B2B Brand Management

Product Information

Bibliography......................................................................................... 331 B2B buyers are people. Just like B2C buyers. What we know about consumers (people) is that they are emotional. Brands connect with consumers on an emotional level, by stimulating the part of their brain which triggers an emotional reaction. By doing so, your brand builds a memorable connection; you become more than just a business. B2B Branding Advantages Increased Visibility: Leek, S., and G. Christodoulides. 2012. A framework of brand value in B2B markets: The contributing role of functional and emotional components. Industrial Marketing Management 41(1): 106–114.

When B2B companies market their products and services, they have a strong tendency to focus on performance attributes, such as price and features, typically avoiding broader initiatives to promote the overall company brand. Marketing budgets reflect this thinking, with companies typically underinvesting to build their brand and devoting a larger share of spending to traditional marketing. Nearly one-quarter of B2B companies devote less than 20% of their marketing budget to brand. Gromark, J., and F. Melin. 2013. From market orientation to brand orientation in the public sector. Journal of Marketing Management 29(9–10): 1099–1123. We outlined illustrative quotes to support the branding schema (see Appendix 3). SMEs as no-competencies branders, branders with novice competencies and branders with awareness competencies could manipulate the four branding concepts in the schema to become branders with achievement competencies, thereby enhancing their corporate performances. Contributions and implications In a comparison with product brands, corporate brands possess a strong and explicit connection with an organisation’s culture and structure (Merrilees and Miller 2008) and the aim is to cultivate stakeholders’ attachment to the organisation (Balmer 2001; Hatch and Schultz 2003), whereas product brands leverage products sales to increase market share. Corporate brands enjoy attention from a wide range of stakeholders, including consumers, employees, supply chain partners, investors, and government organisations (Vallaster and Lindgreen 2011). Compared to product brands, corporate brands are formed in an abstract mode to represent corporate value and to serve diverse stakeholders (Balmer and Greyser 2002). Eng, T.-Y., S. Ozdemir, and G. Michelson. 2016. Brand origin and country of production congruity: Evidence from the UK and China. Journal of Business Research 69(12): 5703–5711.The interviews were conducted over the telephone and via Skype as the sample group members are geographically spread. Past research claimed that there is no significant difference in the reliability of the interview results generated by telephone and face-to-face modes (Ward-King et al. 2010). In addition, the telephone mode offers informants a comfortable and convenient setting from which to discuss sensitive topics (Holbrook et al. 2003). Interview questions were semi-structured, and a brief interview guide is presented in Appendix 1. We chose to have a relaxed interview structure to allow respondents to talk freely (Ritchie and Lewis 2003), and sought permission to record each interview.

Companies that are more mature in terms of brand marketing generate a higher return on marketing investment (ROMI) from their efforts; moreover, strong brand marketing capabilities actually reinforce performance marketing, leading to better engagement overall. The applications of different types of brand architecture are compatible and integrative, and it varies from context to context. Richter ( 2007, cited in Baumgarth 2010) stated that 31% of firms applied corporate branding strategy and approximately 47% enjoyed a mixture of branding strategies that combines the corporate branding with other branding strategies. The current research, however, has yet obtained an in-depth investigation on the application of brand architecture strategies in the relationship with brand orientation in the B2B context, which invites further exploration (Strebinger 2014). B2B brand communication One B2B company found that the long-term ROMI of brand marketing initiatives was approximately 640% over four years.

What to Look for in Employee Surveys

Cavusgil, S.T. 1984. Differences among exporting firms based on their degree of internationalization. Journal of Business Research 13(2): 195–208.