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Strategy
A few of us at the office have been swooning over the new Airbnb ad. It tugs at the heartstrings and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. At the one-minute spot, a toddler is shown stumbling toward a door while narrator Angela Bassett asks just “how kind the he’s and she’s of this mankind are”.
And the tagline, “Belong anywhere”. So powerful. So ownable.
Now try thinking of one B2B company that gives you even 10% of that same level of warm fuzzies. Pretty hard, right? Well, we recently came across an example of one brand doing it well.
In the video below, Caterpillar takes a storytelling approach to produce an emotionally charged video for an industrial generator. (I know, you’re thinking, “How exciting can an industrial generator possibly be!?”) In this execution, only 5-10% of the video features the logo, product or promise–the rest is about the human experience it enables. It’s a well thought-out and well-executed concept, and it’s powerful.
As we move towards a more commoditised marketplace, the customer experience or human experience is what will help brands and companies stand out. B2C has adopted this first, and leading B2B companies are beginning to follow. Though in B2B we sell to businesses, we have to remember that businesses are run by individuals who are programmed to–well, feel all the feels. And the people who buy from your customers feel all the feels.
Now is the time to start thinking: how can my company tap into that? Companies acting upon or planning for this shift will better position themselves to compete and future-proof their business.
