Does brand strategy work in B2B too?

Especially in B2B. The purchases are big, the decision sits with multiple people, and the process takes a long time. The best proposal doesn't automatically win; the company that's clearest upfront about what it stands for does. A sharp brand gets you on the shortlist before the conversation even starts, and means you compete less on price. The idea that branding is only for consumer brands costs B2B companies exactly that head start.

How long does the strategic phase take?

Seven to nine weeks. We need that time to go into the organisation, talk to clients, and sharpen the choices.

Can't we just start with a new logo or a website?

You can, but then you're building on sand. Form without direction collapses fast and is expensive to fix. That's why we always start with strategy. The identity and the website come after, and then they actually hold up.

Is brand strategy a one-time thing, or something ongoing?

Both. You lay the foundation thoroughly in the strategic phase. After that it's your guideline, one you adjust every time your company enters a new phase.

For B2B companies that deliver good work, but whose brand has fallen behind what they're now worth. Often there's a turning point: an acquisition, a succession, a new market, or fast growth. Usually it's the marketer or the commercial lead who first sees the brand no longer fits and brings us in. We involve leadership from the start, because the choices we make together affect the whole organisation, from sales to the people you hire.

What does a brand strategy cost?

That depends on the scope and the size of your organisation. We always build a proposal tailored to you. The strategic phase can also stand alone as a starting point, if you want to lay the foundation first before moving on.

What is brand identity?

Brand identity is the phase in which your brand takes shape and finds its voice. We translate your positioning into a concept, a verbal identity with tone of voice and tagline, a visual identity covering logo, typography, colour and visual language, and a system for motion. The result is a brand that looks, sounds and feels consistent everywhere, supported by a brand guide your team can use independently.

What's the difference between brand strategy and brand identity?

Brand strategy defines what you stand for, your position and your story. Brand identity makes that visible and felt: how your brand looks, sounds, and feels. The strategy is the direction, the identity is the form that follows from it. That's why we do them in that order, not the other way around.

Can you just design a logo or visual identity?

We design a complete identity, not a standalone logo. A logo that does not grow from your positioning is decoration, and decoration may attract attention for a moment before fading away. What stays with people is a brand that evokes the same feeling everywhere. That is the work, and we deliver it as one cohesive whole.

Does brand identity work in B2B too?

Especially in B2B. Buyers often compare companies that look similar on paper and form a preference early. An identity that consistently evokes the same feeling helps people recognise and take you seriously before the conversation even begins. The idea that a polished identity is only for consumer brands costs B2B companies precisely that advantage.

Do we need to do the strategy with you too?

Preferably, because the identity follows from the positioning. If you already have a sharp, shared strategy in place, we first assess whether it is strong enough to build on. If not, we start there, because an identity built on a weak foundation will not hold up.

For B2B companies whose identity has fallen behind the value of the business. There is often a turning point involved: an acquisition, a spin-off, a new product or a new market. At moments like these, your brand needs to show who you are now, not who you were three years ago.

What does a brand identity cost?

That depends on the scope and size of your organisation. We always create a tailored proposal, usually as a continuation of the strategy phase.

What is brand culture?

Brand culture is your brand as it is lived on the inside and expressed through the behaviour of your people. We sharpen your core values, translate them into concrete behaviour, embed them in your onboarding and leadership and show how the culture comes across through your employer brand. The result is a culture you can actively shape and that feels consistent from the outside.

What's the difference between brand culture and employer branding?

Employer branding is how you present your brand culture to the outside world as an employer. First, we make sure the culture is genuine and visible in everyday behaviour. Only then do you have something real to communicate and use to attract the right talent. Employer branding without a culture to support it is a promise you cannot keep on day one.

Does this also work for attracting technical talent?

Especially there. In a region where the biggest names are competing for the same technical talent, you are unlikely to win on salary alone. What does work is a brand that lets people feel what you offer that a larger employer cannot: ownership, direct communication and a culture they can genuinely be part of. That starts on the inside and becomes visible on the outside.

We already have core values. What do you add?

Core values are often appealing words that do not guide behaviour. We translate them into concrete actions: what does a value mean in a conversation with a client, in how you say no or in how colleagues address each other? That is how a value moves from the wall into the workplace.

