You may be sitting at your computer in sweats right now. But it doesn’t mean B2B marketers like yourself aren’t fashion conscious. There’s actually a lot the fashion industry can teach us about marketing.

You were likely marketed those sweatpants. So think about what made you want them. Why did you buy from that particular company? And what was the deciding factor that made you purchase them?

It’s likely the company understood their industry, personalized their message, and created original content. Those are a few of the things we’re talking about today with Edgio’s Director of Corporate Communications, Brand and Strategic Content, Sally Winship Comollo. Together, we’re looking at B2B marketing lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. So put on your Chanel boots (they’ll go great with your sweats) for this episode of Remarkable.

About our guest, Sally Winship Comollo

Sally Winship Comollo is Director of Corporate Communications at Edgio. There, she leads the development and execution of strategic content and communications programs that drive awareness for the company's innovative edge platform. Previously, she led content and communications at Equinix. She has over 15 years of experience in marketing communications, content marketing, PR, and events, spanning various industries and sectors, from consumer electronics to cloud computing to legal services.

Her core competencies include branding and positioning, content creation and distribution, experiential marketing and events, media and analyst relations, internal and employee communications, and social media.

About Edgio

Edgio is a globally scaled edge-enabled software solutions provider that helps companies deliver extraordinary digital experiences — faster websites, more responsive applications, the highest quality streaming, and more consistent game and software downloads, to any device.

About The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada is about new college grad Andy Sachs who lands a job at a prestigious fashion magazine in New York City, working as an assistant to the editor.

It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea “Andy” Sachs, Meryl Streep as the editor, Miranda Priestly, Stanley Tucci as art director Nigel Kipling, and Emily Blunt as Miranda’s other assistant. The movie came out in 2006 and is based on the book by Lauren Weisberger. It was directed by David Frankel and produced by Wendy Finerman. The screenplay was written by Aline Brosh McKenna. The book was inspired by Lauren Weisberger’s experience as an assistant to Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Devil Wears Prada:

• Know and understand your industry. As Andy is just learning about the fashion industry, she makes an offhand comment about clothing being “stuff.” Miranda Priestly is quick to remind Andy that she is, in fact, the target audience for that “stuff.” Miranda points out that Andy is wearing a cerulean sweater, a color blue made popular by the fashion industry. So knowing your industry means being able to make the discerning and nuanced choices that will speak more effectively to your target audience. So your message resonates with them above all others. You’ll even be so effective, your audience won’t even know they’re being influenced by your “stuff.”
• Personalize your message. Andy memorizes the guest list for the Met Gala so she can be Miranda’s reference when meeting them. So Miranda was able to personalize her greeting for each person. This small but critical tip is something we can apply to marketing. Sally says, “How do you personalize your message for your different customer segments or your different stakeholders?” You want each customer or each stakeholder to feel important and like they matter to your business. Personalization is a simple yet effective way to do that.
• Be agile. As Miranda says, “By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.” Marketers have to be moving quickly and working to stay ahead of the every-changing industry landscape. Ian says, “Just pacing in general is really important. How quickly you're doing sprints or project delivery, whether or not something is good enough to go out, versus how long you spend on it. Like that, to me, is the hardest part of marketing, is ‘How much time do you spend on the thing?’”‍
• Create original content. In other words, don’t recommend florals for your spring line of clothing. As Miranda says, “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.” It cuts to the core. Sally says when it comes to B2B marketing, “How do you break away from things that may seem easy? Like, ‘Oh, everybody's doing video now, so let's do video’. Well, video might not work for your audience, or how do you make videos, but better?” So don’t follow the crowd, but fashion your own content.

*”Our sales team is going through a very similar transition from just selling solutions or selling the product to value-based solution selling and transparent selling. So being honest about what we can do for them and what we can't do for them. Because that creates that trusted advisor type of role. Our marketing is mimicking that. So not just creating content that shows the value that we bring to the customer, but then also creating content that's valuable to the potential customer.” - Sally Winship Comollo

*”Ultimately, the intangible ways of tracking ROI are also important. With analyst relations, when you get to the point where analysts come to you and say, ‘Hey, we've got a report coming out on edge platforms and we want you to be in it,’ Then that to me shows that what we're doing is working.” - Sally Winship Comollo

Links

Watch The Devil Wears Prada

Connect with Sally on LinkedIn

Learn more about Edgio

About Remarkable!

Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.

In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.

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