Brand isn't just a campaign. It's consistent messaging.

There's been a lot of talk about the growth of "brand" in B2B - and it's most welcome as the industry can often be scared to stand out.

For years we've pursued the goals of 100% attribution and "data chasing" to try and justify spend. This filters through to creative output and quite rightly this has encouraged debates around "has data stopped creativity?".

You can't happily run a search on this topic as it's covered time and time again.

The TL/DR answer from me - yes. For standard promotional campaigns it has. But I argue brand is way more than graphics or a campaign. It really isn't just about "being brave" or "standing out". I think it also has a big foot in the "be consistent" camp.

I'll give you an example. In the dim and distant past (though I still had grey hair) we were looking to upgrade our phone system. We set up a DMU that included:

Me - Co Founder

Darren Cyrus - Delivery and Opps

Our MSP - as the tech expert

Samantha Maskell - Finance Expert

We went through a process of finding both the right platform for us and also the right supplier/partner to deliver it. We started with around 6 partners and ended up with 2. You could call this a 2 horse race to the finish line, but that would be over egging it. Whatever, we'll call these companies 1 and 2.

We couldn't tell the difference between them. Both great reputations. Both great pre-sales teams. Both transparent. Both happy for us to meet their teams to enable us to get an idea of chemistry (this is important btw). Both felt like "partners" rather than "vendors".

We built a scorecard but they were still neck and neck.

Company 1 invited me to an offsite day with around 50 potential customers. This had 3 streams running and started with a presentation by their Senior Leader.

This presentation focused on their growth and plans for growth. He made a massive thing about their EBIT and how, through funding, he was going to take the organisation to ￡100 million turnover and a super star EBIT.

It was impressive stuff. If I was an investor.

For me it left a "We're not important enough to these as we don't match their roadmap or ideal future client".

It also made me think. This was the first time such excessive growth was mentioned and yet it was the first thing a member of their SLT presented to me. Had any of us in the team seen this earlier I doubt they'd have made the final cut. We just didn't feel like we sat in their ICP.

We went with Company 2 and it worked. They were consistent before, during and after the sale. Whether Company 1 would've been as good we will never know.

What has this got to do with brand I hear you shout?

Well I'd argue that everything you do reflects your brand. The people you send into market. The way you brief. The way you present. The materials you send out. Pretty much everything.

But importantly, (for this articles subject) the message that you put out to market. It should be consistent and honest. You should never get to a point where an end of funnel prospect is broadsided by a key company strategy that had never been mentioned before. And that is BRAND. It's also a simple thing to implement. With the right communication.

Or to put it another way always deliver "consistent messaging over time". From data sheet, to battlecard, to whitepaper, videos or keynote presentations. Consistency is the key.

What could the Leader have done instead? Talked about the outcomes for recent customers. Things they'd discovered at the coal face and how they plan to continue to innovate. This is harder with an audience of 50 to keep happy, but it's not impossible.

Mind you, I shouldn't complain - it made our final decision easier.