B2B Branding: 3 Elements to consider for a Successful Re-Brand

The success of your next re-brand will be driven by these key elements

To successfully reinvent your industrial brand, you need to rethink what you stand for and want to be known for. Your re-brand strategy must include your products, services, people, story, culture, and customers.

We have found these three elements have become the key pillars of winning brand transformations.

1. Start with your Products / Services

Product/service transformation will help underpin a successful re-brand. Product and service improvement that is driven by customer/market feedback is the best element to start with to support making change and moving forward.

Every industrial company, no matter the products and services sold, should invest in developing building blocks to rebuild your brand. Otherwise don’t bother re-branding. Your customers need to experience a difference and your people need to live it and believe in it. Linking this back to tangible customer improvements will help ensure your re-brand remain relevant and effective.

2. Refine Your Brand Story

A clear and compelling brand story will give your products/services context and narrative. This can help increase their relevance and desirability. When an industrial company, such as a manufacturer sells products, it’s also selling a story.

When B2B customers buy your products/services, they are buying into your story. Your brand story is based on your reputation, values, people, and behaviours. This story will help align your employees, customers, and the local community. Once your customers buy into your story, they are less likely to leave or switch to other suppliers – loyalty is built.

3. Connect with your People

Culture reflects a brand’s role in the market. As industrial companies grow and mature, they often forget the spark that started it all. Their guiding purpose and their “why” diminishes over time – also known as the brand promise. A successful re-brand can re-ignite the spark and connect your people back to your brand.

Reminding your people of the innovations that made your company great in the first place can pay huge dividends. But it’s not enough to simply make small tweaks to existing products/services. You must transport your heritage and innovate with the support of your people. They will need to be part of it and drive it, otherwise your re-brand will fail.

Closing the gap

To close this gap, industrial companies should create a customer feedback framework that will be transformational for their business. This framework will help you deliver insights and improvements that are market relevant.

You will need to Identify the main characteristics your customers value, including products/service attributes and core capabilities. Do the research to find out. Ask your customers – work with your marketing team to develop a research study.

Our advice is to execute the research with an independent third party. This way the research will be conducted in an unbiased manner and all findings will be represented accurately. To learn more about conducting a powerful research study download our Industrial Marketing Research Guide

The Final Word

These three elements will help with your B2B re-brand efforts. A successful brand revival does not happen in a single moment. There are no shortcuts. Sales, marketing, and operational decisions will need to be made for change to take place and stick. These functions will need to be aligned for your customers to truly experience the difference. If you’d like some help with your approach to B2B marketing, let’s chat.

Related: The B2B Brand Activation Guide for 2021

Related: Communicate your Brand Promise

INDUSTRIAL BRAND ACTIVATION GUIDE

Learn how to activate your brand, increase brand awareness and engagement levels. You’ll need to consider 5 key questions to be customer driven, enhance customer experience and set your brand up to win for the long-term. It’s the brands that challenge, create change and have the ability to inspire the people around them who will win with their Brand Activation Strategy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Zafiris is an industrial marketer and founder of Industrial Ideas. Having built his experience in B2B marketing from the ground up, Peter understands what it takes to succeed with your marketing strategy. All client projects are personally managed by Peter to help industrials like you get the return on investment you deserve. Peter and team, work hard to become an extension of your business, to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Get your free 30 minute marketing consultation to learn more.