B2B doesn’t mean boring: three ingredients for an interesting B2B brand

How you position and project yourself as a business plays a crucial role in how your audience perceives you. Yet if we’re honest, we see a lot of B2B brands that come across as seriously bland. So, when it comes to branding, does B2B mean boring?

And if not, what are the ingredients for an interesting B2B brand that stands apart from the crowd?

Just because you’re not marketing to consumers, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a really interesting brand, story, and proposition.

As a B2B business, you’re selling human to human, just like B2C brands are. 

Emotions still drive the B2B purchasing process, but they might not be the emotions you naturally think of. 

For B2B businesses, the emotional reactions you trigger could be trust, reassurance, or pride, rather than tears or laughter.

So with that in mind, what goes into creating a colourful B2B brand your audience wants to connect with and buy from?

Read on for three essential ingredients for an interesting business-to-business brand. 

Brands that lead with a powerful story leave a memorable impression on customers and gain prominence in a crowded market.

Take Kickstarter, for example. Their brand is built on other people’s stories, and their story complements this perfectly – they provide the platform for your creativity and vision. 

Kickstarter doesn’t lead with the functionality of its platform, although the software and user experience must be on point to drive its success. 

Instead, they focus on the narratives and sense of community at play. Even on their own About page, they place customer stories at the top of the billing, only delving into their own team and history further down – and even then, it’s about the ways who they are and what they stand for impacts you, the user.

What’s the story behind your brand? How does your offering make a difference, and how does this manifest in their lives and business successes?

When you identify your story, it becomes simpler to communicate and connect on a deeper level and create the kind of cohesion and purpose across your brand that sets you apart and generates tangible results. 

If you think B2B brands can’t – or shouldn’t – have character, you’re looking in the wrong place.

We’ve shared several colourful B2B brands in this article, and there are countless more out there once you tune into new ways of doing things, for example:

5 B2B brands with personality

• Slack
• Google
• WeWork
• Hootsuite
• Salesforce

The best B2B brands are bursting with character. But if this scares you, understand character doesn’t always mean quirky and silly. Your brand character is unique to you, and doesn’t need to feel cringe to connect.

Your character as a brand is made up of your personality and voice.

A great brand personality shows your human side and allows customers to see the fantastic qualities you have and how you’re positioned to support them.

Meanwhile, a powerful brand voice establishes how you speak to customers wherever you speak to them, whether that’s a social media post or responding to a concern. The tone will change, but the voice will be unmistakably yours. 

How you use colour as a B2B brand influences how your audience perceives you. 

Colour is well-known to have a subconscious impact on how we feel and even behave, so it’s not simply a case of picking a shade you like the look of and running with it.

• Colour increases brand recognition by 80%
• Only 1% of people surveyed by Hubspot would consider a black-coloured product as cheap
• 33% of the world’s top brands have blue in their logo.

The most interesting B2B brands use colour carefully to show who they are, connect meaningfully, and spark the right feelings and actions in their target customer.

B2B brands often use blue to communicate trust and authority. 

Meanwhile, the advent of the metaverse has seen a shift to futuristic purples and blacks for tech firms. 

The psychology of colour is intricate. Working with a branding expert will help you delve into this deeply, determine your brand’s natural colour palette and use it in a way that turns your customers on and elevates your authority and brand awareness.

Are you ready to bring colour, character, story – and more – to your B2B brand and start experiencing the results you want from your business, like more market share, awareness, reputation, loyalty, or investment?

Studio LWD is a specialist branding and design agency building unique and powerful brands for B2B businesses, from startups to multinationals. 

Contact us for a chat to explore how we’ll inject interest into your brand to elevate it to the next level of growth – email hello@studiolwd.co.uk or call us on 01253 829031.