B2B PR: A key tool for branding 

published 2005

Building reputation, not splashing out simply on activities to promote an image, is the key to branding for industrial, B2B and IT companies.  For this reason, PR is emerging as the key communication tool available to marketers within these organisations.

This was the message given by ‘PR Influences’ Editor, Grant Common at L21’s ‘Industrial Branding Summit’ in Sydney on 1 June.

Recognition of the increasing role of PR in industrial branding was supported by the fact that at the two-day Summit, attended principally by CEO’s and senior marketers, PR was the only marketing communication discipline represented on the agenda.

Some of the key points made by Mr Common regarding the characteristics of industrial/B2B/IT marketing were:

• Positioning and brand challenge is more rigorous than for consumer brands where the decision is relatively trivial and the delivery of the product is often the end point of the relationship
  
• Purchase decisions have more implications, the decision-making process is more rigorous and the delivery of the product often begins a long-term relationship
  
• Customers often care more about the company they’re doing business with than about the product itself
  
• Product is often only the entry point. It’s not always who offers the best product, it’s who you feel most comfortable doing business with

The key theme of the address was that building a reputation was more important in marketing in these environments than creating an image. Whereas image could be created through sheer advertising dollars, reputation had to be earned over a period of time. It was built by what organisations did, how, and with whom they forged relationships.

Mr Common said studies indicated that approximately 70 percent of brand equity in industrial/B2B/IT was directly related to tangibles - price, specs/quality and distribution. 

However, the other 30 percent was related to intangibles - perceptions of the technologies, industry leadership, and corporate issues such as CEO visibility, corporate governance and how an organisation conducted itself. It was this 30 percent where PR had a significant contribution to make.

“Traditionally the purchase decision was typically made on technical or engineering grounds by an individual, usually at the shop or factory floor level. However, intangible factors have gradually become more important as companies choose suppliers on a wider range of criteria than ever before, with the decision now often elevated to the C level”, said Common.

Mr Common also presented a model he called ‘the product staircase’. The hypothesis behind it is:

• The type of marketing communication varies according to the value of the product
  
• The lower the value of product, the more emphasis needs to be placed on image.  It means that advertising is the prime tool to reach the large mass consumer audience
  
• The higher the value of products, the more emphasis needs to be placed on reputation as a key driver. With the audience being smaller PR is the main driver

Those attending the Summit were told that the PR tools available to industrial/B2B/IT marketers included:

Media profiling - recognising that familiarity helps build credibility

• media engagement
• product releases
• appointment releases
• partner announcements
• customer wins

Thought leadership- recognising that customers are attracted to companies they perceive to be leaders:

• opinion pieces
• speaking opportunities
• cause champions
• involvement with associations
• media/industry roundtables

Technical credibility - recognising that customers want more than sales literature - they want evidence of substance:

• customers case studies
• technical articles
• house publications
• white papers
• web site materials

Stakeholder relationships - recognising that building relationships with key stakeholders is the key to establishing a reputation:

• initiatives and events that are informative and educational
• a CEO stakeholder relationship program
• partner events
• CSR and corporate citizenship activities

Mr Common said PR was not being used as much as it should by industrial/B2B/IT marketers because too many seemed to focus on the short-term nature of projects rather than appreciating the need for continuity in communications. He also said that too many within such companies saw PR as simply press releases - and that there were too many offering so-called PR services who had no strategic vision beyond press releases.