For B2B companies with a strong culture that remains invisible from the outside or is at risk of fading as the organisation grows. There is often a turning point involved: a change in leadership where the story lives in one person's head, rapid growth that makes it harder for new people to understand the intention or a fight for talent you are losing on reputation.

Do you do this once, or as a process?

Usually as an ongoing process or retainer, because embedding a culture takes more than a one-off workshop. We lay the foundation and stay involved while it becomes part of everyday behaviour and grows with your organisation.

What does brand culture cost?

That depends on the scope and size of your organisation. We always create a tailored proposal.

Why do so many acquisitions fail?

70 to 90% fail to reach the expected value, and the biggest cause is culture, not the numbers (BCG, McKinsey). Two ways of working don't automatically become one. Without a shared story both teams recognise themselves in, people leave and what made the deal valuable dilutes.

What if we're the party being acquired?

Then you don't want to dissolve into the bigger whole. Your identity, your best people and your customers were the reason you got bought. A sharp brand story helps you hold on to what made you worth buying, even as the owner changes.

Which brand should lead after an acquisition?

Not automatically the biggest or the oldest. The brand that carries the most trust with the customers you want to keep should lead. Sometimes that's the acquirer, sometimes the acquired party, sometimes a new brand that rises above both.

When do you start on brand strategy in an acquisition?

Preferably before closing, not months after. The longer your brands sit side by side without direction, the more the market fills in who you are on its own, and the more expensive it becomes to reverse that.

What does business succession have to do with branding?

At a founder-led company, the brand is often never made explicit: it was the founder himself. His network, his judgment, his way of working. At a succession, that needs to be detached from the person and captured, otherwise the story leaves with whoever is handing over.

When do you start on the brand during a succession?

Before the handover is complete, while the founder is still there. The story is in his head, so he needs to be there to get it out. Waiting until after the handover means reconstructing what's already gone.

What's the difference between founder-led and founder-inspired?

Founder-led means the company runs on the founder's presence. Founder-inspired means his vision is captured and anchored in the organization, so it keeps working even when he steps back.

Does this also apply if the successor comes from outside?

Yes. An appointed director can't inherit the founder's story and has to formulate one. For him, a sharp positioning is the instrument to make the new phase visible, in his first year.

Should a new product get its own name or fall under our brand?

That depends on how far it stands from what you do now and on who needs to buy it. If it's close to your core, it strengthens things under your brand. If it targets a completely different audience, a separate name can actually help. The choice should come from strategy, not from enthusiasm about the launch.

Why doesn't our brand work automatically in a new market?

Because your existing brand is built on relationships and recognition in your current market. In a new market or region, no one knows you, and the personal introduction disappears. There, the story has to do it alone, and that requires a brand that speaks for itself.

We've had multiple names over the years. What now?

That's called brand architecture, and at most companies it's history rather than a choice. We sort out what deserves its own name, what falls under a parent brand and what can disappear, so customers understand again how everything connects.

When do you start with this?

Before you launch or enter the new market, not after. The positioning of the new thing determines how you bring it to market. Adjusting afterwards costs more and is visible to your customers.

What's the difference between brand strategy and brand identity?

Brand strategy determines what your brand stands for and who it's for. Brand identity is the form that follows from it: your logo, your colours, your typography, your tone of voice. The strategy is the choice, the identity makes that choice visible and audible. An identity without a strategy underneath is decoration.

Is brand strategy the same as marketing?

No. Brand strategy determines who you are and what you stand for. Marketing then brings that to the outside world. Branding and marketing aren't the same thing: the strategy sets the direction, the marketing covers the ground. Start with marketing without a brand strategy, and you're paying for attention your brand can't hold onto afterward.

Why do most brand strategies fail?

Rarely because of bad design. Mostly because nothing changes afterward. A large study among more than 1,300 companies found that 82 percent say they run a fully developed approach, but only 21 percent actually get value from it. A brand strategy that gets delivered as a document and never settles into behaviour steers nothing. Execution therefore counts at least as much as the choice itself.

How long does it take to develop a brand strategy?

At Stuurmen, the strategy phase takes seven to nine weeks. During that time we go into the organisation, talk to your people and your customers, and work towards one positioning and one story everyone stands behind. You'll keep refining a brand for years after that, but the foundation is in place by then.

