What’s your position, on positioning?
This was the headline for our event stand at the 2025 B2B Marketing Leaders Forum in Sydney, and boy did it make people think! Alongside this headline is a four quadrants model, with each quadrant marked from a different point of view of a B2B marketer – they read:
- ‘I want to be understood’
- ‘I just want to be noticed’
- ‘I want to be in demand’
- ‘I want leads now’
The idea is that as marketers pass by the stand they take a sticker and place it in an area of the quadrant that best reflects their position on positioning. As more and more marketers got involved, we’ll built a picture in real time of the sentiment of brand within the Forum. While this is a novel idea, there’s deeper thinking behind it. Keep reading to see how each of these ‘wants’ builds upon the next. But before you do that, here’s how the map finished up:
The pendulum has swung
In many markets, particularly the tech sector, brands and the solutions and services they offer have reached saturation point. When you factor in the volume of channels now available to marketers, standing out has become an almost impossible endeavour.
We’ve written about brand awareness before and right now, it’s more apparent than ever that for B2B Marketers the pendulum has well and truly swung to the direction of brand.
And rightly so, as brand is the foundation of any business’s success, so with that in mind let’s go back to basics and the fundamentals of brand positioning.
To be wanted is to be human
We all need to feel wanted. When we are truly seen and valued for who we are, we experience a sense of validation. This basic need isn’t merely about popularity, but the profound need to matter to someone else, to have our presence acknowledged as essential in another’s world. This is especially true for products, services and brands as they strive to remain relevant in the eyes of prospective buyers.
As a B2B marketer the task falls with you – in helping your organisation be truly seen and valued as a reputable and reliable answer to your target buyers’ pain points, frustrations and barriers to growth. And so, in positioning your brand, you must align its value proposition to their very real and human challenges – to deliver on what you ‘want’ to achieve.
I want to be understood
In an ever-complicated world, the wonderful thing about B2B brands (versus the majority of B2C) is that they have a real sense of purpose and can in many cases, turn an organisation’s fortunes around.
As a B2B marketer you want to articulate this value in a proposition that is not only clear and precise but ownable, making it distinct from competitors.
To do this, you need to craft your CVP and messaging pillars to reinforce your unique brand value in the context of the pain points and pressures facing your prospective buyers. This needs to strike the right balance of demonstrating empathy for their challenges with the confidence that builds authority.
I want to be noticed
In ever-growing competitive market with swathes of vendors vying for attention, how do current and prospective customers feel about your brand? Do they really know what you stand for and the value you bring? Do they even care?
As a B2B marketer it stands to reason that you want your business to stand out from the crowd.
To do this, you need to dial up your point of difference, if you even have one, and stop your target audience in their tracks. What’s the insight? What’s the hook, that will resonate with them and get them to pay attention?
What’s more, you’ll need to deliver it an arresting way. Long gone are the days of ‘Boring 2 Boring’, so make sure to wrap up your brand positioning in a succinct and memorable message.
I want to be in demand
With an ever-evolving landscape, how relevant is your brand in the eyes (or minds) of your target buyers? Building trust and nurturing prospects through the sales funnel is all well and good but are you really building desirability and the path to conversion?
As a B2B marketer you want to be the first choice, a no-brainer when it comes time to buy.
To do this, you need to be consistent in messaging and content that ladders back up to your brand positioning, delivering useful content, thought leadership and a point of view or stance on the business problems being faced by your target buyers, and how you answer them.
I want leads now
The increasing pressure to deliver more with less is ever-present and often manifests in short-term thinking with a fixation on immediate leads. This can easily cascade down to product-led messaging and rational benefits to try and capture and corral prospective buyers in the hope of quick wins.
As a B2B marketer you naturally want buyers to put up their hands and show interest in the products and services you provide. But in a market with long buying cycles, not every prospect is ready to buy right now – let alone the buyers you don’t know about who remain hidden from plain sight.
To do this, you need to continually invest in activities that build brand awareness and keep you top of mind, ready for when your buyers are in market, and get on the radar of every influential member of the buying committee.
Pole position for B2B brands
While many B2B brands are still playing catch up others are leading the charge, increasing their market share and driving higher levels of customer lifetime value. These forward-looking organisations are not only realising the potential of brand but proving its value with every step.
As brand takes centre-stage in influencing buyer decision making, more and more B2B marketers are turning to well-crafted brand positioning strategies that can serve as the foundation for demand generation and accelerate their sales pipeline.
To read more, download our latest guide, ‘Brand as a Revenue Multiplier’, where we deep-dive into some of the brand challenges B2B marketers face and how to shift away from brand as a function – to brand as the foundation to business success.
