Building a B2B brand with the Internet

My current internship in a B2B company has been interesting for me, especially when it comes to thinking about branding. At the brand institute, we study almost exclusively B2C companies with well-developed brands. Consumers are exposed to massive advertising campaigns almost every second they spend awake, all in order to build strong brands. But what about B2B?

Not that there aren’t ad campaigns in the B2B world. They exist. But they are rare, and more importantly, your average consumer has no idea what they are selling. And who could blame him? Why should anyone care about a company selling payroll software to other companies? Except that B2B companies still have to deal with customers, just slightly different ones. And in the end, purchasing decisions are still made by human beings.

So here we go: how does a B2B company build a strong brand? What do you do if you can’t spend massive advertising dollars on an ad campaign that probably won’t reach the intended audience anyway?

As it turns out, most companies today, whether small or big, are extremely reliant on the Internet. (just like the rest of us). Which means that one of the best ways for a B2B company to build a brand is to have a top-of-the-line website.

This may seem somewhat obvious, but there are still many companies with mediocre and hard to navigate web sites. When a web site is the main point of contact for a potential client, it becomes all the more important. And I don’t just mean having the logo displayed on the home page.

The actual stuff on the site and how easy to find the stuff is matter too. Anyone who’s spent more than five minutes on a web browser knows how frustrating it is to look for something on a web site that just doesn’t make it easy to find information. Well it’s the same thing for a company seeking to find information about some other company’s product. Which is why any half-serious company should spend some time thinking about how a potential client would go about navigating the site and looking for information. A site designed with the end user in mind, not the IT manager.



Ease of navigation is one thing, the actual content of the site is important as well. Just having text and images is quickly becoming obsolete, especially with the tools available today. Taking screenshots and making a few flash videos are within anyone’s reach and can help enhance any site. One such tool is Snagit, which makes it incredibly easy to take screenshots, modify them and then save them for later. In my opinion, being able to watch a demo of a product online or look at a few tutorials makes a big difference. Who doesn’t want to see a product in action before asking for more information. Especially in B2B, where sales cycles are much longer.



Now there’s more to a website that what I just talked about, but it seems to me that what I mentioned above is a good place to start. I hope I’ve convinced you that in B2B, a good web site is critical for anyone seeking to build a strong brand.

Tesco's foray into the U.S

The U.S is by far one of the most competitive markets for the supermarket industry. With the ongoing battle between Wal-Mart and Target, it would seem that the U.S presents little opportunity for yet another retailer. Indeed, many were surprised when Tesco, the British retailing giant, announced that it would be coming to the United States. At first glance, this would seem to be a rather foolish move. Previous British retail giants such as Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer have failed miserably on this side of the Atlantic. What's more, they are now in rather pitiful situations in their own domestic markets, suffering from the domination of...you guessed right, Tesco.

However, Tesco believes that it possesses the formula to become a real player in the American market by establishing itself in the ultra-competitive West Coast. The twist? Tesco will avoid going head-to-head with supermarket giants Safeway and Kroger. Rather, it is bringing a new store format along, somewhere between a supermarket and a convenience store. The name, "Fresh & Easy", says it all. Clearly, Tesco is hoping to capitalize on current trends in the food industry, which include a growing emphasis on convenience as well as organic and all-natural products. There is reason to believe that Tesco can succeed. While Wal-Mart's forays into foreign markets have been met with mixed results (a strong presence in South America, but complete failures in Germany and South Korea), Tesco has succeed in South Korea and plans to use its experience to conquer the American market.

Moreover, Tesco is counting on its no-so-secret weapon, the Clubcard. While allowing customers to accumulate rewards every time they shop at Tesco, the Clubcard has provided a wealth of information for Tesco marketers and has allowed the retailer to target customers with more relevant coupons and advertisements. It is rumored that Tesco will bring the Clubcard to the U.S in order to replicate previous successes. Will it succeed? For now we can only speculate, since the first "Fresh & Easy" stores have yet to open. However, this new retail format may be just what the market needs and could pose some serious issues for domestic retailers already in the market.

Sources:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=409178&in_page_id=2
http://freshandeasy.com/