When we released our article ‘Are B2B Firms Utilising Their Brands Properly?, we were met with a fair bit of love from fellow B2B marketers and brand strategists. One of those brand strategists, Marc Stoiber, showed a particular interest in our work and, after someone suggested we interview him, we jumped at the chance! I’d introduce him myself, but perhaps it’s best if he does so himself:
Q. Give us a quick snippet of who you are and your origins. What was your spider-bite moment into becoming an absolute bloody branding legend?
A: I’m a brand consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs build B2B brands investors love. I got my start as a writer and creative director working at multinational ad agencies in Asia, Europe, and North America; then I launched/sold an ad agency committed to making sustainability sexy and to work helping entrepreneurs.
My spider bite moment? I grew up in Calgary, an oil town. I was an English major in a place where you work in oil, or you, well, leave. I left and went to Switzerland to work with Longines, the watch company. There, I discovered people that take pictures, put headlines under them, and call them ads. I couldn’t believe people actually made money doing that. I never looked back.
Q. As a Brand Strategist, is there anything you urge B2B brands to do with their marketing?
A: B2B brands are cursed by the self-perception that they sell to rational, business-minded buyers. There is no such thing as a rational buyer – just emotional buyers who then justify their purchase with facts and logic. B2B brands need to understand that sustainable growth comes when you create an emotional bond with your customers. So what do I urge B2B founders to do? Before you even think about marketing, understand the deep down, emotional, irrational, driving forces pushing your prospects toward / away from you.
Q. What’s something B2B firms are doing with their branding that they need to stop doing? Are they missing the mark in certain aspects?
A: B2B brand stewards, like most brand stewards today, are cursed by a firehose of impossibly attractive marketing possibilities. Our natural instinct is to jump from one tactic to another like a squirrel on espresso, becoming more and more frustrated, spending more and more money, and diluting the brand at every step. Stop watching the snake oil salesmen pushing AI / SEO / Web 3.0 / TikTok / NFT / etc miracle cures on Linkedin. None of these solutions are bad in and of themselves. But they’re TACTICS, and pointless (or worse) if you aimlessly implement them without understanding the foundational pillars of your brand (Value Prop, Mission / Vision / Values, Brand Promise, Positioning vs competition, to name a few), and figuring out a fundamental strategy for growing your business for the next year or two.
Q. LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and WARC recently said that firms need to start making direct and clear promises to their customers. Do you have any comments on that? Is this something you feel brands need to listen to more?
A: A clear and direct promise = a good value proposition. A good value proposition is the #1 thing investors look for in a brand. It’s the #1 thing employees look for. And, in a confused, cluttered world, it’s the #1 thing consumers look for.
About 100% of the companies I’m introduced to don’t have a clear, simple, compelling value proposition. What they have is a list of features and benefits they BELIEVE are the value they provide. These features and benefits may make you feel great, but they leave your customer cold. What THEY want is an experiential benefit (how does this solution change my life?) and an emotional benefit (how does that make me feel?)
Q. What are your views on AI and B2B in branding? Everyone seems to be preaching, especially on LinkedIn, about how good it is and how much it will benefit us. Do you agree?
A: AI is a tool, an accelerant. Like any accelerant, it will get us to a destination faster, and more efficiently. But if you feed it garbage, it will get you to a garbage destination. There is no shortcutting the very human process of striving to understand your target audience viscerally. It’s a process of emotional understanding and emotional connection. Once you understand, flip on Chat GPT and start building those email sequences that touch people on an emotional level.
Q. Your clients refer to you as a ‘value enhancer’ – are you happy with that title?
A: I love the title. Because the title is a value proposition that my clients – the investors and M&A specialists frustrated by the entrepreneurial companies in their portfolio – understand and cherish. Much better than ‘creative director’ – no client goes out looking for creative – they’re looking for higher valuations.
Sam Hollis is a Writer for Fame, SaaS Marketer, as well as his own fictional short stories. He lives and works in Birmingham with his three cats and his dog (way too many pets, if you ask us)