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Is Your Marketing Spend Better Used for Brand or Demand?
We asked the question of this B2B age, and it turns out it’s a loaded one.
On a recent panel at Chicago’s B2B World Fest, Brand vs. Demand Quandary — What Wins in B2B, I was invited along with Tony Riley, president and CEO of The MX Group, and Ross Barker, co-founder and director of Entourage BD, to talk about where the more valuable spend is for B2B.
We thought we might clash more on where companies should spend their cash. Instead, we’re seeing eye to eye on a lot of fronts.
With so much discussed during this half-hour session, I want to break down some of the finer points about the delicate balance of brand vs. demand tactics.
One thing that rose to the top:
Your B2B marketing spend should follow your goals and your timeline.
Investment in brand primes the pump for demand.
As David Jordan discussed in his “How much is dull costing you?” article, we need to start thinking of “B2B as business to businesspeople.”
There are many reasons for that, but one huge one is to realize how many ways all these people are experiencing your brand and how easy it is for people to forget things.
They’re coming at it from all angles and places and — in B2B especially — through touch points and demand tactics you don’t see as much in the B2C space (sales team education, white papers, third-party retailers, etc.).
This mind-boggling web can make your company easily forgettable, no matter how many demand tactics you’re throwing at your customers. Having a brand that stands out while still being a true representation of your company can help build consistency through all your demand touch points and across traditional funnel milestones.
“The funnel has been used as a structure to understand the different stages of buying intent, right? But, in reality, it’s more of a messy web. Consumers don’t follow the linear path. They go back and forth. They consume content at the beginning, at the middle and at the end.”
— David Moreno
“It’s all balance. I don’t think that anybody should be going out there and thinking other than experience. It’s not a funnel. It’s not brand. It’s not demand. That is the reflection … They’re looking for the experience.”
— Tony Riley
“If you are looking to move pipeline, create numbers in the next 12 months, put it into demand. If you’re looking at how you are going to improve your ability to drive demand over a two-year to five-year period, I’d put it into brand.”
— Ross Barker
New features only get you so far — customers need to know you have clout.
Many B2B companies make the mistake of focusing on what they create and the solutions they provide rather than how they make their customers feel.
That more emotive side of building a brand is a B2C mindset that should be adopted by B2B brands too — because emotional brand recognition leads to brand affinity. And in the long run, having that trust gives you clout to try new things and push your company on new pursuits, while your customers say, “Yeah, they got this.”
No matter how effective the products you provide are or how robust your portfolio of services is, demand tactics can’t capitalize on that growth without a brand foundation people trust.
Though we didn’t agree on everything, all the panelists could get behind a few insights for B2B businesses:
Look at how your teams and budgets are broken out. Are they fighting for attention or are they working in tandem to push growth? That balance is difficult but necessary. Breaking down walls between teams and resources can help.
Beware the temptation of using assets generated by artificial intelligence and spamming email lists. Customers will disengage if they can’t find a way to make authentic connections (first-party data, highly targeted ads, etc.) with a brand that has an approachable personality.
You don’t know where customers are getting on and off in their consumer journey. Build on-ramps between demand-generation tactics while cultivating a cohesive brand, so they know who it’s coming from.
There are more and more tools being developed to measure brand effectiveness (even ones that track emotion via facial recognition), but it’s still not always easy to measure the monetary impact of good branding. But this panel of experts all believe that building a solid brand foundation has a compounding, long-term impact.
Ready to build a compelling brand that makes creating demand tactics that much easier?
Contact David Moreno, BR EVP of Integrated Strategy & Effectiveness, or Liam Boyle, VP of Business Strategy & Development, and let us help you find the balance between brand and demand.