If you’re like most B2B marketers, you’ve probably thrown a lot of money at brand-building activities that didn’t actually help build your brand and, down the road, grow pipeline. Why? Because many of the “best practices” that have been espoused on marketing blogs and LinkedIn posts are just regurgitated talking points with very little practical evidence. According to Matt Maynard, who leads brand and advertising at Asana, too many marketers build their strategies (and budgets) around these tips, only to see little movement and a lot of frustration. 

As a self-described “marketing nerd,” Matt has spent years studying evidence-based marketing to uncover what drives brand growth versus what people think works, and he was generous enough to share those insights on our Best Story Wins podcast. But what he had to say may ruffle some feathers, especially if you’ve been making decisions based on what Matt refers to as marketing “folklore.” 

The Biggest Brand-Building Myths You’re Buying Into

Although brand-building is both an art and a science, it’s a marketer’s job to execute evidence-based strategies in a creative way. But Matt notes that marketers (especially B2B marketers) often prioritize personal experience over empirical evidence. They go with what worked in the past or what won awards, all out of habit, not forward-thinking vision. 

But results are what ultimately matter, and clinging to old beliefs won’t help you build the brand recognition you want. So, if you’ve found yourself buying into any of the following ideas, it’s time to reassess. 

Myth 1: Differentiation drives brand growth.

This might be the most pervasive myth in B2B marketing. We’ve all been told that our brand needs to be “meaningfully different” to succeed. But here’s the problem: buyers don’t actually see those big differences we’re obsessing over. 

According to Matt, evidence shows that you should focus on not differentiation but distinctiveness. 

• Do you stand out in noticeable ways?
• Are you easy for people to recognize?
• Do you have more mental availability?  

Ultimately, the question isn’t whether you’re different in the market; it’s whether you’re recognizable. For that reason, don’t worry about being unique. Worry about being recognizably and unmistakably you. That, by default, will help you achieve differentiation. 

Tip: Your brand elements and content strategy play a huge role in how you show up. You need a distinctive visual identity (color, type, logo, etc.) that makes you instantly recognizable. You need a clear voice that connects with your audience. You need to produce content that only you can create. These are the areas to invest the most in. 

Myth 2: Brand success comes from one core message.

Too many marketing teams are still trying to boil everything down to a single idea their brand should own. But that’s not how buyers actually think about brands.

“They recall brands in specific moments, like when they need to automate manual work or maybe they need to align their projects to company goals,” Matt says. Yes, you do need things like a tagline, value prop, and a unique perspective to tell a cohesive and consistent story across touchpoints, but none of those things individually will seal the deal for your audience. 

The real job of brand-building isn’t to lock in a single phrase; it’s to build mental availability across multiple buying situations. You want your brand to show up when buyers start looking, regardless of which specific problem triggered their search.

Tip: Think about how and when someone is searching for your brand. What are the different buying cases? What problems/pain points are they facing in that particular situation? Mapping these scenarios lets you create relevant content tailored for each scenario so you’re always top of mind. You can talk about your larger brand story later, but you need those conversation in-roads to create early connections. 

Myth 3: Growth comes from customer loyalty.

This might be the most expensive myth of all. Too many marketers believe that if they can just make customers love them more, those customers will stay longer and tell their friends. But the data tells a completely different story.

“About 5% of category buyers are in market at any given time, which means 95% of people aren’t ready to buy now,” Matt says. If you’re only focusing on current customers, you’re ignoring 95% of your potential market.

Tip: Shift your budget from retention campaigns to reach-building initiatives. This doesn’t mean you have to abandon current customers entirely, but you do need to cultivate sustainable growth by constantly reaching new potential buyers who aren’t ready to purchase yet.

How to Build a Better Brand Strategy

Even if you’ve bought into any of these myths (and, frankly, all of us have at one point or another), it’s easy to correct course if you focus on measurable, actionable steps. Matt reminds us that being a marketer is, essentially, being an architect, so it’s important to lead with that mentality. “You have to have creativity to design something remarkable, but you still have to be grounded,” Matt says. “You have to follow the rules of actual physics. Otherwise, what you’re building’s not gonna stand.”

If you’re looking for more ways to ground your brand strategy: 

• Lead with strategy, not tactics. Before jumping into campaigns, use our toolkit to effectively document your brand strategy and ensure every creative decision ladders up to measurable business goals.
• Create content only you can tell. Research shows that 82.1% of people can spot AI-generated content, and 40.4% think less of a brand that uses it. While your competitors are churning out bland and basic AI-generated content, you can build your credibility and capture the right eyes with grounded, human content. Whether it’s proprietary data, narrative-driven case studies, or real-life lessons, use every opportunity to inject more humanity. Side note: If you’re in B2B, decision-makers are desperate for more unique, credible content. Use these tips to uplevel your content strategy to meet their needs. 
• Focus on the buyer journey, not just the buyer. Map out multiple touchpoints where your brand can build mental availability across different buying situations, and pay special attention to the handoff between marketing and sales. (This is a crucial part of the buyer experience that a lot of teams drop the ball on.)
• Test and iterate like a scientist. Set up experiments with clear hypotheses and measure what actually moves the needle. Try our 90-day agile marketing method to test your ideas and iterate to improve your results. 

Most importantly, remember that the goal isn’t to eliminate creativity; it’s to channel that creativity toward strategies that actually work. When you combine evidence-based thinking with smart execution, you can help your brand break through the noise and drive real growth.

If you want more tips to do that, tune into our full conversation with Matt Maynard on the Best Story Wins podcast, where we chat about why most B2B brand teams are optimizing for creativity instead of outcomes, how and where AI should be used, and more.