Power Up Your B2B Branding

This is a book for people who believe in the power of Business to Business branding and marketing, but for some reason (perhaps many) it doesn't work for them. Non-believers are strongly encouraged to stop reading now and place this book back on the shelf. Thank you for investing 38 seconds of your time. Rob Dalton taps into his 40 plus years of business-driving branding and marketing experience to help upstart brands disrupt the status quo and struggling brands re-configure, re-energize and re-emerge as marketing powerhouses. The book title promises in 35 days you'll be powering up your B2B branding. But what you can't know until you open the pages is that Rob makes the hard work of building a powerful brand and messaging platform interesting and fun.

For decades, psychologists have been perpetuating a saying attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." This is total B.S. because every time your competitor (you know the one I'm talking about) launches a new ad campaign or marketing stunt, customers eat it up. Your customers. Bam! Your heart sinks. Your head explodes. As a marketing professional, you feel you've failed your company. I can only guess but I'll bet your company makes a better product, and your service is far superior, too. (Yup, life isn't fair.) So you have to decide. Will you hang your head and accept defeat? Or worse yet, make excuses for getting beat up on the marketplace playground? Or, is today the day you decide to take charge of your brand and the trajectory of your growth? If you are a Chief Marketing Officer, Marketing Director, Brand Manager, Digital Marketing Specialist or other influencer of your company's branding and marketing, I want to make you a promise. In 35 days you will stop introducing yourself as the person responsible for your company's marketing, and start introducing yourself as the person IN CHARGE of your company's marketing. Not one, but two editors tried to talk me out of writing this book. Because much of its content is heavily biased toward creative- and emotion-driven thinking—stuff both editors felt would unfairly challenge marketing directors and turn off corporate decision-makers. I respectfully disagree. It is not a new concept that people buy on emotion (95% of our brains—and therefore our decisions—are powered by emotion) and later validate their purchase decisions with rational thought. So it is imperative to purposefully create, or re-create your branding and marketing based on emotional expression, not just rational thought and data. I've been using creative- and emotion-based stimuli described in this book for over 15 years and found that marketing directors and corporate decision makers "get it" and absolutely hone in on how to identify the things that make their brands unique and powerful. And how to articulate their brands' purpose and product features and benefits in unique and powerful ways—in traditional, experiential and digital channels. Most of the marketing people I've worked with are ingenious, hard-working and proud of their companies. The problem is, most of them (especially those in B2B) underestimate the power of branding and marketing and rely almost entirely on their sales people and reps to introduce products, build relationships and grow their businesses. My mission is to help them power up their branding and marketing so they can shorten the sales cycle, generate more qualified leads, build stronger customer relationships and leapfrog right over their competitors.

Rob Dalton caught a lucky break starting his career at the time Minneapolis, Minnesota was emerging as the epicenter of advertising creativity. He worked for and with many of the industry's most brilliant marketers and ad creators at premiere agencies including Fallon and Martin Williams, eventually earning a reputation for creative excellence in his own right. His work has won awards in virtually every national advertising competition. Rob's roster of past clients include FedEx, Target, Lee Jeans, The Wall Street Journal, Delta Airlines, Ford Lincoln-Mercury, 3M, as well as several challenger brands including AmericInn Hotels, Dunn Bros Coffee, Super Clean, and more. Rob's B2B clients include Boston Scientific, Boeing, Fair Isaac & Company (FICO), Uponor, NextEra Analytics and dozens more, large and small. Rob caught an even luckier break when he married his high school sweetheart in 1976. He and his wife Debbie raised two amazing kids who continue to delight and inspire them, even though they live much too far away. Several years ago, one of Rob's clients referred to him as their "brand therapist" because of his collaborative processes and approachable demeanor. The title stuck.