Summary

Many teams default to pushing demand harder. It rarely works: misaligned timeframes and measures sap future preference. The enduring approach is one system with two clocks—protect the brand, flex demand. Done well, clear market memory converts into qualified opportunities and resilient pricing.

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Our Perspective

What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.

The Hidden Trade-Off

When pressure rises, refocusing budgets on short-term acquisition feels rational. Yet what you gain in near-term pipeline often comes at the expense of momentum, pricing power, and forecast reliability. Demand work harvests intent that already exists; brand work grows the field it’s harvested from. The market reveals this bias. 6sense’s latest survey finds organisations typically allocate about 30% to brand and 70% to demand, a noticeable tilt away from the more balanced mix many leaders intend. That split can hit targets, but it also lets competitors set the story and invites buyers to value you for offers, not outcomes.

One System, Two Clocks

Brand and demand run on different tempos; the mistake is treating them as rivals rather than interlocking gears. Brand creates tomorrow’s demand by making you easier to recall, easier to choose, and harder to undercut on price. Demand turns that stored preference into meetings and revenue, now. The leadership task is to design one system across two clocks: protect a baseline of brand investment that compounds, then flex demand spend around seasonality, cycle length, and market signals.

In our experience with organisations at this inflection point, the healthiest rhythm treats brand as the compounding engine and demand as the accelerator.

Measures That Align

Set fair measures by horizon to stop unproductive arguments about impact timeframes. Then hold both to account—differently.

• Brand: track mental availability, prompted and unprompted awareness, salience of priority messages, and preference shifts in target segments.
• Demand: track opportunity quality, conversion velocity, stage progression, and cost per incremental opportunity within an agreed payback window.

Crucially, connect these with one market narrative so what people see in outreach matches what they experience in product, service and sales conversations. That reduces leakage and avoids quarterly resets.

Leadership Implications

Make the balance explicit and durable so you can adjust without reopening first principles every quarter.

• Confirm a twelve-month mix with guardrails; for longer sales cycles, protect a stronger brand base, and for shorter cycles, allow more demand elasticity.
• Build a quarterly governance rhythm: review leading indicators for brand and lagging indicators for demand together, then rebalance within guardrails.
• Hold the narrative across paid, owned, and sales assets; offer proof at every interaction to support speed and price integrity.

In the quarters ahead, organisations that hardwire this balance will see growth become more predictable, even as markets shift.

Sources:

• The Science of B2B: 2025 Marketing Spend Report – Neither Boom Nor Gloom — 6sense (survey report)

Further Resources

1. Brand Messaging Framework for Strategic Clarity
2. Pricing Power Through Strategic Brand Positioning
3. Brand’s Role in Driving Strategic ROI

Every organisation hits brand questions it can’t solve alone — if you’d like an outside perspective, we’re here. Let’s talk.

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