From Brand to Business Architecture: Rethinking B2B Brand Strategy

In B2B, that architecture is tested every day. Marketing must endure long buying cycles, navigate complex decision committees, and overcome environments where logic outweighs emotion. Strong B2B brand strategies are vital, like castles built on bedrock, sitting on a foundation of earned trust, investment, and time. Weak ones can resemble castles built on sand, easily swept away by short-term pressure or shifting priorities.

Strong brand strategy gives decision committees the confidence in their choices and helps businesses earn trust before the first conversation begins.

That conversation inspired me explore how B2B marketers build strong brand strategies as a foundation for growth. What do they get right? What’s holding them back? Many want to lead with brand and may struggle with proving its impact, connecting it to business performance, or linking it to the daily work of sales and product teams.

Some of those gaps became the focus of our latest release, The Confident B2B Marketer Report, which explores what effective B2B marketers, “Confident Marketers,” do differently from the rest. Here are three of their best practices:

The Foundation: Invest for Today and Tomorrow

In B2B marketing, brand strategy forms one of the strongest layers of a foundation by anchoring performance today while guiding growth for tomorrow.

The Confident B2B Marketer Report shows that Confident Marketers are intentional builders. Nearly 47 percent maintain an equal investment between brand-building and demand generation, compared with 37 percent of their peers. They understand that strategic brand work creates consistent yet adaptable messaging that makes performance marketing more effective.

According to Amy Summy, Executive Vice President and CMO at Labcorp, “Brand building is less about traditional advertising and more about building valuable relationships with customers through relevant content and customer experience.” Her view captures the essence of modern B2B brand strategy. It’s a structural element that connects how the company communicates, serves, and earns trust with customers, reinforced from strategy to execution.

That mindset shows up in how Confident Marketers invest. Sixty-one percent say their organizations will increase long-term brand strategy spending in the next 12 months, almost double the share of less-confident peers (36 percent). Confident Marketers are also twice as likely to have measurement systems that connect activity to revenue.

Once the foundation is secure, the operational structure must work as a whole.

Integration of Systems: Aligning Brand and Demand

In B2B, brand and demand cannot be separate floors of the strategy. One builds credibility; the other converts it into revenue. They are interconnected systems that put brand strategy in motion.

Nearly half of Confident Marketers (47 percent) report an equal split between brand and demand tactics, compared to 37 percent of their less confident peers. This supports healthier near- and long-term outcomes. Alignment with sales follows the same pattern: Confident Marketers are nearly four times more likely to be fully aligned with sales (22 percent vs. 6 percent).

At Broadridge, Global Chief Marketing Officer Dipti Kachru brought sales and marketing onto a shared platform to track how brand credibility translated into measurable demand. By focusing on qualified decision committees rather than individual leads, her team accelerated sales and elevated marketing’s role as a growth driver.

But even the most sophisticated structure need customers to believe in it. That’s where the human connection completes the design.

Reinforcement Through Measurement

Measurement gives strategy the reinforcement needed to keep it strong. It’s proof that connects intention to impact.

According to our report, 61 percent of Confident Marketers have advanced or intermediate attribution systems that link marketing activity to revenue, compared to 32 percent of their peers. They are more likely to be fully aligned with sales, using shared goals, collaboration, and unified views to evaluate performance through a common lens.

But even Confident Marketers face challenges. Many admit that attribution systems don’t yet capture the full value of brand strategy. Integration remains uneven, with 60 percent saying data fragmentation limits their marketing effectiveness, underscoring how siloed systems make it difficult to see the whole picture. Still, Confident Marketers are using data and measurement to learn what moves the business forward.

Livability and Usability: The Human Factor

Brand strategy only matters when it appeals to the customer. While B2B marketers like to believe decisions are rational, customers ultimately buy into, stay loyal to, and advocate for a brand when there’s trust and connection.

Confident Marketers are more likely to work in organizations that treat creativity and originality as business drivers rather than a disposable expense. Creativity fuels differentiation. It connects strategy to emotion and makes experiences memorable and relatable.

Erik Petersen, director of global brand advertising and media at a leading AI-powered B2B platform. and one of the leaders interviewed, noted, “You are not going to rationalize me into something unless I feel good about it.”

ServiceNow embodies this human-centered approach. As it evolved from an IT workflow brand to a transformation partner, its team built a creative platform around one simple idea: “The world works with ServiceNow.” Every touchpoint from storytelling to orientation was designed to feel helpful, relatable, and optimistic. That reposition elevated ServiceNow’s brand value, earning it recognition in the Kantar 100 Most Valuable Brands.

Looking Ahead: Building the Blueprint Together

Every great design starts with connection. On December 2, at the ANA Members-Only Conference on B2B Brand Strategy at SAS in Cary, North Carolina, we’ll keep building the blueprint for brand strategy together. We’ll learn how Labcorp unites sales and marketing under one plan, how Michelin turns human connection into brand strength, how Evidenza turns data into trust, and how ABB and Mower are building smarter frameworks for brand relevance.

If you’re an ANA member, we hope you'll join us to add your perspective and help shape the next layer of the architecture of modern B2B growth. And if you haven’t yet, download The Confident B2B Marketer Report to explore the insights that inspired this conversation.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

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