Does a small company need a brand strategy too?

Yes, though the question is more when than if. Once you're past a handful of people, everyone starts telling their own version of who you are, unless there's a strategy that fixes it. It's precisely the companies that do good work and still run on their network that eventually hit the edge of it. A brand strategy is what moves that edge.

Your visual identity is not your brand

Q: What is brand strategy?

The first phase of a branding process. We define your position in the market and write your brand narrative, based on what's already true in your organisation. You come out of it with a sharp positioning, a brand narrative that holds up, and a leadership team that agrees on who you are.

Read time9 min

Date published31/07/2026

Written by

Stijn de Jong

Your visual identity is how your brand shows up: logo, colour, typography and imagery. Your brand is what people remember after encountering you. The two aren't the same. A new visual identity changes how you look, not the position you occupy. Good design does real work, but only when there's a sharp choice underneath for it to make visible.

Someone calls: "We want a new visual identity." It's a fair request and what we do for a living, but there's often a bigger question underneath. Why doesn't the market see us as the best in our field when we actually are? A new logo won't fix that. Not because design doesn't matter, but because design needs something meaningful to make visible.

You send a visual identity out into the world, but what reaches your customer is something else: the sum of everything they see, hear and experience from you. There's a gap between what you send and what lands. Your brand lives in that gap. A visual identity can narrow it, but only if it stands for something.

What is a visual identity, and what is your brand?

A visual identity is the visible part: your logo, colours, typography, imagery and the way everything looks and feels. It's a craft, and it matters commercially. Research into how brands grow shows that colours, shapes and logos help buyers recognise and remember you at the moment of choice. But that only works when those elements are used consistently and are distinctive enough to belong to you alone.

Your brand is bigger. It's the position you occupy in the mind of the market: what people call you for, what they expect from you and why they choose you over the competitor next door. You don't build that with a logo. You build it by choosing what you stand for and what you don't. That choice is the work of your brand strategy. Your visual identity makes it visible.

	Visual identity	Brand identity	Brand
What it is	The visible: logo, color, type, imagery	The choice that carries the visible	What happens in the mind of the market
Who decides it	You, with your designer	You, with a sharp strategy	The market
Changes through	A redesign	Choosing a different position	Everything people experience from you

Billboard with cyclists on a green hill, featuring the text "Fuel the difference," promoting sports supplements.

Why a new visual identity doesn't change your brand

This happens more often than you'd think. A company commissions a new visual identity, launches it internally, emails its customers and posts it on LinkedIn. Six months later, nothing has changed: the same customers, the same price pressure, the same conversations. The brand looks different, but says nothing different.

That's not the designer's fault. It's about what didn't happen before the design: no choice was made. A visual identity can only communicate something when there's something to communicate. Without a clear position underneath, a redesign is simply a new look for the same old stance. You look fresh for a moment, then everything settles back into place.

And it can get worse than simply standing still. Take Tropicana. In January 2009, the juice brand replaced its entire packaging in one go: the familiar straw in the orange disappeared, replaced by a glass of juice, while the logo was rotated, the cap changed and the tagline updated. The launch was backed by a thirty-five-million-dollar campaign. Within two months, sales had fallen by twenty percent, wiping out around thirty million dollars in revenue. By 23 February, the old packaging was back. Total damage: more than fifty million.

The design wasn't ugly. The problem was that every recognisable element disappeared at once. The straw in the orange wasn't decoration; it was how people recognised the brand on the shelf. Remove it and loyal customers suddenly saw an ordinary carton of juice. At the exact moment that mattered, when choosing in store, they had to think again. That's what happens when you change the surface without understanding what it was carrying.

A visual identity that says nothing new changes your appearance, not your position.

What a visual identity actually does

So don't underestimate a visual identity. The lesson from Tropicana cuts both ways. Yes, a redesign without understanding can go badly wrong. But it also reveals how much work the existing identity was quietly doing: that single straw kept the brand recognisable for years on a shelf full of competitors.

The moment there's a sharp choice underneath, design is exactly where that choice becomes visible and tangible. A good designer doesn't simply make things prettier; they make the brand recognisable. They ensure you stand apart at a glance from everyone making the same claims. Colour, shape and the rhythm of your typography become memory hooks. The more consistently you use them, the stronger those associations become.

