Translating 139 years of innovation into modern storytelling

**[00:00:00] Nataly Kelly:** Welcome to Inside Insight, where marketing strategy meets consumer truth with your host, Nataly Kelly.

**[00:00:04] Nataly Kelly:** Buying decisions, especially in complex categories, aren't just driven by product specs. In fact, research shows that 85% of CMOs now agree that investing in brand drives real business results. But that doesn't necessarily make it easier to accomplish, because for companies built on engineering and innovation, brand hasn't always been the focus. It's been something you have, not something you actively shape. But that starts to break down when your products become more complex and harder for people to understand.

**[00:00:32] Nataly Kelly:** Bosch is a 139-year-old company. It's been innovating for more than a century, long before most modern brands even existed. But that kind of legacy creates a new challenge. How do you take decades of engineering expertise and translate it into something people actually understand and care about today? I'm Nataly Kelly and I'm joined today by Boris Dolkhani, SVP of Corporate and Mobility Marketing, Brand Management and Communication Strategy at Bosch. Boris has spent nearly a decade helping transform Bosch from a traditional engineering-led organization into a modern global technology brand, leading campaigns such as Like a Bosch and taking the company to the Super Bowl for the first time in its history.

**[00:01:12] Nataly Kelly:** Today, we'll explore what it really takes to translate innovation into storytelling, why that matters more than ever, and how marketing can reshape not just perception, but culture inside an organization. Welcome, Boris. I'm so happy to have you here with me today.

**[00:01:26] Boris Dolkhani:** Thank you, Nataly. Great to be here.

**[00:01:28] Nataly Kelly:** Yeah. But I have to say, we are almost 140 years old, so you're right, we're 139. I think we're turning 140 in September or something.

**[00:01:37] Boris Dolkhani:** Oh, wonderful.

**[00:01:38] Nataly Kelly:** Okay, so we'll round up because it's pretty impressive how long you guys have been around and how you're making such a big impact. Great. So, Boris, my first question for you is, you've described Bosch as an engineering-driven company, not a marketing-driven one. Why does that make brand building particularly difficult? And what needed to change when you got to the organization?

**[00:01:59] Boris Dolkhani:** Oh, I mean, what needed to change? I think basically the most important thing was that we had a CEO who knew that we had to change something—which is not unimportant. You have the CEO who's driving the stuff. So he said he wants to change things. He hired me basically, and said we need a campaign, someone who knows how to do campaigns.

**[00:02:18] Boris Dolkhani:** And he briefed me with the topic of IoT, Internet of Things, and we started to work together. And basically I took him on this ride and this journey. And we were lucky enough that he followed our idea of changing the way we usually would do campaigns on IoT. Usually Bosch would have done a campaign that would have been very much technology, like talking about IoT and telling people that we are great in it. But we came from a different perspective.

**[00:02:49] Boris Dolkhani:** We said we want to see people using our technology and having a good life. And we all, we came up with this Like a Bosch thing. And I think that really is important. We had a great CEO who basically saw the possibilities we had with Like a Bosch not only when it comes to the perception of our brand, but also when it comes to cultural change and changing from a technology-driven to maybe more emotionally-driven company if you want to. We're not emotionally driven— we're still very much technology-driven. We are a tech leader, but you know what I'm saying. I'm trying to say that the engineer gave the emotional CMO a little bit of space.

**[00:03:26] Nataly Kelly:** Oh, that's wonderful. Well, and I love how you mentioned that you brought the technology to the customers and showed how it's impacting their lives. Because I think at the heart of most technologists, they do want to make that impact on people's lives. That's what motivates them. It's just they might not make that emotional connection so readily as they do focus on the technology.

**[00:03:47] Boris Dolkhani:** Yeah, usually that's what—and that's a big topic. You know, we have to start to think user-centric. But it's very difficult for engineers to think user-centric because they usually come, you know, they sit in their labs and they come up with great technology and they think this technology is so great, it must be good for our people. But people sometimes don't really appreciate technology that is just technology. You know, you have to have some, something that really changes their life, their behavior, which, which they kind of appreciate. So yeah, that's usually a little bit of a topic.

**[00:04:21] Nataly Kelly:** Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. I see that working at a tech company as a CMO like myself. And as you mentioned, a lot of technology companies struggle to make that—whether they're tech-forward companies in manufacturing or whether they're selling software or digital products—they struggle to make what they do feel relevant to everyday people. So how do you translate those complex, often invisible innovations into something that people can actually understand and care about in their daily lives?

