Or are we overcomplicating “brand propositions” when we should be focusing on organisations’ commercial realities?
We often get asked what is the point of “brand investment” in B2B organisations? If a business has a strong sales strategy and team, is delivering on revenues why deviate into a world more often associated with consumer products and services. There is a fear in some organisations that they could be entering a costly world which isn’t relevant to them and won’t positively impact their bottom line.
And maybe the agency world has fuelled that fear.
Blah blah brand.
Sometimes I think the word brand, and all of its derivations, is so overused it undermines the effectiveness of what it can actually deliver. What does it actually mean?
What is brand strategy?
I believe your brand strategy, in its simplest form, is the visual and verbal articulation of your commercial strategy. The outward representation of your organisation to the audiences that matter. In fact, you can usually interchange the word brand for business in many situations:
brand vision = business vision
brand values = business values
brand narrative = your company story
brand positioning = market positioning
brand proposition = business proposition
By using brand so much, are we putting up a barrier? In some B2B organisations there’s not even been a marketing department or role, so getting buy in to brand can be a big step. At Valiant we’ve spent the last 15 years honing a process which enables us to realise the value from the branding process in a commercial way. A way that increases EBITDA. A process which delivers revenues over forecasted ones. Therefore brand strategy can be, and should be, a real commercial investment. We call this the Valiant Value Realisation Methodology.
We need to stop devaluing what we do through the language we use. As brand experts, agencies will look to a clients’ audiences to make sure they are using language to connect with them. We should do the same. Any savvy organisation will only want to invest in brand when they are comfortable there is a true commercial understanding and reward.