Where are all the B2B characters and CEPs?

Let’s talk about Salesforce

The problem

Salesforce is one of the largest B2B companies on the planet. In a recent (excellent) Uncensored CMO podcast with Jon Evans, Colin Fleming, EVP of Brand Marketing said his original challenge in the role was that Salesforce had started to look like any other company (indistinct). It needed to bring back the companies personality and soul – the fun side of Salesforce.

The solution

Colin outlined how his remit was (and is) to get Salesforce to be the company that comes to mind in their 33 prioritised Category Entry Points. Through continual investment in reach, creativity and development of a set of immensely valuable Distinctive Brand Assets (cloud, font, colours and Astro & friends characters), they’ve become the worlds most distinctive B2B brand, and I’d hazard a guess, one of the more Mentally Available to boot.

In practice

The CRM campaign above is one example of how the brand, in a very simple way, outlines what Salesforce actually does “bringing supply and demand sides together”, in a way normal people can understand. It then expresses this across a range of “who based” CEPs that illustrate these 2 sides. The more recent work with Matthew McConaughey stepped the personality up another notch too – branded entertainment at it’s best.

So kudos for Salesforce for breaking the mold….Who said B2B advertising has to be boring? Where are all the other B2B characters? Where are all the other companies focussed on communicating CEPs as opposed to technical product features & benefits? We’d love to hear any examples you have.

#marketing #brandhealth #bamboozled #CEP #Situations #brandimage #categoryentrypoints #betterbrandhealth #howbrandsgrow #distinctiveness #DBAs #Distinctivebrandassets #CEPsweekly