This article presents the concept of performance branding and discusses its importance in the B2B landscape. It traces the history of branding from a marketing tool to a strategic asset that promotes corporate success.
Key issues discussed include the significance of brand identity, the shift in view of B2B branding, and the difficulty that businesses have in aligning branding efforts with business objectives.
The article is based on a chapter in the authors' new book, B2B Brand Management: Incorporating Performance Branding, Transformative Marketing, and Artificial Intelligence (Second Edition 2025). The chapter emphasizes that successful branding strengthens customer relationships, improves market positioning, and leads to long-term growth.
It also discusses the complexity of analyzing brand effectiveness in an AI-powered environment and promotes improved ROI metrics.
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Over the past two decades, B2B marketing has undergone significant changes. Branding, once questioned for its relevance in B2B, is now considered essential—a new currency and a driver of business success.
Companies like Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and SAP have demonstrated the power of strong branding in building reputation, facilitating business relationships, and driving growth (Aaker, 2014; Hutt & Speh, 2021).
The digital age has transformed B2B branding, with digitalization, social media, and content marketing enabling firms to communicate value propositions more directly and engage customers on platforms like LinkedIn, through webinars, blogs, and whitepapers (Ginter & Dambacher, 2019).
Branding now encompasses the entire customer experience, from awareness to post-purchase, emphasizing credibility, differentiation, and emotional connection.
Figure 1: B2B Performance Branding Evolution in the Digital Age
Modern B2B leaders like Salesforce, Adobe, and HubSpot show that brand investments yield substantial returns.
Salesforce positions itself as a thought leader in digital transformation and AI, while Adobe transitioned from product-centric to service-oriented value delivery via Creative Cloud. HubSpot built its brand through inbound marketing, educating its audience and fostering a loyal community (BCG, 2024; Google, 2024).
Despite such advances, many B2B firms struggle with aligning brand and business strategies, measuring branding ROI, and adapting brands amid growth and market changes. Those challenges also present opportunities to leverage emerging technologies and data analytics for personalized brand experiences (Smith & Doe, 2023).
Artificial intelligence is now reshaping B2B branding through personalization, data-driven decisions, automated interactions, and improved efficiency. AI enables deeper customer relationships, enhances brand reputation, and sustains competitive advantage.
Figure 2: Performance Branding Benefits
The evolving landscape has given rise to performance branding—a strategy focused on quantifying brand benefits in terms of business outcomes like revenue or profitability. Unlike performance marketing, which targets lead generation, performance branding aims to create lasting brand memories that drive purchase decisions. Benefits include improved ROI, more targeted marketing, and stronger brand equity (McKinsey, 2021; Elevate Demand, 2023).
Figure 3: Performance Branding Results
Challenges in Brand Management
Managing B2B brand portfolios involves unique complexities because of multiple sub-brands, acquisitions, and diverse markets. Key challenges include the following:
- Brand architecture: Balancing master brand cohesion with sub-brand distinctness
- Consistency vs. customization: Maintaining trust and awareness without stifling creativity
- Internal alignment: Ensuring cross-departmental consistency in brand execution
- Measuring impact: Attributing ROI amid long, complex B2B sales cycles
- Adapting to change: Keeping pace with technological and market evolution
A brand-centric approach, supported by market research and clear guidelines, is essential to overcome these hurdles (Keller, 2020; Aaker, 2006)
Figure 4: Key Challenges in Brand Management
Although B2C companies like Apple and Coca-Cola have long embraced branding, B2B firms historically viewed it as irrelevant—believing purchases were based solely on rational factors like price, quality, and service. However, the rise of tech giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft (GAFAM) and Chinese counterparts like Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi (BATX) has blurred B2B/B2C lines, emphasizing human-centric (H2H) marketing and performance branding (Kotler et al., 2021).
Traditional B2B firms like Boeing have also embraced branding. Once skeptical, Boeing now integrates branding into everything from its logo to corporate strategy, exemplified by the successful 787 Dreamliner launch. Similarly, GE’s split into three focused companies (GE Aerospace, GE HealthCare, and GE Vernova) demonstrates strategic brand portfolio management (Interbrand, n.d.; Reuters, 2024).
Brand Leadership
Branding is not just a marketing function but a strategic imperative requiring CEO involvement. A holistic approach encompasses values, customer experience, internal culture, and all touchpoints. Strong leadership, as shown by Patagonia’s commitment to environmental sustainability, builds brand loyalty and sets industry standards (Gelles, 2020; Chouinard et al., 2016).
Measuring brand success remains challenging, but firms like Interbrand, Kantar BrandZ, and Brand Finance provide valuable metrics. The focus has shifted from whether brands pay off to how they can be optimized in an AI-driven world.
In conclusion, performance branding is essential for B2B growth, requiring strategic alignment, leadership commitment, and adaptive measurement approaches.
References
Aaker, D. A. (2014). Aaker on branding: 20 principles that drive success. Morgan James Publishing.
Aaker, D. A. (2006). Brand portfolio strategy. Strategic direction, 22(10). Free Press.
BCG. (2024). Why B2B Brand Marketing Matters. Retrieved from https://www.bcg.com.
Chouinard, Y., Ellison, J., and Ridgeway, R. (2016). Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman. Penguin Books.
Elevate Demand. (2023). The Ultimate Guide to B2B Performance Marketing in 2023. Retrieved from https://www.elevatedemand.com.
Gelles, D. (2020). The Man Who Sold His Patagonia to Save the Planet. New York Times.
Ginter, T., and Dambacher, J. (2019). Digital transformation and its influence on B2B branding strategies. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(7), 1484–1494.
Google. (2024). B2B’s digital evolution. Think with Google.
Hutt, M. D., and Speh, T. W. (2021). Business marketing management: B2B. Cengage Learning.
Interbrand. (n.d.). GE case study. Retrieved from https://interbrand.com.
Keller, K. L. (2020). Strategic brand management (5th ed.). Pearson.
Kotler, P., Pfoertsch, W., and Sponholz, U. (2021). H2H marketing: The genesis of human-to-human marketing*. Springer.
McKinsey & Company. (2021). Performance branding and how it is reinventing marketing ROI. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com.
Reuters. (2024). GE completes three-way split, breaking off from its storied past.
Smith, J., and Doe, A. (2023). Digital Transformation in B2B Marketing: A Decade Review. *Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 30*(2), 123–145.
