Most B2B companies want to increase their revenue. And most of them do it by increasing sales effort. This can take the form of adding staff or increasing advertising. The question is whether this is the best approach.
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I believe that the value of marketing and branding extends through the entire enterprise. At every stage of the value chain, marketing and branding have a crucial role to play.
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As a marketer and brander, I support good branding and argue for it when I can. One of the counterarguments is that branding doesn’t make any sales. I think this is true as far as it goes. Very few people will make a purchase solely on the basis of good branding. But, this isn’t the reason to do branding.
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Seth points out that great logos are about the meaning derived, not from the logo itself, but from the company behind it. While that’s certainly true, it underestimates the role of design in a good logo.
Earlier, we talked about how the current understanding of brand authenticity is inadequate. This time, we’ll outline a more intelligent notion of authenticity.
There has been a lot of talk lately about authenticity, esp. authentic leadership and authentic brands. It all seems very straightforward, but the concept of authenticity is much more complex.
In this epidode, we will examine the deep human roots of branding. Human beings naturally create and understand brands. Good marketing recognizes this and builds on it.
I just heard a podcast of Maureen Blandford and Michelle Nichols (BusinessWeek) on reasons why business-to-business organizations should spend less on marketing and more on sales to increase revenues. I think Blandford was not only inaccurate but illogical.
In the first part of this post, we discussed the nature of the ordinary kind of branding. Last post, we discussed the shortcomings of this approach and distinguished it from the true nature of branding. This time, we’ll discuss how to achieve this kind of branding and who is good at it.
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