Industrial branding: History and reasons
By: Zuzu Bik
Tags: B2b Lead Generation, Marketing, Sales, B2b Marketing

As a result of the rapid increase in competition in industrial markets, the number of goods and services bought and sold has also increased. Over time, there has been a need to distinguish these products from each other with their specifications. This requirement brought industrial branding.

Industrial branding is now popular in all industrial markets

History of industrial branding

Today, in a highly competitive business environment, especially in industrial markets, it is seen that customers are much more conscious compared to the past. They can get much more information about the products much more easily. It’s getting harder to sell products that are technically featured, complex, and capable of meeting higher expectations.

In this challenging environment, manufacturers have sought different methods to differentiate their products from competitors. Now they are working to make them more accessible and faster to be noticed by their target market and increase the chance of being preferred. At the end of this search, one of the methods they apply to differentiate their products is industrial branding.

Industrial branding for manufacturers

Manufacturers have started branding their products to differentiate their products from competitors and maintain a certain quality level promised to the customers. Customers, who did not have the opportunity to try the products before purchasing, got information about those brands through advertising or other marketing tools.

Industrial branding benefits the manufacturers or intermediaries that make up the brand and helps the industrial customer choose a particular product. The brand makes the customer feel safe. A customer’s loyalty to a specific brand minimizes the potential risks associated with the product. It reduces the time and energy that the customer will spend researching and evaluating the product.

Brands belong to customers

Today, there is a trend towards branding all kinds of goods in industrial markets. The success of consumer and corporate branding has led to a shift towards industrial B2B branding and even commodity branding. As a result of the changes in the market environment, the importance of product-related features has decreased further, and brand management practices have gained prominence. Although brands are created by companies, they belong to customers and are adopted and purchased by customers. Therefore, brand management should be considered as a process that requires continuity and trust.

The main reason for branding industrial products is to better define the product, to highlight it as a special product and to create a loyal customer base.

Advantages of industrial branding

Companies use brand power to create a competitive advantage, whether in industrial or consumer markets. But today, brand management and branding have gained more different dimensions. It is now impossible to capture this competitive advantage with a classic brand definition by looking through a narrow window. The purpose of the brand is to promote a product or service. Companies create their brand name, spread this name to their target market, and then apply this brand to both their products and their corporate identity.

Reasons for industrial branding

The primary purpose of companies in using the brand in industrial markets is to benefit from the customer loyalty provided by the brand value. In this way, during the marketing of a new product, the company can use the customer loyalty created with other previously successful product groups. Creating an entirely new product independent of the old product groups and getting it accepted by the customer is challenging.

Suppose the new brand has become a strong brand. In that case, it becomes a positive force to expand the brand and create brand synergy even in completely different product categories. Of course, suppose an unsuccessful product damages the brand. In that case, It can also damage the other product with the same brand name, even if it is in very different product groups and features. So, always be careful when working on industrial branding activities.

Today, industrial companies think very positively about the benefits of the brand name. They feel that the brand is essential for the success of the marketing activity, and they see the brand as a company asset. In addition, industrial companies accepted that industrial branding effectively makes a difference in quality, reliability, and performance, which are of primary importance in consumer surveys.