B2B’s Brand Blind Spot Is Impeding Growth. Only B2B Can Solve It

Our inaugural 2025 ANAStein BrandtoDemand Maturity Study based on data from nearly one hundred B2B marketers reveals a unique B2B contradiction While 100 percent of marketers say integrating brand and demand is important only 26 percent equally balance brand and demand investments Moreover 85 percent believe their companies underfund marketingThis contradiction reflects a structural reality in B2B marketing one shaped over decades by sales dominance leadgeneration obsession and internal silos that never made sense but were never dismantled The consequences of this reality are mountingBrand and Demand Silos A B2BOnly ProblemIn most B2C environments campaigns are designed to build emotional connections and drive sales Not so in B2B B2B teams are typically structured as parallel universes one for brand one for demand Different teams different budgets different KPIs and often different definitions of success These organizational divisions are deeply entrenched and uniquely B2B Brand is measured on awareness and consideration while demand is measured on MQLs These metrics rarely align and often fail to convert to real growthThe Cost of DisconnectionLetamp8217s get specificCompanies that unify brand and demand generate 208 percent more marketingsourced revenue according to LinkedIn benchmarks included in our studyOnly 3 percent of B2B companies report being amp8220fully unifiedamp8221 with integrated data shared KPIs fullfunnel creative and executive sponsorshipAnd yet 46 percent of budgets are still skewed mostly toward demand even though 72 percent of marketers want a balanced mixIn other words B2B knows what to do It just isnamp8217t doing it Why Because the structures weamp8217ve built and the metrics weamp8217ve institutionalized make it difficult also because it is hardMeasurement A Missed OpportunityOne challenge unique to B2B is the need to better demonstrate brandamp8217s contribution using metrics that resonate as clearly as those tied to demand Metrics that show brandamp8217s full funnel contribution to growthB2B marketing remains rooted in lastclick attribution siloed CRM systems and dashboards that speak to campaign outputs not business outcomes In our survey 90 percent of marketers identified measurement as a top priority yet 65 percent called it one of their biggest challengesIn the absence of strong measurement demand gets the budget by default because itamp8217s easier to defend even when itamp8217s less effectiveAre Marketing and the CSuite on the Same PageAnother uniquely B2B issue is the persistent gap between marketing and the Csuite Only 36 percent of marketers believe their leadership sees brandtodemand integration as strategically important Yet in every single one of the amp8220fully unifiedamp8221 companies we studied Csuite sponsorship was 100 percentThat correlation isnamp8217t a coincidenceThis is where B2B marketing must level up stop talking about amp8220brandamp8221 in terms of emotion or storytelling and start talking about it in terms of contribution margin future cash flow and longterm growth efficiency Thatamp8217s the language of the boardroom and thatamp8217s how you secure real investmentA Better B2B ModelThrough Steinamp8217s BrandtoDemand Experience BDX Model weamp8217re working with B2B companies to solve these problems at the root The model aligns creative data media and measurement across the full funnel It introduces a maturity scale and six capability pillars to help teams prioritize where to focus nextWeamp8217re advocating for operational change that includes shared KPIs connected tech stacks crossfunctional teams and budgets that reflect the full buying journey Companies like Juniper Networks SAS and CoreWeave are already doing this and theyamp8217re seeing real results lower CAC higher pipeline quality better talent retention and more scalable growthB2B Needs to Move NowItamp8217s time to break down how we approach growth And itamp8217s something B2B marketers are uniquely positioned to solveIf we want marketing to drive business and not just support it we need to rethink the structure That means clearer roles sharper metrics and smarter investment Brand and demand arenamp8217t opposing forces in B2B Theyamp8217re interdependent And if we keep treating brand as optional weamp8217ll keep getting lessthanoptimal resultsTo learn more download the ANAStein BrandtoDemand Maturity StudyThis article was written by Sonia David and Tom SteinA collaboration between the Association of National Advertisers and SteinAbout Tom SteinChairman and Chief Brand Officer SteinTom Stein is a founding partner of Stein where he is closely involved in the agencyamp8217s strategic relationships with clients He also currently serves as president of ANA Business Marketing NYC and was one of the first inductees into the ANA B2B Hall of FameMr Stein works with clients and the industry to achieve modern marketing mastery as the entry point into B2B marketingamp8217s postmodern era where iconic creative and content experiences are combined with transformative data and technologydriven interactions amp8212 seamlessly connecting brand to demand to business results His blog Blog Post Modern contributes thought leadership and views from the worldamp8217s top CMOs on the topics that comprise postmodern marketingPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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B2B’s Brand Blind Spot Is Impeding Growth. Only B2B Can Solve It

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