It’s time to face a hard truth: B2B brand measurement is fundamentally broken and has been for many years. This failure is sabotaging the value of your entire marketing function. While marketing teams chase “performance marketing” metrics, conversion rates, and launch plans, arguably the biggest growth engine for your business overall — your brand — is being neglected, misunderstood, and (very likely) grossly undervalued.
The State Of Brand Measurement And Value Recognition Is Poor
Over the five years I’ve worked at Forrester, the question I’m asked most frequently is how to measure a brand’s value, especially as a driver of growth. And what I’ve learned is that many B2B companies are flying blind when it comes to understanding how their brand is actually performing. Usually, there’s no clear process, no reliable data, and no consistent framework. Instead, I hear phrases such as “air cover” used to describe some amorphous, intangible value that can’t be measured (not a good thing when marketing budgets are tightening). According to Forrester’s 2024 B2B Brand And Communications Survey, only 31% of B2B companies run an annual brand tracker. Just 30% believe they can effectively measure how brand impacts demand or sales. That’s not just a missed opportunity; it’s a strategic failure.
This thinking also perpetuates the falsehood that brand and demand are separate and that demand alone within marketing drives revenue. It also ignores the considerable value that brand brings to improving sales and partner productivity, to investors, to influencing thought leaders and industry analysts, and to recruiting and retaining employees. The result of this constrained thinking is an overreliance on intent-based “performance marketing,” which often underperforms expectations. Forrester data explains why: 41% of B2B buyers begin their purchase journey with a single preferred vendor already in mind, while over 90% have a shortlist. Where do those preferences come from? Brand.
It’s Time To Fix Brand Measurement
Your brand is not just a veneer — it’s a decision driver. For buyers, it determines who is considered, who is shortlisted, and, ultimately, who is selected. By the time a buyer shows intent, the game is already half won or lost. Without strong brand preference in place, even the best demand campaign is often too little, too late. And for partners, investors, influencers, and prospective employees, it absolutely shapes their perspectives and considerations, too.
B2B brand measurement is ready for reinvention. We need a new approach that provides actionable insights, demonstrates brand equity progression, and takes into account modern marketing dynamics and technological innovations. We need a new measurement model that fully embraces the progression of brand awareness, perception, sentiment, preference, and loyalty advocacy.
The Forrester B2B Brand Measurement Framework (newly revamped and shown in the figure) is conceptually simple, making it intuitive for communicating brand performance to business executives and other stakeholders outside of marketing. It lends itself easily to layered measurement approaches combining predictive analytics, lift studies, and tracking surveys. The framework also connects brand metrics to intent signals and pipeline quality.
What Are You Waiting For?
B2B companies that fail to fix brand measurement will continue to misallocate resources, misjudge performance, and miss out on growth opportunities. But those who reinvent it — who align and measure brand and demand into a unified strategy — will dominate. If you don’t effectively measure your brand, your competitors will measure the distance they’ve pulled ahead of you.
Forrester clients: Read the full report, Introducing The B2B Brand Measurement Framework, and schedule a guidance session with me to start applying it in your organization.
