Auth0, a digital identity provider, builds everything behind the scenes to make authentication work. But how do you make that into a B2B brand people care about? Let alone one that would become the third largest cybersecurity acquisition in history after being bought by Okta for $6.5 billion.
At Ignite USA, Erin Wigger, director of brand marketing, will take you through the lessons she and her team learnt as they built a billion-dollar brand.
Here, she and Emily Hsiao, senior manager of brand design, give a preview of what you can expect.
Plot spoiler — Be as little like B2B as possible…
Meet my awful cousin B2B Brian
It’s a tale as old as time: B2B – boring to boring – the unloved, unfunny, and slightly robotic cousin of B2C. And this is precisely the mindset Erin entered into Auth0’s brand evolution with.
“How can you make your B2B marketing insightful, impactful, engaging? How can you get it to stand out and drive results, emotion and connection for your company,” she questions. The answer? You guessed it: look to B2C.
“The space we’re in isn’t inherently a sexy industry,” Emily agrees. “One of the goals when we did our evolution was to really make brand a differentiator for our company, taking that B2C approach and not being afraid to infuse it with personality, being approachable, dynamic, vibrant and fun.”
All praise the church of brand
With these B2C principles in mind, Auth0 set down the path of their brand transformation. The goal was to find the purpose of why the brand existed.
“When I started to build the brand essence and foundation, purpose is where I started: Why does this company exist? What’s the core meaning of that?,” Erin said.
“100 years from now, Auth0 will mean one thing. Identity and access management isn’t in that purpose" - Erin
“A lot of companies nowadays claim that they’re purpose driven,” Emily adds. “But it’s about more than having that statement. It’s about everything you do. It’s not just about brand, brand marketing or design. It’s about the people you hire, the culture you reinforce, and the way you build.”
Look within to find what you seek
It can be easy to outsource finding the truth. But that wasn’t going to cut it for Erin. “We feel pretty strongly that doing brand work in-house can result in the best, truest brand,” she states. “We’re not opposed to agencies. But you need someone who’s the steward of that brand story and can gut check as opposed to someone coming from the outside with shallow insights – that’s never going to be as powerful as somebody who intrinsically knows what the company’s about and what they stand for.”
“The best brands are built from the inside-out” - Erin
So, Auth0’s brand team kicked off their research by asking the people who knew them best — talking to everybody from employees and customers to analysts who could highlight their wider market perception. “All of those viewpoints and opinions are really important so you can know where your brand stands both internally and externally,” Emily continues.
Brand is a never-ending story
But this research isn’t a one and done process. “It took us a full year to get to this purpose. And, honestly, it needs to be evolved now too,” Erin admits.
And this is precisely why Erin and Emily treat brand work as a long-term investment; “It’s not something you can growth hack your way to. It doesn’t scale very well. It’s deep, important work,” Erin adds.
“A brand is never done. We’re always evolving it, we’re always working on it, we’re continually investing in it. You can’t just get it out there and be done with it” - Emily
The key to sustaining an ever-evolving investment? Consistent education. “Brand is something that applies to everyone in the company — no matter what your role is,” Emily continues. By enacting an organisation-wide education strategy, Auth0 transformed employees into brand ambassadors and stewards. “That’s paid off a lot – people go and do that work for us,” Erin adds.
“Having a strong brand is helpful for everything. It’s not just helpful for the bottom line” - Erin
Why you need Ignite USA
As Emily puts it: “There’s no wrong or right way to do brand transformation. But we’ve had a lot of success doing what we did at Auth0. If we can share those learnings from the case study with the audience, and someone can learn something from how we did it and apply it to their own company, I would consider that a win.”
So, what are some of the winnings can you expect from their session?
So, let’s cut to it. What are you going to get from Erin’s sessions?
- A first-hand look at the approach Auth0 took to building its brand.
- How to get buy-in from across the senior team and avoid those cynical eye rolls of your CRO.
- Ideas for how you can take the first steps (or the last) to evolving your brand.
“We’re so excited to be at Ignite and meet people with similar backgrounds and interests,” Emily adds. “I don’t think anyone should feel like they’re in competition. It’s all about knowledge sharing within your community and how we can all elevate together.”
“As a B2B marketer, I don’t think there’s enough thinking around this,” Erin continues. “We’re all off doing demand gen, growth marketing – all of that is in silo. It’s really interesting to see the wisdom of B2B marketers all together.”
