Innovation is perhaps the most overused word in B2B marketing. Whether it’s information technology, medical devices, industrial equipment or professional services, we find brand-builders returning over and over again to innovation as the core promise that will set their company or product apart from the rest of the pack.

But does being perceived as an innovator truly drive brand preference and ultimately purchase decisions? In this article, we focus on what we’ve discovered about the meaning and relevance of innovation to B2B buyers and how marketers can infuse these learnings into their brand-building efforts.

A March 8 article in Advertising Age featured a quote from Denis Riney, EVP Marketing at BrandLogic, on Toyota’s tarnished brand following the automaker’s recent product recall due to faulty braking mechanisms.

This is part three of an ongoing series.
Employees say: involve me more, train me less

What we’re hearing: Involving employees, through online communities, in the process of creating, managing and building brands is becoming standard practice among leading-edge marketers (and their compatriots in the human resources function).

This is part two of an ongoing series.
Marketing ROI: many definitions, little consensus

What we’re hearing: There are no silver bullets when it comes to measuring marketing ROI. Leading-edge marketers are still seeking new (and not so new) techniques for justifying their brand-building investments.

Where are the leading-edge ideas in marketing?

Over the last 12 months, we’ve gone on the road to find out. In addition to learning from our clients, we’ve been spending time with visionary marketers at leadership forums in places like London, Las Vegas, Moscow, Mumbai, Miami, and even midtown Manhattan.

This is part one of an ongoing series.
Social media: going mainstream in a hurry

What we’re hearing: Experimentation with social media is so 2009. Visionary marketers are investing heavily in social media and are realizing short- and long-term benefits, both in terms of reputation building and revenue generation.

By now we’ve all heard the jokes about the unfortunately named Apple iPad tablet computer. (We’ll leave it to you to fill in the punchline for the name of a hypothetical widescreen version.) It’s clear that the company was a bit tone-deaf when the name was chosen, exposing Apple to the kind of derisive humor usually reserved for Microsoft.

American Graphic Design and Advertising (AGDA), an organization presenting the best of corporate branding design work from the nation’s leading design firms, has recently awarded BrandLogic and Pepsi Bottling Group a Green/Sustainable Design award for the 2007 PBG Corporate Responsibility Report. The innovative report, titled Act! Our Commitment to Making a Difference, covers a variety of sustainability issues for PBG’s various audiences, including customers, investors, employees and potential employees.

With the holiday season upon us, we’re taking a look at one of the big hit gifts of the last few years and how a leading industry company leveraged it to create a brand-building opportunity.

The partial unveiling of the new AOL identity earlier this week produced quite a few smiles, snickers, moments of reflection in the brand community. How do we explain our rush to judgment for the new AOL logo, compliments of Wolff Olins?

In my last blog entry I noted that some brands have taken on a certain leadership role in society. They have become today’s heroes – supplanting individual luminaries in that role – and as a society we’ve become very comfortable with the idea of turning to them for invention and innovation.

What does this mean for businesses today? It’s both an opportunity and a potential trap. Reaching the brand status of an Apple or a Google is certainly a worthy goal, but first we must ask what makes one brand a “hero” and another a “zero.”