What B2B Can Learn from B2C Marketing
This white paper summarises insights from a conversation featuring B2B marketing leaders discussing how B2B can adapt successful strategies from B2C marketing. Major themes include leveraging audience data more effectively, adopting creative messaging, developing partnerships and events, implementing emerging technologies thoughtfully, focusing on the full customer experience, continually optimising approaches, and proving marketing’s overall impact. With privacy regulations tightening, B2B must rely more on first-party data and strategic audience identification like B2C has done. The experts provide perspectives on how B2B brands can learn from B2C innovations to connect meaningfully with customers.
Host
Joaquin Dominguez, was joined by marketing experts to discuss the topic.
Guests
Colm O'Shea, Senior Leader - Marketing & Digital Growth, BCG
Elliot Wood, Performance Lead, Digitas
John Read, Content Manager, DLA Piper
Leveraging Data to Understand Your Audience
As Joaquin Dominguez of Adzact pointed out, “B2C has been always really effective at using all the technology available to understand your audience.” B2B brands have significant budgets they can allocate more effectively by leveraging data-driven audience insights like B2C does. As John Read, Senior Creative Writer at DLA Piper, explained, success stems from considering how information is processed by human beings in the audience. Messaging should align with their needs. “Whatever you need to do to engage your audience is what you should do,” Read said.
Adopting More Creative and Emotional Messaging
Elliot Wood, Performance Lead at Digitas, urged for bolder B2B advertising, pointing to compelling US examples versus the often bland efforts in Europe/Australia. He argued that humanising messaging is key - “the customer is the business of whatever you’re selling software or something, but it is an actual human you need to convince.” Emotional storytelling is critical in B2C, and B2B can follow suit. Colm O’Shea, Global Marketing Strategist at BCG, noted that "luxury brands expertly build desire and aspiration. B2B should look beyond its niche for innovative approaches from other industries".
"The customer is the business of whatever you’re selling software or something, but it is an actual human you need to convince." Elliot Wood
Rejecting AI Completely is Also an Option
Tom Gatten of Adzact pointed out that "there's definitely a niche there for a B2B especially brand to completely deliberately reject AI." Just as some luxury watch brands rejected quartz technology and found success, B2B brands could choose to avoid AI and leverage that as a differentiator. However, most will likely adopt AI thoughtfully.
Preserving the Art, Poetry and Human Experience
John Read cautioned that we must consider whether efficiency is the only goal, stating "are we only concerned about maximum efficiency? Late stage capitalism will probably say ‘yes’." But he argued the human dimensions of ethics and audience experience remain vital - “I hope with AI we're not heading for a place where there's no room for the art, the poetry, the entertainment we respond to and need as human beings."" Luxury goods demonstrate that consumers value artistry and individuality.
"The art and the poetry and that human experience. That can't all be subservient to maximum efficiency." John Read
Developing Partnerships and Events
On the value of in-person events and strategic brand partnerships, Joaquin Dominguez explained how sponsoring Manchester United gave wine brand Casillero Del Diablo opportunities to foster exclusivity with B2B clients. As Elliot Wood described regarding Formula One sponsorships, “It’s just a trust thing. I think it’s, if they can afford to sponsor Man U, they’ve probably got a reliable company.” B2C has long benefitted from high-profile partnerships.
Implementing Emerging Technologies Thoughtfully
Joaquin Dominguez emphasised that B2B brands need long-term commitment to audience-focused marketing, not just short-term results. Elliot Wood cautioned B2B marketers to not become overly enamoured with efficiency metrics. B2C has led the way in mapping and optimising the entire customer journey.
Proving Marketing’s Overall Value
On data usage, Tom Gatten of Adzact explained that “Adzact takes your existing customers, combines it or enriches it with our signals, and then uses a learning algorithm to figure out what signals are important.” With privacy regulations tightening, this ethical approach to first-party data is essential, as B2C has demonstrated. Joaquin concluded that successful B2B marketing is about “targeting and the signal of fit and intent, the quality of data.”
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