Strong brand, strong heart

General Electrics inspires with entertaining stories, SAP improves an entire neighbourhood with its software - even B2B brands are no longer characterised by their logo alone, but by the experience they offer people.

As digitalisation accelerates, German B2B companies need to position themselves more strongly in terms of communication in order to survive and make an impact in the face of growing global competition. However, our quality leaders and hidden champions in particular are neglecting the topic of brand and lumping brand building together with a colourful bouquet of marketing activities - with disappointing results. How can medium-sized companies also successfully tackle the challenge of experience and grow into a brand that can be experienced? Our recommendation: Invest in a strong heart that drives your company forward in a targeted manner.

Is brand management also just marketing? Due to a lack of resources, brand and marketing are not separated in many companies. An already understaffed marketing department is confronted with tasks that require entrepreneurial decisions and areas of expertise are mixed up. Unclear objectives result in unclear actions. In order to develop a strong brand, a change of perspective must first take place that recognises the disciplines of marketing and brand management as two areas with different requirements:

Brand management, as a long-term thinking, strategic discipline, aims at the process of building the identity of an entire company.

Marketing generally acts as an operational department that brings a company's services and products to the market.

A half-hearted approach to brand management, which is mixed with marketing responsibilities, leads to companies firing their marketing powder in an untargeted and unsustainable manner. The art of experience lies in developing a strong brand essence with which your company communicates consistently and memorably on all marketing channels.

If you want to build a brand that stands up to digital competition, draw on the full potential! The first step is to clearly define planning horizons and tasks for the areas of marketing and brand management and thus get the most out of both disciplines to achieve your company goals.

Anchor the topic of brand management at the highest management level. Nowadays, a strong brand identity is no longer optional, but essential for survival. More than the smart slogan of a marketing campaign, successful brands offer an experience that feels continuous and authentic from the first contact to the thank-you email after the purchase. Brand identity therefore affects all areas of the company, from the innermost core to the outermost touchpoint. With a forward-looking and differentiating positioning, you give your company a strong heart that can drive all executive bodies.

Stay authentic as a brand. Your company has its very own strengths - so show these confidently in your communication. Authenticity is the currency of the digital economy, because customers want to feel that they can trust a company even behind the virtual mask. They react very sensitively to brands that do not back up their claims with real evidence and cannot live their philosophy. What this means for you is that you need to bring your brand definition to life: From a design that expresses its character, to a personalised language and finally a brand story that is credibly told across all touchpoints.

Recognise the discipline of brand management as your central ‘powerhouse’ for achieving your goals and allocate time and resources to it accordingly. Make strategic decisions, such as brand values and brand story, the integration of a new brand into the overall communication as well as pricing in the area of brand building - not marketing. All of these cornerstones ultimately influence your overall perception as a company. Establish clear guidelines at this point to ensure consistency and recognisability of your brand at all points of contact, in design and in communicative content.

While your brand is the beating heart that drives every action, marketing - as the implementing hand of your strategic decisions - makes the inner values of your company visible. It represents your personality to the outside world: in the form of social media content that provides insights into your research and development, for example, and thus brings your core values as an innovative company to life. Marketing acts as an extension of the sales department with special promotions and campaigns that may also affect prices and activate customers - but with a tonality that expresses reliability and quality, for example, and thus remains true to your heart as a brand. As the link between brand and customer, marketing brings your corporate philosophy to life and always acts in accordance with the brand guidelines.

In an economic competition that is no longer fought on a local level but on a global scale, no company can afford to score points through individual campaigns alone. The days of brochures and catalogues that customers look at with patience and interest are also over: Brands must appeal emotionally, convince factually and deliver a uniform and at the same time differentiating image on all channels in order to be recognised. Only through a clear separation of tasks in brand building and marketing can B2B brands achieve the necessary clear, visible and unique positioning that is essential for survival in times of accelerated digitalisation and rapid market development.

Therefore, see your brand management as the heart and your marketing as the body of your communication. With this approach, driven by your corporate personality, you can maximise customer activation, touch them with your attitude and create lasting loyalty to your brand.