Branding

Branding in B2B is the process of defining the identity or DNA of a company or product. A powerful brand has a unique visual identity, a strong personality, has a distinctive set of values, is aware of its place in the market, and strikes an emotional cord with stakeholders and potential customers.

The aim of branding is to get stakeholders to perceive your company’s products and services as an excellent match for their needs. A branding strategy requires a well-defined creative universe and a clear value proposition. The cornerstones of a brand, the creative universe and value proposition make it easier and faster to come up with inspiring ideas, choose compelling images, tell engaging stories and determine which channels to use to share these stories.

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The price of poor language

by Mandy Chilcott

Are you confusing your customers with second-rate English? For example, did your company recently win a price? Are your people competent, and (by implication) not skilled? Are your writers to your webpage loosing you credibility with spelling misstakes, joiningwordstogether and split ting others, or not using all the write words – making the text that little bit to hard too read?

We all make mistakes sometimes. Especially if we’re writing in a second language. But if your organization has put blood, sweat and tears into creating an innovative product or service that stands head and shoulders above anything else on the market, doesn’t it deserve high-quality promotion? Shouldn’t messaging about what you stand for and what you offer be communicated clearly and professionally? Continue reading →

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Telling B2B stories: Mention the war!

by David Hoskin

Whether it’s your cup of tea or not, British comedian John Cleese owes a small part of his fame to the phrase: “Don’t mention the war”. And I’m reminded of that phrase every time I hear a B2B marketing or communication department agonizing over what should or shouldn’t be said in the public arena.

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No shortcuts in B2B marketing

by Jonathan Winch

Recently, while visiting one of our customers in the UK, I saw a fascinating sign on a building next door to the customer’s own offices. I was struck by the boldness of the claim – particularly given how unimpressive the sign’s visual idea and execution was. The effect, in my mind, was to create something academics call cognitive dissonance. And that’s a certain something many B2B companies do all too often.

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Marketing fights Sales – and everyone wins!

by Jonathan Winch

What’s the purpose of B2B marketing? Ask the question of any attentive marketing student and they’re likely to reel off a description that somewhere, somehow, involves increasing demand for the company’s products. But marketing is also about managing demand, too, which may actually require reducing demand – or moving demand away from particular products in a company’s range. That said, it still seems counter-intuitive to create marketing or sales materials aimed at putting a dent in sales…

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Updating your corporate identity? Read this first…

by Jonathan Winch

Imagine your company’s new brand expression is the Sydney Opera House. Designed and built by the professional architects you hired to replace your tired old building, the new structure is a thing of beauty. It’s visionary, one-of-a-kind. It looks great. And it’s memorable. In fact, your employees and customers are already complimenting you on a job well done. But will your Opera House still be impressive 12 months down the track? Or will it have become an eyesore that will have management wondering whether it was worth spending all that time and money?

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The secret to communicating with multicultural audiences

by Yuriy Boykiv

The United States is a more culturally diverse nation than it’s ever been before. Together, cultural minorities comprise nearly half of our overall population: 56 million Americans are Hispanic, 34 million are black, 20 million are of Asian descent, and 45 million have roots either in the Middle East or Eastern Europe. The numbers are growing daily.

For businesses, these figures are tremendously important. If your communications strategy is culturally homogenous, you run the risk of alienating a large share of your audience. But it’s challenging to run a campaign that resonates with people from different cultural backgrounds. Continue reading →

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Rapid buyer persona development

by David Hoskin

My colleagues and I were recently thrown a challenge by one of our clients to identify and describe its key stakeholder personas in half a day. On first thought, and despite our in-depth knowledge of the company and its industry (offshore engineering services), it seemed an impossible task, especially because the company has several business areas and various customer types within each of those business areas. But always up for a challenge, my colleagues and I planned a high-intensity session with the outcome of clearly defined buyer personas representing the most important revenue streams. Continue reading →

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Humor in international B2B marketing? Are you kidding?

by Jonathan Winch

Rule #5: Never use humor in international B2B contexts

In global marketing circles, there’s been some sort of unwritten (but often stated) law that it’s foolish and even dangerous to use humor when you’re dealing with oh-so-serious B2B marketing messages and more than one culturally cohesive region of the world. So, when a large B2B corporation dares to go out on a limb and use humor toward its largest key accounts, we figured it’s something everyone in a B2B global marketing or communication department should hear about.

Stand out from the crowd

The company is DuPont, famed for its broad, science-based activities. The business area in this story is the dairy industry segment within DuPont Nutrition and Health, and the daring is due to not one, but a number of managers with both a sense of humor and the courage to stand out from the crowd.

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Employer branding as a strategic weapon

by Jens Victor Fischer

In the coming years, we’re likely to see a lower influx of new recruits to the job market. It is also widely predicted that the financial crisis will likely decline before long. So the hunt for the best employees is about to begin!

As a consequence, employer branding has suddenly become a strategic focus for B2B companies. Many are already now starting to position themselves to grab their share of the scarce resource of the future: talented people. For that, a compelling employee value proposition (EVP) becomes very important. Continue reading →

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Tips for trade show exhibitors

by Peter Symonds

Beloved by sales departments the world over, trade shows are an excellent platform for marketing your business. From exhibition signage design to simple deal-making tips, read on to learn six immutable tips for successfully exhibiting at a trade show.

1. Don’t be too ‘salesy’

Many an inexperienced salesperson has blown great opportunities at a trade show by approaching it with the same mentality as they would a typical sales call. While trade shows are undoubtedly about sales, they rarely reward a hard sell mentality.

The reality is that trade shows are excellent for generating leads, and equally good for converting new leads into customers, but only if you have the right outlook and marketing approach. Continue reading →