McKinsey: How has your approach to brand building evolved in recent years? Richella Odebrecht: We have built a strong positioning in sustainability. What we realized is that we were less visible with our industrial automation portfolio. Since then, we’ve made a concerted effort to strengthen our presence in this area. We’ve also worked to connect the dots between automation, electrification, and digitalization, through the lens of our customers’ needs and industries. Another focus has been bridging the gap between global and local activities, where we had been falling short in making global campaigns relevant to local markets. Now, we are aligning business and market priorities up front for a more cohesive strategy, shared ambitions, and clarity of resources, and we are shifting more and more to global and local co-creation within our teams. McKinsey: Our survey suggests that creative content has become less of a priority for CMOs than it once was, reflecting a noticeable shift in focus. How do you see this playing out at Schneider? Richella Odebrecht: We are competing for attention—not just against direct competitors but against a lot of noise. What we are all wired to seek is emotional connection, relevance, and personal benefit, even in a B2B context. It’s surprising to see creativity deprioritized. I would argue the opposite: Creativity is even more critical to stand out, to be distinct and differentiated. It’s not just about consistency; it’s about instilling credibility, confidence, and trust by creating a vibe or feeling that sticks with people and creates brand salience. In B2B, that’s even more important: Only 5 percent of buyers are actively shopping in the market, yet 80 percent have a vendor in mind before researching, and 90 percent of those will choose one from that list. We need to make sure we’re one of them. For example, we are positioning our brand around being “better, bolder, faster through automation.” In the US, we partnered with agencies to pilot a campaign that is simple but has swagger, speaks to the outcome and benefits of the technology without talking about the products, and focuses on creating a feeling—a desire to be that person—rather than just delivering a message. It has so far achieved record awareness and digital traction, showing that B2B marketing can be fun, emotional, and unconventional. Internally, it hit the emotional angle so well that it became more than a marketing initiative, it became a declaration of what we can do when we team up to win for our customers, hitting the sweet spot where the lanes of marketing and sales teams merge. McKinsey: We’re seeing B2B marketers adopt B2C approaches like storytelling and community engagement. How is Schneider leveraging these tactics? Richella Odebrecht: We use storytelling to uncover the why and how . It is easy to list features, but telling the story of why a customer chose a technology and how it helped them reach their ambitions brings complex technologies to life in ways that are relatable and inspiring. Like creativity, storytelling is a vehicle to deliver the core message and, most importantly, make it memorable. Working with industry influencers, including our own experts, partners, customers, and communities, flows in a similar vein. They are an important extension of how we engage with the market and build trust. We see the highest impact when it is bi-directional and down to Earth, so a lot of this is about listening on our side as well. We just hosted a customer, influencer, and media site visit that was inspired by an open question and an honest answer during a roundtable earlier this year. This translates into social and online platforms, too, with LinkedIn and WeChat being the most widely used. Finding the right balance between scale, consistency, and authenticity is not easy. One way is to differentiate where employees are a channel for the same message versus showing up as experts with their own voice, which means creating bespoke content. Both have their merits, and it depends on role, time, and intent. 23 State of Marketing Europe 2026