Brand is back on the B2B agenda. The budget has not caught up, and the reason is less about belief than about how the case gets made.
Marketing Week's State of Brand in B2B survey of 300 marketers found that 51.3% plan to increase brand investment over the next 12 months, including 69.1% of B2B CMOs. In the same survey, 44.9% find it difficult or very difficult to secure investment for brand building, and only 26.8% say making the case is easy. The fight is hardest in larger companies: 55.5% of marketers at firms with 250 or more employees struggle to get brand spend signed off, against 35% at smaller firms.
The research describes the gap plainly. 58.4% say their business has focused more on brand building over the past year, yet 47.7% say brand is still not a budget priority. Almost a third (29.7%) are mainly chasing short-term gains, against 8.5% who prioritize long-term strategies.
When marketers explain why, the answers point at the conversation with leadership. 40% say brand building is not seen as delivering return in their company, 38.9% say it would be easier if the CEO and CFO understood brand building better, and 55.1% would welcome more robust effectiveness measurement.
The problem is the explanation
Performance marketing shows up in this month's report. Brand pays out later, which makes it the easiest line to cut when a quarter needs to close. As Anouschka Elliott, former global head of marketing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, put it on Marketing Week's webinar about the research, "Performance is winning on explanation, not on effectiveness." She added that the near-term revenue impact of a marketing cut can be unnoticeable, and the cost only shows up as revenue decays over time.
The early work also leaks before it can pay off. LinkedIn told marketers at its B2Believe event in New York that fewer than 10% of upper-funnel audiences make it into bottom-funnel campaigns, and its B2B Institute says marketers who prioritize pipeline are 1.7 times more likely to win budget on evidence. Brand that never connects to demand is hard to defend, because nobody can see what it did.
Make the case in finance's terms
- Talk about customers and revenue, not brand. Describe the investment as reaching the buyers who will be in market next year and making them more likely to choose you.
- Name the leading indicators up front. Pick two or three measures brand should move months before revenue does, such as how many target accounts already know you before sales calls, demand for your name in search, and win rate when the buyer knew you first.
- Compare share of voice with share of market. If your category voice is smaller than your market share, you are likely to lose ground whether brand is in fashion or not.
- Start with a test, not a new split. Fund one segment, region, or account list, hold a comparable group back, and agree the readout with finance before the money is spent.
- Connect early reach to later demand. Make sure the audiences brand reaches are the same ones your demand campaigns and sales team follow up, so the pipeline effect can be traced.
Three questions for the next budget meeting
- Which leading indicator would warn us, six months early, that cutting brand is costing pipeline?
- Is our share of voice in the category above or below our share of market?
- What is the smallest test that would show finance what brand spend buys?
This week
Pick one segment or region. Write down the leading indicator brand spend should move, the revenue measure it should feed, and the date you will report back. Agree all three with your finance partner before the budget is set, so the brand line arrives with its own proof plan instead of a request for faith.
