A full funnel force, foggy fantasies, and a forgotten gem
A brand building Salesforce to be reckoned with
“More than 80% of a purchasing journey happens on that first thought. If you’re not part of that initial consideration set, you’re not going to get bought.”
That’s Colin Fleming, Executive Vice President of Brand Marketing at B2B behemoth Salesforce, and he’s speaking our language.
It’s from his recent conversation on Jon Evans’ podcast ‘Uncensored CMO’. And if you want to hear why B2B brands should be investing more in brand building, you’ll want to tune in.
Fleming is a former Red Bull Racing driver, and was unknowingly training for a career in marketing on the Formula 2 circuit – pitching to CMOs for funding at a very young age.
So, it was an easy transition to his first product marketing role at Salesforce. He’s now been there 13 years and seen the company go from a software start-up to one of the biggest and most recognisable B2B brands in the world.
Last year, his name popped up on Ad Age’s 40 under 40 list. It’s safe to say he’s played a big role in driving Salesforce’s brand building success.
The turning point for Salesforce was when his and the business’ eyes were opened to the work at the LinkedIn B2B institute and the 95/5 rule.
The rule says that only 5% of buyers are in the market for your brand at any one time. Which means the other 95% of buyers aren’t. But they will be at some point.
Which is why brand building is such an essential part of the marketing mix – it’s putting your brand in the memory of the majority of your target market. So that when they do need to buy from a brand like yours, you’re one of the first they think of.
Why B2B brands need that full funnel feeling
While more B2B brands are putting budget behind long-term brand building than ever before, most are still focusing the majority of their budgets further down the funnel.
Jon Evans, host of the episode and CMO at System1, cites trends in his own business. Their platform measures ad effectiveness for some of the world’s leading B2B and B2C brands, tracking emotion and creativity to see what impact ads have on sales and long-term growth.
Jon says that 80% of B2B ads put through the System1 models have had no impact on the long-term health of the brand.
It’s a heavy clue that most B2B businesses are too busy chasing the short-term wins that fit attribution models. But as Colin says:
“Attribution models don’t buy products. Humans do. Why not market to them? It’s much better.”
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Listen to the whole podcast episode here. Colin also talks about the effectiveness of? distinctive brand assets – and how Salesforce’s brand characters, Astro and friends, helped bring back their soul and unite their community of clients.?
Where every cloud’s a silver lining
If you ever get to visit the San Francisco Bay area, one thing that stays with you is the famous fog – those beautiful rolling cloud-scapes that come in off the Pacific Ocean. It’s one of those gotta-see-it-to-believe-it type of experiences.
Well don’t book your flight yet because you can experience it right now. Photographer Nicholas Steinberg has captured the scenes perfectly from his favourite vantage point in Mount Tamalpais State Park. They’re pretty mesmerising. Have a flick through yourself.
The golden oldies: Uni-start
We’ve been pretty loose with our newsletter format up to now, but this section’s here to stay. So, with every edition next year, we’ll keep rounding up the new creative news, but we’ll also dip back into the marketing archives and pull out some forgotten treasures.
This copy-led gem from Unipart is a great place to start. Telling people you’re better than the competition will get you nowhere. But if you can find a way to show them, you might be on to something. And this copywriter’s nailed it. Bravo.
More classics coming your way in the new year!
Let’s talk
2024 is just nearly upon us, and we’ve got some exciting client campaigns bubbling away in the background. Want some of that action? We’d love to help. Get in touch with the team and let’s put a plan together. ???