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B2b Technology Branding
Posted By: dj* on 7/25/2005 7:06 AM (CST) 125 Points
is branding important in b2b technology marketing where purchase is made based on techno-commercial evaluation as in say industrial automation?

how does a company that has several branded products in its portfolio go about its branding strategy? Must it build further on product brands or take a corporate branding route?

finally, what is branding's role in b2b technology marketing?

Posted by: AndrewS Member Response
7/25/2005 8:33 AM (CST)
Can I presume that you have competition?

If so, then branding or the elements are extremely important. Branding puts you on the map, it's tells your customers, who you are, what you (and your solutions) stand for, why they should buy from you and then reconforms that you are the best to buy from post purchase.

Without branding (and its elements) no-one will know who you are (advertising is part of branding) and what they can get from you!

Hope that helps a little :-)
 
Posted by: Papadoc (Steve)* Member Response
7/25/2005 9:10 AM (CST)
The business sector that you reside in is of little consequence. Where there is the potential to sell more than one product to a given customer, branding is always important.

The more directions you can make that brand flow, the better off you are. It's great to have a branded product that is considered an industry standard. But if the company itself is kept nearly invisible, then that brand has no flow to new products that do not incorporate the old brand name. But depending upon the exact nature of the product and your channels, you may not necessarily develop your product and company brands the same way.

The perfect example of multi-tier branding is Proctor and Gamble (P&G). Products such as Crest, Pampers, and Puffs carry a HUGE brand in consumer markets. But their company brand is not so huge to consumers as it is to channel buyers. Buyers know that if it is a P&G product, they'd probably better stock it, that it will probably be a huge success, and that P&G will put millions into promotion.

Essentially, their corporate brand means that sales and brokerage staff don't have to do much selling. Kind of like, "It's a P&G product... what else do you need to know? Sign here!"
 
Posted by: AndrewS Member Response
7/25/2005 9:41 AM (CST)
Steve, I think thats the sort of thing I was trying to say ;-)
 
Posted by: wnelson Accepted Answer
7/25/2005 10:12 AM (CST)
DJ,
Within the tech sector, examples of "brand" work are very prevalent! Take Intel: The blue guys, Pentium, Intel Inside. Hey, and they are ALMOST a monopoly too, but they still work on brand. In industrial control, look at Rockwell Automotion: They have the Device Net, which they promote prolifically and support/control the standards and user groups with the Device Net Open User's Group.

I must say, brand strategy in the technology B2B sector isn't nearly as good as the consumer sector; Most of the marketing guys are sales guys who are super salesmen and brought home to be marketing people or engineers who can actually communicate so they are "promoted" to marketing (the category I fall into, btw). The extent of marketing theory/practiced principles are slim in some companies. But, all of the principles of branding and the reasons for doing it are the same: Brand consistency is critical. Think through carefully before deluting a brand. Don't set up brands for competing with them selves or the corporate brand, etc. Even things like product nomenclature matter, also part of branding, are important - especially in the channel. Consistency here means that the inside salesperson for the distributor can remember your part numbers when they are searching for a product catagory and specify to a call-in customer. A look and feel for the product package, packaging, advertising, datasheets, all of this ancellary stuff is important in branding consistency. The reasons being that, as Steve discussed, you want your customers to think your product first when they think industrial automation. You want to be the "Kleenex" of industrial automation - a brand name that becomes a generic word for the product class. Successful branding does this.

Hope this helps!

Wayde
 
Posted by: Wiglaf Accepted Answer
7/25/2005 10:32 AM (CST)
DJ - if you ask marketing people if branding is important, especially consumer marketing people, you're going to get a yes everytime.

The dollar value of your products makes a difference with respect to this question. If it is a low value product, like say a $25 patch or something, then branding is all important as a means to keep you in customer's minds. But I will assume you sell something more valuable.

Lets say you sell products in the $10,000 to $1,000,000 range. Now, your salespeoples relationship is going to be more important than your brand. You see companies going with the P&G umbrella brand - where they have one main product suite and everything in that suite starts with the same name (Think of MyCo Billing, MyCo Care, MyCo Accounting). You also see companies that have no tieing brand name between thier products and use pretty technical names. They always brand thier company though. (Think of Itelibilling by MyCo, MV-XX by MyCo, Bre59 by MyCo.) Importantly, both do equally well in the marketplace.

When you have a booth at a trade show, what will you put on it? That is what you need to brand. Say you go with branding your company - then what does your company stand for with respect to filling company desires?

Take a look at the websites for ADP Dealer Service, Itron, and SPL. Each of these companies are leaders in thier space. You will see that each of them has branded thier company, but use more descriptive or techy names for thier products.

And why focus on branding something? To give people a direction to go in when they have a need to fulfill. It is a mental node in the relationship between you and your prospects/customers.

Happy Selling.
 
Posted by: wnelson Member Response
7/25/2005 10:57 AM (CST)
Tim makes a good point about allocating your resources where they pay off most - good business sense. Bear in mind that while you are pursuing the tactical situation with your smaller business (relationships between sales and customers and promoting your company name, for instance), don't screw up your potential branding for the future. Unless your company is unique, you probably don't want to stay in the $10,000 to $10,000,000 range, but have dreams of being a "household name" as it were, for your product category. So attention to branding is key even if you don't spend the money on brand.

:) Wayde
 
Posted by: pavanpadaki Member Response
7/29/2005 3:18 AM (CST)
Hello DJ!
See , iam addressing you by your name.Because you have told me what to call you. You have serious sense of business( know it from the very fact that you posted a question to answer yur biz need ), thats your personality(in a way ).
Now imagine if you actually had a distinct brand positioning statement with a clear personality and consitency by design.

And now think if there were to be a more appropiate brand name instead of DJ, having a relavant and an orginal brand name, your B2B biz will be that much more impactful

Sounds simplstic. But thats your identity and that's the key irrespective of the business.

Pavan Padaki
Brand consultant-India
 
Posted by: Maria Member Response
7/29/2005 11:16 AM (CST)
Hi DJ!
Just think about brands such as- Macromedia, Microsoft, Adobe, Windows, FACE CONTROL , PhotoShop etc.
This should answer your question...I hope...


Good luck!
 
Posted by: Dyer Accepted Answer
8/3/2005 9:14 PM (CST)
There are many examples of smaller companies being successful with no clearly defined brand but a strong sales force.

The funny thing about branding is that even if you don't deliberately develop your brand, you have a brand. --particularly as you get larger.

The question is: Do you want to shape what the market thinks about your company on purpose or do you want the market to develop it's view of your company by default? It is likely better to define your brand on purpose and align your company around it so that you can use it to your advantage.
 


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