A recent Forbes article states “While business to business (B2B) branding has a reputation for being boring, more companies are taking creative cues from business to consumer branding (B2C). The fact is, we can no longer afford for our marketing to be boring. The buttoned-up, ‘just the facts’ corporate tone associated with B2B isn’t effective anymore.”
When was it that B2B could afford to be boring?
Fact-based B2B marketing isn’t inherently dull, even if so much of it seems poured from the same lifeless mold. It’s not facts themselves but irrelevant facts that create the disconnect. The right facts — delivered at the right time, in the right way, to the right people, for the right reasons — are always interesting. Context creates meaning.
Creating that context requires making tough choices. We must define exactly what we do, who we do it for, and why it matters to them — and then communicate in a way that makes it easy for that audience to see the connection between our solution and their problem.
Yes, B2B marketing should have personality. It needs to be human and real. But if the problem that your product solves is irrelevant to the people you’re trying to serve, then no amount of embellishment is going to make a meaningful difference.
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