Why the Strongest B2B Brands All Look a Little Weird...

Why It Matters

Distinctive visual branding turns bland B2B offerings into memorable experiences, accelerating customer acquisition and loyalty in competitive markets.

Key Takeaways

• Bold colors differentiate B2B brands from muted competitors
• Mascots and gradients create employee brand advocacy online
• Unique visual cues build memorable, repeatable brand assets
• Design inspiration can blend unexpected sources like subways
• Consistency over time cements distinctive brand identity for businesses

Summary

The video argues that the most memorable B2B brands deliberately look odd, using unconventional colors, mascots, and visual language to break the industry’s grayscale norm.

Gong’s branding team rejected the ubiquitous “Series A blues” of SaaS rivals, opting for a bold pink‑purple palette and a bulldog mascot named Bruno. Perplexity chose a teal scheme, an asterisk logo, and vintage‑style poster art, citing inspiration from Scandinavian subway signage and 1980s‑1990s Apple ads.

The narrator notes employees flaunting the Gong purple gradient on LinkedIn like team jerseys, and quotes the Perplexity team’s brief: “make the brand feel like a Scandinavian subway system.” These concrete examples illustrate how quirky assets become cultural touchstones within a company.

By repeating a single color, emoji, or mascot across touchpoints, firms embed distinctive cues in customers’ minds, driving recall and differentiation in a crowded B2B landscape. The takeaway: pick a visual hook, commit to it, and let it proliferate.

Original Description

When Gong was building its brand, Udi Ledergor’s team did something simple but brutal: They made a checklist of everything competitor websites had in common.

Same muted colors.

Same lifeless SaaS vibes.

One teammate called it “Series A Blues.”

(And yes, that’s elite-tier trolling)

So Gong did the opposite:

- Bold pinks and purples

- A bulldog mascot named Bruno

- Company-wide adoption of the Gong purple gradient on LinkedIn profiles

Employees didn’t just work at Gong: they wore the brand, like fans wearing team jerseys.

Another great example: Perplexity.

They leaned into:

A distinctive teal palette

An asterisk logo

Vintage poster-style visuals

The brief to their designers?

“Make it feel like a Scandinavian subway system.”

Their inspiration came straight from Apple’s 80s and 90s ads: clean, iconic, unmistakable.

The lesson:

Distinctive assets aren’t built overnight.

They’re built through:

Repetition

Commitment

Consistency over time

A color.

A mascot.

A tone.

Even an emoji.

Pick something.

Commit to it.

And don’t stop.