“We are not a Worten!” the client warns with wide eyes, drawing an imaginary line in the air to separate the worlds of B2B and B2C.

NextEra Energy is not a Worten, either, yet it still managed to lead the 2022 FutureBrand Index. This shows the strong correlation between brand attributes and the views of top decision-makers across 17 countries on the future of various industries.

This index, with a top-5 exclusively occupied by B2B brands for the first time—pushing Apple, for instance, to more modest ranks—only highlights a well-known reality: we live in an age where the features of the latest iPhone rival the survival of the last rhinoceros in significance. This means that a tech giant or an energy infrastructure company can equally capture the hearts of new generations, headline news, speaking slots at prestigious conferences, and more.

Indeed, this is the best era not to be a Worten: topics like energy transition and inclusivity in digitalisation have broken industry borders and become causes that belong to everyone. That’s why NextEra Energy is committed to leading the decarbonisation in the United States, and Cisco, back in 2018, announced a project to protect animals in Africa in partnership with National Geographic.

Even Salesforce, one of the world’s fastest-growing software companies, developed the Pledge 1%, an open platform for all stakeholders based on the principle of a new capitalism with greater equity, justice, and sustainability.

The bar is open to all types of brands.

B2B brands, therefore, have an opportunity to go beyond the boundaries of their industry and broaden their stakeholder spectrum. This becomes especially relevant in areas such as Talent, where candidates connect the whys and wherefores and are more receptive to organisations whose purpose aligns with their own.

Surprisingly, this imaginary line also fades when we talk about emotions, a fact evidenced by Google and the CEB Corporate Leadership Council, from which the sober corporate world is still recovering.

The study conducted by the two entities demonstrated that the emotional connection among professionals working for B2B brands is significantly stronger than the connection between consumers and B2C brands.

It’s no surprise, then, that Tom Klein, as CMO of Mailchimp, emphasised the importance of building a B2B brand that appeals to its customers' rationality and emotions.

“Act like a banana in a sea of blue,” warned Mailchimp, aware of the importance of brands in customer loyalty and development, even before being acquired by Intuit for $12 billion in 2021.

In the B2B sector, brands have proven to be essential tools for protecting prices and facilitating client decisions. Any limitation of their scope, at any level, is a limitation to the business itself.

All of this makes it clear that being or not being a Worten is no longer the question. Instead, let’s discuss ambition.