There are some pretty weird ideas out there about how B2B marketing is vastly different from B2C marketing. I have found that most of these are based more on how B2B customers want to believe that they make decisions than on how they actually make decisions. Corporate customers want to believe that they are always making the best decisions for their businesses and that they would never waste the company's money. This is, of course, ridiculous. If anything, business customers are actually much less frugal with the company purse than with their personal one. After all, it's easier to spend somebody else's money than your own. The truth is that 70 percent of all purchasing decisions are based on emotional factors -- and that includes B2B purchases.

From a branding perspective, the only time that price is the deciding factor is when no company on the market has defined a strong, differentiated brand. If all of the choices are merely commodities, and no particular brand stands out from the rest, then -- and only then -- does the purchasing decision come down to price.

The trick with B2B marketing, as with all marketing, is to understand which emotions need to be engaged. With some consumer goods, it is absolutely appropriate to make an appeal based on the latest fashions or on having a good time. With corporate clients, however, your appeals need to be more business oriented, such as removing vendor headaches or having more sales success.

Make no mistake that these are emotional appeals. The need to purchase positive emotional feedback (more success) and protection from negative emotional consequences (fewer failures) is basic and powerful. If your marketing can persuade your target that your product or service will satisfy one of these emotional needs better than the competitor's, you're most of the way through your sale.

The only other thing you need to give them is the logical excuse they need to act on the emotional appeal you've already made. These logical excuses come in the form of product advantages. An advantage is what a particular feature does for the customer. Nobody cares about features, but everyone would like to be able to point to a list of advantages that justify their purchase. That is, in and of itself, another emotional satisfaction that a strong brand can give.

This post was originally written in response to a question posed on LinkedIn. To view the original post, click here.

Image created by Migraine Chick and used under the Creative Commons license.