The difference between flourishing and floundering in today’s crowded B2B tech landscape isn’t just about having a superior product—it’s about telling a compelling story that resonates with your target audience and differentiates your tech marketing strategy.
From the Desk of a Former Tech Journalist: The Power of Strategic Communications
As a tech journalist early in my career, I witnessed countless companies—including large, well-funded ones—that struggled to define who they were and what made them unique. Their press releases would land in my inbox with muddled messaging and generic claims. During interviews, many spokespeople couldn’t articulate why their company existed or provide compelling facts and anecdotes to bring their B2B marketing story to life.
But then, occasionally, a company would show up with a succinct press release, a compelling pitch and an equally (if not more) compelling spokesperson. These companies stood out dramatically from the noise—not necessarily because their technology was superior, but because they knew exactly who they were and could communicate it effectively through strategic brand positioning.
A Journey of Positioning Excellence: Building Expertise in B2B Tech PR
My path into strategic brand positioning began at Andy Cunningham’s agency in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I landed after leaving journalism. Motorola in Austin specifically brought me in because I could translate complex microprocessor innovations into compelling, accessible narratives—a skill that’s become essential for B2B tech marketing professionals today.
Though I didn’t work with Andy directly, her agency’s methodical approach to positioning provided my initial exposure to strategic communications and B2B PR best practices. This foundation was further developed during my time at agencies in New York City during the dot-com boom, when brand positioning became critical not just for launching companies but for pursuing funding. Creating compelling investor decks grounded in clear positioning made the difference between startups that secured capital and those that faded away—a reality that remains just as true for B2B technology companies today.
My journey continued with significant repositioning projects for global organizations like IBM Research and JPMorgan Chase in Asia Pacific. Each of these experiences contributed valuable insights that helped me refine and improve the brand positioning process for B2B tech clients.
Years later, when Andy published “Get to Aha!”, I recognized principles that resonated with aspects of the methodology I had been developing independently through years of practical application in B2B tech marketing and strategic communications. Today, everyone on the Red Fan team has read her book, and I often gift it to our clients as we kick off our brand positioning work together.
At Red Fan Communications, we’ve been actively evolving our B2B brand positioning toolkit and putting it into practice monthly with tech marketing clients for over 17 years. This continuous refinement has created a robust, battle-tested approach that works effectively for both emerging B2B technology companies seeking their initial market position and established enterprises needing brand narrative revitalization. Our process has been shaped through practical application across dozens of industries, creating a methodology that uncovers unique value propositions even when B2B tech companies themselves struggle to articulate them.
The Costly Mistake of Rushed Brand Positioning in B2B Tech Marketing
B2B technology companies eager to showcase features and functionalities rush past the essential work of crafting who they truly are and why they matter to their target market. This mistake isn’t just common among tech marketing teams—it’s costly for long-term brand success.
When your brand narrative is unclear or underdeveloped, your B2B tech company becomes just another voice in an echo chamber of similar-sounding solutions. Without a distinct position in the market, you’re forcing potential clients to work harder to understand your value, and in B2B technology marketing, that extra effort often means lost opportunities. A well-crafted brand narrative isn’t just marketing fluff—it’s the backbone of your entire go-to-market strategy and B2B PR efforts. At Red Fan Communications, we’ve seen firsthand how strong brand positioning creates a competitive advantage that’s difficult to replicate in the crowded B2B tech space.
The Data Behind Effective B2B Tech Brand Positioning
Consider these compelling statistics that every B2B marketing professional should know:
- B2B buyers are more than 2x as likely to consider a brand that shows personal value over business value, as they perceive little difference in business value between suppliers (Marketing Week, 2023)
- A good market story is 22 times more memorable than facts alone (Tollejo, “The Importance of Brand Storytelling,” 2021)
- 84% of B2B marketers say brand awareness is their top goal (Content Marketing Institute, 2023)
- Storytelling can improve conversion rates by up to 30% (Search Engine Watch, cited in Tomorrow People, 2024)
These numbers tell a clear story for B2B tech marketing professionals: In the increasingly commoditized B2B technology space, your narrative is often the only thing that truly differentiates you from competitors.
As Andy Cunningham astutely observes, “Too many business leaders fail to ask the most basic questions about their company—Who are we? And why do we matter?—before they leap right into branding.”
