Half of B2B firms say brand building not a priority

Is brand building a priority for your business? New data reveals that for half (50.7%) of B2B brands the answer is firmly no.

Almost half of B2B CMOs/marketing directors (47.9%) and 52.4% of managers/senior managers agree brand building is not on the agenda in their company.

Large companies (250 employees and over) are marginally more likely to be deprioritising brand building (53.2%) compared to SMEs (48.2%).

When asked why brand marketing is off the investment agenda, 58.3% of the 450-strong total sample claim it is not seen as delivering ROI.

Well over half (61.1%) of large B2B firms claim brand marketing does not deliver ROI, an opinion shared by 55.1% of SMEs. Equally concerning, 61.2% of CMOs say brand building is not a priority in their business due to scepticism over return on investment.

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Returning to the total sample, more than a third (37%) say brand investment is not a priority because the business fails to take a long-term view. Some 37% of the sample also say there is no budget for brand building in their business, while for a quarter (25.9%) it is seen as too expensive.

For some marketers the issue centres on the size and expertise of their team. A quarter (24.5%) say their team is too small to turn its attention to brand building efforts, while 12.5% claim they don’t have the expertise.

Worryingly, two-fifths (41.7%) of the total sample say their business doesn’t understand the value of brand building, rising to 51.2% of marketers in large corporates. This opinion is shared by a third (32.9%) of their SME peers. 

Over two-fifths (42.1%) of CMOs agree their company does not appreciate the value of brand building.

Going short and long

Going beyond perceptions to where the money is being spent, just under a third of the total sample (32.6%) say resources are equally focused on short-term activity (to pay back within six months) and long-term strategies.

However, almost as many of the total sample (31.9%) report their company is mainly focused on short-term marketing. Contrast that to the 7.4% who say their firm is focused on long-term activity to pay back in 12 months and beyond.

When combining those answering to short-term marketing being both a ‘main’ and ‘slight’ focus, the figure rises to 49%.

Some 29.6% of B2B SMEs say they are mainly focused on short-term tactics, with just 8% of this cohort focusing for the most part on long-term brand building. Within larger firms, this number rises to 34.1% mainly focused on the short-term, with only 6.8% allocating the majority of their resources to long-term activity.

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When asked where they are spending their budget to drive short-term returns, over half of the total sample are focused on social ads (such as on LinkedIn), while content marketing is a priority for 46.3%.

Well over two-fifths are spending on paid search (45.1%) and email marketing (43.1%), with display ads (22.5%) and affiliate marketing (10%) proving less popular.

Content marketing (47.8%), social ads (46.9%) and email marketing (40.7%) are the top three sources of short-term investment for B2B SMEs. Large companies are prioritising social ads (56.6%), paid search (52.7%) and email marketing (45.9%) to drive short-term gains.

In businesses where resources are being allocated to brand building, 61.4% of the total sample say they are investing in long-term brand campaigns, followed by events/experiential (60.8%), social campaigns (59.1%) and PR (56.7%).

Over two-fifths (44.4%) are using advertising to drive sales/pipeline, while more than a third (36.3%) are investing in sponsorships.

For those B2B SMEs investing in brand building, over half are putting money into social campaigns (58.7%) and events/experiential (53.3%). Well over two-fifths (48.9%) are engaging in long-term brand campaigns and PR (47.8%), while 37% are using advertising specifically to deliver leads. Sponsorships (31.5%) are less of a priority for this cohort.

By contrast, of the large organisations allocating resources to long-term activity, over three-quarters (76.3%) are investing in brand campaigns. Events/experiential (68.8%), PR (66.3%), social media (58.8%) and ads to drive pipeline (52.5%) are a priority for over half of this cohort. Just over two-fifths (41.3%) have invested in a sponsorship to fuel their brand building ambitions.

Marketing Week will be continuing its reporting from the 2025 State of B2B Marketing survey in the coming weeks.