**[00:04:51] Boris Dolkhani:** Well, it's basically what I just said. And what, you know, it's quite simple. You know, you just don't focus on the complex technology, you focus on the stuff that is, you know, improving their lives, if you want. You know, in our claim, we say our company does things that are invented for life. So basically what our engineers do, they try to find ways on how to improve everyday life with technology. And I think that's what it is.

**[00:05:19] Boris Dolkhani:** It's partly very complex stuff that we are doing. You know, automated driving, level three, which is really huge, very, very complex because it has to be safe and all these redundant systems running at the same time. But for the user, it's about, you know, you just take your hands off the wheel, you want to enjoy the ride and you want to be safe. That's basically it. You know, all the stuff in background doesn't really care.

**[00:05:46] Boris Dolkhani:** They don't care, so it doesn't really matter. I know they love to have all the technology and talking about technology, but it's not relevant for our customers. So I think to think user-centric and to find out what is really important for our customers, that's basically it. It's not a secret. I mean, yeah, the consumer always wants to know what's in it for me?

**[00:06:03] Nataly Kelly:** You know, tell me, tell me. It's me, me, me, me, me.

**[00:06:07] Boris Dolkhani:** Yeah, of course we're targeting them, so.

**[00:06:10] Nataly Kelly:** Makes sense. I want to ask you, Boris, about the Like a Bosch campaign, because this is such a brilliant campaign. I absolutely love it and it really became a turning point for the company. So what did you do differently to make that translation work internally and externally? Why do you think it resonated so well?

**[00:06:31] Boris Dolkhani:** We were lucky. I mean, I have to be honest, we were lucky. We had a good combination. First of all, I said we had a great CEO who, who was brave enough to hire me if you want. No, he briefed me with that IoT thing. And then I have a fantastic team, people who kind of understood what I want and what we all want to achieve. And then lastly, I think it's the most important thing.

**[00:06:55] Boris Dolkhani:** We had a fantastic agency in Hamburg that came up with this wonderful idea, was Like a Bosch. And the wonderful thing about this, Like a Bosch campaign is basically we have complex technology and we are not talking about the technology, we're just talking about the fact that you use. You have a great life, you have a wonderful life and you differentiate. The reason why people look at you is because you do things like a boss. Like a boss.

**[00:07:23] Boris Dolkhani:** You know, you don't care about all this stuff that's happening because for you it's all normal, but people admire you for it because it looks so simple. And you have that simple life. It's kind of like a Bosch. And the good thing is that, you know, when we, when we discovered this nugget, we were not sure, you know, is, it's maybe it's, you know, it's, it's a bit big of a little bit of a big step from where we come from to where we are or where we are heading. So it's, it's really something else and something very different.

**[00:07:53] Boris Dolkhani:** We were not sure if this would resonate positively internally and externally. But as I said, we were lucky. You know, I think the execution went well. We had a great director with Andreas Nielsen, you know, he's a great director. The agency, as I said, FOMART in Hamburg was wonderful and I think we did some great decisions together in order to make it happen.

**[00:08:19] Boris Dolkhani:** And we were lucky. And you know, the good thing is internally it resonated very well. And then, of course, externally, but internally people were kind of really proud of what we were doing and appreciated it and kind of, I think they were all feeling, not all, but most of them feeling, finally we're doing stuff like that we should have done earlier. Finally, yes, we're doing advertising like this. And yeah, as I said, we were lucky.

**[00:08:48] Nataly Kelly:** Well, I think it's luck, but it's also just tapping into that sentiment, right? Because the pride and the confidence that the employees felt that you're describing—that emanates across to the customer when every communication touchpoint kind of has that essence. People feel it. They do.

**[00:09:05] Nataly Kelly:** And I think it's such a brilliant campaign. I had to ask you, is this being used globally or is it all English-speaking markets only or where is it being used in the world?

**[00:09:17] Boris Dolkhani:** I mean, we started with two countries if you want: Germany and the U.S. That was nine years—no, not nine years, seven years ago. And this campaign that you're maybe referring to is the "The More You Bosch, The More You Feel Like a Bosch" campaign; it's a campaign that's specifically targeted to the US market.

**[00:09:38] Boris Dolkhani:** But there is another campaign, the Like a Bosch campaign, that is working almost worldwide. So we have a big one in Europe, we have a big one in ASEAN—in Indonesia and Vietnam—we have a big one in China where we cannot translate Like a Bosch, like from coming from Like a Bosch because you have to know English. So it's like a Bosche meaning get a Bosch. So we have many countries that are adopting the visual style, the music and the lightness of the way we are talking about having a great solution.

