your stakeholders – and for them to want to engage with you and then reach out to you. To achieve this in a competitive market, where numerous other companies are also striving to be seen, it’s a matter of reputation management – or more commonly, consistent Brand Management.
You might be thinking “but that only applies to consumer-facing companies”. That’s not the case. Building a strong, recognizable, and trustworthy brand that creates preference applies to both B2C and B2B, though the messaging, channels, and the way the brand is presented will differ.
Branding isn’t just for large corporations either – a strong company name represented by a desirable brand is just as important whether you have 10 employees or 10,000.
Would you like to be seen as a thought leader – an authority in your industry? I help you define what your brand should stand for. We then work together to develop a good brand building process.“
Peter Tomczak
B2B Brand Management Coach
Why you should care about branding
Your company’s reputation matters with all your stakeholders. If the perception is positive and they feel confident, they will want to engage with your company and reach out. It’s about ensuring that your corporate brand is associated with the right values and content, and that it’s seen, heard, and experienced – through your employees, your product and service offering, and your communication.
There are many reasons why active branding work pays off.
A key argument is the bottom-line effect, as highlighted by McKinsey in one of their reports:
“Companies with brands that are perceived as strong generate a higher EBIT margin than others. This means that business branding can be a worthwhile investment for those who get it right. Strong brands typically drive the bottom line, and above-average financial performance strengthens the brand in turn – a virtuous cycle. Decision makers are willing to pay a premium for strong brands because they make their lives easier, primarily by aggregating information and reducing risk.”
Another argument is the impact on sales.
This is about communicating the brand and its values in a way that makes prospects feel confident and get in touch.
Studies, including from the US, show that industrial buyers have completed nearly 70% of the buying journey before they are ready to meet with a salesperson. This means that companies that communicate and build their brand are in a strong position when it’s time for a meeting. The buyer has already developed a certain level of knowledge and trust (hopefully…) in the brand and the offering at that point, which means that the sales process becomes more efficient and effective. In addition, the chances of achieving a price premium increase.
Brand building and maintenance also apply to existing customers. Competitors are constantly communicating their messages, so it’s important to keep reaching out in the intense media noise to maintain top-of-mind awareness and preference.
How we help boost your branding efforts
A common perception of branding among manufacturing companies is that it’s about logos, taglines, and graphic elements, as well as being visible on various social media platforms.
However, branding is about much more and involves all functions within the organization.
B2B branding is about managing a corporation’s reputation across multiple stakeholders and touchpoints. To succeed in building a strong brand, you need a solid brand platform, a clear offering, and full internal alignment with all employees. This must then be followed by effective communication through relevant channels, including via the sales team.
Now, you might be thinking, “No, I don’t need any help – our branding work is going really well…”. But could it still be worth checking the status of your efforts and perhaps identifying areas for improvement?
Whether you’re starting more or less from scratch or have already made good progress in your branding work, it’s worth creating and validating a solid process.
We work through four steps – where, in cases of fine-tuning, the approach is more evaluation-oriented.
If you are starting from the ground up or at an early stage, the focus is on building the process in detail.
First, we make sure that your business strategy is clear and properly linked to the description of your corporate brand, and vice versa.
Next, we define a clear brand identity, including description and visual profile, or update the existing one. With our market focus, we also review the product and service portfolio to ensure clarity, with a clear FAB (Features – Advantages – Benefits) in place.
In step three, we ensure a program for proper internal anchoring is in place. The goal is to make your coworkers live and breathe the business strategy and the company brand in their day work.
Step four includes the development of a communication plan covering ongoing internal communication, owned external channels, PR and third parties, as well as sales enablement to ensure the sales team represents the brand as intended.
We then expect you and your team to take the lead on the communication work. If you need additional executional support, we will recommend one of our partners.
”We can do all this on our own”
Of course you can. But the value of getting a second opinion with extensive experience should not be underestimated. It’s not about replacing or overriding your Team – it’s about making them more branding aware. They are probably overloaded with daily operative tasks, so “Branding R&D” may not get full attention without an extra “push”.
Let’s Meet!
Get in touch with me now for a further discussion on how I can contribute to enable your Team to do Better Branding for Greater Revenues!