If you’re here, then you’ll likely know a little about the market for marketing and you’re either considering using a B2B agency or you’re about to find out that you’re considering using a B2B agency. You have to know about what’s available and stay up to date, which is why we’ve put this together to help you make informed choices that will have you on the road to success.
What is B2B Branding?
B2B stands for business to business, meaning that businesses are promoting or selling products or services to other businesses or groups. It’s distinct from B2C marketing, meaning business to consumer marketing, whereby the business markets their goods to a consumer. As a result of this different target audience and the different needs and preferences, the strategies, concepts and branding that are used in B2B are also distinct.
B2B is necessary when a company’s product or service is required by another company in order to improve or maintain its operations. Consequently, the first company has to present an image that’s appealing, effective and successful in terms of aesthetic as well as service, the goods themselves and the brand. The brand is what appeals to the target market, retains them and assures the success of the business, which makes it imperative.
How can a B2B branding agency help?
The overly simple answer is they help with the branding. They understand why it’s important and how it can impact the success of the business, so the B2B branding agency protects that success by ensuring they do a good job of the branding. A great example of a B2B branding agency is Tiga UK, who provide the expertise needed to market to other businesses.
They help by creating a strong, noteworthy, impactful brand, most specifically by using a diverse team of professionals, who rely on their knowledge and experience to offer incredibly valuable input. It’s the experience and the knowledge across multiple fields that a branding agency puts on the table. It’s also the fact that all of this resides under one roof and it can all be in-house, making the process faster, less stressful and more effective. Taking some of the negative emotion out of a very important sector is another benefit of a B2B branding agency – someone who knows how to thrive with pressure and consistently produces excellent results shoulders the responsibility of the branding. In practice, the way they do this is by offering a set of services.
What type of services are offered across B2B branding?
- Brand Strategy – This means the way that a company has planned and executed the way they appear and what they will do to impact how they want the public to perceive them. It’s important because of the impact this has on consumers, their behaviour and their actions, because it makes a key difference in the success of the company.
- Branding Audits – What this means is evaluating the position of the company in the marketplace, its strengths and weaknesses and how to develop those things. Typically, it covers internal branding, external branding and customer experience, and the goal is to get a true reflection of where the company stands with itself, with its competitors and with its customers. This is imperative because a consistent brand builds brand equity, and with brand equity comes customer retention, word of mouth referrals, and less money on attracting new customers, among other things.
- Touch Point Analysis – Touch points are the actions of the company that ‘touch’ the consumer at each point on their journey from encountering the brand to choosing it to developing brand loyalty. Analysis involves identifying, assessing and prioritising types of interactions through a variety of approaches. The touch points affect loyalty, brand equity, and profitability, which means analysing them to establish how to be most effective and impactful is a valuable tool for improvement.
- Creative Identity – This is essentially the unique selling point, or USP, the way the brand defines itself and the way people define the brand when referring to it. Whether that be the aesthetic, a specific sound, an iconic advert or a well-known product, it’s essential that this is a positive thing, because it’ll be the first thing the target audience associates with the company. The goal of branding agencies is to make sure that thing is positive, obviously, and the image they want to present.
- Research – Research involves gathering information about the subject, the product or service, and the target market in order to develop an understanding, which is then used to inform the branding. It’s the foundation of any branding because it determines what tactic or concept to use to appeal to the consumer, and the success of the company is dependent on the appeal of the brand.
In short, a B2B branding service offers the benefit of its knowledge and experience in developing and maintaining a company and can be the integral factor in determining the success or failure of the branding.
