Recently, I met some founders of technology companies. When talking about brands, most of them would say, " We are mainly focusing on product research and development now, and we don't consider large-scale advertising for the time being ." It will also add that "our B2B industry does not need brands very much."
In order not to talk to death, I had to continue to ask, "Then do you have a marketing department? What do you mainly do?"
"Yes, doing product information, participating in exhibitions, writing a public account... also has no effect."
I wanted to help find the reason. As soon as I opened the official website, the feeling of Old style came to my face, and the words of the product introduction were still in the "cloud and fog" style many years ago.
Only then did I understand that the management teams of many companies still use the brand marketing ideas and methods 10 years ago to deal with the new environment of the current market development.
Do B2B companies need to be brands? My point is, of course it needs to be.
1. Every company needs a brand
Brand is cognition, that is, customers' impressions and feelings of enterprises/products in a broad sense .
Therefore, as long as there are businesses in the market, there must be brands. If not, the subtext is "not famous, not impressed, never heard of".
In the past, many Chinese enterprises were OEMs or processing materials with no brand awareness. But it is different now. The homogenization is serious, the technical barriers are not strong, and there is more and more information noise. Enterprises urgently need to transform from product thinking to brand thinking. The reason is:
(1) Even if the number of customers facing is limited, there will be competition, and it is also expected not to fall into a price war . I want to highlight my own characteristics and uniqueness, so that buyers can purchase one issue and many more issues to follow.
(2) Reputable brands will make buyers feel credible and reliable, the risk of decision-making is lower, the quality is guaranteed, and the after-sales service can keep up.
(3) A more well-known brand will also enhance the image of the buyer, save selection time, improve decision-making efficiency, and even produce a 1+1>2 effect . (Brands join forces to form an ecology)
For example, consulting companies such as Accenture and IBM have strong brands. Companies would rather pay higher prices to work with them to ensure more reliable performance, professional service, and even better brand awareness (after all, companies that can afford big brands are powerful).
(4) Some companies make brands through consumer recognition to promote buyers to choose their own products.
For example, Intel, Qualcomm, NVIDIA... These companies are supposed to sell to several manufacturers, but because of their high reputation and good brand image, not only the purchasers take the initiative to come to the door, but also become the industry standard, representing the technology trend, so the profit is also very high .
(5) In addition, the value brought by the B2B corporate brand also includes :
New customers, partners and investors telemarketing list take the initiative to come to the door
Increased sales efficiency from customer acquisition to signing
It is not easy to fall into a price war, and there is a premium right
HR recruitment is less difficult, candidates dare to come and are willing to come
In the face of uncontrollable crises, customers are relatively tolerant
..
Many people think that when they mention a brand, they think that it costs money. In fact, they equate building a brand with advertising.
But getting a brand's message accepted through advertising is only part of it, not the whole story. This part is traditional push (outbound), modern marketing is more emphasis on attracting customers (inbound).
2. Brands are not created by advertising
Compared with B2C, B2B products are more complex, and the cycle of customer understanding and purchase is longer. Just relying on repeated brainwashing or brand exposure and other traditional publicity may not be able to persuade others.