We often refer to and define businesses as ‘B2B’ or ‘B2C’. While these terms help us to differentiate between respective product and services offerings, they have also siloed marketers’ approaches to communicate with consumers. B2C brands tend to be more willing to be playful and provocative in their communication, while B2B marketers often find it difficult to strike a balance between being informative, innovative, and all the while inspiring. The truth is, regardless of the category a business falls under, their target audiences all share a collective, fundamental truth: they’re all human. One of the most primitive and conspicuous ways we interact with one another to collectively create culture and make sense of reality is through stories. By definition, connecting with consumers means capitalizing on the most human of common threads - storytelling. While there has been a slow but steady increase in B2B investments in storytelling over the past few years, it is seldom wide-spread. But why? Many marketers still feel push back from executive-level decision makers when trying to make the case for using more ‘emotional’ forms of communicating with consumers. Working with top brands in the Financial Services, Technology, and Software industries has given us tremendous insights into the barriers, bottlenecks, and misconceptions that stall the adoption of such storytelling practices at B2B organizations. This playbook addresses the qualitative and quantitative data behind the reasons your brand should be telling stories by specifically redefining and demystifying: - What is brand storytelling? - What role do emotions play in B2B decision making? - How are successful brands sourcing and sharing these stories effectively? - How can you make the case for emotional storytelling at your company?