This blog has moved

This blog is now located at http://blog.btzbrand.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://blog.btzbrand.com/feeds/posts/default.

Should B2B Businesses Invest in Brand?

It happened again this week. I was reading a copy of BtoB Magazine, and a CEO from a struggling B2B company was quoted as saying: "Brand is for consumer products; B2B is all about relationships and people, not products - because most of the B2B products category is made up of commodity products and services anyway."

Not so. It's just as important for B2B customers and prospects to know what brand of manufacturer, supplier, distributor or professional services provider you are as it is for a kid choosing a pair of basketball shoes. It's all about differentiating your company and products from your competitors. And if it's well done, buyers will pay a premium price for that distinction. It's a proven fact that purchasers perceive brand name products to be of a higher quality, more reliable and worth more!

B2Ber's have historically relied on direct sales relationships to move products. They assign sales reps to an area, give them some sales materials and encourage them to start calling on prospects. To increase sales, they must bump their competitors by developing a personal bond, expand their area, offer concessions or make special deals. But the successful B2B's are sending their salespeople out with more than sell sheets - they're arming them with a unique, deliverable claim of distinction.

According to some recent Harvard Business School research, B2B marketers are realizing that developing an awareness of a brand's distinction among their customers' customers can capture a larger share of channel margins and build loyalty that can protect them against lower priced competitors.

Consider these examples: Intel makes no sales to end consumers, yet the company built consumer demand pull for its chips that required every PC manufacturer to incorporate and advertise "Intel Inside" on their products and in their ads. Would Dupont's shareholder value be the same today if it had not made consumers aware of nylon, Lycra and Stainmaster and linked these innovations to the Dupont name? Definitely not.

Do you think that brand building is essential for B2B companies? Have you seen other benefits in successful B2B companies that have invested in brand development?

Join the discussion. We'd love to know what you think.

The Easiest Way to Ruin Your Brand

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Patty told me about a terrible experience she had with AT&T - and how she'll never do business with AT&T again as a result of her four week battle with customer service.

I never suspected that I'd have a similar story. But I had a run-in with AT&T customer service this week that has left me unwilling to do business with the company anymore - and I've been a loyal AT&T customer for a long time.

But our experiences aren't isolated. According to MSN Money, AT&T customer care ratings, as measured by J.D. Power, plunged from 4 out of a possible 5 stars in 2003 to 2 out of 5 this year.

AT&T is a pretty strong brand - one that has been around for a long time and spends incredible amounts of money on online and offline marketing. Yet it seems to have forgotten one of the basics of brand building: you have to deliver your brand promise at every touch point. And there are so many ways that your brand interacts with and makes an impression on customers, employees and other stakeholders. Every action, tactic and strategy that your brand uses to reach customers and stakeholders - whether through advertising, a cashier, customer service call or referral - represents a brand touch point.

AT&T's promise to its customers of continuous innovation, embodied in its most recent tagline, "Rethink Possible," implies that you'll get state-of-the-art service to go along with your technology. But clearly that isn't happening at one of its most important touch points - customer service.

So even if AT&T's advertising, offers, bills, website, technicians and R&D people deliver the brand promise but the customer service touch point doesn't, AT&T will continue to fail to deliver its brand promise. And the company will continue to lose customers - like Patty and me.

It's important for all organizations to realize that all brand touch points leave an impression of their brand on customers, employees and stakeholders - whether they want them to or not. So the question every organization needs to address is: Do you want to reinforce or strengthen what your brand stands for by identifying and controlling your brand touch points? Or do you want to risk ruining your brand and its promise?

Even big companies like AT&T can forget how easy it is to ruin their brand.

Should you consider mobile marketing for your brand?

I saw this question online this morning and thought it might make an interesting blog topic.

We believe that it's a good time to consider mobile marketing as part of your brand marketing mix - as long as your target market uses mobile phones and devices. Chances are that they do, since the U.S. alone has 250 million subscribers. And text messages to mobile phones have a read-rate of 94% - which is better than print, TV, e-mail or direct mail.*

After all, we're a mobile society; the mobile device is the fastest growing communications device in history, with twice the reach of the Internet. Smart businesses are saying about mobile marketing: "Why wouldn't we communicate with our customers the way we communicate with each other?"

Brands like Jameson and Nestle are using mobile brand marketing because it provides direct interaction and direct response from consumers - and provides a good return on investment. Quick service restaurants like Subway, Pizza Hut, Arby's, Papa John's, Burger King and McDonald's all have run successful mobile marketing campaigns and intend to run more.

Jiffy Lube ran a successful mobile campaign contest with a keyword-short code call-to-action to win a year of free oil changes. Non-winners were offered a mobile coupon, which had a unique code for tracking at the point of sale, for discounts on wiper blades, a tire change or an oil change.

Mobile marketing gives brands another highly targeted marketing tool and an opportunity to engage and interact with customers on the move.

So if you haven't considered mobile marketing yet for your brand, you really should. What are your thoughts about mobile marketing for your brand? Have you done it and, if so, what were the results? We'd love to hear from you.

*Mobile Marketing News, February 2009