B2B Marketing Excellence Blog

Logo Does Not Equal Brand

“I have a brand! See? Here’s my logo.”

This simplistic view of branding is as tempting to overworked marketers as it is to the CEO that doesn't want to think about funding a full-out brand effort. It's also a lot easier to understand than the complex art of true branding, which evokes multidimensional meaning and association to communicate tons of information through the placement of simple visual, verbal and auditory stimulie (i.e., messages). Yeah. Like a logo. 

Even though it's understandable to want to simplify complexity, "keep it simple" is not really a compelling justification for a reputable should-know-better industry group that recently hyped a strategic brand seminar this way – “Strategic branding [makes] the tactics of branding work best-from advertising to great graphic design,” implying that branding is a result of hook lines and logo design.

The best brands do use logos and other visual elements to evoke positive and deep associations for their audience, but the professional marketer – like the people who are putting on that seminar above – really should know better than to confuse the graphic design with the associated meaning underlying the brand itself.

Good marketers know that a strong brand evokes emotional associations with its logo, but why is it the logo and other visual elements don’t constitute the brand itself? Where does the experience underlying the association really come from? These are some of the issues B2B Marketing Excellence explores in our professional development courses on strategic branding (next course May 8, 2008), but let’s examine the basics. Come to the course if you want to understand the subject in depth and learn how to make branding work for your company or client base, but absorb the simple meaning of the concept here.

Announcing - B2B Marketing Excellence

Marybeth Fraser and Dana Theus, executive marketing consultants and adjunct professors at George Mason University’s School of Management,  have joined forces to launch B2B Marketing Excellence.

The new company will target a growing deficit in professional development opportunities and resources available to B2B and B2G marketers in today's fast-moving knowledge economy. "Many marketing training resources do a solid job at addressing the demographic and psychographic challenges of consumer marketing," said Marybeth Fraser, Principal. "However, marketing to a business or government agency requires understanding the special dynamics of the organizational sale. Branding and positioning are just as critical in B2B marketing as they are in B2C, but the techniques and nuances of being effective can be dramatically different."

The company will offer courses in the core marketing disciplines: branding, product marketing, marketing communications and sales enablement. In addition to covering the specific B2B and B2G requirements in each of these functional areas, B2B Marketing Excellence will also address the unique challenges facing business marketers in Web 2.0 and social media environments, which are becoming critical to communications and promotion.  Taking a practical approach to staying on top of these rapidly developing opportunities, the company will launch the  B2B Expert's Forum, a social networking community and knowledge based wiki for business marketers to share best practices and business case information.

"Social media marketing opportunities are developing more rapidly than most organizations realize," noted Dana Theus, Principal. "The implications for branding, product development, promotion and even sales are evolving as we speak and we are taking a 'learn-by-doing' approach with our social network, B2B Expert's Forum." The B2B Expert's Forum will be available in April, 2008.

About B2B Marketing Excellence
B2B Marketing Excellence is the business marketer’s professional development advantage. Lively training courses, experience-based methodologies, our B2B/B2G focused blog and the B2B Expert's Forum social networking community, all provide marketing executives and up-and-comers the strategic edge. Join our expert’s community and distinguish yourself in the knowledge economy. B2B Marketing Excellence is based in Arlington, Virginia. To learn more please visit www.B2BMarketingExcellence.com.

B2B Marketing Course Schedule (2008-2009)

B2B Marketing Excellence is excited to announce its professional development seminar series for career business marketers in Arlington, Virginia (One block from the Ballston Metro).

• Strategic Branding  (May 8, 2008)
• Strategic Product Marketing (September 18, 2008)
• Integrated Marketing Communications (November 6, 2008)
• Strategic Sales for Non Sales-People (January 29, 2009)

Enroll early to receive $100 off all classes.