**[00:10:10] Boris Dolkhani:** And it's a worldwide campaign.

**[00:10:12] Nataly Kelly:** Mm. I love it because it gets the brand front and center. And that's one of the things that we often see in our research: that sometimes companies fall in love with an idea and forget to make the brand prominent as part of it. So this is beautiful because it actually does both very well.

**[00:10:29] Nataly Kelly:** So that's great. So I know that you mentioned the Super Bowl, and we've talked about the Super Bowl a little bit, you and I, but that is something that most people wouldn't expect out of Bosch. So can you tell me a little bit about that moment and what that represented for the brand and how did it reflect a shift in how you've been thinking about storytelling and showing up in the US market, specifically?

**[00:10:55] Boris Dolkhani:** Oh, in the Super Bowl is also something I wouldn't have expected when I started at Bosch, that we would be able to go to the Super Bowl. For me, being an old circus horse, if you want, in this business, it's really something special.

**[00:11:10] Boris Dolkhani:** No, I mean going there. If you show up at Super Bowl, you have to show up big and you have to, you know, you have to perform. I mean, you have to be—you are one of the few who dare to go there. Usually people think it's expensive.

**[00:11:23] Boris Dolkhani:** Yes, it is. You have to pay a certain amount of money. But I have to say the return is great because when you look at the numbers, it is not only the 30 seconds you buy or minute if you want, it's what you buy is basically you have a—you have two weeks in advance of the Super Bowl where the whole media, everyone is talking about the Super Bowl in television, in the morning shows and the, in the late nights, everyone is talking about this, you know, the Super Bowl, the stars that are in there, and you know, who's doing that and that.

**[00:11:56] Boris Dolkhani:** So you have a chance to be part of a communication of a cultural moment in the US and that we wanted to, you know, somehow be part of. And we were lucky enough, you know, in this last one, we—we had got—we had Guy Fieri and Guy was just a guy, and this just a guy thing went the roof.

**[00:12:19] Boris Dolkhani:** So we had, I think we had 10 billion media impressions in two weeks, which for me is unheard of with the limited budget we have. You know, we are not—we're not the Ubers and the Amazons and all those who have a lot of money, and we're just Bosch, you know, we are, as I said, an engineer-driven company that is going to the Super Bowl, but we only go to the Super Bowl in the Swabian way, you know, it's a very little budget, so we have to be effective. So basically what I learned is this is great if you—if you manage to get the two weeks and be part of this conversation. But also when you look at sell-in for all our partners, retail, a couple of months before you tell the—you know, our sales people go out there and say, you know, we're going to be part of this, of this Super Bowl.

**[00:13:02] Boris Dolkhani:** And of course, this is a big thing and so selling in is much easier. It's better, and everything else comes with it. So it was very good. And let's see if we can go there one more time. Let's see.

**[00:13:19] Nataly Kelly:** Oh, well, I hope we see you next year. Zappy will be there. Of course, a lot of our customers are major advertisers in the Super Bowl and we do a lot around football marketing, sports marketing all year long. So would love to see you there. That would be so much fun, Boris, and congratulations again on that campaign.

**[00:13:38] Nataly Kelly:** So you're speaking with different audiences all at the same time. We talked a little bit about the global nature of Bosch being so multinational, international. How do you create a single idea that can translate across all those groups without losing clarity? Because I think that's something you've done now multiple times with different campaigns. So how do you think about that?

**[00:13:59] Boris Dolkhani:** I mean, with Like a Bosch, for example, we have to see there's maybe the Like a Bosch, if you want. This one term is internationally used, but the way we translate it into humor and into storytelling, we have to be—we cannot do one asset for all because it doesn't really work. You know, the US market, I learned, is very, very specific. And it's not only the US market.

**[00:14:22] Boris Dolkhani:** The Indonesian market is very specific. The German market is very specific. You know, so you have, when it comes, especially when it comes to humor, it is very, very regional. So you have to be able to translate your idea into regional, how do you say, manners or regional habits. And that's basically what we did.

**[00:14:42] Boris Dolkhani:** We have a big campaign in Europe, if you want. Europe is also difficult, but we have to, because of budget reasons, we had to somehow bundle Europe and the key markets. But also here we have huge humor differences, if you want, but it kind of works with the stuff we did. So you lose a little bit the edge. You have to be a little bit broader and not so specific for each market.

