Why Should B2B Brands Invest in Brand Building in 2024?

All anyone hears in the marketing world these days is 'Khata Kat Khata Cut.' No, this isn't about a recent political statement. Instead, it's a story about how every aspect of brand-building is now on the chopping block.

If you're part of a technology company's brand team, the executive team looks at you with the same intensity as a butcher about to say, "Biryani Cut."

Last week, someone mentioned their public relations budget had been slashed by half. All I could ponder was how I would handle the PR role if it were my only job. Here are my options:

1. Find a spot in the sandwich stall next to the office (and maybe sell a few sandwiches after work with all the time saved).
2. Beg my boss to take a salary cut so I could use the extra cash for PR.
3. Start job hunting for another position where I'd likely face the same budget woes.

But jokes apart, this is the reality for most technology brands. If you have asked marketers where they want to deploy their money, their reply will be anything easy to measure and track.

According to the Nielsen Annual Study for 2024, nearly 70% of marketers will likely use more performance marketing. This trend mirrors the pattern seen last year and is projected to persist throughout this year as well.

Rising global conflicts, the economic downturn, a shift to AI-enabled services, layoffs, and a hiring slowdown aren't helping either.

So, am I suggesting you choose option one? That is assuming you know how to put good sandwiches together.

If you look at the list of the top ten B2B brands that made the Brand Finance list this year, the pattern is clear: if you want to enhance your brand value, you must spend on advertising.

Effective advertising and positive word-of-mouth reinforce brand recall and build trust. And while we are on trust, it is more important for technology brands/ companies headquartered in India.

When questioned about their trust in Indian companies, only 35% of respondents abroad affirmed their trust.

While perceptions of India may have shifted globally, companies based in India still have significant ground to cover in terms of building trust. How do you earn trust? By investing in long-term brand building.

Suppose the US doesn't experience a smooth economic transition this year and instead plunges into a recession, as anticipated by numerous industry experts such as Jamie Dimon. What unfolds next?

WPP's own data indicates that brands that cut all marketing spending in year one of a recession can take up to five years to catch up with those that maintain spending.

Nielsen's study also supports these findings: a one-point gain in brand metrics, such as awareness and consideration, drives a one-percent increase in sales.

Nielsen Compass data shows that a brand loses an average of 2% of future revenue for every quarter it stops advertising.

I could perhaps offer a thousand other data points to prove that your brand shouldn't stop advertising or long-term brand-building, but ultimately, it is each of our jobs to do so.

Unlike the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) in the UK, which launched an entire campaign titled #EffWorks for the marketing community, we don't have an entity that does that in India. ASCI is a dog that is busy chasing its own tail.

Message for the Reader: I've been crafting these articles with the fervor of a butcher, slicing sentences and dicing words and often attempting to translate whatever knowledge I've acquired into written form.

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