A visual identity isn't superficial. It only becomes empty when there's nothing underneath to support it. With substance, it becomes a memory hook. Without it, it's just a template.

Recognise this?

You're the best at what you do, but your brand doesn't show it. Your website is three years old, your logo no longer reflects the business and you already know that a fresh coat of paint alone won't fix it.

Construction hoarding in the Haven visual identity with the text ‘Trust redefined’

What a good designer does differently

The difference is in the first question. An executor asks: how do you want it to look? A good designer asks: what do you stand for, and why would the market remember you? Only once that's sharp does the design move in that direction.

That's why "just make it look nice" is a poor brief. Nice is an opinion; recognisable is a choice. A designer who works from taste alone creates something everyone likes for a moment but no one can truly use. A designer who works from a clear strategic choice creates something that may grate with people who were never going to be your customer, but clicks with those who are. That friction is part of it. A brand that tries to appeal to everyone rarely appeals strongly to anyone.

What makes up a strong brand identity?

An identity that holds up rests on a clear choice: who you are, what you stand for and, just as importantly, what you don't stand for. That choice determines how you look, how you sound and how you behave. Only then can the design become consistent, because only then is there something meaningful to be consistent with.

A brand identity is therefore more than a logo. It includes both the visual side, such as colour, shape, typography and imagery, and the verbal side, such as tone of voice, language and tagline. Both should express the same choice. If your brand looks sharp but sounds weak, the market feels the disconnect.

That choice also has to make sense internally. No one can carry a visual identity they don't understand. If sales, recruitment and leadership all tell a different story about who you are, the market will see that confusion reflected back, however good the logo looks. That's why you capture the identity in a brand guide that explains not only how things should look, but why. It gives everyone who brings the brand to life each day the same direction.

That internal expression of the brand is your brand culture, and it determines whether the identity stays alive or gradually fades.

When do you need a new identity?

Not because your visual identity is "due for something new", but because your brand has fallen behind the company you've become. That often happens at a turning point: an acquisition, a change in leadership, a new market or the arrival of your first marketing hire. The company has moved forward, but the brand hasn't kept up.

A new identity is then not a cosmetic exercise, but a way of making something already true visible. That's the difference between meaningful change and redesign for its own sake: one starts with a strategic choice, the other with taste. And remember the lesson from Tropicana. When you renew the identity, don't discard every recognisable element at once. Build on what already works and change what the new position demands.

What this means in practice

Come to us for a visual identity and that's what you'll get. But we always place a clear choice underneath it, even when you didn't explicitly ask for one. Not because we want to turn everything into a strategy project, but because a visual identity without a strategic choice costs money without changing your position.

The order is no coincidence. First, clarify what's true and what can be left behind. Then translate that into an identity that fits. This doesn't simply make you look better; it makes you recognisable as yourself. That's where a designer makes the difference: not by decorating, but by making a previously invisible choice visible.

No. Your visual identity is the visible part: logo, colour, typography and imagery. Your brand is what remains in the mind of the market. A visual identity shows your brand, but it isn't the brand itself. At Stuurmen, we define the strategic choice first and then create the design that expresses it.

Yes, sometimes that's exactly what you need. We still make sure there's a sharp choice underneath, so the identity isn't simply attractive but unmistakably yours. Otherwise, you're paying for a new look without moving your position forward.

You should renew it when the brand falls behind the company you've become, for example after an acquisition, a move into a new market or significant growth. Age alone is not a reason. And when you do renew it, don't discard every recognisable element at once or you risk losing the brand memory you've built.

A visual identity is the design. A brand identity combines that design with the strategic choice and tone behind it. A rebrand reassesses the entire brand, usually because its position has shifted. A new visual identity is therefore not automatically a rebrand, and a rebrand involves more than a new visual identity.

Brand strategy is the choice: who you are and what you stand for. Brand identity makes that choice visible and tangible. The strategy gives direction, the identity gives form. More on that in what is brand strategy, and what isn't?

A good conversation as a starting point

Let's meet.

We'll look with you at where you stand now and where it's rubbing, and show you where your brand can get stronger and sharper.