"Do you know who we are?” he said, as if I was a complete idiot. No actually, we’ve spent the last six months trying to arrange this meeting because you’re so important we needed MI5 security clearance to leave a message on your voicemail…Yes, we ‘know who you are’.

But as I sat listening to a very (self) important marketing director waxing lyrical about his importance, it became clear that, ironically, he had no idea who he was. Certainly not at a corporate brand level. At the micro, ‘What am I doing for lunch today?’ level, this guy was focused. But at the macro, ‘What’s the direction for the (very famous) corporate brand I’m the guardian of?’ level, he had not a clue. Which irritated me. I tried not to let it bother me – this was the meeting of the century after all. Then I walked out. Oops.

But it raised the question in my mind – ‘What happens after awareness?’ Many small B2B brands struggle with achieving awareness or recognition or indeed any market cut-through – often for years. The single most quoted client objective that we hear at Birddog is, ‘To raise awareness’ (it’s usually followed with the word ‘and’, as in, ‘The objective is to raise awareness and achieve a whole host of impractical and unachievable other objectives with absolutely no budget whatsoever’).

Larger B2B brands however, have already achieved awareness. Loads of it. Their brands are visible in every magazine, on every street corner, on every website, in every office and probably in every home too. We know who they are. So then what?

Well, there’s the obvious, but insipid, ‘Maintain awareness’ objective (yawn). Then there’s the job security objective of, ‘Whatever you do, don’t change anything and don’t screw it up.’ And from what I can see, most clients and agencies stop at one of those two objectives on the basis the pay’s good and they get to spend their days saying, ‘Do you know who I am?’

But there is a clear nirvana for established brands – if only they had the vision to see it. It’s ‘love’ and ‘respect’. Two little words, both with a big impact on corporate reputation and profits. Once awareness has been achieved, love and respect is where the brand value lies.

Love and respect for a brand is what makes customers come back for more, tell their friends, forgive you when you make a mistake, stay loyal long after they should reasonably have tried the competition. Love and respect is what, for example, holds a marriage together. They’re very powerful emotions that are hard to achieve and harder to maintain. Certainly harder and more valuable than ‘awareness’ alone.

Without love or respect, you don’t have a brand, you have a product – a commodity. Copier paper. You’re going to have to work pretty hard to convince me to care about what I shove in the printer drawer. With a little bit of love, you have a fashion item, but it’s not a brand. It’ll last until the next best thing comes along – my Vaio laptop. With a little bit of respect you can achieve a good reputation – BlackBerry – but there’s no emotional bond that’s going to add the real value to the relationship.

It’s only when you achieve both love and respect that you really have a successful brand. I love my iPod. I respect Apple. I’ve forgiven it for only releasing the iPhone through the O2 network. Most other companies would probably have ruined their business with that strategy. Love and respect.

So awareness of the ‘big brands’ is actually just the start. It’s not the end point. It’s an advantage, it’s an opportunity, but it sure isn’t the Hollywood diva, ‘Do you know who I am?’ trump card. Show me some love and I’ll respect you in the morning. Honest.