home > Why B2B marketers forget about the power of difference

You might be finally investing in your brand, but don’t forget about differentiation.

For years, B2B marketers were assumed to be too focused on the bottom of the funnel.

Under pressure to drive sales, many prioritised performance marketing as a way to ensure hyper-focused targeting and measurement.

This is now changing, thanks in large part to the influence of industry leaders like the IPA, Mark Ritson, LinkedIn and Ehrenberg-Bass institute.

The B2B world is waking up to the importance of brand building, and it seems like marketers are finally equipped to make this case internally.

But, even after securing investment in brand building, are B2B marketers making the most of it?

Why are B2B marketers playing it safe with their brand building?

While there is a growing focus on the top of the funnel among B2B marketers, awareness campaigns can feel much riskier than below the radar, quick-and-dirty performance marketing.

Building your brand means growing your visibility. It means going out to market with one simple, single-minded message. And, it often means investing in shoots and longer-form assets.

The result is that far too many B2B brand campaigns regress towards the mean and fail to take the strategic and creative risks needed to drive impact.

A 2024 global survey of B2B marketers found that top-of-funnel awareness was now their number one priority, up from 6th place in 2021. Driving and converting leads, on the other hand, dropped from 3rd to 7th place. (1)

The same survey also found that while 71% of B2B marketers rated their performance as strong for “communicating a distinct brand position or strong USP”, 68% of B2B buyers said that most brands look and act the same.

Research from LinkedIn offers a sobering fact: 81% of B2B ads fail to gain adequate attention or drive recall. (2)

This isn’t just a problem when it comes to stand-out and attribution. This lack of brand difference could be actively hampering brand growth.

What drives B2B brand differentiation?

Ultimately, differentiation is about building unique associations that set your brand apart from competitors.

At Rationale, we are big fans of Kantar’s BrandZ research into the drives of brand growth.

The research finds that while salience and meaningfulness are key ingredients of strong brands, it’s brand difference that shows the strongest correlation with growth. Critically, difference also drives margin and pricing power. (3)

From Kantar’s perspective, difference isn’t just about distinctive assets. While these are of course important, differentiating your brand instead involves more of a ‘strategic blend’ of tangible and intangible elements.

This includes everything from brand positioning, to product features and innovation, to customer experience and pricing models.

Why do B2B marketers struggle to achieve true market differentiation?

A likely reason why B2B marketers have yet to achieve true differentiation is because the B2B world has historically been steeped in logic.

Sales teams are equipped to explain why their product is the sensible choice, and bottom of the funnel activity gives customers logical reasons to purchase.

This means investment in marketing has long been driven by what can be easily tracked and measured, rather than what’s actually effective.

Rory Sutherland (another Rationale favourite – our lucky Co-MD Svein once shared a taxi with the legend) provides another good explanation:

“It is much easier to be fired for being illogical than it is for being unimaginative. The fatal issue is that logic always gets you to exactly the same place as your competitors.”

Far from minimising risk, a purely logical approach increases the risk that your brand activity will be ineffective.

It’s no wonder that 58% of B2B marketers still claim brand marketing doesn’t deliver ROI! (4)

How to maximise your brand’s difference

Here’s how you can lean into difference and get a little less logical:

Worry less about being professional. For some reason when we market to audiences in work mode, we feel that we have to adopt a serious tone to gain their trust. But when every other brand is being professional, irreverence or humour grabs attention and powers differentiation. This tongue-in-cheek campaign from Rippling HR is a great example.
Don’t be afraid to get specific. When developing broad-reach, top-of-funnel activity, it can seem logical to build your campaign so it speaks to as many buyers in your target audience as possible. But all too often, a desire to speak to everyone means content and messaging gets diluted to the point that it speaks to no one.

As part of our work with Bupa SME, we’ve developed a series of campaigns that speak specifically to the needs of different sectors (including Tech and Professional services), translating our broader Let’s Get Growing brand platform into content that reflects their specific growth challenges and health needs. When every other competitor targets these audiences with generic messaging, sector-specific depth ensures we stand out from the crowd.

Showmanship beats salesmanship. When all of your competitors are bombarding your audience with messages explaining how great their product is, show them instead. We’ve all seen the famous Jean Claude Van Damme stunt for Volvo Trucks. But a more recent example from Cap Gemini shows it remains a powerful tactic.

As part of their wider ‘Seeing is believing’ campaign, the brand demonstrated its AI and modelling capabilities by developing WindSight IQ – technology that models wind direction, speed, and shifts in real-time. This was deployed as part of their America’s Cup sailing sponsorship, enhancing the race experience for both participants and spectators while demonstrating the power of a digital twin better than any logical explanation ever could.

How can a B2B agency help with brand building?

To build a powerful brand, you need to develop a strong sense of difference, relevance and authority to cut through a noisy market – something that a B2B brand agency like Rationale specialises in.

We can bring an outside view and strong expertise in regulated markets to guide your strategy, articulate your proposition, and drive your top-of-funnel activities with compelling content.

If you’re keen to learn how partnering with us could supercharge your brand building, we’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch with us today.

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