The revival of B2B Marketing

Despite historical skepticism, B2B brand building has seen something of a renaissance in recent years.

For too long, the B2B marketing function has been viewed as a cost center whose existence was to support sales by accelerating pipelines and maximizing returns on investment.

Mentions of “the brand” in the boardroom might be met with disinterest and, to some extent, fear, driven by difficulties in measuring its impact on the bottom line.

B2B buyers want more from companies

B2B brands need a clear and defined purpose to stay competitive in today's market. Brand trust, transparency and authenticity are all high on the list of customer brand selection criteria, and organizations need to respond accordingly.

Thankfully, it appears to be: more than a third of respondents said they needed to revise their strategy and brand proposition to build an emotional connection with their audience.

Competition is at its highest

Buyers today can be quite confident that an array of companies can deliver what they need, leaving brand differentiation rather than product or service.

And this is reflected in how respondents agree that a move away from the “safe and stable” B2B approach allows for more unique brand positioning and ultimately better visibility into the hearts and minds of their audience.

It is perhaps unsurprising that shifts in management priorities are not without challenges.

New approaches, old problems

While more than half of respondents in this survey said brand building is just as important as demand generation to achieve their marketing goals, 40% said only 5-20% of their marketing budget are allocated to brand development programs.

This stands in stark contrast to fundamental research that B2B brands should seek to spend 60% of their budget on brand and 40% on demand for optimal effectiveness.

Alternatively, B2B marketers may seek to tie brand investment to their CFO challenges. Jon Lombardo of the B2B Institute recently spoke about the importance of the relationship between marketing and finance: Typically, 20% of a company's stock price is based on short-term cash flow, while the remaining 80% is based on the long term.

According to Lombardo, if CMOs work with their CFO to combine this cash flow-centric view with a customer-centric marketing strategy, they can pave the way for a rebalancing of the marketing budget in favor of growth initiatives. the brand - enabling a greater investment in capturing the 80% of future buyers.

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