Why branding matters
Branding in B2B is still largely under-prioritized despite its proven ability to increase price premium, sales volume and chances of growth¹. Yet many B2B companies treat branding as a surface-level exercise, focused only on design elements rather than leveraging their brand as a driver of growth.
Marketing has become more activation-focused
B2B marketers have more tools than ever to identify, target and influence potential customers across channels. But increased access to data, media and automation has also pushed marketing closer to short-term activation, such as capturing and converting leads and supporting sales, which in our opinion undermines the full potential of marketing.
Most buyers are out-of-market
As a rule of thumb, 95% of your potential customers are current out-of-market². When brand-building is done well, it increases your perceived value, helps your company become familiar, increases trust and makes it easier for potential buyers to chose you when they enter the market. Familiarity increases the chances of being considered when they are ready to buy³.
Sales activation is not enough
Short-term sales activation is necessary, but it should not define the full role of marketing. If marketing is reduced to lead capture and sales support, companies risk underinvesting in the brand associations that create future demand. Lasting competitive advantage requires both: activation that converts demand today, and brand-building that creates demand for tomorrow.
Brand builds familiarity before the buying moment
By shifting from purely short-term sales activations to brand-building, you go from being reactive and oriented around immediate gains, to a proactive approach that builds long-term awareness and credibility. This not only secures a competitive advantage but also sets the stage for more sustainable growth.
Why branding matters
Branding in B2B is still largely under-prioritized despite its proven ability to increase price premium, sales volume and chances of growth¹. Yet many B2B companies treat branding as a surface-level exercise, focused only on design elements rather than leveraging their brand as a driver of growth.
Marketing has become more activation-focused
B2B marketers have more tools than ever to identify, target and influence potential customers across channels. But increased access to data, media and automation has also pushed marketing closer to short-term activation, such as capturing and converting leads and supporting sales, which in our opinion undermines the full potential of marketing.
Most buyers are out-of-market
As a rule of thumb, 95% of your potential customers are current out-of-market². When brand-building is done well, it increases your perceived value, helps your company become familiar, increases trust and makes it easier for potential buyers to chose you when they enter the market. Familiarity increases the chances of being considered when they are ready to buy³.
Sales activation is not enough
Short-term sales activation is necessary, but it should not define the full role of marketing. If marketing is reduced to lead capture and sales support, companies risk underinvesting in the brand associations that create future demand. Lasting competitive advantage requires both: activation that converts demand today, and brand-building that creates demand for tomorrow.
Brand builds familiarity before the buying moment
By shifting from purely short-term sales activations to brand-building, you go from being reactive and oriented around immediate gains, to a proactive approach that builds long-term awareness and credibility. This not only secures a competitive advantage but also sets the stage for more sustainable growth.
Why branding matters
Branding in B2B is still largely under-prioritized despite its proven ability to increase price premium, sales volume and chances of growth¹. Yet many B2B companies treat branding as a surface-level exercise, focused only on design elements rather than leveraging their brand as a driver of growth.
Marketing has become more activation-focused
B2B marketers have more tools than ever to identify, target and influence potential customers across channels. But increased access to data, media and automation has also pushed marketing closer to short-term activation, such as capturing and converting leads and supporting sales, which in our opinion undermines the full potential of marketing.
Most buyers are out-of-market
As a rule of thumb, 95% of your potential customers are current out-of-market². When brand-building is done well, it increases your perceived value, helps your company become familiar, increases trust and makes it easier for potential buyers to chose you when they enter the market. Familiarity increases the chances of being considered when they are ready to buy³.
Sales activation is not enough
Short-term sales activation is necessary, but it should not define the full role of marketing. If marketing is reduced to lead capture and sales support, companies risk underinvesting in the brand associations that create future demand. Lasting competitive advantage requires both: activation that converts demand today, and brand-building that creates demand for tomorrow.
Brand builds familiarity before the buying moment
By shifting from purely short-term sales activations to brand-building, you go from being reactive and oriented around immediate gains, to a proactive approach that builds long-term awareness and credibility. This not only secures a competitive advantage but also sets the stage for more sustainable growth.
Title
It is important to think about what the competition is, beyond those you might consider your biggest competitors. Moving from talking about competitors to competitive alternatives increasingly allows you to put yourself in the shoes of your customer and consider all the options they may have. This includes doing it themselves or doing nothing at all; status quo can often be your biggest competitor.
The brilliant basics
For a brand to be strong in practice, it must be anchored in the company's commercial strategey and functions. This means it cannot be reduced to a creative task where aesthetics is the decisive factor but should be approached as a business-strategic task. It's about ensuring that your brand is basde on something valuable to the customer, enabling your communication, marketing and sales, and making ti more efficient. Building a strong brand is like building an engine. It consists of several components that must work together to create the necessary momentum. Done right, it is both scalable and cost-effective. Here is a simple way to think about the brand development process.
