INSIGHT and Publication

In the new year, we need to review the past, examine the present, and look forward to the future. As practitioners in the B2B industry, we need to think about the reasons and methods for shaping B2B brands. In the past, when discussing brands, it’s a common perception to think that the emotional value and the established emotion-driven premium a brand exudate are very important in B2C context.

Whereas, B2B primarily focuses on economic value, sales drivers, emphasizing measurables of return on investment, and being driven by realistic value.

In this context, why should we build B2B brands? I think this is a question worth pondering, and the answer to this question will help companies gain insights on how B2B companies can grow effectively.

1: In the era of low inventory, what is the growth engine for B2B businesses?

Firstly, let’s discuss why should B2B brands be built. In a macroeconomic perspective, the image below exhibits the global research we conducted in 2020, namely the 2020 – 2030 Global Marketing Roadmap.

An important aspect depicted in this chart is the global marketing landscape over the entire decade that is sectioned into three major stages – from rapid growth in the past, to a decline hitting rock bottom, and a gradual rebound.

This rebound illustrates a phenomenon, commonly known as a K-shaped recovery: premium and affordable mid-to-low tier products, along with indispensable products, are poised for growth. Conversely, mid-tier products lacking distinctiveness are anticipated to face a decline.

The evolution across diverse industries indicates a notable divergence in various channels, categories, and sectors. Consequently, as of 2023, we find ourselves transitioning into a phase characterized by high differentiation and subdued growth. In this context, our historical triumphs have revolved around rapid growth, prioritizing the acquisition of new customers, securing market share, and attaining remarkable expansion. This has been a coveted goal for many enterprises in the past, serving as a fundamental approach to building unicorn companies.

However, the effectiveness of these methods is having sufficient liquidity and being in a high-growth market where incremental gains are the main driving force for business. However, in an era where most industries experience medium-to-low-speed growth, the primary driver of business growth does not solely rely from increments, but also from the refined operation and optimization of all elements in stock inventory.

One key aspect on the refined operations is the meticulous operation of granular markets, and customers management. By delving into customers' spending capacities, we aim to generate added value, thereby fostering increased customer loyalty.

In essence, prioritizing high-quality operations and pursuing growth through the perspective of a high operational granularity, coupled with the efficiency and efficacy of brands, especially within the realm of B2B, takes on paramount significance.

Building B2B brands can efficiently acquire new customers, enhance channel penetration, strengthen customer loyalty, repurchases, and increase the win rate and establish positive reputation in the purchasing process of various B2B customers. This, in turn, drives the growth of customer lifetime value and propels growth.
Therefore, we conducted a simple study on the Fortune 500 and Hurun Fortune 500 lists from 2022 to 2023. You will find that more than half of the world-class outstanding companies are B2B, and they are all committed to creating strong B2B branding.

These companies have gone through cycles, and an important source of growth for B2B companies today is being brand driven.

Kotler Marketing Group’s research and consulting empirical experience over the past 15 years believes that branding is B2B’s enabler to growth, specifically when buyers and sellers demonstrate it through tangible values.

For sellers, a strong B2B branding will enhance their quality representation and trust.

An outstanding B2B brand plays a vital role in fostering differentiation and uniqueness for the business, easing customer unfamiliarity and enhancing recognition, particularly in the realm of product offerings that demand a higher level of trust. Additionally, strong branding facilitates premium pricing, and lowers barriers of entry into multiple channels. With increased market share and influence across various channels, businesses can expect heightened customer loyalty, satisfaction, and retention.

Brand-oriented customers will be inclined to recommend new customers, bringing forth opportunities via word-of-mouth.

For buyers, products can influence their trust in the brand, reduce decision-making risks, uncertainties, and increase satisfaction. Brands can also help reduce procurement, overall usage costs, and enhance brand image. Since B2B customers adopt brand products (B2B often purchases production materials or components), it becomes a part of a complete product or solution.

