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B2B Marketing Marketing

Brand strategy spend on the rise in B2B marketing, study reports

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By Laurie Fullerton, Freelance Writer

February 13, 2017 | 2 min read

In the next five years, 81.3% of B2B companies expect to invest more in their brand strategies, with an anticipated increase of up to 20% in 2017. This spend comes on top of the 86.7% increase that took place over the past five years according to a recent survey by brand strategy consultancy Spencer Brenneman.

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"There was lots of data out there on how B2C companies were investing in their brands, but very little for B2B. So, we set out to find it," said Douglas Spencer, president of Spencer Brenneman. "We wanted to quantify the connection between strong B2B business performance and the right brand strategy. Even we were surprised by the results."

According to the study, those bigger budgets generated real results for most, as 82.3% of the organizations that increased their spending saw the larger investments pay off. The biggest area where this payoff occurred was increasing sales and landing additional customers, which was true for 56% of those who cited a specific payoff.

"Another clear trend we saw was with research," said Spencer. "It pays off. Those who increased spending showed improvement, but those who increased spending and conducted continual research did even better."

Spencer said that those companies with an established verbal identity also fared better, citing a 12% increase in shareholder value as compared to those brands without a distinct voice.

Working with Connecticut-based market research firm Great Blue Research, Spencer Brenneman surveyed 150 B2B marketing executives who consider themselves ultimately responsible for or an expert on their organization's brand strategy.

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