The Corona pandemic has profound effects on social life and the economy. Especially in the B2B environment, companies have to realign themselves. Digital technologies in particular play a key role in this. In the DMEXCO Trend Survey 1-2020, 70 percent of 800 digital decision-makers surveyed said that the corona pandemic will accelerate digital transformation.

Many medium-sized companies are also taking advantage of the general digital momentum and have recently started experimenting with digital channels: social media are being used, search engine ranking is being optimised (SEO) and target groups are being addressed along elaborate customer journeys from all digital means.

1. Digital Branding needs not only IT, but before especially also Brand know-how

This is a good thing - as long as you have a strong brand underneath that gives direction, purpose and impact to every action. If the central message, the clear stance, the clear differentiation from the competition, to which all arguments contribute, is missing, the effort fizzles out and a lot of money is wasted. Therefore, it is crucial to clearly define the brand in advance of a digital brand expansion. This is the only way to maintain a common thread throughout the entire communication and stay on course. Unfortunately, this is often neglected because the players who promise digital salvation are insufficiently sharp on the brand eye. The trend of IT departments challenging marketing's position also foreshadows that brand management is not in the right hands at all companies.
As early as 2015, the McKinsey study "Die Marke macht's" (The brand does it) revealed that it is often not the needs of customers that are at the centre of digital development, but technology: The flood of constantly new innovations and digital tools create uncertainty: How do I meet the challenges of digitalisation in brand management?

2. The Basics of brand management apply also for the digital Structure

The greatest challenge of digital branding, apart from the diverse digital "touchpoints", is the speed with which brands have to react to changes. Thus, the special feature of digital branding lies above all in the strong interaction capability of the digital touchpoints. In order to remain consistent here, long-term positioning is essential. This means that the brand with its added values is communicated consistently and in a way that strengthens the brand in a target group and benefit-oriented story across all interactive touchpoints. This can be achieved with the tools of classic brand management:

  • B2B brands must differentiate themselves through a clear stance and communicate their leading position as a solution partner in a way that is as credible as it is authentic in order to position themselves prominently in the minds of stakeholders.
  • B2B brand communication should be consistent in itself in order to always trigger the intended associations in the different media environments.
  • B2B brands should differentiate themselves through a clear appearance that consistently makes the added values directly tangible for customers with a unique visual world and a consistent textual address.
  • This creates a high recognition value that enables the continuous reproduction of the brand promise across all channels and to all target groups.

3. With this can many mistakes avoided can be avoided

  • Do not confuse "digital branding" with "digital marketing". There is a great danger that you will bog down your campaigns by taking isolated marketing measures in non-networked channels. Digital branding means making the brand a holistic experience in cross-media campaigns.
  • Don't neglect your employees. The largest decision-maker study on brand management in Germany, the German Brand Monitor, concludes that in just 54 percent of all companies the brand positioning is accessible to employees. In our experience, this number is much higher - often not even the managing directors know their positioning.
  • Don't think in terms of products, think in terms of customer benefits. Too many B2B companies rely on posting their latest products!) on LinkedIn without communicating any benefit or added value, let alone a brand.

4. Conclusion: A professional brand management is the key to success

The expansion of B2B brands into digital fields is strongly associated with trial and error. Many agencies and service providers focus on technical tools, which gives the impression that classic brand values no longer play a role. This is an expensive mistake.
The remedy is professional brand management, which can also be outsourced to specialised service providers. The advantage of an external solution is above all the view from the outside, which can be of great value in the development of corporate branding: You communicate your customer benefits in all relevant online and offline channels and increase your visibility with the holistic networking of all relevant media.

Stefan Weder

Together with my team, I structure innovation and communication-relevant knowledge for B2B companies and use it to develop target group-focused business models and productions. In doing so, we enter new territory every day. We share what we discover and experience there in our blog - and are curious what you tell us.