There has long been a chasm between B2C and B2B marketing.
At an event recently, I was asked about humor in marketing, and whether it was more appropriate for B2C than B2B. Part of my answer was that humor could be even more effective in B2B marketing because the bar is so low.
B2B marketing is often mocked as Boring-to-Boring. Partly because of the longer buying process with more stakeholders, B2B marketing traditionally gets mired in features and benefits, missing the actual people involved in the buying process.
I like how Bruno Bertini, CMO at 8×8, put this disconnect recently:
“The CIO scrolling LinkedIn at lunch is the same person scrolling Instagram at night. If they expect connection, creativity and authenticity as consumers, why would they settle for less at work?“
Along these lines, more marketers have started to play with a Business-to-Human framing.
I was struck by this perspective from Rich Atkinson-Toal, VP of Brand at American Express Global Business Travel:
“You have to consider them as people, because [it’s people who] buy things. But if you go straight to the human element and you don’t think about the core of what they do as a job, then you’ll miss the mark and how they actually make decisions…
“It has to be about stopping people in their tracks, making them smile, making them laugh. Just because you’re selling a B2B service doesn’t mean it has to be boring.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