When B2B Tech Companies Need Strategic Brand Positioning Most
Most recently, we’ve found that B2B technology companies going through transitions—particularly those acquiring other businesses or managing multiple product offerings and merging cultures—truly benefit from this foundational brand narrative work and strategic communications support.
The brand positioning process helps newly formed management teams get on the same page and head in the right direction with clarity and purpose. It sets the framework for how to communicate internally to get all employees excited and clear about how to talk about the company. This internal alignment then becomes the foundation for how you present the company externally to investors, reporters, partners and customers through coordinated B2B PR efforts.
In today’s environment of frequent mergers, acquisitions and rapid pivots in the B2B tech sector, this alignment becomes not just a marketing exercise but a crucial business integration tool that prevents fractured messaging and cultural disconnects.
The Brand Positioning & Narrative Lab Approach: Strategic Communications for B2B Tech
At Red Fan Communications, our Brand Positioning & Narrative Lab helps B2B tech companies answer those essential questions: “Who are we? And why do we matter?” Our B2B marketing approach is grounded in both qualitative and quantitative research, helping you craft a narrative that resonates with your target audience and stands out from the competition in the crowded technology marketplace.
Over an eight-week period, we work directly with every stakeholder crucial to your B2B tech business—from C-suite executives to customers and investors—to identify the messages and value propositions that will truly resonate in the market through strategic communications and targeted B2B PR campaigns.
The result? An in-depth playbook complete with brand narratives, audience-specific messaging and foundational communications elements that can be deployed across all your B2B marketing channels, from your website to social media to sales presentations and media outreach.
Red Fan’s Impact on B2B Tech Brand Positioning: Client Success Stories
In the last few months alone, Red Fan has successfully helped several national brands establish their market positions with compelling narratives and comprehensive B2B marketing messaging, including a prominent community bank with more than 1 million customers nationwide that was preparing for a critical product launch in a new financial services category.
Here’s what they had to say about the power of our strategic communications work together:
“Finding a PR agency that truly understands both financial services and technology—particularly the unique position of a community bank with national capabilities—is rare. Red Fan’s strategic advisors brought decades of combined experience in both verticals, along with deep connections to media and analysts who cover this space. Their team immediately demonstrated an understanding of our unique positioning challenge: how to articulate the story of a community bank that has invested in building a dedicated fintech division to drive industry-first innovations.
The strength of Red Fan’s brand positioning approach was their ability to weave together insights from our leadership team into a cohesive messaging framework that supported not only our bank’s broader story and growth strategy but also established the groundwork for a major product launch. They helped us distill complex technical differentiators into clear, powerful messaging that resonates with multiple audiences—from consumers to financial analysts. Their strategic positioning work has given us a strong foundation to build upon as we continue to challenge industry assumptions about what a community bank can be and what problems it can solve.”
Taking the First Step: Evaluating Your B2B Tech Brand Position
Building a strong brand narrative isn’t a “nice-to-have” luxury reserved for established enterprises—it’s a crucial foundation for any B2B tech company with serious growth ambitions and robust marketing goals.
The process starts with honest self-reflection that every B2B marketing professional should conduct:
- Can every member of your team clearly articulate what makes your B2B technology company different?
- Does your current messaging resonate with your ideal customers, or is it lost in technical jargon?
- Are you telling a story that’s not just understood but remembered by your target market?
- Does your company’s story truly pinpoint the company’s role and relevance in the B2B tech marketplace?
- Are you saying something that only your company can lay claim to in your industry?
This level of clarity is what separates the forgettable from the unforgettable in B2B tech marketing and determines the success of your strategic communications efforts.
If your answers reveal gaps in your narrative foundation, it’s time to invest in building this critical asset with the help of experienced B2B PR professionals. Your company’s future growth depends on it.
Ready to Stand Out in the B2B Tech Space?
Don’t let your B2B tech company be just another name in a sea of similar solutions. I’ve sat across the table from both types of companies—those with clear, compelling narratives supported by strategic communications and those without. The difference in how they’re received by media, investors, customers and talent is night and day.
Contact Red Fan Communications today to learn how our Brand Positioning & Narrative Lab can help transform your B2B technology company’s story from forgettable to unforgettable.
Our strategic communications expertise and proven B2B PR methodology have helped dozens of technology companies clarify their market position, strengthen their brand narrative, and achieve measurable growth through targeted marketing efforts.