Therefore, brand suppliers can help improve competitiveness and help manufacturers acquire more customers.

Brand knowledge includes brand positioning, product features, market activities, and brand associations. By injecting them continuously into target consumers through marketing activities, strategies, and investments, it allows target customers to develop favourable perceptions of the products. And this is the value, core, and essence of B2B brand building.

The differential perception of marketing activities generated by brand knowledge is what we term as B2B brand assets.

2: Golden Triangle AI²: How to Build a B2B Brand

I'm going to bring you the latest B2B branding model adopted globally by Kotler Marketing Group, AI², which we summarize as the Golden Triangle model called AI squared (AI²).

First and foremost, a high value B2B brand must have a very clear and lofty purpose, i.e. Higher Purpose.

The purpose of Higher Purpose is that we need to provide our customers with specific products and features that go beyond the company. As technology evolves, products and features will continue to iterate. As an enduring brand, we need to continually carry the communication with our target customers and the promises and beginnings of what we do.

AI² = Aspiration + Inspiration + Innovation 

A: Aspiration ignites ambition, driving businesses to change the world and the market. As a brand, we need to embody this ambition and communicate it with our target customers, guiding them towards realizing their best selves. Hence, cultivating thought leadership and building ambition is a very fundamental value of brand existence.

We've seen many brands exemplify this. Such as Tesla, whose ambition is to replace fossil fuels with new energy sources, and Apple, whose ambition is to lead boldly.

I: Inspiration sparks creativity and insights. It is the ability to tangibly inspire customers through new perspectives, and problem solving through our capabilities, inspiration, and goodwill. This enables customers to build trust and honesty towards us.

I: Innovation is the lifeblood of brands, as it brings continuous surprises and novelty. It leads to enhanced performance by leveraging advancements in science, technology, business models, user experience, materials, processes, packaging, and algorithms. Creating superior customer product value that supports and delivers the brand's ambition and trust.

This is a highly abstract framework that guides us in understanding and thinking about what constitutes a high-value B2B brand. It outlines the key elements and dimensions we need to consider in building a high-value B2B brand, pointing us in direction and a framework.

3: Specific tasks in the B2B branding process, Identify important customers

I offer a simple formula, the core of which can be understood as breaking down AI² into specific marketing touchpoint management, marketing communications management, sales efforts, and customer relationship management. So, this diagram succinctly expresses the complete process.

First, we must leverage the essence, positioning, and persona of the brand to showcase its aspirations, trustworthiness, and value. It is about conveying the brand through the language of customers, narrating stories, and real-life experiences, rather than relying solely on empty words and advertisements.

These expressions craft content marketing across various forms through marketing activities, leveraging the 5A theory to influence customer’s final purchase decisions.

At the bottom of this diagram, we dissect brand messaging, content marketing, experience management, and relational marketing. This exemplifies how we can deconstruct our content, brand leadership, and ideas to express them in a manner that resonates with customers.

I want to emphasize that B2B branding efforts are just as important as B2B sales efforts. These efforts must be tightly focused on customers’ purchasing journey, rather than random actions.

"Who is the brand's most important customer" is the question that brands must answer, and only then can you clearly define the brand's core values and brand AI².

However, not all customers hold equal significance. To define the brand and products, we must prioritise the most important customers and commence marketing and brand strategy planning accordingly. Brands must be differentiated and focused because there is no such thing as an average or generic consumer. Focusing on our core consumers is paramount. While other customers may still purchase our products, we prioritize catering to the needs and preferences of our primary audience.

4: In a B2B Environment, We Should "Plant Trees".

I would like to emphasize that in the B2B branding process, we need to integrate content marketing, touchpoint management, and experience management in alignment with the 5A framework. At different stages, its crucial to set up metrics that gauge the effectiveness of our marketing investments based on achieving our marketing objectives. Relying solely on measuring the A4 “Act” sales conversion rate, known as performance advertising or marketing, is retrospective and outcome-focused, lacking in real-time insights, and is insufficient in today’s landscape.

