That Will Probably Never Change… Despite the World Drowning In AI hype
If you’ve read even one LinkedIn post in the last twelve months, you’d think marketing died the day AI got released into the wild. Every man, woman, dog, agency intern, and their nan has an AI hack, AI shortcut, AI-powered funnel, or AI sales engine that apparently replaces 20 years of graft and real-world experience to make you, Del Boy, and Rodney millionaires in 12 months-time.
But marketing? Proper marketing? The craft that actually shifts perception, builds trust, shapes markets, and puts money in bank accounts? It hasn’t changed. Not really.
Human psychology hasn’t changed, it hasn’t been deleted and re-written in the last thousand years. So, really and fundamentally, marketing hasn’t changed, it’s just the tools that are so much bigger.
And for most people that means when they mess up, they do it at scale.
So, while everyone else is leaking out AI slop into our already content filled worlds, I want to go the other way. I want to talk about the rules of B2B marketing that haven’t changed. Those that have held steady over the last 50 years and will still hold true over the next half decade too.
1. Consistency always wins
Every few months, a CEO somewhere decides the brand needs to “feel fresh.” In practice, this usually means one of two things “I’m bored, let’s cause chaos.” or “my new wife doesn’t like green.”
Whatever the reason, it’s usually the wrong one because brands have to earn mental availability, and they do that through repetition.
- Nike didn’t drop “Just Do It” because someone wanted a shinier tagline.
- McDonald’s didn’t bin “I’m Lovin’ It” after six months because the CMO fancied something new.
- BMW didn’t wake up one Tuesday and think “hmm… maybe we’re A Company of Ideas” – Oh no, wait, that one did actually happen around 2010 I think. What a waste.
And what is a ‘Company of Ideas’ anyway?
Lines become iconic because they are used for years, across every channel, in every market, until they embedded in our skulls.
Consistency is not boring, it’s mastery.
2. Effective beats new every single time
People often fall for shiny & new. Sometimes that push comes from above, sometimes it comes from outside – “New tool! New channel! New AI assistant! New campaign idea!”.
And we have to investigate the new, we have to look at it, evaluate it, and decide if it really is worth the hype. But always with a critical eye – new doesn’t mean better.
New may mean untested, distracting, or (occasionally) disastrous.
Remember Royal Mail rebranding to Consignia? Probably not. It was a very expensive way to find out that no-on wanted a new name.
The Jaguar furore last year? Tonnes of engagement, most of it negative. (I do feel sorry for the marketing team here, whilst I completely disagree with their plan I know it takes a business to pull something like that, not just one guy in Milton Keynes).
If something works, let it work. Optimise it, refresh it, reinforce it, and scale it.
3. People buy from people
This one might be the most important rule of all.
We’ve automated so much that we forgot the thing automation can’t replace.
Trust.
Yes, AI can write a cold email.
Yes, AI can spit out a brochure, a sales deck, a landing page, a chatbot.
But none of that replaces the moment a buyer says:
“I trust these people to deliver.”
I’m not talking about commodities that can be replaced at a fraction of the cost of MRO, but something that’s going to be relied upon for the next 10 years or more. Systems and products integrated into the workflows of your business. Then you need trust.
That trust still comes from:
- Conversations
- Competence
- Reputation
- Follow-through
- Personality
These are human signals we’ve learned to read over millennia and it’s no different today.
In B2B, most decisions involve 3–6 people and they all have to trust that you can deliver. Usually this is a mix of the user, a manager, finance/procurement and operations. Sometimes a member of the C-Suite too. And they want to know if you can support their business.
Support their livelihood and that of their staff.
They want to know, if things go wrong, that you’ll answer the phone on a Friday afternoon.
Service is a differentiator.
Empathy is a differentiator.
Human connection is a differentiator.
4. Fundamentals outlast any technology… including AI
AI won’t fix bad positioning.
AI won’t turn a weak message into a strong one.
AI won’t save a product nobody wants.
AI won’t rescue a business that doesn’t actually understand its customers.
In fact, AI makes the fundamentals more important, not less. Because if you feed AI the wrong strategy, you’ll just miss at scale.
Get the basics right:
- Clear value
- Real differentiation
- Meaningful positioning
- Emotional resonance
- Consistent delivery
- Human credibility
- Then let AI make that more efficient.
AI is a tool, a powerful one. But it’s still just a tool.
Marketing hasn’t changed. The conditions have.
Buyers are overwhelmed.
Notifications scream for attention every 8 seconds.
Half the internet is turning into mush.
Decision makers feel more pressure than ever.
But the stuff that works, builds brands, and wins markets?
It’s the same stuff that worked 50 years ago.
Show up consistently.
Tell the same story until people believe it.
Use effective ideas until they stop being effective.
Evolve only when you need to.
And never, NEVER forget the human at the other end of the screen.
Everything else?
Just noise.
Tired of chasing the next shiny thing and want marketing that actually works?
We help B2B brands get the fundamentals right, then use technology to scale what’s already effective.
