Global CMO at GE, Linda Boff, discusses the company's Purpose, importance of storytelling, and communicating with the C-Suite. Talks about punching above weight with small teams, making B2B exciting, and separating stories from facts in marketing.
Clear communication is crucial for marketing success, bridging language gaps between departments and the C-suite.
Human-centric B2H approach challenges traditional B2B marketing, emphasizing emotional content for engaging audiences.
Compelling brand storytelling drives authentic customer engagement, aligning marketing efforts with business objectives for brand value.
Deep dives
The Power of Effective Communication in Marketing
Effective communication in marketing is essential, as highlighted by Linda Both's experience in bridging language gaps. She emphasizes the importance of speaking business terms to connect with diverse audiences, whether it's the C-suite or other departments. This approach ensures alignment, understanding, and actionable results, reflecting the crucial role of clear communication in driving marketing success.
Navigating Long-Term Sales Cycles in B2B Marketing
Linda Both challenges traditional distinctions between B2B and B2C marketing by emphasizing the human-centric approach, labeling it as B2H. For companies with lengthy sales cycles, she stresses the significance of high-value middle-funnel content to connect emotional appeal with business outcomes. This nuanced strategy aims to engage audiences effectively along the customer journey while maintaining authenticity and relatability.
Unleashing the Potential of Brand Stories
Developing compelling brand stories that resonate with audiences is pivotal for Linda Both, helping GE cut through the noise and engage customers authentically. By infusing creative storytelling with product-specific messaging, GE creates impactful narratives that drive brand value and connection. The focus on humanizing the brand's innovative solutions ensures that marketing efforts align with business objectives and deliver meaningful experiences to customers.
Navigating Leadership Challenges with Facts Over Stories
A key piece of advice from Linda Both is to differentiate between stories and facts when addressing leadership challenges. Drawing from experience and repetitions, she emphasizes the importance of grounding decisions in factual analysis rather than narrative biases. By leveraging pattern recognition and experience, leaders like Linda can navigate complex situations with clarity and evidence-based insights, leading to informed and impactful decision-making.
Driving Growth Through Problem Interrogation
Linda Both underscores the value of interrogating problems rather than individuals, fostering a culture centered on critical analysis. By focusing on problem-solving collectively and objectively, organizations can address challenges effectively and drive continuous improvement. This approach encourages a collaborative mindset, emphasizing the importance of dissecting issues to identify root causes and facilitate data-driven solutions for sustainable growth.
GE has changed a whole lot since Global CMO Linda Boff started working there, more than 20 years ago. It was once a sprawling portfolio company that made everything from microwaves to television shows; recently, it spun off its healthcare, energy, and aerospace divisions into three distinct public companies, and executives like Linda take these core areas of focus very seriously.
"We are a company, I like to say a capital-P Purpose company," she says. "A third of the world has power because of GE. Planes with our engines take off every two seconds. So as you and I are talking, there are probably, give or take 900,000 people in the sky right now with our engines under wing. And our health care equipment, MRIs and CTs and so much more, touches 2 billion patients a year."
Today on Building Better CMOs, Linda and MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart discuss how to punch above your weight with a smaller marketing team, why B2B businesses don't have to be boring, the importance of communicating to the rest of the C-Suite in their language, and more. Plus: Why you need to separate stories from facts.