**[00:15:06] Boris Dolkhani:** But I think for the US with Guy Fieri, for example, I think we did a pretty good job. I think it was funny. It was hilarious. And the same counts for China, Indonesia and all the other countries. I think when it comes to that, we did a pretty good job in adopting in the regions.

**[00:15:28] Nataly Kelly:** Yeah. And even choosing which celebrities to partner with in each country or if you choose, celebrity isn't always the right strategy for every country. So that's—yeah, that's great. So we have, for example, we had a big hip hop band.

**[00:15:41] Boris Dolkhani:** I mean, you don't know them. They're called the Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Fear, the German hip hop band. They brought hip hop to Germany and they performed. They kind of wrote their own hip hop. I mean, they used their—

**[00:15:54] Boris Dolkhani:** How do you say, the art. They are hip hop stars. So they were rapping our rap and performing to it. It was in Germany, a huge success because everyone knows them. And all of a sudden they were dancing and hip hopping for us, which was like, wow, incredible.

**[00:16:13] Boris Dolkhani:** So that, for example, test, when it looks, if you look into celebrities, we did that was really, really successful.

**[00:16:20] Nataly Kelly:** Oh, that's amazing. And what a great tie-in. Because it's a celebrity group that people know, just like everybody in Germany knows Bosch. But making it fun and relevant, like, hey, we're still here. We're modern, we're fun. Right. Like, it's a perfect selection. Sounds to me like a great choice.

**[00:16:37] Nataly Kelly:** So. Wow, that's a great example. So I know that Bosch has traditionally been seen as a B2B-driven company. So how has the role of consumer perception evolved? And why does storytelling matter now, even in those enterprise and technology purchasing decisions?

**[00:16:59] Boris Dolkhani:** I mean, I don't know. I have—I've done this job for many years now. And all my life I was a big fan of storytelling. Doesn't matter if B2B or B2C, to be honest.

**[00:17:11] Boris Dolkhani:** My previous role, I was the CMO of Kuka, which is a robot manufacturer. Purely B2B, the second biggest in the world. Used to be. And I took a table tennis star, Timo Boll, I don't know if you know him. He was now with—what's his name?

**[00:17:27] Boris Dolkhani:** Chamole. What's the actor's name? And that in that movie that is in Hollywood now. Timothy. Timothy Charmoly.

**[00:17:35] Boris Dolkhani:** Charnelly. What's his name? I have to know. There is a big movie with him anyway. But Timo, Timo was

**[00:17:41] Boris Dolkhani:** is one of the best table tennis players in the world. He used to be number one. Ranked number one.

**[00:17:47] Boris Dolkhani:** He played with him ping pong or table tennis. And I, for example, I took him and let him play against the robot. That's a big thing. You can Google it. It's on YouTube.

**[00:17:57] Boris Dolkhani:** So that was storytelling in B2B. And people went crazy because of it, because they say, okay, how can a robot play against a professional number one table tennis player? It's not possible, you know, and all this stuff. So I have always been a big fan of storytelling. I can only recommend to anyone, it doesn't matter if B2B or B2C.

**[00:18:20] Boris Dolkhani:** Storytelling is key because we're all humans, we all want to listen to good stories. Basically. That's what it is.

**[00:18:27] Nataly Kelly:** That's so true. And I think a lot of times we make it more complex than it has to be because B2B has a more complex set of buyers and everything.

**[00:18:34] Nataly Kelly:** But the story itself doesn't have to be more complex. And the storytelling angle is something that is universal.

**[00:18:41] Boris Dolkhani:** Yeah. I tell you, if you look at the funnel on the very top, you know, you can talk about stories, you can have a nice story, you know, people will get involved. And then, of course, when you go down the funnel, you have to be more specific.

**[00:18:54] Boris Dolkhani:** You have to be, you know, and there you have to, you know, find your way on how to sell. But on the top funnel, on the very upper end if you want. When it comes to brand awareness, I think storytelling is unbeatable.

**[00:19:12] Nataly Kelly:** It's so true. And I think in tech-driven companies, as we talked about before, people do want to focus on the kind of bottom of funnel messages because they are solving for something.

**[00:19:22] Nataly Kelly:** So it's hard to get everyone aligned to want to talk about something that's more leading people toward your brand and leading them, you know, into the top. But it's so, so important as we know.

**[00:19:33] Boris Dolkhani:** But I think if you look at it, I mean, Steve Jobs, who really I admire a lot, and everyone else probably too, when he started this Think Different campaign, basically this was it. You know, Apple computers were the best in the world. I always used to have one.

