Scientific Evidence that B2B Customers Want, Need Brands
We have been arguing for years that brands matter in the B2B world while showing data to support this assertion.
https://blog.marketo.com/blog/2007/03/b2b_branding_wh.html
https://www.synaxisworks.com/blog/business/b2b-branding-matters/
https://www.marketingmo.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=176
Of course we like the irony of using science and facts and dollars to say that art and emotion and brands are the things that drive business value. Intangible value, managed properly, creates tangible value.
Back to the lab
A little over a year ago, none other than the fact-based Wall Street Journal reported (“This is Your Brain on a Strong Brand: MRIs Show Even Insurers Can Excite”) that a German radiologist, Dr. Christine Born, demonstrated through MRI investigation on subjects’ brains that B2B brands cause the same quality and quantity of brain activity as B2C brands.
None of the brands measured in the study activated the rational, decision-making side of the brain. All brands stimulated brainwaves in the emotional parts of the brain. Large brands produced more activity than small ones and more positive responses than the latter. B2B insurance brands rated as strong as B2C car brands.
Another experiment tying emotion to brand attachment
In 2008, researchers from the University of Iowa and Stanford University reported that consumer subjects who had less information about the product they consumed were happier and liked it more than those with more information. The more satisfied consumers were engaging in ‘wishful thinking’ and wanting to rationalize their decision after the fact (“Blissful Ignorance Effect”).
While this experiment was conducted with users of basic consumer goods, these findings may suggest some brand-building wisdom for B2B marketers:
• Give customers an emotional reason to feel good about their decision
• Play up only the most positive aspects of the brand/offering in the post-purchase experience
• Don’t deluge existing customers with information (that can only serve to weaken the brand attachment)
We look forward to experiments with business insurance and microprocessor buyers.
