Rebranding in B2B

Plenty of B2B brands grow by being the only, the biggest or the best. Others grow by taking a me-too or probably-fine or pretty-cheap position instead. Many (perhaps most) don’t really consider their position in the market at all. Instead, they start out with a solution, then just plough ahead and see what happens.

But this rarely works in the long term as the market inevitably floods with competition, and in the blink of an eye, your brand loses relevance. And when that happens, it can be a real challenge to keep momentum going. Trying to generate leads, website visits, conversions or hitting any marketing KPI becomes a bigger challenge by the quarter.

Our advice is to stop chasing your tail, assess the bigger picture and rebuild from the ground up, starting with your positioning strategy.

I’ll use my agency, Squaredot, as the example to illustrate my points, as we recently rebranded.

In Squaredot, if it’s not B2B, it’s not to be (sorry Carlsberg, Coke, Nike etc.) But we wanted a sharper stake in the ground to match our niche expertise, so we honed in specifically on B2B tech.

However, that alone was not enough to separate us from our competition. In marketing and communications, brand personality and tone are critical parts of the service we offer and it’s an area we wanted to compete on. So we researched the competition and assessed the landscape from this perspective.

We plotted the charts and saw white space open up that played to our strengths and differentiated us. ‘Bold’ and ‘impactful’ were the two words that would define us going forward. This gave us a direction for our rebrand that would inform both the visual identity, our website presence and our communications going forward.

It’s revealing to plot such charts – the axis parameters will change depending on your industry and offering, but it’s good to get this all down on a whiteboard, so you can visualise success and the journey you face. Even if you don’t necessarily find an empty white space, at least you will see where your new brand fits naturally and the competition you face.

Bold and impactful

This personality and tonal shift for us impacts on more than words. It formed the backbone of our visual identity and our creative expression.

From a slight logo refresh to our new colour palette, website design, social media presence, videos and slideshares, everything now sings from the same bold and impactful hymn sheet.

B2B brands grow faster with fame

This insight might seem pretty obvious, but it can get lost when you’re focused on generating leads and other short-term KPIs. Binet and Field’s groundbreaking research into marketing for B2B growth identified the importance of a balanced approach between brandbuilding and lead generation activations, and the golden ratio they identified is roughly 50/50.

This balanced approach also played to our multidisciplined strengths, from brand to strategy, creative, websites, design and content through to campaigns and promotion.

Fame beckons

With a new positioning that makes you stand out from the competition, a rebrand that gives you a fresh, contemporary, visual identity and a website that does your brand justice, you have everything in place for campaigns to springboard your brand to the next level. The journey will be an exciting one for you.

Perhaps we’ve inspired you to have a rethink about your brand’s position and potential?

If so, think big.

Fame beckons.

Leads await.

You’re going to need a bigger sales team.