Beware the wolves in sheep’s clothing

With the launch this week of the new Xerox brand, we’re seeing the continuing trend of a B2B brand of stature borrowing the trappings of a B2C cousin, much like AT&T before it. And why not? Consumer brands are cool, dynamic, fun, and the really good ones create the kind of emotional attachment to their customers that’s really hard to compete against.

It’s a little unfortunate, then, that these B2B brands seem hell-bent on borrowing the wrong things. A friendly logo, a curvaceous typeface, the use of friendly language, and a library full of as many images of smiling friendly people as possible have become the oh-so-predictable signs of a formerly staid corporation undertaking a ‘transformation in customer-centricity’.

The irony, of course, is that the best B2B brands are anything but friendly. IBM doesn’t want to be your friend, nor McKinsey or Goldman Sachs, and certainly not someone like Oracle. What these brands all have is a very clear culture that drives their business, a clear focus on what they do for their clients (and what they don’t do) and, critically, a very clear value proposition. They ask for your respect. They don’t ask to be your friend.

As we move forwards into the future, and B2B brands increasingly pursue a genuine desire to be more customer-centric, what matters won’t be the creation of a new friendly face. For most B2B brands, what will be needed is greater clarity, greater honesty and greater simplicity around who they really are, what really defines their internal culture, what they really do for their customers, and what their value proposition really is. (And this, by the way, is what B2B brands can really learn from their consumer cousins such as Nike, Apple or Starbucks.)

After all, if you’re really a wolf, much better to celebrate your wolfishness.

24 January 2008, posted by Paul Worthington