Pardot rename announced by Salesforce
2022-04-13: Salesforce has made what I believe is a branding mistake. Today, April 13, 2022, they officially renamed Pardot to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement.
Not to be unavoidably confused with Marketing Cloud or Engage, which are separate products. Or Engagement Program, which is a feature of Pardot. Those who know Pardot well know how well (not) Pardot engages with accounts. In case our sarcasm doesn’t come through in this post, accounts are read-only in Pardot, and only if there’s a prospect related to an account does an account even show up in Pardot.
Since most people agree that Pardot is a B2B marketing platform, Salesforce should put B2B in the name somehow rather than the word account.
It is reminiscent of the naming issue for Quip, formerly named Salesforce Anywhere, formerly named Quip. It was renamed by Salesforce when they acquired it, then renamed again by Salesforce back to the original name since everyone still referred to it as Quip, which was a better name to begin with in the first place!
Maybe if we’re lucky, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement will follow suit and become ‘Pardot, formerly named Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, formerly named Pardot’.
Good luck to us proud few formerly known as Pardot Consultants (5 syllables), now Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Consultants (12 syllables). Or, worse yet, we’re a Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Consulting Agency. Try putting that on your business card or in your LinkedIn title. Even though I don’t really know Marketing Cloud in its original sense (Marketing Cloud as the world knows it, a.k.a. ExactTarget), I’m now a Marketing Cloud Consultant.
Good luck to Pardot users as they try to remember the new name and socialize it internally.
Good luck to Salesforce reps trying to sell this under the new name without it being confused with the other Marketing Cloud.
And good luck to recruiters trying to staff for Marketing Cloud Account Engagement specialists, hmmm, Pardot specialists.
Pardot rename update 2022-04-27: In the real world there are many permutations of the new name going about and it’s only been two weeks since the name change as of this writing. We’re already starting to see the inevitability of people calling it āMarketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot)ā, āMarketing Cloud Account Engagement (powered by Pardot)ā, “MCAE” (phonetically pronounced mckay). Most people still just call it Pardot. Period.
Sad. š
So far I havenāt heard anyone on the internet or elsewhere say it’s a good move.
The remaining question is how long will it be before Salesforce realizes their branding mistake and renames Pardot once again? Three months? Six months? Nine months? A full year? Never? If never, is it because Salesforce at that point would still think they did the right thing with the rename, or would it be because Salesforce is too obstinate to realize and correct their mistake? Most people think Salesforce will change the Pardot name once again within 6 months.
Time will tell. For a long time from now we expect we’ll still be calling it Pardot.
Long live Pardot.
~Jeff
Certified Consultant/Owner | Jeff Kemp
Marketing Automation & CRM Consultant
I help select your tech stack and optimize your processes for improved marketing & sales effectiveness, operations, and ROI.
My superpowers are Knowledge, Experience, and Business acumen. I enjoy the intersection of working with people, processes, and technology where I can provide leadership and add value.
With over 30 years of marketing and sales experience I've been laser targeted on Marketing Automation for 10 years, seven of those as a Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) Consultant, and also as a Certified Salesforce Administrator and HubSpot Expert. Prior to that I have over 15 years of WordPress development experience and additional roles in sales and marketing management.
Since I've worked with a lot of clients in various industries I've seenĀ several of the same struggles that are common to almost all organizationsĀ (as outlined inĀ this article). With each organization and project that I'm involved with I work hard to solve many of those typical problems, plus identifying and solving sometimes unique and complex issues which often involve cleaning up technical debt from legacy systems, and architecting processes and solutions to help organizations set up effective lead management systems and operational efficiencies using best practices and proven methodologies.
I also love dogs :0)
Optimal Business Consulting (OBC) is proud to be a Salesforce Partner since 2018 and also became a HubSpot Solution Partner in 2023. -->More about Jeff & OBC
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