BRANDING AND THE INDUSTRIAL BUYING PROCESS

WHY YOU SHOULD BE BRANDING ALL THE TIME
Reaching people, engaging with them and influencing their purchasing decisions are the goals that make the branding process successful. Timing is everything, and that’s why you should be branding all the time. As the timeline below shows, there are three phases in the branding process that coordinate with specific steps in the buying process.

BRANDING INFLUENCES THE GROWING COMMITTEE OF BUYERS
A major shift in the buying process is the way that more people are weighing in on individual purchasing decisions. It’s a growing committee of buyers, making it important for you to influence the influencers. According to Sean Donahue, the senior editor of MarketingSherpa, even at smaller companies (those with less than 500 employees), the average number of people involved in a purchasing decision is 6.8.

The need for an extensive branding program – one that reaches more people and influences their purchasing decisions at just the right time – cannot be overlooked. Limited time, limited resources, and an overall desire to limit responsibility and risk have created a lot of red tape in the industrial buying process. Today, we can cut through this red tape by using our branding efforts to influence the “influencers” and the “champions” and treating all levels of authority in the decision-making process with respect in our industrial marketing communications.

YOUR INDUSTRIAL BRANDING CAMPAIGN
Since branding is an all-encompassing effort, it’s often difficult to streamline a branding campaign. By setting clear objectives, you can overcome challenges in the process. The objectives you set can mirror or be based on branding’s overall ultimate objectives:
• Share of voice – your company and brand need to be seen and heard.
• Share of mind – your company and brand must be able to capture and retain the interest of prospects.
• Share of market – your company and brand should have the ability to become the first choice of buyers.

Here are four tactics to help you achieve your company’s branding objectives:
–  Target your audiences. Targeting is the process of focusing your efforts on audiences that will generate the maximum return on brand advertising investment. According to an Advertising.com report on the “Golden Audience,” when a marketer connects with the appropriate group, there is a:
(a)  368 percent lift in unaided brand awareness
(b)  17percent lift in brand favorability
(c)  47 percent to 150 percent improvement in cost efficiency

–  Be relevant. Make sure your branding messages reach people who want to hear more about your company and its products and services. For instance, include your industrial branding messages on user-preferred sites where engineers and buyers go to find the industrial products and services they need. An Online Publishers Association study found that advertisers on user-preferred sites are:
(a)  More likely to be read/noticed
(b)  More relevant
(c)  Perceived to offer higher quality products and services

–  Use frequency to your advantage. If you want your brand to make an impact and an impression, you need to reach your target audience(s) consistently, as frequently as you can, and at times when the people are most receptive to your messages.

–  Online ads support a brand’s image For industrial brands, online ads are especially helpful and can project and support an image of strength and stability. The numbers prove that it’s imperative for industrial companies to use online advertisements to back up their branding efforts. The Industrial Purchasing Barometer conducted by ThomasNet found that 78 percent of industrial buyers said they look online for new industrial product news and information.

Use the Internet to influence buyer behavior – and start building your brand now. The Internet is an instrumental tool for branding for industrial/B2B companies. The online environment is “the place to go” to promote your company’s brand and to influence industrial-buyer behavior. Get more ROI by investing time and effort to build your company’s brand. And remember that in B2B, you’re still selling to people and you should be influencing their purchasing decisions to garner more sales. Be relevant, “be known” and create a strong brand so that industrial companies will buy from you – and not your competition. You should be branding all the time.

Resources
–  Blink by Malcom Gladwellwww.gladwell.com
–  Brands Matter in B2B Markets by Kevin Randallhttp://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/print/2006/1800/brands-matter-in-b2b-markets
–  Develop a Unique Value Proposition by Stoney deGeyter www.polepositionmarketing.com
–  How to Build a B2B Brand by John Quelchhttp://blogs.hbr.org/quelch/2007/11/how_to_build_a_b2b_brand_1.html
–  The Six Biggest Pitfalls in B-to-B Branding by Dan Morrisonwww.prophet.com
–  Trends In Branding 2010 Forecasthttp://www.cmo.com/branding/trends-branding-2010-forecast

ThomasNet is part of the Thomas Industrial Network, Inc., Five Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001, 800-879-6757, www.ThomasNet.com.