Is B2b Branding Different For B2c Branding?

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition”. However, as Keller highlights, a brand is also “something that has actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation, prominence, and so on in the marketplace”. Therefore, a brand is an identity created to differentiate itself from the competitors and to be remembered in consumer’s mind.

It has been acknowledge (Romaniuk & Sharp 2004) that Brand salience can be defined as the propensity of the brand to be thought of by buyers when they are in a buying situations. A brand awareness strategy depends on how well known the brand is, Brand Salience is forming image to refresh their memory about the brands that can linked to consumer mind as well as the quantity and quality of the cue to brand links (Olson & Peter 2005), it is very important that consumer can connect to their mind as many cues as possible . The level of consumers’ brand awareness necessary to induce purchase varies depending on how and where they make their purchase decision for that product category or form. The brand attitude is focus on evaluating the brand, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) “attitudes are relevant to purchase behavior are formed as a result of direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth information acquired from others, or exposure to mass-media advertising, the internet, and various forms of direct marketing”

Branding is not just a corporate identity program that promotes continuity of messages delivered to the consumer. It is more than logos or product lines or even products. A brand is the result of managing a number of elements, such as marketing, sales, distribution, product quality and others in order to create an emotional connection with consumers. Marty Neumeier (2005) defines a brand as "A person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company. Therefore, positioning is the vehicle used to establish a preference to a company’s brand relative to competitive offerings, based on the perceived uniqueness and significant difference. Branding, therefore, promises a good user experience.

In Business-to-Business (B2B) environments, many firms focus their branding activities on the spreading of their brand name and logo without creating a more comprehensive brand identity. Thus, the creation of brand awareness is an important goal in many B2B branding strategies. (Homburg 2010)1

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

According to Aaker (1991), Kapferer (2004) and Keller (2003), “Building strong brands is one of the most important goals of product and brand management. Strong brands result in higher revenue streams, both short term and long term”. “Therefore, the stated goal of strategic brand management is to build brands that last for decades and can be leveraged in different product categories and markets” Aaker (1996). To understand how branding effects the purchasing decision of consumers, many theories emerged in which according to Aaker (1991) has framed a model called Brand equity model and Keller (1993) has identified a model called the customer based brand equity model. Both the frameworks have profoundly focused on how consumers recognize and appraise brands by studying certain information structures (Keller, 1993; Aaker, 1991, 1997).

As Khanna(as cite in Singhvi & Gera, 2013), the company strive to meet the evolving needs of consumers by creating excitement. Wrigley India intends to target various segments through product customization. They provide tailor-made market offerings such as launching new brand “Doublemint” to target at youth audience, “Orbit” for adults and “Boomer” for children. This kind of customer-oriented practice not only can increase the penetration of gum market in a large extent, but also build the positive brand equity. Mudambi(2002) recognized that branding would be a key in B2B decision making. From the B2B marketing perspective, the organizational buyers would be more likely to perceive the product represents a good branding behind if their needs are fulfilled with customization. The company’s overall brand identity has been the usual concern for industrial buyers rather than the specific market offering they want to purchase (Bendixena, Bukasaa & Abrattb, 2004). By matching the organization resources, skills and capabilities with particular customer needs, the company is more capable to fulfil commitments in order to deliver great value to customer firms. With a close relationship with customers within the distribution channel, it is more efficient for Wrigley to anticipate its changes and competence, which eventually capture more market

Most B2B companies are committed to building a strong brand. Open any quarterly report, article, or press release and it’s there: “Building a strong brand is at the core of what we want to do. A strong brand will enable us to drive customer adoption and acceptance in the market.” The confidence in

ISBN: 0-324-39865-4ReviewHardcover, 160 pagesThe Case For B2B Branding (by Bob Lamons) is a refreshing overview of the principles of business branding. The book is divided into two clear-cut and well defined sections: part one details the “seven simple steps to effective brand image management”; the second part details twenty-one B2B “branding” case studies from some of the world’s best known (and less well known) business and industrial companies. This section is a gem: the Intel “story”, for example, includes visuals from the early unsophisticated Intel campaigns for the 286 and 386 chips; hard to believe it’s

Traditionally, B2C versus B2B was often defined as business marketers being more sensitive to price, customer loyalty and working business relationships while B2C marketers tried to create excitement for their products through emotional connections. While this definition remains true, the lines are blurred because B2B companies now use B2C techniques, social media and heightened user experiences to nurture long-term business relationships. The goal of a savvy business marketer is to generate an emotional response for the

Although brands do not solely refer to businesses and their products or services (e.g. charities, countries, celebrities), this essay will discuss their relevance to profits with regards to business operations unless specified. Where most companies must at some point make a decision (consciously or unconsciously) whether to brand their company or not, that question is often rhetorical. Brands are established whether the marketing manager says they should or not. The decision really is whether to implement conscious brand management within the business or not. That is the difference between a strong brands and weak brands. Where

Marketing in an electronic-business/commerce (e-business/e-commerce) arena today is truly no different than the ole ‘brick and mortar' business. Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sites need to have a crafty approach to implement marketing strategies and develop an effective marketing plan to reach the intended (targeted) market. Thus, the mixing or blending of the four Ps (product, place, price, and promotion) in such a way to attain both the business and target market's goals and objectives is the key to success. The correct marketing mix, or blend, will help both a B2B or B2C site

Earlier companies use to concentrate on making a brand image is to only entice new customers but these days theories have turned around. Maintaining the brand has become one of the prime targets’ for marketing professionals in order to gratify existing customers.

In recent times, branding has played a pivotal role in some brands’ success. This has been made possible through the ability of some marketers to capture the essence and minds of people (consumers), and put the trends and characteristics into the personality of a brand. Customers have always found ways to identify themselves with certain products, and on several occasions, branding campaigns

The topic of interest is how branding drives a consumer to purchase the products that they purchase as well as understanding what branding is. The reason this topic is so interesting is because it aids in the understanding of how various companies who sell similar products have a variance in the responses received from consumers. This topic fills a research gap within a larger body of research because understanding what branding is empowers one to gain a better understanding of how and why consumers react the way they do when companies introduce new products into the market, as well as why consumers reactions vary for different companies who sell similar products.