Question

Topic: Strategy

B2b Technology Branding

Posted by Anonymous on 7/25/2005 at 8:06 AM ET 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?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by ReadCopy on 7/25/2005 at 9:33 AM Member
    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 ReadCopy on 7/25/2005 at 10:41 AM Member
    Steve, I think thats the sort of thing I was trying to say ;-)
  • Posted by wnelson on 7/25/2005 at 11:12 AM Accepted
    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 wnelson on 7/25/2005 at 11:57 AM Member
    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
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