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B2C, B2B, and Business-to-Human

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There has long been a chasm between B2C and B2B marketing.

At an event recently, I was asked about humor in marketing, and whether it was more appropriate for B2C than B2B. Part of my answer was that humor could be even more effective in B2B marketing because the bar is so low.

B2B marketing is often mocked as Boring-to-Boring. Partly because of the longer buying process with more stakeholders, B2B marketing traditionally gets mired in features and benefits, missing the actual people involved in the buying process.

I like how Bruno Bertini, CMO at 8x8, put this disconnect recently:

“The CIO scrolling LinkedIn at lunch is the same person scrolling Instagram at night. If they expect connection, creativity and authenticity as consumers, why would they settle for less at work?”

Along these lines, more marketers have started to play with a Business-to-Human framing.

I was struck by this perspective from Rich Atkinson-Toal, VP of Brand at American Express Global Business Travel:

“You have to consider them as people, because [it’s people who] buy things. But if you go straight to the human element and you don’t think about the core of what they do as a job, then you’ll miss the mark and how they actually make decisions…

“It has to be about stopping people in their tracks, making them smile, making them laugh. Just because you’re selling a B2B service doesn’t mean it has to be boring.”

Newest Book Collaboration with Deloitte

Two of my favorite collaborators over the last few years have been Deloitte partners Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach.

This week, Geoff and Steven are launching “Hone: How Purposeful Leaders Defy Drift.” It’s the third of three books (they’ve dubbed “the capstone to the accidental trilogy”), alongside Detonate (2018) and Provoke (2021).

We’ve worked together on cartoons to bring levity to all three of the books in the trilogy. Hone is chock-full of 24 original cartoons and illustrations. It launches Tuesday.

Cartoon From The Archives

Here’s a related cartoon I drew in 2016 about remembering the humans in our marketing. And here’s where you can read and search all 23 years of these cartoons.

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Thank you for all of your support (and cartoon material)!

-Tom

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About Marketoonist

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of me, Tom Fishburne. I first started drawing cartoons as a student in the Harvard Business School newspaper (not quite as well-known for humor as the Lampoon) and later started this newsletter from a General Mills cubicle in 2002. The cartoons have followed my career ever since. I poke fun at the ever-changing world of marketing and business because I believe that laughing at ourselves can help us do our best work.