We’re now in an era of engaging a new breed of tech-savvy, message-weary consumer, where distinctiveness and involvement is key to persuasion. Business brands can no longer rely on ‘show and tell’, product-driven messaging and content, especially when there’s just not enough differentiation to go round. What will make them distinctive and successful is understanding and embracing human behaviour first and foremost in order to connect with and inspire us as buyers, and consumers.
Here then, are four reasons why you should embrace emotional B2B marketing:-
1. Those who can’t feel, can’t decide
In a ground-breaking study, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio found that people who had suffered damage to the part of the brain where emotions are generated were unable to make decisions. Effectively therefore those who can’t feel, can’t decide, and this applies equally to a business purchase as it does to a lifestyle purchase. We all have hopes, fears and aspirations and as far as B2B buying is concerned, and we want to avoid risking our reputation and that of our employer. So as a business brand you need to forge a strong connection as soon as possible in what’s likely to be a lengthy buying cycle. Consequently this means you need to be human first not corporate in your style and tone.
2. Avoid following the herd
Looking at your own sector, you might feel there’s nobody embracing emotional branding. However that’s actually not the case. It’s just that B2B is taking a while to catch up and to become ‘more consumer’ in its approach. Examples of B2B brands taking a more balanced emotional/rational approach to making a connection with their buyers and employees are – Maersk, Harrison Godard Foote, Goldman Sachs and Bechtel’s We Build Rail. The trick here is to look outside your sector at these B2B trailblazers and how they’re embracing the tips and techniques used by successful consumer brands to inspire their customers.
3. People do actually ‘love’ brands
Yes, people (you, me, buyers, influencers, young, old) do love brands. And it’s thanks to the media psychology pioneers that we’re able to demonstrate this. For example, the extent to which someone can become personally involved with a brand has been well researched in the context of advertising by Herbert Krugman (1965) and further developed by Petty and Cacioppo (1981). Furthermore the extent to which someone becomes involved in a brand experience is evidenced by the cognitive principle of Construction, which identifies that we don’t literally retrieve and store what we read, see or hear but modify the information in line with our existing beliefs and the environment in which we’re processing it. Stored memories and experiences therefore have an impact on the extent to which an individual connects with or feels an affinity with a brand.
Practically translated this means that to make a connection with your buyers you need aim to be more like them; by understanding their likes, dislikes, aspirations and motivations.
4. Business buying involves a lot of emotion
Making purchases of any kind involve a lot of emotion don’t they? Consider the thought process you go through; it tends to be lengthy, involve a good deal of procrastination, checking and double-checking. The time you might invest in producing the business case can be stressful, as can be the level of uncertainty and risk in making your choice. It’s an emotional process we go through.
And so, over-facing your prospects with endless content may not be as persuasive as you think. Us humans are hard-wired for simplicity. We just don’t have the capacity to trawl through endless data sheets, whitepapers, emails, tweets and LinkedIn Groups saying the same things but in a slightly different way. So leading on powerful benefit-led messaging, underpinned by robust and well-presented technical information for example will deliver the balanced emotional/rational brand experience you should be aiming for if you really want to improve your lead to conversion stats.
What this all points to is that ‘it ain’t what you do it’s the why that they do it’ . That’s what makes a brand (B2B or B2C) distinctive, connects with customers on an authentic and human level, and in doing so, gets results in terms of awareness, advocacy, leads and sales.
For more tips and techniques, visit our ‘Be More Consumer’ microsite and download our free guide here.
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