52: Connecting brand to demand in a zero-click world: Insights from Zoom Chief Marketing Officer Kimberly Storin

How can a well-known B2B brand move beyond what customers think they already know?

In this episode, Kimberly Storin, CMO of Zoom, explains how marketing teams can shift brand perceptions and influence B2B buyer journeys by bringing together brand marketing, demand generation, content, and customer advocacy.

Brand perception takes shape differently today. As more buyers begin their brand research using AI tools and zero-click search, buyers often form preferences and decisions before they ever engage with a brand directly. Marketers today may see only a small portion of the buyer journey and not know when they're under consideration.

For Kimberly, this means brands need to do more than generate awareness and demand: They need to shape how buyers understand the brand, what it offers and where it can create value. As she puts it, "brand equals demand."

Marketers can accomplish this by building trust, showing up in the right places, and answering buyers' questions in the less visible stages of decision-making through efforts such as answer engine optimization (AEO). Kimberly further explores how AI-driven discovery creates distinct purchasing paths for human buyers and AI agents—paths that require different content and experiences designed for each.

This episode offers a practical perspective on how marketers can reshape perception, stay relevant across an increasingly fragmented journey, and connect brand building to business growth—even when buyers form opinions before the brand knows they are in the market.

In this episode, you'll hear:

Strategies to connect brand building with demand generation, so marketing efforts shifts perception and drive action

Why answering buyer questions before sales teams enter the conversation is now a core B2B journey expectation

Ways to widen marketing's view of the buyer journey and shift investment towards what works better

Key highlights:

[00:00] Introduction