Business marketers must appeal to the hearts, not just the minds of their customers and prospects, even in seemingly unlovable industries such as electronic components and concrete.

The strategic and financial benefits of strong, clear and most of all emotionally appealing brands were a recurring theme at the Institute for the Study of Business Markets during its two-day conference, B-to-B Marketing: Beyond Best Practice to Next Practice, last month in Tampa, Fla.

Every b-to-b company might at think it is brand-managed, but few really are, said Philip Kotier, S.C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Kotler delivered the opening day keynote at the ISBM conference.

Kotler whose latest book, “B2B Brand Management,” explores these topics in detail-enumerated the advantages of a strong brand, from higher priées and lower customer churn to favorable supplier relationships and lower employee turnover.

Moving from a purely rational value proposition to “rational plus emotional” as part of a brand repositioning contributed directly to increased business, said D. Keith Pigues, VP-marketing at Cemex, a global provider of cement and concrete. In one year, an integrated campaign, emphasizing exciting customer applications of concrete helped drive sales volume up 229% and profit up 201%.

John Fleming, principal and chief scientist at the Gallup Organization, continued the day’s theme, quantifying the impact of emotionally resonant encounters, specifically between salespeople and customers. “Satisfying customers is not sufficient,” Fleming said, and will not drive financial performance. Henoted that customers measured as “passionate” about a brand deliver two times the profitability of average customers.

Along with customers, employees must be emotionally connected to the brand for the company to achieve top performance, Fleming added.

“The challenge we have as b-to-b marketers is to lead our linns to really understanding the left brain impact of what we do the emotional contact we have with customer, the emotional impact of our brand, how to measure that and make it better and stronger,” said Ralph Oliva, ISBMs executive director.

Also, at the conference, ISBM announced a reworked version of its data visualization tool for marketers that now includes integration with Microsoft Excel.

“Systematic marketing decision making can improve marketing productivity by 5% an to 10% you with minimal additional costs,” said Gary Lilien, distinguished research professor of management science at the Smcal College of Business Administration at Pennsylvania State University and co-founder and research director of ISBM. He said the tools interface had been revamped and simplified based on user feedback.

Marketing Engineering for Excel, an Excel add-in, lectures eight analytical tools, including market segmentation and targeting, customer lifetime value and conjoint analysis. The software suite also includes a companion book, “Principals of Marketing Engineering,” and wehinar-based training.

Marketing Engineering for Excel, now in beta, will be available for sale at the end of March. Although final pricing has yet to be finalized, ISBM officials said the tool will cost around $1,000, with discounts for ISBN members. The ISBM conference attracted about 125 marketers (Ellis Booker,B to B, Mar.12,2007).

With millions of products & companies in the market all claiming to be the best,  its difficult to distinguish one brand from the other. Everybody is saying the same thing, and they all looked the same too.

The question that every consumer should be asking is How can my brand be different & be remembered?

How does my Brand stand compared with my competitors?

Building a brand is one thing, emphasizing the value of your brand is another. It is the perceived value that makes a consumer to pay more for a product. It justifies the brand and the value. Yes Building your Brand’s equity is equal to increasing the brand’s perceived value. For example, some would not mind to pay more for a pineapple because it has a branded label. Branded or not branded, it’s still the same pineapple.

You heard the expression: “Not all brands are created equal” so if your brand is different from the others, say it, be bold about it and be known for it.

That is the most common problem with the many entrepreneurs today. Most of them don’t emphasize their brand’s value proposition. Whether it be your brand is the most effective, most inexpensive, great customer support, delivers immediate results, we are open 7 days a week, you buy now and you don’t pay in 20 years, well, you get the point. 

A brand is considered to be the messenger of trust. And powerful branding is about strategically sending that brand image out there, communicates well to your target audience and effectively deliver that message of trust. 

It is important to hire a branding company that not only understands what your brand needs but also knows and understands the Trend in the market, available technology to utilize in sending that “message of trust” to your target customers and knows how to increase your brand’s value in the market.

 Feel Free to contact us to give you an hour of Free Brand and Business Analysis.

Enter the year 2008 with a new business approach, new strategies and with new  financial goals. 

Take advantage of this FREE Brand & Business analysis, and do what is right for your brand.

Branding is an integral part of your marketing strategy. It is also an important part of how you interact with clients, prospects, vendors, employees, and anyone else with whom you come in contact. Branding creates an image.

There are said to be 5 levels of brand recognition:

1. Brand preference
This is where customers are given a choice to choose between two brands. It often is the result of a sense of differentiation and that your product or service uniquely serves their needs. As well, you can be sure that any value-added products or services you include help them to choose yours over your competitors.

2. Brand loyalty
This is where customers will choose your brand time and time again, even if they experience the occasional poor service or if another product comes along that seems to be better suited to their needs. To achieve brand loyalty, you need to provide a product that is highly differentiated, with plenty of value added, but also you need to offer them remarkable service at a level they will not get anywhere else.

3. Brand recognition
This will help people lean toward your product when given the choice between your product and one they have never heard of. At the same time, though remember that your competitors are also working on brand recognition, which means their brand could be more recognizable.

4. Brand non-recognition
This is where your customers simply don’t recognize your brand, probably because it is not clearly differentiated from competitors. Boldly state your product or service’s benefits. Always include the full trademark name whenever you refer to your product.

5. Brand rejection
If someone associates your brand with something negative, they will purposely avoid your product. Have you ever experienced bad service somewhere and swore you’d never return to that chain? Have any of your customers said that about your business? Create a logo and slogan that is filled with great benefits to your customer and put that on everything. If public opinion is turning against you or your product, launch a campaign to alter it (Khera Communications, Inc, 2007).

Corporate branding is a practice of using a company’s name as a product brand name. It is an attempt to leverage corporate brand equity to create product brand recognition. It is a messenger of trust.

Sometimes this ends up working so well that the brand name becomes synonymous with the product. For example, if you want to blow your nose you reach for a Kleenex. Kleenex is the brand as well as the product. Another example is the Xerox. When you’re asked to copy a document, you’d be ask to Xerox it. Xerox is the brand as well as the product. When looking for a phone number, people would normally say “Let me check my Rolodex.” Rolodex is the brand and also the product.

Corporate branding does not have the limited to a name, either. Sometimes logos can become so visible that you instantly know what they mean when you see them. The McDonald’s golden arches would be one example of this. When you see a check mark on any sportswear, sports gear, or sneakers, you know that it is Nike. When you see an apple on any computer hardware system; you know that it is Macintosh.This is even true with fonts, colors, tag-lines, and design elements.

One last way that corporate branding is achieved is to touch points. A touch point can be virtually anything that gets the corporate identity out in the marketplace for the purpose of brand awareness. These are commonly achieved by sending postcards, putting ads in the newspaper or local magazine, using billboards, posters, etc. However, today the consumer has become much more computer savvy, if they are looking for a Pizza place, car dealer, mall, movie theater, etc. they will Google it, instead of looking at the Yellowbook. More and more people are depending on the convenience of the Internet. They are spending more time in front of the computer than watching TV. Thus, we need take advantage of this new trend. An innovative way of getting your brand image out there, is to have a good web presence These includes: email newsletter (18% effectively rate. Source: Forrester.com), web branding; email signature, social media marketing, blogs, links and banners, and others. You’d be surprise how effective this is, and the cost is very inexpensive.