By Marianne Moore, Partner, Strategic Services, Stein + Partners Brand Activation

Positioning B2B Brands In A B2C Way

Much has been written about the difference between positioning B2B brands and B2C brands.

Some say that positioning B2B brands should not be different than positioning B2C brands–that people are people whether deciding about a car or an enterprise software solution. Others say this is true–but only to a point. In their view, positioning brands targeting “prosumers” and small businesses is the same as positioning brands targeting consumers.

Yet there are those who say positioning a B2B brand, which requires building reputation, has to be considered very differently than positioning a B2C brand.

As an experienced marketer who has spent half of her career working on consumer brands and the other half on B2B brands, here is where I stand.

Positioning is all about having an in-depth understanding of your target audience–from a very pragmatic to a highly emotional level. It is about understanding your target's key “care-abouts,” their needs, their wants, and their aspirations–in other words, the very fabric of their lives.

And in truth, people's personal and professional lives are blending more and more these days. Yet one cannot ignore that people have different care-abouts and sensibilities in their personal and professional lives.

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What it all boils down to is getting actionable in view of these care-abouts and sensibilities. Getting to this level of understanding is the same process that one has to go through whether it is a consumer brand or a B2B brand.

Ultimately, my perspective is that positioning a B2B brand can be accomplished by undertaking the same type of analysis and due diligence into the hearts and minds of the target that one takes when developing positioning for a B2C brand. So you might say, you are best-served by doing B2B positioning in a B2C way.

Case in point: Recent positioning work we did for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) VIX product revealed that what institutional traders care about is managing risk (a pragmatic business benefit). But what that really means, at an emotional level, is that they fear making a mistake. This insight lead us to develop messaging and marketing for VIX that plays to both the pragmatic and the emotional, but emphasizes the latter (see one of our ad executions, at right).

Since so much has been written on the topic of whether the art of positioning changes when marketing in the consumer world or in the business space, I’d love to know what you think.

Read more: http://www.cmo.com/branding/positioning-b2b-brands-b2c-way#ixzz27aZDqwYc

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