1. Clarify
Your commercial space for value positioning. Asking the right questions forces you to clarify some of the things that you might take for granted and bring out important nuances.
3. Amplify
Customer-relevant messaging through the customer journey. Make your brand executable and a tool that can empower everyday efforts.
2. Simplify
It's one thing to know what you want, it's another to simplify and formalize it so it's easy to talk about, understand and buy into.
Interdisciplinary
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary lorem ipsum
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
The brilliant basics
For a brand to be strong in practice, it must be anchored in the company's commercial strategey and functions. This means it cannot be reduced to a creative task where aesthetics is the decisive factor but should be approached as a business-strategic task. It's about ensuring that your brand is basde on something valuable to the customer, enabling your communication, marketing and sales, and making ti more efficient. Building a strong brand is like building an engine. It consists of several components that must work together to create the necessary momentum. Done right, it is both scalable and cost-effective. Here is a simple way to think about the brand development process.
1. Clarify
Your commercial space for value positioning. Asking the right questions forces you to clarify some of the things that you might take for granted and bring out important nuances.
3. Amplify
Customer-relevant messaging through the customer journey. Make your brand executable and a tool that can empower everyday efforts.
2. Simplify
It's one thing to know what you want, it's another to simplify and formalize it so it's easy to talk about, understand and buy into.
Interdisciplinary
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary lorem ipsum
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
The brilliant basics
For a brand to be strong in practice, it must be anchored in the company's commercial strategey and functions. This means it cannot be reduced to a creative task where aesthetics is the decisive factor but should be approached as a business-strategic task. It's about ensuring that your brand is basde on something valuable to the customer, enabling your communication, marketing and sales, and making ti more efficient. Building a strong brand is like building an engine. It consists of several components that must work together to create the necessary momentum. Done right, it is both scalable and cost-effective. Here is a simple way to think about the brand development process.
1. Clarify
Your commercial space for value positioning. Asking the right questions forces you to clarify some of the things that you might take for granted and bring out important nuances.
3. Amplify
Customer-relevant messaging through the customer journey. Make your brand executable and a tool that can empower everyday efforts.
2. Simplify
It's one thing to know what you want, it's another to simplify and formalize it so it's easy to talk about, understand and buy into.
Interdisciplinary
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary lorem ipsum
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Your brand is your unfair competitive advantage
Why strategic branding matters in business-to-business
Branding in B2B is still today largely under-prioritized despite its proven ability to increase price premium, sales volume and chances of growth1. Yet, many B2B companies treat branding as a surface-level exercise, focused only on design elements rather than leveraging their brand as a driver of growth.
In B2B, marketers today have more opportunities to identify, target and influence potential customers through various channels and in more different ways, than ever before. From historically (and, in our opinion, incorrectly) being used as the “brochure department”, the marketing department is today asked to capture and convert leads into opportunities for sales.
Position
Vi er vokset, men jo større vi er blevet, jo sværere er det at forklare hvad vi egentlig vil. Vores folk siger det samme med forskellige ord - og ingen af dem er de helt rigtige
While important for generating short-term sales, this does not generate the same long-term growth potential as branding does. We’re not saying that sales activations aren’t important, we are just saying that brand building should, at least, have the same priority.
Our approach
Your optimal value position lies in the intersection between what your ideal customers want, what our competition does well and what we do well. By understanding each part in detail, you will have a better understanding of how and why you can position your brand in the market.
As a rule of thumb, 95% of your potential customers are current out-of-market2. When done right, branding enables your company to differentiate itself, increase perceived value, build trust with potential buyers, and become the go-to choice when they move in-market and are ready to buy3.
By shifting from purely short-term sales activations to brand-building, you also shift from being reactive, oriented around immediate gains, to a proactive approach that builds long-term awareness and credibility. This not only secures a competitive advantage but also sets the stage for more sustainable growth.
Strategic branding
Today we’re announcing Project Glasswing1, a new initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world’s most critical software.
We build safer systems
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
System design
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Safe is a science
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary lorem ipsum
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Strategic branding
Today we’re announcing Project Glasswing1, a new initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world’s most critical software.
We build safer systems
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
System design
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Safe is a science
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary lorem ipsum
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Strategic branding
Today we’re announcing Project Glasswing1, a new initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world’s most critical software.
We build safer systems
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
System design
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Safe is a science
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
Interdisciplinary lorem ipsum
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity.
***End title
References
Business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/b2b-institute/b2b-research/trends/95-5-rule
Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (2024)
System1group.com/compound-creativity-system1-ipa
References
Business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/b2b-institute/b2b-research/trends/95-5-rule
Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (2024)
System1group.com/compound-creativity-system1-ipa
