You recently lost a significant contract with a prospective customer because the customer committee felt that your public-facing presence looked as though your product was still in beta (therefore needing work). The reason why sales representatives cannot defend a high-priced product is not likely to be the product itself, but rather, the disparity between how you operate as a company and what your company looks like without a proper brand strategy design.

How to Align Your Brand Strategy Design with a Great Visual System

The majority of business teams view branding as a creative endeavor; however, it is not. True B2B company brand design must connect directly to revenue metrics. If a new logo design does not result in shorter sales cycles, greater win rates, or an increase in average contract value (ACV), the logo was not worth the investment. You are not purchasing art; instead you are purchasing pricing power.

The quantitative difference between a low-cost facelift and a well-integrated strategic branding model can be demonstrated quantifiably.

Companies that view their design process as an important business function are receiving significant returns. Companies that charge premium pricing typically have design processes mapped to their target customers; they conduct interviews with your potential buyers before they start using any design software.

You need a systematic method to eliminate the guesswork.

There is research supporting the idea that data-based design strategy significantly influences buyer decisions. One agency had a report recently published that found a dramatic increase in conversion rates after remedying a broken narrative. The reason for the dramatic increase is that once consumers are presented with clear and concise messaging, they will be less likely to have any doubts in their mind regarding the product or service.

When doubt is removed from the mind of buyers, contracts close much faster.

Key Parts of B2B Brand Strategy Design

A successful design strategy consists of multiple steps, which must be followed sequentially. One cannot jump immediately to choosing fonts.

The ability to execute visually on what the market wants starts with an organized process that goes from research, through execution visually. This research-to-visual execution will take, on average, 12-20 weeks. There are strict gates and approvals in place, as you must continually receive feedback to ensure your team is executing according to the requirements.

First a Proper Diagnosis

Deep research must be performed to accurately determine how to create a brand strategy design.

This includes interviews with your best clients, market surveys, and competitive audits. Afterwards, all subsequent design elements will only serve to create a pretty image for the designer based on his/her view. You should first determine the "why" for your business; then and only then create a strategy to differentiate yourself.

Early-stage businesses experience this issue frequently.

A diagnosis shows the specific reasons for why your buyers have chosen to purchase from your organization rather than from a competitor. It defines the language that your target market uses to describe your products or services and will serve as the foundation for your messaging strategy.

The Economic Buyer

When developing a brand strategy design and positioning, one must be mindful of who has control of the financial resources necessary to purchase your solution.

While middle-management is concerned about the basic features of a product or service, the economic buyer's primary concern relates to how much risk they may incur by purchasing a specific product or service and what level of return on investment can be expected from that purchase. When developing a verbal identity, the language utilized to support your economic buyer needs to change to communicate with them effectively.

Your organization must build an overall category narrative, which articulately outlines the rationale behind and why your organization has the single viable solution available.

If your narrative fails to communicate properly to your economic buyer, your sales staff will resort to using discounting to close sales.

Cybersecurity and industrial companies have utilized a business model that focuses on building trust in forming complex sales relationships. They create a "trust" narrative to facilitate the decision-making process for buying committees containing multiple members. One of the strongest methods for negating objections is to neutralize them prior to their occurrence.

Visual Output

The strategy phase is when design actually starts. However, it is not as simple as just creating a new logo.

A true visual system consists of a primary lock-up, clear color and typography rules, iconography, and illustrative direction; these elements must work consistently across every touchpoint. For instance, regardless of whether you are in sales decks or have an online application, the visual representation of those two items must remain the same.

If the look of two items is not the same, the potential buyer will lose confidence more quickly than they would if the price was too high.

Thus, with modern workflows (especially in e-commerce), it is common for a brand to maintain strict brand books. These types of guidelines provide your team with explicit instructions on how to utilize your assets, eliminating the need for repetitive questions, and reducing rogue behavior from employees.

Pricing Guide and Cost Breakdown

Many agency leaders cannot understand why they would pay $8,000 for one agency and $65,000 for another, even though it appears that both agencies would provide the same level of work.

The differences in cost between these two agencies is attributed to the agency's depth of experience, scale (number of employees), and risk mitigation strategies. Premium and higher-end agencies charge premium prices because they help businesses (and brands) align their deeper strategic goals to their executions.

Even when evaluating the pricing of agencies in the standard category, it is necessary to understand that there are several different levels of pricing for each category of agency. So, what exactly is worth the cost?

Standard Refresh Tier

Expect to pay $8,000 for a basic visual upgrade.

The agency will take about 4 to 6 weeks to visually refresh your existing brand, which will consist of a primary logo lock-up, some variant logos, and a single-page guideline. The agency will usually give you two rounds of revisions to complete the basic visual assets.

The standard refresh tier does not include any strategy—it is purely cosmetic in nature. If your core message is broken, a refresh will not fix it, it just paints over the top of a broken engine. Only use this tier if your current positioning already works exceptionally well.

The Identity Development Tier

Once you reach $22,000 you are now in true identity development.

The process takes between 8 to 12 weeks, with deliverables of a complete logo system and a brand book of at least twenty pages. In addition to these, there will be templates for your sales and marketing teams.

You can count on the agency to create tangible, usable assets for your team on a day-to-day basis.

