I can't stop thinking about how valuable some countries are for their manufacturers. A high-tech brand coming from Japan makes sense for most of us. I'm convinced promotional task for a high-tech brand in, say, USA, would be a substantially easier one if product hailed from Japan than it would be if its label read "Made in Iceland". Why? Because country establishes brand's initial reputation.

Conversely, brands themselves can create countries' reputations. Let's consider Finland. If I asked you to respond to notion of Finland ten years ago you'd probably have said things like "cold", "midnight sun", and so on. Today you're likely to think of high-tech mobile phone technology when you think of Finland. And this huge mind shift is purely thanks to Nokia (which, by way, was a chainsaw manufacturer just twenty years ago).

So, you can claim that brands create countries' reputations and that countries create brands' reputations. This is a very interesting piece of theory to keep in mind for when you next find opportunity to create a new brand from scratch. The theory should not only make you consider what values your brand should stand for, but also where it should be manufactured and where it should be perceived as being manufactured. Having wrong country label on your package won't destroy your brand, but I'm convinced that having right "Made in" label will save you a substantial amount of marketing money.

5)Make sure you PR agency and Interactive or Traditional Agency are all in concert when it comes to building a branding campaign. Your various messages and processes should be mutually reinforcing.

6)Select an Interactive or Traditional Agency that understands your unique B2B needs. Consumer branding is much different than B2B Customer Acquisition Branding. By "understand" I mean ask them about types of campaigns they've set up for previous clients, what types of media they've used, do they know how to develop creative that speaks to a potential B2B client – I love "do Dew" campaign, but this isn't type of branding you would want to deploy for an IT Manager who is contemplating a purchase of your software.

7)How do you measure effective branding on web? I am not sure if I have any answer or if I have unlimited answers – this is such a difficult marketing characteristic to measure. But, again, be "customer-centric" – ask people who purchase your software or services what they think. Why did you purchase (or why not if you can), did our marketing address your needs, was it meaningful and informative?

8)Think digital shelf life when branding on web – you have to build messages and content that will only last for a finite amount of time. You have to continually refresh your branding and positioning by developing new content for a web site, opt-in e-mail or banner advertising campaign.

9)Incorporate your offline branding (creative, content, graphics, etc.) into your online branding when/where you can. So your customer has a sense of continuity when they review all of your marketing and communications processes. This also sends a signal to them that you have carefully thought through your overall campaign.

10)Last but not least – build net speed into your overall campaign. I've said it before in many articles, but always essential to underscore; better to be quick to market with something that may need slight calibration later on that to delay a facet of a campaign of entire campaign to get everything perfect! Revenue is engine that makes a B2B Branding campaign work and you can't drive sales unless you are putting your branding message out there in front of your potential customers!