This document discusses branding concepts in business-to-business marketing. It defines a brand as a name, symbol, or design that identifies a seller's products or services. A brand provides consistency and cultural uniformity. In business markets, brands are often linked to corporate brands and provide shorthand for quality, reliability, and value. The core characteristics that define a brand are called its "brand essence." Branding in B2B markets focuses on gradually achieving a better connection with customers over time. Strong B2B brands cut through clutter, tap into emotional drivers, and deliver a consistent satisfying experience. Branding concepts from business-to-consumer markets can be applied to business-to-business, though with adjustments for organizational and personal

1. Business-to-Business Marketing
Branding Concepts – Term Paper
BBM, NMP Term III
Group 4
Argha Ray - 15
Chakra Dhar Kundu - 22
Khushal Malik - 28
Sanjay Kumar Prasad – 45

2. Branding as a Concept:
• “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies
one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.
The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one
item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the
firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.”
American Marketing Association
• Consistency of presentation that becomes the identity of a
company. (Paul Hague)
• Cultural Uniformity.
• More than a symbol or logo; but an imagery and association.
• Personality beyond the product.

3. Branding in Industrial Markets:
• Concept not well developed in B2B.
• Shorthand for product quality, reliability of delivery and value for
money.
• Often linked with Corporate Brand as a whole.
• Experienced but not acknowledged.
• Brand essence as centerpiece of differentiation.
• Brand Essence : The core characteristics that defines a brand e.g.
“Nike is Inspirational”.

4. Bull’s Eye of Brand Essence:

5. B2B Branding Ladder:
Gradual change in focus that brands undergo over a period of time, in order to
achieve a better connect with the customers. (Kevin Lane Keller)

6. Brands drive B2B Markets:
Kevin Randall lists reasons on why brands bring a distinctive
value proposition in business markets.
 Cut through Clutter: Morass of Market
 Tap emotional drivers: Powerful Irrational Impulse
 Deliver promise: Unified, Consistent and Satisfying Experience

7. Building Blocks of Brands:
Conceptual Model of Esch, Langner, Schmitt and Geus for B2C.

8. A few Definitions:
• Brand Awareness: It refers to customers' ability to recall and
recognize the brand under different conditions and link to the
brand name e.g. Photocopying reminds of Xerox.
• Brand Image: It is a symbolic construct created within the minds
of people e.g. Mercedes is an image of luxury.
• Brand Satisfaction: Exchange relationship with brand depending
on utilitarian benefits e.g. Worth the money to spend an year at
MDI.
• Brand Trust: It is the intrinsic 'believability' that any entity evokes
converting simple awareness to strong commitment e.g. MDI will
assist in placements.
• Brand Attachment: Long lasting bond and interdependence
between brand and customer e.g. James Bond always drives a
Aston Martin.

9. Hypothesis and Correlations:

10. Model:
The cross symbols above signifies hypothesis rejection

11. Brand Awareness in B2B:
Homburg, Klarmann and Schmitt extend the branding concepts by
studying the particular concept of Brand Awareness in B2B.

12. Hypothesis and Correlations:

13. Strong Industrial Brands:
• “No One Ever Got Fired for Buying IBM”
• “Intel Inside”
• “GE’s imagination at work”
• “Caterpillar’s One Voice”

14. Conclusion:
• Branding as applicable to B2C can also be extrapolated into B2B.
• The extrapolation has to be nuanced and shaded with inherent
intricacies that characterize industrial markets on the paradigms
of organizational risks and personal risks of buyers.