A B2B Technology Branding Manifesto
By Michael Teeling

It has been said that talking about brand is like talking about God. Everyone has their own definition and belief system, and even meaningful exchanges between sects become circular conversations.

Still, INFLUENTIAL has undertaken a new mission: to evangelize the power of brand to transform the way the IT industry - specifically the business-to-business side - sells technology and satisfies customers. To understand the perception of branding and its value within the B2B IT industry, I have undertaken an ongoing qualitative research study with some of the leading minds in technology marketing. The conclusions stated in this manifesto are based on some preliminary findings from this project. The project's ongoing conclusions are analyzed in my blog, Buyer2Brand.

The Sad State of B2B Technology Branding

It probably is not surprising and no less disheartening to hear that the role of the marketing function in our industry is still widely undervalued…and devalued. The typical small- to mid-sized IT vendor is run by engineering and sales, with marketing regarded as a cost center and often sadly reduced to lap dog. Most marketing departments are reactive, and at their worst, mainly tactical. Sales owns the customer relationship; Engineering owns the product; Marketing is left with lead generation as its primary task. I've been hearing it over and over in my research: marketing budget must be tied to revenue generation or it is perceived as delivering little value.

Given these harsh realities, it should be no surprise that a subject as "soft" as branding has been marginalized or abandoned altogether. The limited context in which IT marketing professionals use the term "branding" with vendor management teams is pretty discouraging. C-level understanding of the practice today extends merely to tactical design deliverables, or is locked inexorably with the concerns of B2C markets alone, so of no consequence. The conventional wisdom holds that branding is unimportant in the considered purchase world of enterprise IT, where aspirations and emotions play little part in the buying decision. As a result, a true understanding of the sweeping, pervasive, and transformative nature of branding to energize all marketing activities is lost. Long-term brand management is rarely practiced at all but the largest IT companies. How did we get here?

Dot-Com Hangover Has Impeded Real Branding

Branding's low profile in B2B technology marketing is exacerbated by the fact that the IT industry is still suffering from "dot-com hangover", which nurses its negative connotations about brand creation. The conventional wisdom holds that branding is expensive because it necessitates a big budget to make a big splash.

Many tech marketers first real experience with branding was spending the "funny money" of the Internet Boom of the late 90s. During the Boom, branding as a strategic marketing practice went out the window, and the term became synonymous with lavish launch parties at the San Jose Tech Museum and full-page ads in The Industry Standard. Good branding equaled high burn rate. There simply wasn't enough time - or even the need, it was widely believed - to steadily build one's reputation with customers over time when the IPO horizon for most startups was under a year.

Branding professionals must share some of the blame for this cheapening of our art during this period, as many of us were all too happy to collect high fees for actually planning the parties and placing the ads! So tech marketers were taught - as told by "the experts" at the time - that big spend was the way to build big brand. But every branding pro worth his or her salt knows those attention/awareness/buzz are the fringe benefits of a strong brand, not the goals themselves. By buying into the collective delusion of that period, we did B2B IT companies a disservice, missed an opportunity to soundly educate an industry, and are still suffering the fallout.

It's Time for a Change

Current trends demand a new approach to brand-building in our industry. These include: the commoditization of many enterprise software categories, the emergence of new software delivery models like software-as-a-service and open source, the evolution of Web 2.0, and the regulatory/compliance pressures driving business performance/process management inside customer organizations. A conscious and enlightened effort toward building stronger B2B technology brand loyalty will directly translate into higher financial valuations for the emerging vendors that choose this course. The marketing organizations that drive this effort will be better respected within their own companies.

A Definition of Branding Relevant to Complex Products

In 2004, the enterprise IT industry was sullen and introspective, still emerging from the downturn of 2001-03. Sales were flat, marketing budgets had dried up, and customer loyalty had been severely weakened. In the course of my research since that time, I've discussed Brand with many fellow IT marketing professionals and B2C brand gurus. If talking about brand is like discussing the Almighty, then some descriptions of the deity include: "Brand is a personality." "Brand is a promise." "Brand is your DNA." These all left me wondering, "What's the definition of brand that fits our industry best?"

Here's a definition that works for the complex, considered purchase world of enterprise IT.

