The Power of Brand in B2B: Insights from the Brand Finance Event

It’s always great to see brand value in B2B getting the airtime it deserves. Thanks to research from the IPA, WARC, the B2B Institute and others, we now have clear evidence: strong brands drive serious growth in B2B. The latest Brand Finance Global Most Valuable B2B Brands Index only reinforces that point.

But there are still huge inconsistencies in how B2B companies think about brand—what it is, who owns it, and how to measure its impact. Here are a few takeaways from yesterday’s event with LinkedIn, International Advertising Association, Wolters Kluwer, HSBS, Tata Consultancy Services, and WARC.

1.   1. Brand awareness unlocks deals.
2. 40% of B2B sales stall because buying groups can’t reach consensus. But when all stakeholders know your brand from the start, you’re 20x more likely to win. Many of those stakeholders—the so-called "hidden buyers"—may never even use your product, but they still hold veto power over the purchase decision. Their biggest question? “Can I justify this decision if it goes wrong?” Trust matters. And trust starts with familiarity.
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4.  2. Brand builds confidence.
5. B2B brands can serve as a proxy for new/complex offerings, making them 10x more valuable than B2C brands. You probably don’t know what a GPU is, but you’ve heard of Nvidia.
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7.  3. The B2C/B2B brand blend.
8. Only 54% of the most valuable brands on the list are pure B2B. So how much does a strong consumer-facing parent or sister brand help—or hurt—a B2B brand’s credibility and clarity?
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10.  4. Emotion matters.
11. The idea of emotion being important in B2B isn’t new, but getting the right balance of emotional versus rational at the right time is key. Sports sponsorships and emotionally resonant partnerships can fast-track trust and affinity for B2B brands that otherwise struggle to connect on an emotional level.
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 The bottom line: brand isn’t a “nice to have” in B2B—it drives real business growth. Access the research here.