In the B2B environment, I think it would be more accurate for B2B companies to liken the A3 “Ask” decision-making behaviour to “planting trees” rather than just planting grass, which is more suitable for B2C products, especially for low-priced and familiar categories.

In the realm of B2B purchasing, decisions are typically driven by economics and entail complex processes. Errors in such decisions can have significant consequences. Hence, customers need to build up extensive knowledge across various sectors and disciplines. Strategic decision-making process often involves committees, multiple departments, phases, expertise, and people. Resulting the entire buying process to be lengthened.

Therefore, we need to “plant trees and roots”, continuously output content of relevance, depth, and value, to help our core customers make effective decisions.

(“Plant trees and roots” is a metaphor to describe the strategic approach of laying strong foundations for long-term growth and success, while emphasizing on patience, persistence and strategic planning over immediate results and short-term gains.)

 In this case, to effectively “plant a tree” for maximising customer value, it is essential to identify customer’s buying cycle, develop a diverse range of high-value decision-making content, and align it with sales, content operations and customer interactions.

The A5 stage of the 5A process is very important. This stage where both you and customers engage with our products, generating reviews, experiences, and ROI. Satisfied A5 users become advocates, proactively recommending, writing, and sharing articles, participating in our outreach efforts to help bring in new customers.

Therefore, managing and nurturing the A5 crowd is crucial. Within the 5A framework of B2B branding, the synergy between A3 and A5 reinforces each other, forming a small-closed loop that B2B enterprises must cultivate.

5: The Three Cores of "People-Based Marketing" in B2B Marketing

Most Chinese companies are global leaders in technology and is well recognized in Southeast Asia and Middle East, as well as in a variety of markets.

However, the core of marketing and branding is human to human influence and trust. We must not lose sight of our original intention; true value emerges when technology enhances and amplifies human to human influence.

Philip Kotler’s latest book, “Human to Human Marketing,” introduces a new paradigm shift in B2B marketing towards human-centric approaches. This book departs from traditional economic and functional value thinking. Instead, it advocates for a framework centred around human experiences and interactions. Kotler identifies these 3-core metrics are essential for achieving effective B2B marketing within this new paradigm.

The first cornerstone is design thinking, a key to human-centeredness. While we often stress on human-centeredness, how do we practically implement it? Design thinking is a very important methodology that focuses on experience management and action-oriented insights, to provide a robust framework for developing human-centered product services and experiences.

The second cornerstone is service orientation. What we offer is not merely a product, but a service. Ultimately, our service addresses customers’ needs, and what the customer purchases is a solution to a specific problem or for a unique experience. Thus, prioritizing service orientation over product orientation when enterprises develop their B2B marketing plans to assess value and establish brand identity.

The third cornerstone is digital intelligence. It is what that drives various platforms such as IoT, social platforms and big data. Therefore, using technology as a foundation enables the exploration of new service opportunities. Different user segments and segmented data allow us to identify emerging demand scenarios. These digital drivers create unprecedented opportunities for value creation, product segmentation, service scenario segmentation, customer segmentation and growth.

Therefore, we emphasize these 3 metrics as the core to forming H2H Human Centric Marketing.

To realize human-centric marketing within the enterprise, it is important to establish a company-wide “people-oriented” marketing concept and foster a management structure and organisational framework aligned with this ethos.

Additionally, internal marketing processes should be revamped to focus on experience, service, and the fulfillment of diverse customer needs. For further insights, you may read Philip Kotler's "H2H Marketing: A New Era of Human-Centered Marketing," which will surely be beneficial and gain new inspiration.

As Mr. Kotler said, branding is the key to our success, however as the technological medium of the customer changes, so does the exact method of branding. That's why he often states that if you are still running your business the same way in 5 years, you will be at risk of closing your business. I give this quote to my B2B marketing friends who are online today so that we can all share the same message.