BRANDING AND THE INDUSTRIAL BUYING PROCESS

The Intelligent Industrial Marketer: This white paper explains how branding influences customers’ buying decisions, and it reveals strategies that industrial manufacturers can employ to encourage more people to buy their brand.

WHAT MAKES SOMEONE BUY FROM ONE COMPANY AND NOT ANOTHER?
Answers to this question can be varied and extensive. But, over the years, research has shown that there is one common theme: Whether buyers were thumbing through print catalogs to find what they needed just a decade ago, or when they’re searching and comparing products online today, people tend to buy from companies they know – or, at least, recognize. And that’s where branding makes all the difference.

In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell says buyers make most of their decisions by relying on quick, blink-like impressions based on their own stored memories, images, feelings and emotions. So, what is really driving purchasing decisions? Many factors, including unconscious emotional responses, play roles in the buying process. But when you take a look at the big picture, you’ll see that branding efforts are behind the scenes controlling customer decisions to buy, and strong brands create a pre-disposition to buy.

What makes a strong industrial brand? In B2B, you must remember that your customers are real people, not companies. A common misconception among industrial companies is that because we are doing business in the B2B arena, people aren’t involved in the branding equation. But that assumption is so wrong! B2B or not, companies do not buy from companies, people buy from companies – and these days, there is a “growing committee” of people involved in the industrial buying process.

John Quelch, a professor at Harvard Business School, offers three reasons why B2B branding is important in his blog post on How to Build a B2B Brand:
(1)  B2B marketers must address thousands of small businesses as well as enterprise customers and they cannot do so economically using the traditional direct sales force.

(2)  Customers will be confused and the company will look disorganized if branding is unattended and individual managers are left to do their own adhoc marketing. “The result will be a hodgepodge of corporate logos, taglines, and packaging,” says Quelch.

(3)  B2B marketers are realizing that developing brand awareness among their customers’ customers can capture a larger share of channel margins and build loyalty that can protect them against lower-priced competitors.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A BRAND?
A brand is a marketer’s promise to consistently deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services to buyers. How buyers view your products and services, and the way they perceive the benefits of working with your company, are what make branding so important for industrial companies. A successful brand:
• Communicates your company’s Unique Value Proposition (UVP) that makes your company stand out from your competition and offers a reason why someone should buy from you rather than them.

• Rises above the noise. Your challenge as an industrial marketer is to build a brand that rises above the “sea of noise” in the B2B marketing world. How do you differentiate your products and services from the bland sameness in tactics, never-ending lists of product features, and a general lack of personality in communication efforts? Your industrial brand should connect with customers – real people – on many levels and in meaningful ways.

• Connects with your customers’ emotional drivers. People with emotions (or a committee of people) evaluate what products or services to buy in the industrial purchasing process. In addition to logical and rational criteria, emotions and powerful (and often irrational) impulses are always present when people make purchasing decisions. It’s just human nature. So, if your brand is positioned properly and speaks to buyers’ needs, you’ll be successful.

A buyer’s overall comfort with a company and its brands is often the reason why they choose to buy one company’s product over another’s. Your company’s brand is important because:
• It is the image that customers and prospects have of you when they see your company’s name.
• It is the reputation associated with your company’s name.
• It is the perception people have of your company.
• It is the trust they feel when they hear or see your company’s name.

There are real ROI benefits in building your brand. Potential buyers take the following preferential actions when they encounter strong brands:
(a) People are more willing to try a product or service.
(b) They’re also more likely to purchase.
(c) They’re willing to pay a premium price.
(d) They’re less sensitive to price increases.
(e) And they’re less likely to try a competitive offering.