**[00:19:48] Boris Dolkhani:** Now I cannot anymore because I'm an apprentice in a corporate company. We don't have apples anymore, but in the times I used to, you know, I had them. He did a fantastic job in telling stories about this fantastic machine. He didn't go into details, but he said, you know, Think Different.

**[00:20:05] Boris Dolkhani:** So important, so important. Especially maybe more important when you're selling something complex.

**[00:20:12] Nataly Kelly:** Yeah. Well, Boris, now I would love to move to our lightning round where I'm going to ask you a few quick marketing and insights questions. Are you ready?

**[00:20:22] Boris Dolkhani:** Yeah, I'm ready.

**[00:20:23] Nataly Kelly:** Okay. What's one thing most legacy brands get wrong when trying to modernize?

**[00:20:29] Boris Dolkhani:** They're scared. They're not brave enough.

**[00:20:34] Nataly Kelly:** Yes. What's one signal you look for to know a story is truly resonating?

**[00:20:39] Boris Dolkhani:** I know it sounds crazy, but my stomach.

**[00:20:42] Nataly Kelly:** Oh, tell me more.

**[00:20:44] Boris Dolkhani:** Oh, I have a gut feeling. You know, I just have a good gut feeling, I think, you know, I've been doing this for so many years. I think my gut feeling is really very important sometimes. Of course, all that. But in the end I have a gut feeling. Sometimes the gut is important to override all the data.

**[00:21:01] Boris Dolkhani:** No, but you know, I have to tell you something because I'm really convinced of this. You know, people in my position, we earn quite okay money and I sometimes ask myself, why do they pay me for? I mean, if I only go to research companies and tell them, okay, please tell me what to do this, anyone can do that. So I think sometimes you have to have experience, you have to have a good feeling on, you know, how the target group ticks. And then you have to be able to decide because, you know, kind of—

**[00:21:31] Nataly Kelly:** Yeah, it's your gut, but maybe also your brain processing all that experience and everything that you've combination.

**[00:21:38] Nataly Kelly:** So what is one lesson from Like a Bosch that still shapes how you think today?

**[00:21:43] Boris Dolkhani:** I think you could say, you know, how a small idea can really turn into something big, a big movement. What happened was Like a Bosch.

**[00:21:53] Nataly Kelly:** What's one thing you learned from taking Bosch to the Super Bowl?

**[00:21:57] Boris Dolkhani:** Oh, I told you. I mean, I learned it's all about media and all about being part of the cultural conversation that is happening around Super Bowl.

**[00:22:07] Nataly Kelly:** What's one thing that marketing leaders should stop doing if they want to build stronger brands?

**[00:22:14] Boris Dolkhani:** Cutting budgets is always a bad idea.

**[00:22:17] Nataly Kelly:** Is that the marketers or the people above the marketers?

**[00:22:20] Boris Dolkhani:** I don't know. I don't know who cut. Sometimes the marketers even cut. I don't know.

**[00:22:27] Boris Dolkhani:** I don't think the marketers probably cut less. Budget is always bad. I don't know. I'm always in this—into this budget thing. I don't know.

**[00:22:34] Nataly Kelly:** Well, maybe it is putting like, you know, I'm often, for example, looking at the distribution or the ratio between brand and demand spend and it's always a—a trade-off. I think all of us faces like how much should we put toward brand, how much to demand and really?

**[00:22:51] Boris Dolkhani:** Yeah, that's a good one. You know, don't shift too much into performance. You need the brand level.

**[00:22:58] Boris Dolkhani:** Don't, don't put too much into performance. I think the storytelling part has to be there. Yeah, it has to have a good—it should be good balanced, a well-balanced thing.

**[00:23:08] Nataly Kelly:** Yeah, I agree.

**[00:23:09] Nataly Kelly:** Well, Boris, that wraps up our episode of the Inside Insights podcast today. Thank you so much to Boris Dolkhani, the SVP of Corporate and Mobility Marketing, Brand Management and Communication Strategy at Bosch, for joining us today.

**[00:23:21] Nataly Kelly:** If you'd like to learn more, you can find a link to Boris's LinkedIn profile in our show notes or at insideinsightspod.com. You can also visit bosch.com. If you haven't subscribed yet and you want a regular stream of insights and marketing perspectives in your podcast feed, hit that subscribe button in your podcast app or follow us on YouTube. That's all for today. See you on the next episode of Inside Insight.