Paul DiModica

Brand communication programs aggressively used by many marketing departments are tools like other marketing programs. They are designed to generate inbound qualified sales leads and reduce barriers of entry during the sales cycle with targeted prospects.

But is brand marketing effective in the business to business (B2B) market space?

Does it help or confuse perceptions of your firm, product or service when prospects recall your brand "Top of Mind"?

Does brand marketing hamper salespeople's success?

For example:

Let's say you were a Vice President at a Fortune 1000 company and I cold called you on the telephone today and said "Hello, this is Paul DiModica and I am calling from IBM."

What would be the "visual brochure" in your mind once you (or your gatekeeper) heard my company name?

As an IBM rep, would I be selling cash registers, wiring, consulting, PC hardware, AS 400's, or maintenance contracts?

Because IBM is such a successful and broad product and service line company, I could be all of these . . . and that's the problem.

Brand marketing many times hampers a salesperson's ability to communicate specific business value to targeted senior management prospects.

Why?

Because most brand marketing "paints" generic, static pictures thus forcing prospects to quickly draw a conclusion on what the salesperson is calling about - not necessarily what the salesperson is trying to sell at the time of the prospect's contact. Brand marketing, when done in broad strokes, actually has a negative effect on the sales cycle by preventing salespeople from communicating specific business value that will resonate with the individual needs of a potential buyer.

• Is your firm known as a tubing company?
  
  
• Is your firm known as an ERP company?
  
  
• Is your firm known as a medical supplies company?

Each one of these visual brochures has a positive and negative effect on the sales team's ability to penetrate, communicate value, and close senior management prospects.

The most positive effect is for one-product or one-service types of companies where their brand firmly "paints" a visual brochure of what is offered.

But most successful firms that start out as a one-product or one-service company usually try to expand the revenue opportunities with add-on products and services. These new products or services may not be closely related to their core messaging and may ultimately confuse the prospect because of the branding that has been established.

As new line extensions develop, new brand marketing messages must be created to support salespeople for each area.

Is having a generic brand good?

No, not necessarily. More than ever, prospects are seeking to work with firms who are specialists, not generalists.

Communicating broad "big company" images on who your company is as a "business whole" contradicts clear messaging of why prospects should buy from you. This process of whole brand marketing encompasses your sales message and suffocates your positioning as a specialist.

When your firm is known for one product or service offering, branding limits the range of approaches that salespeople have when prospecting for new sales opportunities and networking with targeted key accounts.

Additionally, the effects of brand marketing are not limited to the impact of your direct marketing programs, but also from the demographic background of the receiving prospects as well. Based on their exposure to your brand by business peer comments, unproven rumors, and inaccurate press statements, they can again develop preconceived "visual brochures" about what you sell and its value.

Provided to Paul DiModica by eMarketer.com under contract.

So, should you deploy broad market brands?

Yes and no.

Generic brand marketing that paints your company into a broad market position is not going to help your sales team sell specific products or services which do not connect to a targeted buyer.

3 Guidelines To Maximize Brand Effectiveness

1. Increase your branding efficiency by focusing your message on specific lines of products or services rather than generic company messages.
   
   
2. Position your branding message on specific results your offering delivers rather than on the offering itself.
   
   
3. Communicate how your offering affects corporate profitability. Senior management buys based on whether your offering increases income, decreases expenses, or both. To help your brand drive revenue opportunities, your corporate messaging must be centered on these variables to communicate your specialized value.

"Branding is just a marketing tool to drive revenue results. Without revenue results, it just becomes another line item in your P&L of wasted money that could be spent somewhere else." CFO of Fortune 1000 Public Company

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