Brand is often treated as the answer to everything in B2B. When growth slows or brand recognition stalls, the collective cry goes up: “We need a brand campaign to drive awareness to generate trust; or worst ‘we need to evolve our brand strategy.” But without positioning, a brand strategy can be little more than a megaphone for confusion that doesn’t get deep enough to solve the problem – and an expensive exercise. So is brand alone the answer? Sometimes, yes. But only if your positioning is clear first and underpins it.

The Brand trap: When form replaces function

Too many businesses jump to brand execution without anchoring it in a defined strategic position. The mission and values are refreshed, a big single messaging idea is developed, the logo changes, colours refreshed. Agencies get busy. Everyone feels progress.

But often it’s lacking the substance and depth for sales and marketing to make a real and sustained difference at the next level where real deals are done, it’s missing the precision to make it truly customer relevant and not generic – like:

• What are the real market and business challenges of the buyers you’re targeting
• How does your business align and exactly answer those challenges in a way the buyers get quickly and your sellers can use
• What are you going to enable your customers to achieve in real-terms and in detail beyond empty often-used statements
• And how is your business and its offering different and better than your competitors

…and brand doesn’t answer these types of questions in the depth needed – but positioning does – it’s about the detail that helps you win and those who get it right have been proven to grow faster and better than those who don’t lean into positioning.

A word from our leader and unrelenting strategic thinker – Mark Wiseman-Smith:

“If brand isn’t anchored to clear positioning, it can be just expensive noise. We see it every month: brand campaigns built on nothing but good intentions and empty adjectives. The result? Brief visibility, no traction, and internal disillusionment.”

Positioning first, Brand second

This isn’t a call to diminish brand. Quite the opposite. It’s a call to protect brand by giving it a spine or an architectural plan to win. When positioning comes first, brand becomes a more powerful tool of precision – not guesswork. Messaging becomes specific. Visuals serve meaning. Campaigns support direction. Sales teams can talk to customer needs and aligned to the portfolio you want to sell. The market listens.

Positioning, done well, defines:

• Your unquestionable role in the buyer’s world
• The tension you uniquely solve in your category
• The winning argument that only you can tell above others

With this in place, brand becomes the amplifier of a compelling and robust narrative that is true – that your entire business can stand behind and use – not a substitute for one.

What does clear positioning actually protect you from?

Throughout 2025 and the summer so far, we’ve seen several threats that B2B businesses directing attention to brand-only campaigns fall prey to. And we consider how strategic clarity protects you from these threats:

1. Wasted budget – Without positioning, you risk building top-of-funnel awareness with no path to conversion. You get noise, not signal. Spend, not ROI. Clear positioning ensures every pound spent on brand pushes prospects into a defined narrative, not a void.
2. AI-Driven Sameness – B2B brands are pumping out AI-generated content. Without differentiation, the outputs are eerily similar – generic, indistinct, forgettable. Positioning trains AI tools to stay on-brand and unique. The tech follows the thinking.
3. Misaligned Teams – Marketing may chase brand awareness. Sales may chase lead volume. Without shared strategy, they pull in opposite directions – and can cancel each other out. A common strategic spine aligns every function. Brand doesn’t live in marketing – it lives at the heart of the business.
4. Creative Gimmicks – Without narrative structure, creativity becomes randomness. Safe choices dominate, or worse – flashy ideas that distract from meaning. When brand is grounded in strategy, creativity becomes focused, bold, and purposeful. Distinctive, not decorative.

Build it from the inside out

With 86% of B2B buyers starting with a pre-existing shortlist, brand only works if it reflects a clear, early positioning – the kind that earns you a place on that list. If you’re not already in the frame, you’re nowhere.

Brand is key. And it isn’t just a surface to polish. It’s the visible outcome of internal clarity. At The Craft, we say: “Positioning is the blueprint. Brand is how the world sees it.”

So no – brand isn’t the fix for everything. But with strong positioning, it becomes a force multiplier: for recall, meaning, and market impact. Don’t start with what it looks like though. Start with what it’s for.

Positioning, narrative, and differentiation aren’t “nice to haves” – they’re what make Brand work, from internal strategic clarity to how it shows up in the real world. Without these strategic elements, brand is just noise. With them, brand becomes the sharpest tool you have to shape perception, align teams, and move markets.