The agency will spend significant time making sure that your visual system accurately reflects your market position and that you look very different. Naming a company can range from $5,000 to $15,000 due to the extensive legal and trademark research involved. Creating a custom typeface could add another $15,000 to $50,000 to your expenses.

Additionally, incorporating motion and sound design may bring an extra cost of $8,000 to $20,000. Before entering into any agreement, it's crucial to clearly outline your requirements.

When it comes to global markets, prices can vary drastically. You might find freelancers overseas offering logo designs for only a few hundred dollars, while local agencies may charge significantly more for comprehensive strategic overhauls. This disparity highlights the importance of focusing on processes rather than just pricing when making purchases.

Measuring Return on Investment

You cannot enhance what you do not measure.

One of the major shortcomings in this industry is the lack of outcome measurement. A strong new brand identity should have a direct impact on your core business metrics. It’s essential to establish tracking mechanisms as soon as the new branding components are implemented.

If you can't demonstrate a return on investment (ROI), securing future budgets will be nearly impossible.

Integrating with CRM Systems

Your customer relationship management (CRM) system must monitor marketing interactions effectively.

Utilize UTM parameters across all your new case studies, launch announcements, and content assets. Ensure that clear attribution windows are established within your system so you can analyze whether accounts engaging with the new messaging progress through the sales pipeline more swiftly.

Keep a close eye on your inbound share.

As potential customers become familiar with your position in the market, interest from them will naturally grow. Consequently, you'll spend less time conducting cold outreach since prospects will begin seeking you out instead. The trajectory of success does indicate that investing in whether or not the MEDDIC methodology aligns with your organizational qualification methodology has been worthwhile.

Where's My Position?

B2B sales teams implement various frameworks that have different ideation and implementation methodologies to qualify deals—one of which is known as MEDDIC.

It's important that your new positioning be represented within MEDDIC's qualification methods. Do your pitch decks now accelerate how quickly the economic buyer can be identified? Do your visual authority graphics help clarify what is meant by the decision criteria?

New sales enablement assets will enable sales reps to take greater control of their deals, thereby increasing their win rates.

Agencies that understand this reality build sales enablement assets that support the sales methodologies used by their clients. They don't just hand over a logo and walk away.

Process Gaps and Common Failures

Even the most well-funded projects are susceptible to failure.

The marketplace is littered with failed attempts wherein companies made substantial investments but the internal team refused to accept or adopt the new system. In most cases, the project's initial idea did not fail due to poor design; rather, it was a lack of a sound operational process from the inception of the project.

If you are aware of the following identified operational traps, you will be in a better position to prevent future operational trap occurrences in your organization.

The Skipped Diagnosis Trap

In an effort to save costs, many leaders skip over the research phase when launching their products.

Leaders often build their business case around the internal views of the people on their team rather than relying on the insights provided by customers through their research/audits.

This leads to ongoing revision cycles because the project has devolved into negotiations about color tones and perception rather than focusing on the need for a product that is going to be accepted by the customer(s) for whom it was developed.

By skipping the research phase of a project, you are setting yourself up for a lack of success.

There is a considerable gap between how a business will interpret a visual identity compared to how the buyer will interpret the visual identity. Therefore, within the first year, you will likely have to redo your project.

Understanding Business Buyers

It is a big mistake to ignore the specific dynamics of B2B purchasing when creating a B2B brand strategy design.

Understanding that enterprise software is not a consumable beverage is key to understanding how people purchase enterprise software.

The purchasing process for enterprise software involves agencies like finance, legal, security and multiple individuals who will influence the purchase decision.

Therefore, if your new visual identity and messaging do not directly engage those stakeholders, you will have difficulty closing the deal.

It is important to understand the entire purchasing committee when developing your strategy.

Some companies leverage AI tools such as BrandBuildr.ai to hasten the early concept phases of their projects.

While these tools allow for rapid idea generation, the insights provided by an AI tool cannot replace the human insights required to effectively navigate the complex enterprise purchasing process.

Managing Your Brand After Launch

You must have a governance plan in place after the launch of the new visual identity. Without a governance plan, your sales team will quickly degrade your brand's new visual identity.

They will manipulate logos, use inappropriate typography and create poor presentation materials.

Therefore, establish a brand council that will oversee and approve all publicly-facing materials.

To help ensure the successful execution of the brand identity your agency created, retain the agency on a small monthly retainer to address any design work that your team has to complete beyond the standard branding guidelines.

The typical retainer for design-specific creative direction will range from $1,500.00 to $4,500.00.

Retaining a small retainer allows for continued input from the agency while your internal team begins applying the established branding guidelines, protecting your initial investment and ensuring the quality and consistency of the creative work being produced.

Final Thoughts on Brand Strategy Design

The execution of a brand strategy design is a serious business strategy, not an arts and crafts project.

When a business aligns its visual identity with its strategic positioning, the business is repositioning the market's perception of its value.

In turn, buyers will trust the business more, opportunities will close faster and the company will have the capability to defend higher prices.

For this reason it is important to exercise an operational discipline in the execution of the brand identity process.

You should invest the necessary time and resources in developing the creative materials and demand that a clear scope and budget be established for the project.

Additionally, invest the necessary time and resources into measuring the revenue impact of the project once the execution of the project is complete.