Brand is what your Customers say about You.
A brand is a customer's gut feeling about a product, service, or company (good or bad). Brands are more about emotional resonance than rational thought. Good brands are a promise fulfilled and values shared - they are perceived as authentic, reliable, delightful, and trustworthy. A brand is not a logo, an identity system, a product, or a strategy.

Simply put, your brand is the grade you receive from customers, prospects, investors, and the marketplace at large on your ability to fulfill the need you promised to address. Did you make the pain you targeted indeed go away? Do you always deliver as advertised? Is your reputation one to be trusted? The last few years have witnessed flagging customer loyalty in many IT markets. Can any vendor organization afford not to understand this raw, honest feedback about its personality, presence, and performance? This is not just a B2C market concern.

Rule 1: A Vendor cannot buy its Brand.
A brand is not a website or an ad campaign or a press release. It's created over time by a company's consistent behavior in the marketplace, by how the company sets expectations and then exceeds or disappoints. Customers define your brand, with or without your help. In this way, brand is about perception...and reality.

Rule 2: Positioning and Branding are not mutually exclusive.
Many tech marketers who negate the importance of branding hold up positioning as the ultimate strategy for winning minds and markets. But the two disciplines are closely related, if not two sides of the same coin. Both positioning and branding are driven and defined by precise differentiation. Both embody the vendor's one unique quality, its singularity, something significantly different than competing alternatives - at least in the minds of its customers.

A vendor's positioning is what it says to the market, and its brand is what the market says about the company in reply (and by extension its product or service). The vendor asserts its competitive positioning, executes against this in the market, and then is rewarded or punished with its brand. If the two perspectives contradict, then execution of the positioning has failed and the brand is broken. In the IT world of the complex, considered purchase, listening to what customers really think about you and your offering is of ultimate importance in this conversation between Position and Brand.

Rule 3: Every experience communicates Brand.
Customer loyalty is equal to the collection of positive experiences which produce positive customer emotions. The more positive experiences there are, the stronger the loyalty and therefore the brand. Strong brand loyalty over time builds brand equity, which means that the customer's affinity is much harder for competitors to break, copy, or steal.

Brand certainly is not wholly embodied in the company's communication of its product category or target market segment. Everything communicates. Enterprise IT brand creation occurs via every touch point with the vendor, and not just interaction with the product itself. Even the way the vendor treats its employees and the way they, in turn, treat customers. Brand builders should care about all experiences for the simple reason that all of them - good, bad, or indifferent - influence market perceptions of a product's brand.

The experience is the brand. Every experience is an opportunity to enhance the brand or to destroy it. The only way a vendor can control it is through superior service leading to the delivery of excellent experiences to every customer every time. Within enterprise technology, I would assert that brand has the power to become another driver of innovation. In these cases, a company's innovation efforts would be aimed directly at improving its reputation with customers. These projects and initiatives would seek to deliver customers the most consistently delightful experience with each and every interaction.

Rule 4: Startups can brand on their first Customers.
Without customers, there can be no brand (see "a logo is not a brand"). A startup that has yet to attract its first customers can assert its positioning, but does not yet have a brand. It is talking to itself. It has yet to fulfill promises, built no reputation, and received no grades from the market.

But, when a startup enjoys its first live customers, an early brand identity can be researched and formulated. Such companies frequently do not yet have a grasp of the ideal buyer of its technology, and with whom its application is best competing. It is at this stage, when company and product brand are one in the same, that branding research is easiest and consistent brand building can be instituted within the marketing organization. As the company continues to grow, its internal corporate culture and values emerge and further inform its brand personality.

Rule 5: Brand Happens.
In conclusion, brands are formed and maintained in the marketplace with or without the active participation and influence of vendors. The customers are in control. The speed and convergence of social and technological change make it difficult to execute a successful brand game plan without understanding where - and how fast - customer needs and expectations are heading. Thanks to social networking and today's collaborative Web, customers are already talking to one another. As B2B technology vendors, we'd better start joining the conversation.

Find out more about INFLUENTIAL's Branding services.

Visit Michael Teeling's blog which continues his examination of technology branding best practices, emerging trends, and news.

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