Branding in the B2B space is serious business. A lot of interesting questions and queries were answered by an eminent panel - Raghu B Viswanath, MD, Vertebrand, Poornachandra Sridhar, Manager India Operations, 3M,  Nagesh Manay, Strategy Planning, OpusCDM and Tushar Sighat, VP - Channels (India and Saarc), D-Link. The session was coordinated by Balaji Pasumarthy, Chief Catalyst, Businessgyan.

Here are excerpts:

Q. When the B2B brand depends on the sales team, how do you ensure that your sales team carries a consistent quality message to your customers?

Poornachandra Sridhar (PS): I have recruited a lot of team members for my company. It doesn't begin when the sales people are on the board. It begins much before. You have to be very clear about the reasons why you want the sales person. Many a time we find that if you do not define the roles and responsibilities, you don't fill the job for the person. Don't fill the job just because a person is available. The job has to be there. There has to be a need for the job and it has to be all encompassing. Then irrespective of the person, we define what type of a person is needed, the roles, the responsibilities, very clearly articulated and measurable. Never allow a sales person to report to another person below you. The person who first interviews the sales person should be the one who he has to report to. The person who has to finally work with him should be allowed to choose the person.

Tushar Sighat (TS): There are certain values behind every brand and this is made very clear to all the employees. Your brand isn't built only through advertisements. It is done through people also. They will behave and communicate with the customers in a similar manner because a similar language has to be spoken right from the chairman to the person below which also helps in brand building. We have a strength of about 200 people in the market. When they speak of D-Link they need to have the same message, that is word-of-mouth.

Q. From a sales perspective, the sales person should display conviction when he goes with the product. Irrespective of how you hire and train him, he should believe in the brand. How do you imbibe this? How do you make a person believe in the product because unless he does that he is not going to sell.

Raghu B Vishwanath (RV): In most of the B2B organizations, until very recently, any training methodologies that were done for the sales people were traditionally restricted to product features or company benefits. One of the huge revenue opportunities which is emerging nowadays in Vertibrand is a module called Brand Sensitization. It is very important that the mission and vision that has been articulated for the brand, is in some sense disseminated downwards right down to the person at the grassroots level but in a manner that it doesn't get into Chinese whispers. This is a huge task in itself. This was done with Blue Star, a corporate brand, where we consciously decided that what the brand stands for must be made known to the channel partners as well as to the sales team. A ‘Train the Trainer' program was done where these brand values were shared with the people in a language which they would understand.

TS: Today when you make a brand, it acts as a major tool to the sales person. If you ask them to join either of two companies, one with a very powerful brand and another with no brand with the same amount of remuneration, he will choose the one with a brand because it makes his work easier. So when you make a brand, it makes your product sell easily. The brand belief is more with the customer because the perception has to be in his mind. But the sales person also has to believe in the brand.

Q. If you consider the B2C space, branding becomes all the more relevant because it is all about variety-seeking behavior. But you do not find this in the B2B space. Then why should you get into branding in a major way? For your B2B brand to become successful what else can you focus on apart from the brand physique?

RV: In the B2C space it is more about recognition, in the B2B space it is more about reputation. Herein lies the difference. A B2C loyalty is typically built by recognition. The more you see, the more you get involved. The more you experience, the more you hear, the more you feel, the more you value and therefore the more you buy. In some sense if you leave out the jargon of brand physique and brand personality aside, what you need to look at is reputation and recognition. Business is all about trust. It has to be consistently delivered over time.

Q. How much does the country of origin help in building brands in the B2B scenario?

Nagesh Manav (NM): When Stanley was built, it was built in the air. The brand was larger than the organisation. The word ‘Italian' existed in the line. The line is lifestyle and luxury. It is a different segment altogether. It doesn't compare as much with IT where country of origin might not make that much of a difference at all. Today it matters in some businesses. The origin of 3M from the United States is hardly a consideration anymore.

TS: Most of the things today are made in China and branded here. Our products come from our headquarters in Taiwan. We started developing products in India. We have about ten products that we developed in India and we have branded them and are selling them. You don't know which product is from India and which is from Taiwan or even the US. It is the brand which sells. MoserBaer is an Indian company but look at how it is doing internationally. They have quality, commitment, manufacturing, R&D and everything else. They have taken a name which can be used internationally. In order to go worldwide, everybody must understand the brand.

Q. What would be a thumb-rule for investments in branding given the tight budget constraints, the need to promote the product and establish it? How much and how do we spend and what media choices should be made?

RV: There is no formula as such. At least in the consumer space, you look at the conventional advertising to sales ratio. Unfortunately in a start-up, the immediate formula that the MD tends to use is what is his revenue going to be or what is going to be the percentage of that revenue. The kinds of investments you need to make are far higher in the first year. It becomes inversely proportional to the kind of revenue over a period of time. Though there is no formula, one way of doing it is to find out who your core target customer and peripheral target customer is. In B2B, the advantage is that you don't really need to use mass media. The reach is more local like direct mailing. It is also probably through PowerPoint presentations where you go and sell one-to-one.

PS: What is important is not how much you have to spend for the brand. This comes at the last. The first important steps you have to take will really define your path. First is vision, and then where you want to get your business from, what your target segments are and whether it is reliable. Follow the RWW model - Is it Real, can I Win and is it Worth it. You have to answer all this not by emotions but by data. Then do a SWOT on your competitive scenario. What are your chances of failure? Do a Failure Mode Evaluation Analysis (FMA).

Q. There are so many different products. How can you differentiate as far as the service is concerned? For a start-up, in this competitive world, how do you make a difference?

RV: Honestly, it becomes very difficult to differentiate one Service Company from the other. Whatever research you do, whatever key consumer insights you take, it becomes difficult. You can always come up with innovative taglines but then it all boils down to the same thing. From our experience in having handled various businesses in the service space, the only thing which has differentiated one service company from the other is the passion of the promoters who are running the business. The moment the passion starts deteriorating and it starts getting delegated down the line to a new set of people, you will find that the differentiation and the equity starts getting diluted. You need to have your heart in the service and not just your mind in it. This is the biggest challenge for a business.

This was a Q and A session at ‘The Essence of B2B Branding' seminar organized by Businessgyan and TASMAC. 

Reported By Vaishnavi Vittal. 

Issue BG76 July07

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