B2B-marknadsföring – till företag OCH professionella individer.

Malin Sjöman

Strax efter min förra post (Sex skäl som gör B2B-marknadsföring unikt – och extra roligt! Del 1.) läste jag ett inlägg i LinkedIn-gruppen B2B Marketing. Temat för diskussionen ligger nära två av mina egna punkter: kommunicerar vi som B2B-marknadsförare med individer eller med företag? Och i vilken utsträckning ska vi  adressera beslutsfattarens känslomässiga relativt mer rationella sida?

Inlägget av Stephen Mills, B2B-marknadsföringskonsult i Storbritanien, ger en sån bra sammanfattning av utmaningen och en slutsats som jag delar att posten kommer här i i stort sett sin helhet.

”I think using the mantra “decision makers are all consumers” is potentially dangerous for B2B marketers. For one, you’re always dealing with a group (committees, teams or board) not single people. — No business of any size will allow individuals to make significant purchase decisions without appropriate governance (i.e. approval from others at some point). And even one-man-bands will normally canvas opinions from others. —

Secondly, individuals are complex beings, behaving quite differently in different environments. When I am at work, I expect to be talked to in communicated to in a different way that I do when I’m with my family which is different again to when I’m down the pub. If someone at work talked to me the same ways as I do in the pub (and I don’t just mean slurring words after a few hours!), they wouldn’t get a positive response. And vice versa. This would be the case even if I was talking to the same individual at work as in the pub. So taking a “people” (a.k.a. consumer?) approach to B2B is likely to be counterproductive as it is in the wrong context.

And finally, in larger organisations especially, people will be more rational than emotional in their buying decisions. So you have to appeal more to the head rather than their heart. The day a business case is signed off because it’ll make the company look “cool” rather than it deliver more to the bottom line is the day when I’ll change my view.

That said, I do think there is a role for a people/consumer/emotion approach as that does deepen relationships. But this is very much an “and” approach rather than an ”or” and if you have to choice between the two (not that I think you should choose) then you should pick “head” before “heart” in B2B.”

Till sist kan jag bara rekommendera er som är intresserade av att fortsätta följa den här diskussionen eller delta i andra på  temat B2B-marknadsföring att gå med i gruppen på LinkedIn: B2B Marketing!