Brand Spark: 3 ways to spark an emotional B2B brand

It's a common lament among  B2B marketers: we inherently lack the spark of B2C, because consumer-oriented brands can appeal to the emotion while we're stuck with price comparisons and procurement committees. As the brand manager for a B2B aerospace and defense company, it's something I've even said myself.

But a pair of research studies by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) tell us B2B brands that just stick to the facts are selling themselves short. Even in the  realm of B2B, the personal can still be a powerful way to spark a connection.

In 2013, Google and the CEB’s Leadership Council conducted a study—summarized in the Google Think article, "From Promotion to Emotion: Connecting B2B Customers to Brands", by Google's Sam Nathan and CEB's Karl Schmidt—that found that B2B brands actually drove more emotional connections than B2B brands (see the left-hand graph below). Which makes sense, when you think about it: My decision to buy an Apple Watch might be looked at askance by an Android-loving colleague, or maybe my wife when she sees the credit card bill. But when you make a decision at work, you’re putting your credibility—and sometimes, even your job—on the line to the tune of tens, thousands or even millions of dollars.

So clearly, emotion plays a serious role. In fact, as you can see in the right-hand graph below, they found that “B2B purchases are almost 50% more likely to buy a product or service when they see personal value—such as opportunity for career advancement or confidence and pride in their choice—in their business purchase decision.” Even more compelling? “They are 8x more likely to pay a premium for comparable products and services when personal value is present.”

Source: Google/CEB, "From Promotion to Emotion: Connecting B2B Customers to Brands"

Two years later, the CEB took that finding to the next step by looking at how to successfully navigate today's complicated procurement processes that are often filled with more and more stakeholders with divergent views. In an article on SAP's The Customer Edge website, "Business Value and Personal Value: A B2B Marketer's Guide,"  Schmidt—along with the CEB's Brent Adamson and Anna Bird—tell us the answer is personal value ... with a twist.

According to their research, the average group of decision makers is made up of 5.4 people. And even winning over one member to your solution isn't enough—fully half of those decision-makers surveyed weren't willing to publicly advocate for a solution, even if they were willing to buy it. The key to winning the business, then, is to move one or more of those members (what the CEB calls a “Mobilizer”) to action, willingly lobbying colleagues to make a decision in your favor.

And how do you do that? By appealing to the personal—what the CEB dubbed Identity Value: “the ways a supplier provides benefits to the individual employees and how they perceive themselves.” It’s not a decision made by fear (i.e. that old sawhorse, “No one ever got fired for choosing IBM”), but the opposite: By being associated with the brand they selected, Mobilizers and their colleagues will feel they did good by their company and they assume and reflect the key brand (i.e. emotional) traits of the supplier they chose.

Three ways to spark your company’s identity value brand

What does all of this mean to me, you and all of our marketing colleagues in the B2B branding world? Well, it means the personal matters—a lot.

Through my experiences and studies in Northwestern University's Medill IMC program, I've identified three core steps your company  can take to get started down the personal path as a B2B brand:

1. Find the Emotional Core: Even in a B2B environment, take the time to develop a compelling brand promise that goes beyond easily-leapfrogged feature differentiation to focus on the personal, resonant story.
2. Tell Meaningful Stories: Personal brands aren’t told in taglines or clever magazine ads, but through powerful stories that illustrate the benefits your brand brings to the people who choose it. For example, think about the companies whose selection of Google Apps for Business didn’t just change their email client, but the whole way they communicated and talked about themselves as a business.
3. Mobilize Your Mobilizers: Deliver those stories—and the values of your company—in ways that give the Mobilizers in your court ammunition even when you’re not in the room. Build active forums on your site where like-minded folks can share and learn about your company and the challenges and successes that make you the only smart choice.

Emotional branding can be as effective for industrial fasteners as it is for fast casual. Spark that emotional connection your B2B company with these three steps, and start to build its identity value—and, when you do it right, your own.

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Paul Zastrow brings more than 20 years in brand management and marketing communications to his role as corporate brand manager for Rockwell Collins, a global aerospace and defense company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Paul is pursuing a Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communication from Northwestern University’s Medill. Connect with him on Twitter (@paulza) and LinkedIn.

Brand Managers: 3 Ways to Really Be Authentic

Brand managers know that target audiences want authentic dialogue. They want to be spoken to directly. As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill Integrated Marketing Communications IMC program, I have found 2 articles that address the need for authenticity and present ways to achieve this in brand communications.

As consumer trust moves increasingly towards peers via reviews and social media, skepticism of advertising is growing. Consumer behavior responds to authentic, one-to-one conversation and referrals from trusted sources. In my graduate coursework, I have explored this changing communication relationship between business and consumer. The following articles address the rising importance of casual language with consumers and the value of an emotional connection, even in situations of extreme consumer skepticism.

In Branding Magazine’s article Scaling Familiarity: How Language Can Help Brands Move Closer to Customers author Chad Cipoletti discusses the importance of the familiar language of brands. With greater access to data and a world of social connectivity, brands are viewed more and more as a familiar relationship. Brands are more like the county grocer than the distant celebrity. The language of companies should reflect that. As customers increasingly view corporations more like other “people” (as described in this Baylor College of Medicine study), there is a greater emphasis on the language of brands. With more brand encounters and more touch points, this requires a concentrated effort but also, opportunity! This article highlights this importance and articulates an effective approach to embracing familiar language.

Source: http://www.leadsius.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Peoplebrand.jpg

In another article, Brandbuilder blog author Olivear Blancard’s Advertising and Skepticism describes the consumer’s current environment and how it leads to greater skepticism of advertising. Traditionally, advertising sought out people, and people did not seek out advertising. Today, that relationship has changed. Consumers are skeptical of the truth in the abundance of advertisements and instead rely on trusted sources via peers, social media, or online reviews. This article points to interesting research from the University of Washington on consumer responses to different types of advertisements. The research reveals how even the most skeptical of consumers will respond to emotional advertising. But there’s a balance in tugging on the heartstrings and executing an emotional branding strategy with the right impact. Emotional connection grabs attention, but can also be distracting. The article quotes Vanderbilt University psychologist David Zald: "We observed that people fail to detect visual images that appeared one-fifth of a second after emotional images, whereas they can detect those images with little problem after viewing neutral images.” Emotion has influence, but the key is in finding the sweet spot where the message is relevant to the consumer and in line with the brand character.

Based on the insights in these articles here are 3 ways for your brand to really be authentic:

1. Be familiar with your target market. Reveal your company’s human side in what you say and how you say it.
2. Communicate relevance to your target market. Create emotional experiences that connect deeply with the consumer.
3. Be realistic about the connections you’re trying to make. Match your product accurately with the emotion you’re trying to evoke. The emotional tie can lose value and lead to skepticism if it doesn't match the identity of your brand. 

More and more, consumers place incredible value on a real brand connection and relationship. Brands face pressure to be authentic. The challenge is in determining what authenticity looks like for each brand and implementing a strategy to communicate it.



Katie Lahti was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN where she received her B.A. in Business Leadership and Management and Business Communications from the University of St. Thomas. She has worked in print, digital, and social media in private education and is focusing on brand strategy, content marketing, and digital and interactive marketing in Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications program. @katielahti