A new infograpghic by One Up Web urges B2B marketers to give their brands more personality explaining: “Personality is appealing. Personality is sexy. Bring a little personality to your B2B.”
The graphic reveals 80 per cent of B2B customers see no real difference between B2B suppliers. This means brands need to stand out from the crowd.
The infographic also points out that B2B customers are more personally invested than B2C. This is because a business employee has their credibility and career on the line, as well as their company’s reputation. On the other hand, a B2C purchase is personal.
Plus, making a great B2B purchase has two times as much personal value than business value, due to professional, social, emotional and self-image benefits.
In order to have a personality One Up Web says marketers need to align their efforts to what customers find important. For example, B2B brands talk too much about ‘honest & open dialogue’, ‘supply chain responsibility’, ‘specialised expertise’ and ‘storied history’. Whereas B2B customers care that brands ‘empathize with their pain’, ‘are confident that you can ease that pain’ and ‘tap into the multiple stakeholder needs and goals’.
But, how much is too much personality? Surely B2B marketers should ensure their brand maintains its professional edge, and more importantly its credibility. However, with the content evolution in full swing this has become easier than ever. Creative campaigns should be used as a platform to show off both personality and proposition in an interesting way.
