The Long and the Short of It: Why B2B Needs Both Brand and Demand
If you work in B2B marketing, you’ve probably heard the debate: should we invest in long-term brand building, or double down on short-term demand generation?
The answer, if you’re serious about sustainable growth, is both. But too many B2B companies are stuck at one end of the spectrum — either obsessing over attribution dashboards and quarterly leads, or investing in vague brand campaigns without a clear link to revenue.
Let’s unpack why this false choice is costing companies more than they realise — and how the smartest B2B brands are building both, intentionally.
Why B2B Gets It Wrong
In consumer marketing, the importance of brand is understood. You don’t see Nike running LinkedIn lead-gen forms. But in B2B, we’ve become addicted to what we can measure in the moment.
The rise of performance marketing and CRM tools trained teams to prioritise short-term pipeline over long-term equity. And it worked — for a while. But when growth stalls or markets shift, those same businesses realise they’ve built little real preference, loyalty, or distinctiveness.
In other words: they’ve built a funnel, but not a brand.
The Evidence Is Clear
According to the B2B Institute and the legendary work of Les Binet & Peter Field, the most effective B2B strategies balance long and short:
60% brand building / 40% demand activation is the sweet spot for most categories.
Brand investment drives future demand by making you mentally available when buyers enter market.
Activation converts that demand into immediate revenue.
Without brand, your demand gen gets more expensive over time. Without activation, your brand work never shows up on the bottom line.
Brand Builds Memory.
Demand Converts Intent.
Think of brand as the compound interest of marketing. It grows slowly but pays off over time — especially when markets tighten and buyers default to the brands they know and trust.
Demand generation is essential too. It’s the engine that turns awareness into action. But it works best when it's built on top of a brand people recognise and feel something for.
If buyers don’t know who you are, or worse — don’t care — no amount of spend will make your demo form sing.
What It Looks Like in Practice
At Brandtale, we’ve helped B2B companies build brand and demand in sync. It looks like:
Creating brand platforms with a clear point of view and emotional resonance
Running consistent, recognizable campaigns across the funnel — not just sales-heavy emails
Training sales and CS teams to tell the same story as the marketing team
Balancing content: high-impact hero assets to build reputation and bottom-funnel content to close the deal
Final Thought: This Isn’t Either/Or. It’s And.
Smart B2B marketing leaders don’t pick sides. They know brand and demand work best when they work together.
So next time you’re in a budget meeting, ask:
Are we funding only the next quarter’s pipeline?
Or are we building a brand that buyers will want to work with for the next five years?
Play the long game. But don’t forget the short one too.
