Emotional and not rational aren't the same

When i see headlines that tell me emotion in marketing is important i feel uncomfortable, probably as uncomfortable as your colleagues outside marketing feel. I want to question it. Understand what they mean by emotion. I want to know the context. 'You never got fired for hiring IBM' is an extremely rational message, expressed emotively. Different point. Perhaps emotion is just the wrong word. To be honest i think it is inaccurate, it just screams total irrationality. I just love the blue collage. And i dont believe anyone is suggesting this.

However if we said.

Buyers use intuition, certainly when shortlisting. They don't have all the information so they cant be purely rational. People buy from people they like. Some decision makers look to minimise risk, maintain status quo rather than optimise every decision. You would nod and agree not all decisions are 100% rational. It is just when we say purchase are emotional, we lose the audience.

Perhaps if left it as buyers cant afford the resources and time to make every purchase a rational one we wouldn't be having this debate.

Please include attribution to B2B Marketing with this graphic.

Emotion - a very dirty word in business

We went to the b2b conference yesterday and we discussed the need for emotion in our marketing. It wasn’t really a debate, everyone believes marketing must be emotive if we want to engage customers. So what’s the problem? Actually there are several and the result is a lot of marketing dross.

First and foremost the problem is everyone at these events are marketers. So whilst we recognised that emotion is important we also know that the word triggers exactly that amongst finance and sales colleagues. ... Anyone suggesting we need emotion in a business context must be a non-commercial, arty marketer who studied geography or history at university. It is all the worse in b2b where sales culture tends to dominate, as does the belief that all b2b buyers are rational experts speaking only xls, features and ROCE.

Second, we tend to discuss emotion and rationality as though they sit along some sort of sliding scale. I am sure every agency can tell you stories of not so junior clients asking them to put more emotion into communications, make it less rational. Unfortunately there is no magical emotive pump gun sitting in the creative department. 

Third, we assume that emotion is something that resides purely in communications. So once you have got through the advertising designed by the geography department then its down to the stuff that really counts rationality, features, negotiation and the jedi mind bending skills of sales.

Lets unravel them in turn. 

The first is the easiest. Yes. Emotion is a dirty word. We cant change that, but we could address the topic slightly differently. Telling sales we need our brand to be liked enough or feel intriguing enough for a consumer to want to interact with us may resonate better.

Communication should act as invitation to find out more, not an hour by hour agenda of the party to follow. Just don't talk about emotion or your colleagues will just mutter history of art or something similar. 

Second, yes you can have your cake and eat it. Is showing nuns grasping the simplicity of technology (IBM) an emotive message, a rational message or a rational message introduced emotively. You know the answer and you know what works. Have you seen the cat film showing the machinery manipulating massive blocks of Jenga? The vehicles are nimble, flexible and powerful. Its just that giant Jenga gets the message across better than say they are ... nimble, flexible and powerful. 

Third, and this is a bit more controversial. We seem to have forgotten that we work in marketing not just communications. There are other ways to add something that is emotionally intriguing. Perhaps through the UX, or call centres, or even service level agreements. Its so reliable we are doubling the warranty period for a $1. That’s emotive, its also rational. And its definitely not either or.

There are lots of b2b brands that sell successfully using emotion. That’s probably the next piece to write. 

Disclaimer. Any mistakes i have made in the past weren't my fault. 

8 principles of b2b marketing

8 principles of b2b marketing

View more presentations from james myers.

#1 Clearly communicate why you are here, what you do and how you add value. Cisco's POV is a good example. World would be a better place if we learnt to collaborate. A very good organising principle.

#2 To cut through the search mentality you have to be interesting, whether it be content or free stuff or sponsorship. Like Sage's sponsorship of Krypton factor. There is also a big point here about listening and relevance.

#3 Obvious. And a lot more than just social media by the way.

#4 If customers bother to contact you (and you sell expensive stuff) roll out the carpet.

#5 They expect free stuff. do it. Tools, articles, assessments. Try not to make it too thinly veiled a selling process.

#6 CRM. yes. and don't leave it to sales.

#7 Advocacy, customer forums, co-creation. Dell, BMW telematics design, Amex Open.

#8 The bit everyone struggles with. Involves everything from collateral to managing intermediary relationships.

I am composing a list of case studies if anyone has some suggestions love to hear them.