It is no secret that the way people consume goods, services and content is changing in our increasingly digital-first world. The way we work and interact with those around us has become very different in only a few short years. It’s also no surprise then that the way brands market to consumers has changed as well, but when you observe this change, one thing is very clear: consumer brands are far outpacing B2B when it comes to demonstrating creativity.
The ‘creative bankruptcy’ that exists within B2B marketing is vast. You don’t need to Google “business finance” for example to be able to picture the results: the same blue hues, nondescript graphs and stock images of people in suits. This is a shame and a major missed opportunity: at the end of the day, there’s a human decision maker behind every target business, and they still respond to stimuli in the same way.
A select few have realized that for modern audiences – and also for hiring the best talent – we can’t be boring anymore. Companies cannot afford to fall short on the marketing side of the business and treat the way we interact with customers as if they are numbers on a spreadsheet. People operate on emotions, and they want to be entertained and excited as well as informed.
While this may sound intuitive, creativity in B2B marketing is yet to catch up. It’s why we decided, after just a year in business, to shake things up with a major rebrand. At Capchase, we wanted our brand to reflect the goals and needs of our customers but also be something that inspires them.
This need for creativity, especially in finance, is what led us to do some introspection. We wanted a new visual identity that reflected our company mission to do things differently from the status quo. Our rebrand included a refresh of all Capchase digital and print assets – including a new logo, bold color palette, photography guidelines and a modular design system which can be iterated for each new product launch, and a new website.
A key element of the design was to avoid the typical ‘letter-shape’ logo convention using the first capital letter from the company name. Instead, our logo was designed to represent an idea: movement and speed (it is a literal representation of a ‘fast-forward’ button which can be seen in the absent space of the logo). The wavy patterns in the visual identity further represent flexibility and liquidity, while the color choices were intentionally broad to stand out among traditional finance.
Of course, there are outlier brands who are bucking the creative bankruptcy in B2B and whom we have been inspired by along the way: Mercury, Gong, Slack, and Webflow to name a few – who have added personality and fun into their brands.
It is important to remember that you are not selling to a business – you are selling to people. B2B marketing has historically relied on data, facts and hard information, but that rarely left a lasting impression on intended audiences.
Twenty years ago, you could play it safe on the marketing front. But as workplace culture continues to change and millennials – who increasingly make up the business owner community – continue to constitute up the bulk of the workforce, B2B marketing strategies need to evolve with the change.
To be successful, we believe, businesses need to tell stories with information to breakthrough in today’s market. With Capchase, we were able to tell our story through our new logo and website while keeping our purpose top of mind – helping companies accelerate growth by bringing future revenue forward to today.
The author, Ignacio Moreno, is co-founder and head of platform, at Capchase
